A New Man In My Life

For a couple weeks now I've been cheating. His name is Reggie. He is sweet, gorgeous (but that's not why I love him), and I can tell by the way he responds to my petting, that he is needy. When we first saw each other, it was love at first sight. Well, I can't speak for him, I guess, and he's sort of a quiet guy, so there's really no telling what exactly is going on in his mind. I feel very guilty that I'm going behind Zach's back, but I can't stop loving Reggie. Zach has no idea yet, but Reggie is coming to live with us. It's just a question of when and how it's going to go down.

You see, I met Reggie at the pet store when I was in there looking for litter box pellets. I didn't even have in mind that I might meet someone, but all of a sudden there he was across the room. Even though I was a good ten feet away and didn't have my glasses on, I knew it. I approached him with my children in hand, squatted down to his level and looked around to make sure no one else could see us and I cracked open his cage to give some much-needed attention.

You have guessed by now that Reggie is of the non-human variety. He's a rabbit. I have a sweet spot for rabbits - always have. We used to have four, now we're down to three. They are 7, 7 and 6 years old, and they can live to 11 or 12 years. I think Zach is sort of waiting for the rabbit thing to run it's course, but even so, over the years we've seen other rabbits that have caught our attention and we've wanted to give them a home. We've always come to our senses, but this time is different. Of the rabbits who live with us now, none of them were planned. We brought them home one-by-one as we found them in the shelter or living in someone's basement under a milk crate with potato peels for food.

Reggie is at the pet store because his owner, who was an employee at the pet store, passed away. When I was there that first day, a girl who works there saw me so I started asking her questions about Reggie. That's when I learned his name, age (6) and circumstances. When I was checking out at the counter I casually mentioned to the girl checking me out that Reggie was really sweet, and that the first employee had told me he was going to live at the pet store as sort of a 'house bunny', but to please take my name down incase he ever needed a home.

I have rendezvoused with Reggie three times since then, always going back to the pet store with some lame excuse. On the third time I was there, an employee who knows me well (Em) came over while I was visiting with Reggie. She had heard I was in love with him and I explained how I'd sort of given them my name, but that I was in no position to actually take Reggie home, and that Zach would kill me if he knew I was even considering it. But then next time I came back, the Em came over and told me how she was 'working on it' to have the pet store peeps let me take him home. I got all, "No, noooo, I can't do that!" But then felt the call to duty. Em said she could tell Reggie was depressed and that he needed a new home. She didn't agree with the majority, and added that I'm the only person she would consider sending him home with.

So before I knew it, and without me even planning it, I am in the works to become Reggie's new number 1 human. Uh-oh. I don't care. It's fate. How else can you explain the way I was drawn to him from across the room? Or felt his presence in my heart before I even saw him with my eyes? Some people feel this way about having a baby, or meeting their soulmate. Well Reggie is one of my soulmates. I don't believe in one actual soulmate for a person, but rather that there are many soulmates for each of us, human or non-human, who we are destined to meet and have our paths cross for a while.

While Zach still has no idea about any of this, I'm already busy making plans in my head, and preparing the other rabbits for an expanded family. I've been making another attempt to get them all to get along. In our rabbit family it's the first two against the last one, and they tear each other apart if they ever are out of their cages together. But this time I am determined to get them to get along so we can have one big, happy rabbit family.