Sage's Friends.

Sage is still staring at that bit of her cage. I still have no idea why. I moved it, I looked around, I checked under the cage. I moved some of the stuff behind her. Nope, it's officially her new favourite spot. I guess even bunnies need a change of scenery once in a while. She still hops in at night to guard my dreams, so all is good. :)

My bunny thought I should introduce some of her friends on the web. OBVIOUSLY the bunny list is going to be the biggest list, so I thought I'd start with the "not bunny" list. ;)  (I'm only including those who have updated in the last six months or this list would be a mile long!)

Mr Flapper Duck - Mr Flapper lives with his feathered family down in the Seattle area. He has three duckie friends, three chicken friends, a very handsome pet cat and a humom who is a darn good egg. He's a very handsome duck who has participated in protests, has tried the working with his humom thing. (He decided it was overrated and left her to work while he napped) and has his very own french fry tree.

Stinkin' Thinkin' - These have GOT to be the cutest sheepies on the face of the planet. I ALWAYS smile after seeing a picture of one of his sheepies or seeing one the videos. The flock is in Wales (way over in Great Britain!) and are spoilt rotten regularly by their humans.

The Daily Coyote - Charlie is a coyote that got rescued by a human. He lives in Wyoming with Eli the cat (Who is boss), Chloe the dog, and some cattle. Oh, the human's in there too somewhere.

Dobby's Day - Dobby is a capybara who lives in the Seattle area. (You'll notice I seem to know lots of people in the Pacific North-wet.) He lives in a zoo that, of course, has bunnies.

And now in alphabetical order.. (Since I couldn't think of a fairer way to list!) THE BUNNIES!

A House Full of Rabbits - Nine bunnies! Home of the very handsome Chico, who Sage kissed via my monitor. Then there's Princess, and .. well, you'll just have to go look yourself. These buns have the ultimate set-up.. even if there's a cat in it.

A Penny For your Flops - Always lots of cute bunny pictures! There's Mochi and JD and Ickus and Kiwi and.. Oh, heck, there's twelve rabbits in the house being treated like royalty. Its probably easier for you to click through and meet them yourself. :)

Adventures of Freckles and Deb - Freckles is a very handsome English Snot looking bunny. Deb is a very nice human. SPOT! I meant SPOT.. Oh crap, there go my shoes..

Big Ears, Tiny Tales - This is a new addition to Sage's friend list. It's the posts from the Rabbit Residence Rescue. Lots of bunny pictures.. baby bunnies, adult bunnies, playing bunnies. It's Bunny Utopia!

Buns-of-Silver - The world from the view of Silver Bunny. This is a very unique and very cute blog!  Silver is also a very, very talented bunny who can grow hearts in her fur!

Daily Bunny - Of COURSE we in Sage's warren (okay, Sage and I) read the daily bunny! Always a bunny story every day, and best of course, is it highlights many wonderful shelter bunnies who need a loving home. (And Sage says "NO!" every day. It's kinda 'House of Frightenstein'..)

Diaries of a (Slow) Triathelete - I'm pretty sure that the bunny is the slow one, because Cadbury's Mommy sounds pretty darn switfy to me. I originally came across the blog via my brother the Marathon Maniac, but stayed for the bunny. (Okay, I enjoy the adventure marathon stories too, but like my brother's they make me tired listening to them! :D )

Disapproving Rabbits - Sage has appeared on this site, so OBVIOUSLY she's a DR fan. ;) She thinks poor Cinnamon has her paws full trying to keep two humans in line. They *obviously* don't appreciate her gloriness the way they should! (Where's her purple pillow for when she's brought too bookstores, just for starters!)

Diva Kitty & The Fluffies - Sage isn't sure how the C-A-T got top billing, but there's enough stories about Orlando and Fiona that she's not gonna stage a picket. Well, not just yet.. she reserves the right to change her mind.

Eye of the Needle - Please don't tell the Humom, but I'm here for the bunnies. I don't really understand cross stitching (that's what it is, right??) but I did do tapestries and knitting as a kid.. *Cough* It's a good thing Pink, Peaches, and Elvis snuck me in the backdoor..

Furrybutts - You have to a bit careful here, 'cause D-O-G pics sometimes sneak in with the very important Bunny pictures. Home to Buttons, Yohji, Bailey and Sherry D-O-G, we know who really runs the warren, right??

Gräs Mellan Tårna - This is the Swedish blog of a very lovely lady. I *think* the name translates to "Grass Between your Toes" Now, I don't read Swedish, I barely read German and French, so most of the text is lost on me - but I do love the pictures!

It's Safer than Spying - The home on the web of a Canadian Magician (I FINK he's in Calgary) and his two furry masters; Snowdon and Augustus. I <3 Lionheads. Thanks to Scout Bunny, I will always have an extra large softspot for them. So he can never post enough pictures for me. :)

Life at the Zoo - Sage sends strong disapproval because the buns don't get top listing, but she supposes *some* of the C-A-T videos and pictures are cute. But she's still pulling for Patch and Pumpkin to get the positioning on the title page that they deserve!

Life with Reno Rabbits - I'm pretty sure the "Reno" stands for "Renovating" not for the city of Reno. Sage thinks that's rediculous, everyone knows bunnies are just fixing what the humans don't get right. I tried to say that's what renovation IS, but she hind-foot-flicked me. Ahem. Cute bunnies within!

Little Bun in the Big City - Biff and Sogna struggle with trying to train two humans and figure out what all the two foot problems are. Don't appreciate bunny art, don't feed treats 24-7. It's a very tough bunny life in the Big City!

