From the "What was I thinking?" department: we have a rodent in our house.

My daughter has wanted a bunny for years and after receiving an email that someone was giving some away for free, my wife relented of her "No Pets Allowed" policy and went and picked one up.

Now, the main reason for not having a critter is that we tend to go places on the spur of the moment and having to find a critter sitter or other care just doesn't seem that easy. So we've opted not to have any extra family members. Until Now.

So when Melissa told me she was thinking of getting a pet my first reaction was "Who are you and what have you done with my wife?"

And the rabbit may have been free but all the stuff we've purchased has nearly hit the $200 mark! But The Girl was thrilled to have a bunny so I guess that makes it all worthwhile.

My philosophy has always been that pets are an excellent emergency source of meat so having a rabbit is just fine. Naturally I wanted to name him "Stew" but my daughter picked "Lewie" instead.

Lewie is a Holland Lop, bunny brown, and about three pounds. He's bigger than I expected but he shouldn't grow much more - unless we over feed him.

What's funny is that the two little ones in the house have absolutely no fear and will go up to him all the time. Even eight month old Baby Girl will chase him around doing her "army man" crawl. Every time she sees Lewie she starts this high pitched (higher than normal, that is) squealing and just beams. It's really cute. But she grabs too hard because, well, she's only eight months old, so we have to watch her. But Lewie doesn't seem to mind and will bound out of his cage and meet her face-to-face sometimes.

I showed the Little Guy how to let Lewie sniff the back of his hand so now he does it all the time saying, "Now Lewie knows me." He doesn't grab like his little sister but he does jump around "I'm doing what Lewie is doing!" which scares the bunny just a little bit.

So far we haven't noticed any allergic reactions in anyone, which has been the second reason for not having any pets. I expect to start sneezing any minute now with both the hare hair and hay dust floating around. We'll see.