_What_Bunnies_Are_For_-_Part_3_

        Jamie couldn't look at her, nor could he look away for long.
"Well... well what do you expect me to do about it?" he replied, with
anger that he didn't feel. "Kiss it and make it better?"
        Tabby just shivered a little.
        "What the hell do you want with me?"
        "I want you to understand me!"
        "Understand...." Jamie repeated. "How could I understand
something like you? You're not even human!"
        Tabby turned on him, her ears flat against her head, horror
in her face. Jamie looked into her eyes. They were uncannily human,
robin's egg blue, in a face that was a parody of a woman's, or maybe
of a rabbit's. Now he saw her eyes, saw the pain that he'd put there.
He looked away, his face hot. "I'm sorry," he muttered.
        Tabby sat down, her ears relaxing, but not erecting yet. "But
you're right," she said, sadly. "I'm not a human, like you. I'm not
an animal, either. What am I, Jamie?"
        "How would I know? I'm not God, I don't know things like
that! You're a... a furry!"
        "But what _is_ a furry? I'm not an animal, I'm not a human.
I'm something new, aren't I?"
        "Uh... well... I guess so, it sounds right."
        "Then you're wrong, Jamie. You are a god."
        "What?"
        "Human's created furries like me. Isn't creating new forms of
life the role of a god?"
        For a moment, Jamie stared at her, unable to answer. "I'm no
god!" he exclaimed, at last. "I never had any part in creating your
kind! I'm, I'm... just a man!"
        "But human scientists did. Are they more god-like than you?"
        "Well... no! They're just humans like any other!"
        "Then you're as much a god as they are, and they created me,
and creating new life forms is something gods do. Oh Jamie," she
added, giggling, her ears at attention, "you should see your face!
        "Think of it this way. Any man and woman can make a baby,
can't they? Beyond the practical, what's the difference between that
and making a new kind of creature? They're both new life, aren't
they? Isn't it really just a matter of scale?"
        "Scale! It's a completely different thing! It's... it's
unnatural! It's beyond... beyond...."
        "It's beyond what a man and a woman could do without help?"
        "Yes!"
        "But so are the various ways you use to help couples to have
babies who can't."
        "No, that's a different thing! This is... I don't know what!"
        "Beyond your own species?"
        "Now you've got it! It's... what's the word... bestiality!"
        "Bestiality is having sex with an animal. What you've done
is make babies with another animal, bunnies in my case. Having sex
with an animal is wrong because the animal _can't_ say no. Why is it
wrong to make babies with another animal? The first of my kind were
born from artificial wombs, after that from each other's."
        "You think that makes a difference? It's still wrong!"
        "Well then _why_ is it wrong?"
        "It's not natural!"
        Tabby giggled. "Is it natural to wear clothes? Is it natural
to take plants and plant them together to make it easier for you to
gather them? Is it natural to stay near a fire, no less to make one?
Is it natural to ride on top of another animal, or in a box made of
purified metal, or to fly, or to live in a big, concrete cliff with
hundreds of other people whom you hardly know?" She giggled again
and took his hand across the table. "Humans have been moving farther
and farther from what's natural for them for several thousand years,
silly! But you like having a warm place to live in and lots of food
to eat and medicine to make you better when you're sick. I bet you
wouldn't want to go back to living out in the open without even a
tent, hunting and gathering what food there is and most of your
babies and elders dieing of disease or being eaten by lions.
        "You're scared, aren't you Jamie? I can feel your pulse, it's
racing, and you're tense. Do I scare you, Jamie?"
        He took his hand back and scowled. "It's still not the same!
All that, that's, it's for the benefit of humanity. Making furries,
that's something else, it's... it's a perversion of nature!"
        "Oh, and breeding animals isn't? No domestic sheep could
survive without humans to tend and sheer it, just for one example."
        "Wait a minute, now you're comparing making furries to
breeding animals. Before you compared it to making babies and before
that to being God. Make up your mind, just which one is it?"
        "All three, and more. <giggle> It's like breeding animals
because you change their nature to make what you need of them. But
now you've given animals sentience, like yours. Making sentient
creatures is like making a baby, because human babies are sentient.
We furries are your children, in just the same way that you are the
children of your god. It's not impossible, Jamie! Humans have been
using science to give yourselves more god-like powers for hundreds of
years, thousands depending on how you define science. But this time,"
she added, wagging a teasing finger, "your chickens have come home to
roost. You have the consequences to deal with; furries like me!
        "I don't blame you for being scared," she added. "I guess I'd
be scared too if I'd learned that I'd blasphemed against my god and
gotten several baby races to raise. But please Jamie, don't take your
fear out on me. It really hurts when you insult me and push me away!"

                                (Continued)
copyright 1995 Allan D. Burrows
All Rights Reserved after publication