My House Rabbit - This is a site dedicated to all things bunny. Their care, their health, their toys, their happiness, their everything. Of course, anything that's dedicated to bunny has to have lots of cute pictures right?? (Unless the author's camera implodes.. *cough*)

Potentially Nervous - I think the subtitle of the world's gone to hell, have some pictures of bunnies pretty much sums it up. D. is an incredible photographer with incredible bun(s).

Some Bunny - Every bunny needs some bunny to love! Fez, Jack, Abbey and Norbert rule the warren with iron paws!

The Raspberry Rabbits - Sugie and Harrinton live in Bunningham palace! Their humom shares her heart and home with us, and of course, that heart includes two of the cutest bunnies on the planet. I sometimes wish my house could love as beautiful as their mom's.. but I'm far too lazy to put all the work into it. :D

The Bunny Boys - Buttons is over in Essex. That sounds suspiciously ENGLISH, doesn't it? Home to Buttons and Angel Bunny Skittles, lots of mischief, mayhem, cute pictures and cuter videos. I think Buttons is still trying to train his humans into proper behaviour, but he's a little bun he can only do so much at a go!

The Bunny Lounge - Sage has a huuuge crush on Hef. ("Mooooooooom!") Not only does he live in paradise, but his Mom is an awesome cook too. He *does* have to live with Shadow D-O-G, but as D-O-Gs go, Shadow doesn't seem so bad..

The Life and Times of Bunnies - Sage wishes she could be as good a blogger as Gus and Betsy. She even asked if she could have her very own rabbit cam like they do, but I said no. I'm a big mean human, you know. She also thinks Gus doesn't groom Betsy nearly enough. Bad Husban, no carrotcake.

The Qi Papers - Lots of bunnies! Okay, there's Harriet, and Amelia, and Tyler and Sydney. There's a human who keeps reorganizing the warren, changing the walls and making it difficult for everyone to get outside and beat each other up. (The humans are always so unreasonable.) I am so glad I'm not trying to bond four rabbits, and instead just get to read about it.. :)

What are you looking at??

Every time I've walked past the ex-computer room, Sage has been staring at her cage. Typically she only goes in and out of this room to eat, drink and litterbox. The hay is down at that end, so I thought maybe she wanted more. Nope. I then tried changing it out. Nope, next walk by she was still staring at the cage. I replaced the water and her pellets. Nada.

I then got insanely enthusiastic and swept out the room of stray fur. (Somebun maybe shedding AGAIN..) I decided that didn't irritate her enough, so I picked her up and carried her outside and plucked a bunny from her fur. I put her down in the hallway and she immediately hopped back to the ex-computer room. (I should really come up with a better name.) She once again stared at the cage.

I KNOW she's trying to tell me something, but I have no freaking idea what it is. Anyone have any brilliant ideas?

Sage's Say

Hi Betsy'n'Gus'n'Fur Fwiends out dere.

Let me say dat my humum has been harder to train dan normal. The room service has been stinkin'. I'm about ready to pitch a full out mutiny.

But, she IS twyin' to rally support for my Victoria cousins. Did y'all hear (I'm practicin' my Texan!) dat dey are all up and movin' to Texas?? It's twoo!! Dey have had V-E-Ts hewp wif da "fixing" (Wike dey were broken?? I don't fink so. Dumb hoomans.) BUT dey need STUFF to keep goin' on dere twip.

Dey need dwibers .. not alls da way to Texas!! Just for hops of da journey. Dey need foods, and crocks, and well, bunny STUFF. Dey also weally need monies for all that STUFF and to hewp da volunteers with gas and dere own food and STUFF.

We all knows dat bunny people are soft in da head. (The Humom says "They are nicest of nice people.") BUT dey could use some help helping HUNDREDS upon HUNDREDS of bunnies. Stoopid hoomans dumped dem and bunny hoomans are not clearin' up the stupid hoomans' mess. If you can hewp, in *ANY* way, pwease, pwease, pwease, visit http://www.tracs-bc.ca/uvicbun.html

Do it for da bunnies!

Fank yew.

(Hay Betsy - how was dat? You make dis blog thing wook easy!)

In Dutch.

(I seriously wish Blogger would come up with a better editor.)

I knew I was forgiven for abandoning her at my brother's when she started guarding my dreams again. (When I sleep she sits on guard in the doorway.) Papaya and a sour cream and onion potato chip works well for bunny bribes. (*Cough* Not that I'd ever let my rabbit have the very rare, very bad for her, treat..)

Two days in a row I've been down at the hospital getting shot with drugs due to pain. The short form is I'm an idiot who re-caught a 30kg bag of feed after it half-slipped out of my hands and wrenched my already gimpy back. Yesterday I was in and out of the hospital in fifteen minutes, tonight it was about an hour and a half. Either way, not exactly a long time.

I came in the door after getting my prescription filled to find a certain rabbit sitting on the mat looking up at me with flat ears. "What?" I say. I expected her to grunt and head into her cage/food/water room and demand something be updated. She sat on her hind legs and thumped her forefeet on the ground a couple of times. This took me a rather long time to figure out. (Humans are stupid, dontcha know!)

When Sage is out on her leash, sitting on her back paws and wiggling her front paws up and down means "Pick me up!" It took me a while to figure "You get down here!" So I sat on the ground, wondering if I could get back up again and had a bunny hop onto my lap and grab my shirt with her teeth, pulling down. I put my face near her face and she intently started sniffing away. She grunted, chirped what I'd have called Scout's "query chirp" and hopped out of my lap to sit meatloafed beside my leg.

