I'm standing in the gateway on my patio, facing into the back yard. Instead of my real backyard, it looks like a strange, deserted golf course—low, green, rolling hills as far as the eye can see. A big, steep hill to the left blocks out the place where the neighbors' house should be.

There are three bunnies loose in the patio, which look vaguely like my two pet rabbits (a Dutch chocolate and a mixed breed, who do live on the patio) and another Dutch rabbit I used to know. They're the reason I'm standing here. I have to keep an eye on them because the patio gate is wide open.

And if that wasn't enough, now there's a fox in my backyard. Not just any fox: my shapeshifting lover. He gambols playfully back and forth beyond the gate, twitching his form from dark-haired, grinning boy to black-furred, grinning fox, teasing me all the while. Infernal sexy beast. He knows I have a job to do. I can't very well let him on the patio either; you just can't take chances mixing rabbits and foxes. Someone's bound to get hurt.

I stand my ground, scowling, with the bunnies sniffing around my ankles. My fox-boy keeps inching closer, bellying down on the grass and wriggling forward like a pup play-stalking. Then he'll snap back up, run in circles yipping, and do it again. He's making me nervous. I'd come out and play if only I didn't have these rabbits to worry about. But I DO. Damn it!

Finally I can't take it anymore. Slam! I close the gate and lock it. The black fox stops playing and sits in front of the gate, cocking his head and staring at me with pale lemon-lime eyes. Abruptly he yips, turns tail, and bounds away up the big hill.

"HEY!" I scream in frustration. "Where are you going?!"

Before I know what I'm doing, I take a running leap over the gate. I transform in midair into a gold-orange fox, and chase up the hill after my lover.

• My parents gave me a pet rabbit for my fifth birthday, and there have been rabbits around me ever since. They are ordinary fixtures in my life, just as other people are used to cats and dogs. So...
• Rabbits = familiarity, nothin' special, along with the well-known, well-deserved rabbit symbolism of horniness and fertility. (Unless the rabbits in a dream are my pets, Simone and Cleo--each has her own symbolic meaning.)
• Three rabbits: I woke up knowing that they were three guys I know from school who are determined to date me. I don't want any of them, but I don't want to hurt them either, so I've been waffling--not flirting or acting interested when they hit on me, but still being perfectly friendly. The problem is, they seem to think that because I haven't outright rejected them yet, it means I'm attracted to them.
• What's one thing just about every rabbit is? Soft! My dreams are accusing me--rightly--of being too soft to turn them down!
• Foxes and rabbits don't mix: I've been feeling like I SHOULD be attracted to them, give them a chance--they're good guys, they'd treat me right… But this dream says no. They're bunnies to me--cute, nice, but ordinary--and if I went with one of them, one or both of us would get hurt. Me, because I'd have to hide my inner self; him, because if I didn't, I'd scare him to death. He might even hate me, like the Chinese men who had conniptions when their wives turned out to be kitsune...
• Stuck on the patio: The dating cliche "playing the court" factors in here. (Our patio used to be a rudimentary basketball court, with a big hoop fixed to a pole in the patio wall.) I'm stuck playing in the wrong court, and it's my own fault for not closing the gate--that is, for not being selective. Wow, how stupid to be trapped because the door is OPEN!
• Leave the court, chase my lover: Oh, no. More puns. I don't want to be courted--I want to pursue. So true! My hackles go up when people try to "win my favor"--if you don't have it already, it isn't there, okay? Plus I don't like being passive; I'd much rather tell someone outright that I like them than wait around for someone to come to me. (Which these three guys would know already if they had better insight into my personality. They've only seen my school persona and my body; it's almost insulting that they think that's all I am. But who can blame them? I'm the one who's hiding…)
• The black fox: He acted like an animus, drawing me out of my own mess. More than that, he's a soulmate--the one I've sensed since I was a child. I used to have visions going back to when I was nine of a black shape with pointed ears and a tail, tracking me down…
• ACTION: Close that gate, kid! It'll hurt everyone less in the long run. Besides, no matter what those boys see, you're no bunny, honey. You have eyes for something else. Something fursome and toothsome and handsome…lurking out there in the world somewhere. Go fetch!

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