Other Animal (But Non-Buggy) Crackers

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Gucci Kangaroo; The Deer Departed

These stories, about animals that appear to be dead but unexpectedly revive, are somewhat reminiscent of "The Hare Drier". There are also many stories bridging the two, in which people mistakenly believe they have killed someone's pet, take what seems like appropriate action, and then the animal revives.

Often the human protagonist is a tourist in Australia and the animal a kangaroo. This version was widely told during the last America's Cup competition, with the human being one of the competitors.

In Dispute: Driver hits a wild animal; decides to dress up its body in his/her own coat, or with some accessory (often a Gucci handbag), for a silly photo. The animal recovers and runs away, still wearing the coat.

In Dispute: Hunter shoots a deer, stands it up, balances his rifle in/on its antlers, and poses for a photo with it. The deer recovers its senses and runs off with the rifle.

This story in all its forms is difficult to disprove. The best evidence in its favor would be the actual photograph of the posed animal, ideally followed by a photo of the animal running away; that evidence has never surfaced. Particular versions (such as the America's Cup versions of the kangaroo story) are easy to debunk, simply because the story was already in circulation long before the date at which it is supposed to have taken place.

However, it's easy to imagine ways in which the events could go off without leaving concrete evidence, so there's the remote possibility that this happened without documentation. It does, however, seem decidedly unlikely.