Scout was a chatty bunny. She had a huge vocabulary of chirps, cheeps, grunts, and even a noise that sounded suspiciously like a giggle when she was truly happy/amused. Sage has never vocalized beyond a grunt or the very rare tooth purr. So a chirp, one she hasn't heard in probably 18 months, was pretty darn impressive. I wasn't sure if she would let me pet her or not, but took the chance and stroked her nose. She put up with it for a surprising five minutes before getting up, shaking out her fur, and hopping off to her third favourite napping spot; under the rocking chair in the master bedroom.

Think if my back is still screwy tomorrow, I'll just skip the hospital and snuggle a bunny. It's better, and cheaper (no cab fare!), therapy.

Goodbye Furfriend.

Angels can never stay as long in our lives as we'd like them to, but we learn our lessons from them and grow. Goodbye Baxter, you will be missed.

Demanding Divas.

My friend Tracie is getting married. You might wonder what exactly this has to do with the beautiful bunny above, but it IS relevant, I promise you!

I am a very casual dresser. I'd wear clamdiggers / flood pants all year round if I could. I like t-shirts and tank tops. I typically don't wear much more. I gave away all my fancy clothes several years ago when it became clear I wouldn't work again and then I decided I'd never fit in them. So, this required shopping!

The original plan was for me to go over to the Island with my Dad and back with him again on his first day back at work. I would get to go shopping with Mummy. (I trust her a lot more than I trust sales people!) Unfortunately, I got violantly ill and my Dad went off without me. So, plan B was I go over THIS weekend. However, with Dad going for surgery, he was taking a month of work, so I'd have to get my own butt back to the mainland. My choices were take my car and spend 10x as much, or go over with him and walk on passenger back. For obvious reasons I decided on the latter!

I figured Sage would be okay for a couple days and I was gonna leave her on her own, but it was so hot on Friday I didn't want to abandon her in the closed up house, so off she went with me. The dilemna would be what to do with her on the ferry back. Stay on the car deck by myself for 2.25 hours? No bathroom breaks? Dogs around? Was not happy with this plan. So I asked my brother if my little angel could stay with him. He said he guessed. (Awww.. what a nice guy. Gives me a place to park my car, agrees to meet me at the ferry AND bunny sits!)

So Sage didn't have to ride on a ferry, I didn't have to carry a bunny who hops in her carrier to unbalance it while it's being carried, and no dogs sniffed at her. Bonus all around. When I got BACK to my brother's place, I said "Hi baby!" as I got to the top of the stairs. She perked right up and half periscoped, ears at the happy. Then she grunted, dropped to all fours and presented me with royal bunny butt.

I translated this to mean "MOMMY! You're BACK! .. Oh, wait, I'm mad at you! You're in big trouble!"

Good Vibrations.

Disclaimer : I wrote this while sitting in the hospital today. I was a little loopy on painkillers and lack of sleep.  Thank you for the well-wishes to my last post. You're very right - Bunny love cures a lot of ills! My Doc is pretty sure my latest round of issues are my lung airways closing up / shrinking, rather than heart related (and treatable with an inhaller/puffer) but I still got to get lots of blood vampired and an ECG.

* * *

At the beginning of the summer I joined a walking club that was eight weeks of hiking around the Chilliwack area. I've lived out here for six years now, and I still don't know the place very well and only have a splattering of friends. I decided to get off my ass and start meeting people.

On of the hikes was at the Blue Heron Reserve. (Some may remember I took Sage there a few times and when Audrey was visiting she got to look around too.) One of the trails they ziptie debris found on the trails to the bushes and make it a game of "How many items can YOU find?" and then a list at the end. A bit of an ecological lesson too on the weird stuff that shows up even in a wilderness park.  What was the only item I found before anyone else? A bunny eraser. (As in, something that erases pencils, not something that erases bunnies.) I also pointed out a bunch of the cottontails hopping through the area and spotted them before anyone else. For some reason I got this reputation as bunny obsessed.. *cough*

The last hike of the year was out at the Cheam wetlands. I'd never even HEARD of it before. It was about twenty minutes up the highway and if it wasn't wilderness, it was certainly obscure farmland. I had fallen in with a couple of ladies, one age of 70 who liked to walk a little faster than me, and another of aged 55 who liked to go a little slower. We went between the seniors (never doubt the speed of a mall walker!) and the Moms with strollers. (They're typically my speed if left to my own devices.) When we got back to the parking lot, I was dribbling blood from losing battles with the blackberry bushes (I don't have a lot of feeling in my left leg - so I didn't even notice until later.) and the younger lady said she has a present for me. I am rather confused because while I had done the Blue Heron hike with her and chatted with her, I didn't think she'd remembered me on the hikes inbetween.

She opened up her car and pulled out some wheatgrass. She said "I was getting some for my cat, and I realized I'd be seeing you tonight and thought 'Wouldn't her bunny LOVE this??' So I couldn't resist." 
Sage, yet again, has people who don't even know her buying her treats. I'm starting to think Quantum String Theory is bunnies pulling the universe's marionette strings to get more stuff.

Pain Poem.

I have some posts on my PDA to transfer and post, but it's been a rough couple of weeks. Have some bad poetry instead.

* * *

The cloak of pain settles around my shoulders
Weighing me down, tightening my muscles
Fogging my thoughts and distracting my movements.

Another night of trying to find the comfortable spot
The place of least affliction
Toss to one side and squirm
Turn to the other side and sigh
Soft is the pillow and matress
Hard is the suffering of an achey and tired body.

