We don't have any pets. I am a cat lover, had cats all my life. But Jeff is allergic. He had dogs all his life. His mother currently breeds King Charles Cavalier spaniels (she sold a dog to Sly!). I am not a dog person - although I do like the Cavaliers...they are sort of like cats. Sometimes when we visit Nana Sandy or a friend who has pets, we get pleading looks from the kids. Not to mention outright serious suggestions - "Let's get a dog/cat!" At one point, we were talking seriously about getting a dog. That was about 2 years, 9 months ago. Oh, right when we got pregnant with Ava. That idea was ditched. After all, I am going to be the one taking care of the dog - even if Jeff says he will be doing it (the poop, taking it for walks, finding a dog sitter when we go away for the weekend, etc., etc., etc.) Having 3 kids in diapers, plus a dog, wasn't going to happen.
But! We have pets at Explorer, the kids' preschool. And this weekend, we took Snowball the Bunny home for a visit. It was perfect timing to spend time with a hopping, furry friend - it being the weekend right before Easter (which is so early this year, by the way!). The kids adored having her.
It was a bit of an adjustment for me. The first night, after the kids went to bed, we opened her cage and let her roam around. She was much more open to exploring after the kids weren't around, that's for sure. But I kept forgetting that she was there, stepping around Snowball when I got up to get a drink of water, like she was a toy (and then she moved and I almost stepped ON her - whoops!). It was nice having the presence of a pet though - I held Snowball on my lap for a while, watching American Idol from the previous night. Jeff and I started talking about getting a bunny - or two? We could built a hutch outside. He had had rabbits growing up too (although he did say they might have cooked them at some point? Well, his grandfather was quite a hunter....Akkk! Not for me, thanks.)
Over the course of the weekend, we had friends over to share our bunny playtime - one of my friends thought we were having a bunny in a costume to visit the kids. Um, no. Did I mention my kids are deathly afraid of people in costumes?! Well, not Ava, but Ben and Lily are. We bought the bunny some leafy greens (did you know too many carrots can make a bunny sick?) and the kids had great fun feeding her. We defended Snowball from the neighborhood cat, whom Snowball was very happy to see (she apparently has no instincts that this cat was about the swipe her face off).
Unfortunately, we found out pretty quickly that Jeff seems to be allergic to bunnies, in addition to cats. He is unwilling, for some odd reason, to go get shots to counteract this allergy. I don't know what his problem is - so he doesn't like needles? Big deal. Anyway, we had a nice visit and it is now back to the petless house for us. Maybe we'll get a fish. Someday. Let's not rush it.
