Mallory stepped between the door and my determined advance. “Move!”

“No! We can keep him! We can feed him rabbits or something! Don’t kill him! Please, Marcus? We don’t even know what he eats! Maybe we can teach him to be good! Please?”

She rambled, but she had a point. We didn’t know what it ate. “Fine. I’ll go check the snares. Maybe Dad won’t notice one missing.” Mallory smiled and sidestepped, gesturing to the door like there was a prize behind it and I was the lucky winner.

Lucky me, I’d be the one facing Dad’s wrath for stealing a rabbit. “That’s our food, son and our livelihood!” he’d tell me with a red face and that vein poking of his forehead.

The sun was just beginning to rise on the horizon. I found two snares empty. The third held a skunk. That’d have to do. I released it and carried it’s stinking, stiff body back to the makeshift hatchery.

“A skunk?!” Mallory’s nose wrinkled in disapproval.