Morning dawns, the pain is still there
It is joined with exhaustion that twirls
Amongst the list of things to do,
The things to finish
The promises owed
The work due
The friends waiting
The bunny wanting food.

The bunny is the easiest to please,
Talk to her, pet her, tell her she's pretty.
Change her little, give her hay and pellets
And perhaps a treat to tide her by.
Watch her nibble in a happy world of yum,
Soothes some pain away.

Stand, stretch, collect the rattle and din of bones
And get on with the day much like the last
A pained shroud, but a smile on face anyway.

How does she do it?

On the left we have the hallway at the beginning of the day. On the right we have the hallway at the end of the day.

What you may not be able to see on picture #2 is the stray pooties, clouds of fur and various other debris that she skatters. How a not-even-five-pound bunny can move the mats so drastically and consistantly day in day out is a mystery. How she can lose so much fur all over the house and always have plenty more? Even a bigger mystery.

My bunny truly is a magical creature.

..the little snot..

Way up north, not very far off..

Grrr.. This is my second time typing this due to Blogger eating post #1.

Anyway!

My friend Jeffy got an opportunity to go forth to Devon Island in Nunavut Territory with a team for NASA as their chef. For those not familiar with the finer points of Canadian geography, that's about as close to the magnetic north pole as you can get before you start swimming. The idea is to test equipment in a "Mars like" environment. Lets see.. Flat, rocky, cratered, and cold even in the warmest of the summer months; Yup! That's both Mars and Devon Island.

Not a whole heck of life up there, but what there is seems confused by the humans more than anything else. As you can see, the arctic hare above has absolutely no fear of humans or their devices.

Jeffy apparently made vague threats about a stew pot but the scientists he were with took him more seriously than the hare did. The scientists said "ABSOLUTELY NOT!" .. Apparently they're not willing to eat martians. That's okay, Jeffy wouldn't really either.

Summer means BooBerries!

Summer means blueberries and dandelions in this house. Well, the dandelion crops are non-existent due to the crappy and unpredictable weather. Late snow, late frost, monsoons of rain, then blistering drought. I think we've finally found what'll kill dandelions. Too bad I now want them to live and be healthy so my bunny darling can bite their heads off with glee and enthusiasm. Fortunately, the blueberries crops have ripened and peace can be bought once more.

There is a whole group of people who buy from the local farmers and sell at popular traffic locations. One of those locations is just down the street from me. I stopped by to check prices and see how much cash I'd have to drag with me to rebuild the blueberry supply. I typically freeze a few flats and eat them through the hot months to keep cool. The bunny, of course, gets her fair share. So, the guy was just closing up and said I could take what's left for $5. Oh yeah, I couldn't turn THAT down. I dumped my change purse out and I was, after a careful count, an entire penny short! Fortunately, having sweet talked him with Sage stories (that's my story and I'm sticking to it) he sold me 1.5 *kilograms* of blueberries for $4.99!

So my freezer is full of blueberries, as is my rabbit. Life is good.

Sage speaks.

Hokay - the human is being lazy again. (Still) So I am going to write a post. Hay, Betsy'n'Gus can do dis, so I can too, right??

First off, Fank you Chico's servant for the very fab pic of his handsome fuzziness. That made my week. The humom didn't like me licking the screen to show my appreciation, but duh, it's CHICO, he needs to be groomed at every opportunity. Humom's can be so dumb sometimes.

Anyways. Busy stuff 'round here.

A few days ago the humom went into the badroom [bathroom] and put this gawd awful stinky stuff on her head fur! Furever did the house STINK of this chemical goo. Then her head fur was a different colour! I don't know what she was thinking, but I refused to come near her for the rest of the day 'cause she just smelled That Bad.

It's been warm again, but it's a nice warm not a blistering warm. I get to lie in my sunbeam with my window fan wafting the wisteria smelling breeze into my room. The humom is no longer threatening to throw me in the lake. Don't gets me wrong, I like water and I like swimming, but to share it with all those humans?? Ewww. Cooties.

I hear cousin Hef (*waves a paw*) is having a party. I think I'll just hop through the magical closet portal when all the humans are asleep and go help him plan. Cilantro margaritas, and some carrot wine, and.. oh, rum! Maybe I can introduce Hef to the bunny pirate ship Rumrabbit! I bet he'd look just dashing in a kerchief.

The humom has supposed to have gone camping in Sumas, WA two weekends in a row but "life" keeps intruding. I'm not sure who she thinks she's kidding, her life is taking care of my every whim and need and they're being met. For now, anyway. Oh, she says stuff like a friend needed her or this or that, but I know the truth; she's bat nut crazy. But that's no secret to anyone who knows her.

Wot else. Oh, yeah, she's been working on a photo book of the area we live in. Its kinda pretty, but since she won't let me eat it when she's done, I don't much care.

*Yawn* *Stretch*

Time to find a new sunbeam. Remember bunny-cousins, keep confusing the humans. Its the best entertainment on the planet and it's free!

-Sage Bunny.

Hot Cross Bun.

Summer finally arrived on the wet coast. It peaked at 36C (~96F) and is going back down again. I figured it was a bad sign today when 31C (~88F) didn't seem so bad.

Sage has been a bunny on a mission. She's been sort of circling her chosen section of the house. For whatever reason she no longer comes into the front room. Well, other than that one time to come fart at me and leave. So, she'll go into her napping/lounging room and flomp. After a while she gets up, and goes into her cage/litterbox/food room and flomps in there. After another while, she gets up and goes into the master bedroom and flomps. She'll move around there a few times and finally just give up and take a nap wherever she got fed up.

