Part rabbit part houdini?

Sometimes I wonder if it was the chicken or the egg that came first. I’ll tell you something strange and silly that ties into that age-old question of origins.

I was exactly six years old. By that, I mean it was my 6th birthday.
I woke up to a small box, about the size of a cereal box on my chest. I guess I was a back sleeper back then, nowadays I’m more of an on-my-side-kinda-guy, but I digress…

As I peeled my winkers open, I vividly remember seeing this wonderfully mysterious package, all wrapped in gift paper, sitting just beneath my sternum. I sat up, the package slid down onto my thighs. I dove right in. What delayed gratification? Gimme a break. I was SIX.

I tore into the paper, and found my first ever magic kit. Inside were sponge balls, a fake finger, a small red handkerchief, a little green coin purse, some mini plastic cups and white small pom-poms, a deck of cards and a little instructional book.

This little package is what began it all.

The same day, later in the afternoon, I remember my mom driving me to the mall for a “surprise”.

Back then, surprises usually meant a meet-up with some of my school friends at a local McDonald’s to enjoy the play area, or a Happy Meal. But this time, I knew it was something different.

We headed into the mall, and my mom directed us to the pet store. She brought me around, and said, does anyone stand out? How about these rabbits?

I’m not sure why. Maybe she grew up with rabbits. Maybe she knew they’d be one of the more easy creatures to help me learn responsibilities and chores with, in case I failed miserably and she was stuck with the grunt work of scooping spherical poop pellets and replacing some woodchips every now and again. Definitely a lot less time commitment than a puppy.

I found a rabbit who looked sort of shy, but I could tell he wanted people to like him. An introverted extrovert but bunny form. We snatched him up, someone paid (probably, I hope) and we left. I had this little rabbit in a brown cardboard pet carrier provided by the pet store. While my mum lugged the more heavy stuff that accompanied this purchase, cage, feed pellets, etc.

We hopped back in the car, a slightly rusty manual-transmission little red Nissan Sentra, and began the journey home.

Along the way, I remember trying to calm this little guy so he wouldn’t freak out too much. I was talking to him and telling him, “It’s okay, you’re going to love home. We have a hallway!”

My mom laughed at this.

Next thing I knew, I was waking up from a nap (being 6 is hard), and my little new best friend, was sitting on my lap. But NOT in his carrier. Just free. His little nose looked up at me, scrunching a million times a second. I was sort of surprised.

When we stopped, my mom hesitated to open my door, and asked: “Why did you take him out of the box?”

“I didn’t".” I replied.
She reacted however she might have reacted, I don’t remember, helped me put this little escapologist back in his carrier and begin the trek inside of the apartment building we lived in.

A few hours later, when we had his living habits sorted, and got him settled into his new digs, my mom asked: “Have you named him yet?”

I thought about this for a moment, and in typical six-year-old fashion, I replied, “Lappy…because he likes to sit on my lap.”

From then on, came a lifetime of naming pets by their first and most revealing action traits…I had a turtle named Tappy (his little feet would tap on the gorund when he walked around, as he was a land turtle), a lizard named Spikey (he was covered in spikes), a dog named Fluffy (he was…well…you get it).

The ferret name Eugene? A moment of miscalculation.
Even the ferret knew it was wrong, because it’s the only pet I’ve ever had that ran away.

Good on you Eugene, I’m sorry…I don’t know WHAT I was thinking.

Anyway, my point is, it’s interesting to think about the fact that my love for magic started the exact same day I got my very first pet, and more to the point, that the pet was a little white bunny. I never did pull Lappy out of a hat. He would’ve hated that tbh. We did much greater things with both our time.

Miss ya little guy, thanks for being such a great companion for so many years.

Lappy lived quite a long and happy life, he even made the move to Niagara region from Toronto with us when I was about 10. Handsome, and travelled. What an erudite guy!