Months and months ago, on the very first day I came to visit Mister Boyfriend at this apartment complex, I saw a huge white rabbit out in the grassy commons where the children were playing. I went inside and said "Future Mister Boyfriend, did you see that big-ass bunny?" And he said, "No." And I said, "Well, do you know the big-ass bunny that I'm talking about? The one the kids have?" After all, Mister Boyfriend had been living here about seven years at the time. He said, "Um, no. I've never seen a big-ass bunny around here."

I didn't see the bunny again for a long time, until one day a gaggle of children came around the corner carrying him by his armpits. He looked very patient, and very sad, and I felt sorry for him.

Then I didn't see him for about six months. Every once in a while he'd come up in conversation, and Mister Boyfriend would venture an opinion that I had never seen a big-ass bunny, because it was a figment of my imagination. Either that, or I must have been smoking something. I would counter that neither of those hypotheses was valid, and the tussle would be on until we both gave up and moved to another subject.

Then, as everyone knows, we Moved over Labor Day weekend. I moved stuff all day and Mister Boyfriend, being nocturnal, moved stuff all night. On our second or third night here, at around two a.m., he went out into the courtyard. And there, in the light of a full moon, sat the big white bunny.

Being proper, he apologized for ever having doubted me. As well he should have.

He saw the bunny again several times, always at night. Once, our neighbor across the way - a large African-American woman - asked him if it was his bunny. This amuses me to no end, as Mister Boyfriend is a tall, very sturdily constructed and slightly wild looking man. Of course he should have a bunny! But not this one. Since it escaped the children, it seems to be very jealous of its freedom, and refuses to let anyone near it.

This morning, I stepped outside with yet another armload of boxes, and lo and behold! there was the bunny. I ran inside to get my camera, which turned out to have only three working batteries. So with impaired focus and zoom options, I chased the rabbit around our part of the complex until I got these paparazzi-style photos:

He seemed like he was looking for something, so I put out a bit of the only thing we have that might be bunny food and left for my mother's house.

That was a couple of hours ago, and some of it is gone. I don't know whether the bunny or the birds got it, but something did. Since we live about a block from one of the busiest roads in the city, I've been surprised that the rabbit's done this well, but he seems to be very careful to stay on paths and walkways. In fact, I'm looking out my window right now and I can see him under the neighbor's deck across the way. He's been on the lam for at least six weeks now, and seems to be fine. I wonder what he'll do when the weather gets really cold and the ice storms hit. Maybe he'll be willing to come up to me then.