Why she doesn't just go lie on the nice, cool, vinyl of the bathroom, hallway, kitchen or living room I have no idea. For whatever reason she has to lie on carpet. But its still cute that when I start to head down the hallway I can see her lying in the master bedroom. She'll have her head on her dewlap and her back legs kicked out to the side. As soon as I start walking towards her, she immediately switches so her head is on the floor in the "pathetic bunny" pose. This is meant to garner her sympathy and get her treats.

I told her she wasn't getting any more sugar in her diet, so she'll just have to make do with the amount of treats she already gets. She says she'll accept pictures of that handsome Chico instead. Gosh, I guess I better find some sugar to bribe Chico's picture taking slave with..

Dandelion Hunting.

Chilliwack, the city to the north of me, is having an "8 walks in 8 weeks event." There's LOTS of walking and hiking trails in the area, it's a bit of a show around to introduce new paths to people, let people socialize or just get the heck out of the house and enjoy the outside. If you pick up a "passport" you can enter to win some nifty prizes. (I'm hoping for the skating pass.)

When I went into the YMCA to pick up my passport, I saw a host of dandelions. "Ooo." I thought. My dandelions are non-existent this year. The spring has just been so miserably wet, they have been drowned out. I have buttercups (toxic to bunnies), I have clover, I have grass. No dandy candy to be found. So when I went in I asked the lady behind the desk if I could pick their dandelions. You can imagine her confusion.

"You want to pick the dandelions outside?"
"Yup! They're for my bunny."
"Your bunny?"
"Yes, bunnies love dandelions. The flowers and the leaves!"
"Uhm. I'll have to ask my manager.." and she didn't quite flee into the back.

I then got to overhear the conversation between the first lady and her manager.

"There's a lady who wants to pick our dandelions, is that okay?"
"Why does she want our dandelions?"
"For her rabbit."
"Rabbits eat dandelions?"
"Apparently!"
"She can have all the weeds she likes." was the decision and the first lady reappeared.

"My manager says you can have as many as you like." Nice of her to edit the answer a little.. :)

So, outside I went, put the papers I'd gotten about the walking program in my car and then went and started to pick dandelions. As I was finishing I noticed a little boy staring at me. I said hello and tried to look friendly and harmless.

"Do you have a bunny?" he blurted out.

I grinned, "I do! Do you?"

"YEAH!! And he LOVES dandelions!" he turned around and ran off yelling, "See Mom! I told you! She has a bunny too!"

I got home and gave Sage her bouquet of dandelions flowers and leaves and she decided I may not be the scum of the earth and decided to let me sit beside her as I read. She did, however, refuse to share her goodies with Miss Plushie Bunny. She probably thinks Miss Plushie Bunny is the one who ratted her out about her home redecoration project.

Sage's PROJECT.

My little darling angel has been rather quiet for the last couple of days. I should have been suspicious, but you know us oblivious humans, I figured she was just entertaining herself. Yesterday when she started pelting away from me whenever I came near, I started getting suspicious. Why does my bunny think I'm trying to catch her? What has she DONE? I gave a cursory glance around, didn't see anything out of sorts and went on with my day.

This morning I was in the bathroom arguing with my hair when I could hear digging sounds from the room next door. "What the..?" I asked the air and went to investigate. As I came around the corner, my genius little girl was busy trying to push her play boxes into the corner. There's bits of carpet EVERYWHERE. "What have you DONE?" I ask. I didn't yell, I didn't even snarl, I think I was more stunned by her ingenuity than her destruction. A two inch, by eight inch strip of my carpet has been absolutely shredded.

Now, I agree with my little furball that the pink carpet in the computer.. er, HER, room, is hideous. And I do know bunnies must dig when bunnies feel the need to visit Sirius Lee in Australia, but she still got some serious cuddling as punishment for me having to clean it up and cover that chunk of carpet to stop more home decoration.

It's a good thing she's cute!!

Happy Canada Day!

(Stolen from the web)

It was national party day in Canada! I would put one of MY pictures up there, but I'm being lazy about fiddling with my phone to get the pics and wanna get to bed. :)

Normally I go to the celebrations in Surrey or Vancouver so I have packhorses to carry my stuff. (Hey, you try juggling crutch, backpack AND a foldup chair!) but this year I decided I was gonna stay in the Fraser Valley. After zero of my friends showed any interest in my company, I said the heck with them, I'll go on my lonesome. I can have fun in a cardboard box if I put my mind to it. Unlike my bunny, however, I won't actually EAT said cardboard box!

So, I went down to the Chilliwack celebration not expecting a whole heck of a lot. It was held at Heritage Park and after 6.5 years of living in this part of the world, it was the first time I'd been on the grounds. (My local readers have just face-palmed.) A long walk from the parking lot to the stage, and a lot of home grown talent. Some of it was definitely better than others, but all had talent.. A great ska band (The Lazy Susans), a great cover band (Da Boys), some dancers, the Bruinettes, lots of stuff. Then at 10pm was the long awaited fireworks.

Again, I wasn't expecting a whole heck of a lot. But WOW. I would say the Chilliwack fireworks were EASILY as good as the Surrey ones and certainly better than the ones I saw in Vancouver at Canada Place. Fifteen minutes of an incredible fireworks show. (My bunny, for the record, doesn't even twitch an ear at fireworks. Not that I'd have subjected her to those crowds!)

Then the exodus. I had brought a book in preparation. (I'm a smart cookie like that) I was surprised *yet again!* I think I read for about 7 minutes before I could just pull forward and out to the far exit. It was orderly, it was polite, and there was no honking traffic jam. (Or at least, there wasn't to go south, I don't know about the other two exits!) Thank you to the RCMP who were working on Canada Day, in the rain that started at 10:30pm. (Right after the fireworks ended, in fact.)


The quotes of the evening include :

Mayor Sharon Gaetz : Is everyone proud of the Canadian hockey team for winning gold??! [Cheers] And wasn't it cute when the boys won too??


Anna (one of the MCs) : It's CANADA DAY, people! [cheers] Canada is 143! [cheeers] Today is the first weekend of summer vacation! [Many cheers] The first day of  HST! [a lot of boos] [She turns to Chuck Strahl] Aren't you glad you're Federal and not provincial??
MP Chuck Strahl : Darn straight!
[Mayor Gaetz was laughing at this point]



MP Chuck Strahl was also seen bunny hopping with a group of teenagers as the crowd moved from stage to fireworks. Wish I'd had my camera ready!


It was certainly a fun evening and I'm very glad I went. And heck, the price was certainly right. :D


Sage celebrated the evening with a piece of papaya, a piece of carrot and a snooze. It's a rough bunny life.

Things I love about my bunny :

• I love the sound she makes when she goes galloping down the hallway.
• I love how she guards me from bad dreams at night.
• I love how she can go from looking interested to "OMG, I can't believe you said that." with just a flick of her ear.
• I love the silky softness of her white fur in comparison to the coarser silver fur.
• I love how when I start cleaning HER room she thumps up a fuss and dashes out with footflicks a blazing.. but sneaks back in to give Mr. Broom a hare cut every time I put him down.
• I love how she supervises me cleaning her litterbox to make sure I do it Just Right.
• I love how she is the absolute MASTER of passive-aggressive communication.



but mostly..

• I love how she loves me.

Financial Fridays.

Sage says she pointed out to the hooman it's already Saturday, but the hooman is a slacker and procrastinator which is how she gets into financial messes in the first place. I said the post is late because I fell asleep while snuggling with her on my bed. She says I'm still a slacker.

The rest of this post is boring, personal, financial stuff. I just thought I should bribe my readers with a picture of the beautiful diva first. ;)

I am over $16,000 in debt. I'm also disabled.

Many would wonder how I got where I am. Partially it's that money has always burned a hole in my pocket and I've never been a saver. Partially it's that my bank, for whatever reason, gave me a credit card for $12,000. Yes, I did have a home business, but it didn't pull in more than $7,000 a year. Considering disability is on average $10,174 a year, they're obviously bug nut crazy. Home repairs, car repairs, Scout Bunny vet visits, all sorts of things put that credit card over the top. Two vacations to Buffalo, NY were certainly not responsible decisions either. So, over six years I dug myself a very nice deep hole.

I talked to some credit counsellors, but their bottom line is my car is worth too much to declare bankruptcy (The car my parents bought for me since my Sidekick was such a money suck) and my income per month isn't enough for a collateral loan. They all pretty much agreed, tell the credit companies to sit and spin. Gee, that doesn't seem very useful or responsible.

So, I started doing a little research here, a little research there. In the meantime, RBC keeps on taking money from my account, even though they're not allowed to. (It's a disability cheque. They're not supposed to touch it.) So I had to fight to get it back, and bounce cheques in the process. ($25 fee here, $20 fee there..) So the first step was opening a new bank account and transferring as much as I could over to Scotiabank. (They offered the cheapest options for what I wanted/needed.)

My monthly outgoing expenses look something like :

$32.60 to Enterprise Car Rental to pay off their "loss of use" from when I dodged the drunk and hit the parkade. Insurance paid for the rest, minus the $500 deductable. Sadly, the best I could offer them was 10 post-dated cheques. So, this debt lasts till February of next year.

$66.67 to Dell Canada. I don't even have that desktop anymore. It's the computer I sold a while back to make a payment on my CapitalOne card. (I'll save a rant about CapitalOne and their magical fees for another day.) This adventure in computer land taught me 'never again' about computers and credit. By the time it's paid off, the computer is probably broken past the purpose of repair or replaced. My laptop, which I won, is a Dell Inspiron 1525 - and after two years of use started falling apart, after three it's on its last legs. If it were on credit, I'd still be paying for it for another two years! I'm FINALLY done with this payment on the 16th of July. Woohoo.

$44'ish to Telus for Internet access. I have tried three times to ask them if I can downgrade my internet connection to 'lite.' I can't say I'd much like it, I'm a bandwidth diva, but at $10/mo difference in price I'd just have to learn to suck it up. Their phone system is beyond irritating and then their customer service idiots, er, I mean, representatives. Gah. I emailed them, nada. I wrote them a letter, nada. They're a phone company, you have to deal with them by phone! Grrr.

$43.27 to Fido. I signed up for Fido last December to save me money from Rogers. This would work well if they'd actually do what I ordered. I have tried to cancel my caller ID and voice mail several times. (I'm paying $8/mo for it..) When they set up the account I got some shpiel about how they had to add it to give me the $5/mo unlimited browsing but would remove it right away. Ah ha ha ha. I get 50 minutes of talk time a month. This, in theory, should do me fine since I loath phones to begin with, but no one seems to get that I don't want to talk for more than a minute to establish whatever the point of the conversation is. Did I have this problem when I was on Rogers and got 200+ minutes of talk time a month? Of course not, I used, on average, 30 minutes a month. Oh, but when I pay .35/minute over my limit, lets chat away. I'm starting to get very good at saying "This is costing me .35/minute." I will admit I haven't been as vigilant on following up on kicking Fido's butt in gear as I should have been.

I'm currently on credit with BC Hydro. (Electricity.) They kept claiming I was using $80/mo in electricity and jacked up my equalized payments each year after saying I was $200 over. I finally told them to switch me back to pay per month, AND OH LOOK, I suddenly had $600 in credit. Of course, I don't get cash back.. So I have heat, hot water and power for the foreseeable future no matter what I do.

I pay $368/mo in pad rental. (I'll touch on trailer ownership another day.) My property taxes are about $100/year because I live in the sticks. (Beautiful sticks, but it's 10 km/s to the nearest grocery store.)

My car insurance is $119/mo. Not much can be done with this, and it'll go up in November when I have to renew - due to my having a smashing good time in the rental car. Unfortunately, no bus service means I have to have a car.

I typically spend about $40/mo in gas dribbling around town, $20/trip if I go see a friends band play and whatever I spend at the bar for beverages. (Typically Sprite - and typically my very generous friend Chris pays.) I consider this my monthly entertainment costs. (Yes, between bands and internet, my entertainment is as much as my grocery/household supply bill *cough*)

This month I spent $106 on groceries and STUFF. That includes pharmacy off the shelf, cleaning supplies and beauty products. The latter is the new Pantene thin hair shampoo/conditioner that makes my head not look like 3/4 of my hair has fallen out in the last three years. (Stress? Chronic Pain? Naw, no effect.) Pantene is always sending me coupons and samples, so I'm pretty damn loyal to them. Good product, good company. (Er, I digress..)

Sage costs me about $10 of that a month. She loves the locally made pellet that costs me about $20 for a bag that lasts her six months. (It went faster when I still had Scout the pellet hoover.) She uses wood stove pellets as litter ($4/bag at Rona. 40lb bags last a while.) The rest is whatever local produce is on sale in a given week. I'm hoping I can dig a chunk of my debt out *before* she gets to senior bunny years when vet care will be a regular occurrence.

So, right now, I break about even each month *before* credit card payments. I have three cards, one with CapitalOne, one with RBC, and one with CanadianTire. The *only* one that isn't in little itty pieces is the CT card. That's purely because I use it for my gas, etc (and pay it immediately on getting home) and then use the points for my car's maintenance. I still owe money elsewhere. My dentist for one is being remarkably patient.

I have no cable. ($40/mo so I can watch CBC? Are you kidding me??) I have no landline. No A/C. And my Dad buys me lunch four days out of eight. (Thank you, Daddy. For some reason my parents believe I'd starve without it. NO idea why.)

Dad is looking to retire. I'll probably hang tough until he does so, then sell my trailer and go back to renting. Taking care of a yard and garden is beyond my physical limitations and taking care of a home is beyond my financial. Yes, technically rent is just paying someone else to worry about maintenance and all the fun of ownership with a pad for their efforts, but after seven years of home ownership, I'm very happy to go back to the nightmare that is renting. :D Actually, I've been pretty lucky with apartments and landlords in the past. Some nightmare roommates, but then my roommates would probably say the same. ;)

Once I sell the trailer, I can pay off my credit card debt, stick the remainder in trust (maybe - if not it goes to my parents. Otherwise disability will just claim it.. and I'll be off disability long enough to require me to go through the "fun" that is reapplication.)and probably live even keel.

That's the dream, anyway.

The first step, was reading the financial blogs. The second step was learning to write EVERYTHING down. Every penny incoming, every penny outgoing. The latter has been really hard. Today I had an eye-doctor appointment an hour and a half drive from home and I was quite hungry. I debated for quite a while food, and really, I should have gone to the grocery store, bought some rice and veggies and stored them at my brother's but this didn't occur to me. Instead I bought a Teen Burger at the food court. Not the wisest decision, but I'm learning. I already pack green tea with me wherever I go, I should be able to learn to pack emergency rice and dried veggies, right? (This is south-wet BC, EVERYONE owns a rice cooker.)

The next step is to identify and cut out the fluffy stuff. My friend Wonda has already been amazing. We meet at arenas to watch her kids play whatever, or go sit in a park, or something that is cost neutral. She even buys me green tea and muffins. This will probably mean not filming/seeing my friends bands play anymore until I get all sorted out, but I'm hoping to stick it out for now. I was also really hoping to get to Warped Tour this year, but I guess I'll be a mature adult instead.

My laptop (the one I won) is dying a very rapid death. The screen is already toast. It'd be $187 to fix, and I thought that worthwhile, BUT, then the touchpad started to go. I've already replaced memory and hard drive. It's at the point of not worth the cost to keep repairing. I'll keep it till it dies and go back to the PoS laptop that my friend Darin can pick me up some memory for dirt cheap.

I'm turning 35 in September and I still don't want to be a responsible adult. Can't I make Sage do it for me instead?

Sage and I went out to the council office today to take a picture of her beside the begonia's in a Canadian Flag pattern for my Tux & Bunny's Canada Day comic. It was a few tries to get her out of the begonias and on the wall, but we managed it. Afterwards I plunked her in some clover in case she wanted a treat. She hopped off to be under a tree and then sat there for fifteen minutes.

I'm pretty sure grooming is secret bunny code for "I'm not with her."

Bunny Fiction

I do writing improv most mornings. Sometimes I ask a friend "What do you want me to write about today?" if I can't think of something myself. Often, I can. These develop into 'thumbnail' sketches. Sometimes I go further with them - sometimes I don't. My dreams typically provide fodder and always the grammar and spelling is attrocious. :)

This morning I got a request from a friend's twelve year old to write something Fantasy and with bunnies. Who am I to turn down a bunny request?

* * *

Originally they'd been bred to be food for dragons. Giant rabbits made it less likely for dragons to raid the farms for sheep and cows, they could run to stimulate the hunting senses and they were supposed to have bred like, well, rabbits. Unfortunately for the dragons, the rabbits developed intelligence past their tiny originators and were quite willing to take their own destiny in their own paws early. As the years passed, they decided the two foots weren't all bad, some were worth knowing, and it led to the forming of the King's Messengers. No one could get across the Kingdom faster than a rabbit and her rider. No message was safer, no messanger more trusted. The dragons had to go back to sheep.

Tasi stood back from grooming Goldenpaw. It was a stupid name, but she'd named him when she was six. Whatever his rabbit name was, he hadn't told her. Some did, some didn't, you just learned to humour the rabbit. "So now that all loose fur is gone, food stains removed, and your ears are perfect, you'll go find some dirt to dig in, right?"

The rabbit sighed and turned his tail to her. He didn't have much patience for her teasing, but she could stick to him like a burr and they'd broken trail records, so he put up with her. Well, that and she knew where to scratch.

"Oh, don't be like that." Tasi said, stepping into the next stall so she could look in his deep brown eye. She stood on tiptoes, to lean chin on the top of the three-quarter wall between the stalls. "C'mon, it's time for inspection, and you know I look bad if you look bad."

He twitched his ear in her direction but otherwise didn't acknowledge her existance.

Tasi took her turn to sigh and wished horses could approach the speed of rabbits. The dumb beasts were a lot easier to deal with than giant, moody, finicky, demanding, brats. "I was going to scrounge some mint from the gardens.."

His nose started wriggling despite his trying to play disinterest.

Tasi grinned and hopped back out of the empty stall, "Just stay there! I'll go get some.." Fortunately, mint was plentiful and the rabbits easily bribed.

She was barely out of the stable doors when she was stopped by the lead messenger. "Has Masoc returned yet?"

Tasi lost her smile, despite the summer's day and her mini-victory over Goldenpaw. "No." He was three days late. He was the second to go east that hadn't returned. Diruc, once a messenger like her, but now one legged and on a crutch, looked down at her. "I'm getting to skip out on inspection, aren't I?"

"You are. Ride fast. Don't find fights, find truth." Diruc told her, holding out a messenger's satchel.

Tasi nodded and turned back to the stables. "CHange of plans, 'paw. We've got a run."

The rabbit did one of the whirling turns he was so good at and his nose was going a mile a minute. His ears were cocked forward and his tail was up. One eager bunny.

"Daysil and Masoc are now gone too. Three days late. No word, no pigeon." Goldenpaw knew the score as well as she did. She grabbed her travel pack, prepared for two days now and tied the satchel onto the front. She took a run and a sprint and was up on Goldenpaw's neck. He shook his head. Not for the first time she wished the rabbits would allow saddle or harness.

The rabbit walked sedately enough out of the stables, his eyes scanning skies and road as soon as they were in daylight. Diruc watched them grimly as Goldenpaw stretched his warm up and Tasi took a good grip of his underfur. A final shake of his head to make sure she had a good grip and he was off. Three bounds across the stableyard, one over the fence, a blur of gardens and shrubbery and he was on the main lane and pelting through the grounds. The guards at the gate saw them coming and dropped the rabbit railing above the main defensive gate. Goldenpaw tucked his ears down behind his head, either side of Tasi, as he lept between the top of the gate and the wall above. Some of the taller riders had to duck, but Tasi was short enough that she was in no danger.

Riding a rabbit was a learned talent and the ability to put up with a pounding on your tailbone. They did gain into a steady pace once they started to lope, but it was still a lurch back and forth for the rider - and pity the human whose forehead smacked the rabbit or their shifting threw their mount off stride. A rabbit was not above dumping the rider and taking the packs without them. They didn't *need* humans, but having someone who could talk for them, write, and more importantly do all the work, was to their liking. Unless, of course, that rider interferred with the things the rabbit loved - running, racing, and eating.

Well, Tasi supposed girl bunnies came into it somewhere, but she wasn't about to ask 'paw about it. If she had any sort of social life to speak of, she was pretty sure he wouldn't want to hear about it and she certainly didn't want to hear about how many kits he did or didn't have. The giant rabbit females could control their own fertility - a male had to prove his worthiness. Tasi's experience said the does were even more of giant pains in the butts to deal with than the bucks, so she could only imagine the hoops the bucks had to jump through to prove their worthiness.

Being a glorified servant to a moody furball was all worth it when they were on the road or trace, though. Wind whistling through her hair, the taste of freedom on her lips, it was worth all the sorting of clover, the drying of hay, the grooming, nail trimming, and discontent. The Messenger quarters and their warrens were at the edge of the king's preserve, north of his city, it wasn't long before they were out and on dirt tracks that rabbit claws dug into so well.

If she was lucky, sunshine and fair wind would follow her all the way east.

The Bunny Mind.

Every time I think I've started to understand the bunny mind, she has to go change the rules. I'm starting to have sympathy for every bitch and moan session men have about women.

Yesterday, I went into her lounging room and she presented to be pet. I can't recall her having done that before. (I'm not saying she hasn't, just my memory is swiss cheese.) So I sat and petted her and she tooth purred and I was very happy. Then when I went to bed she hopped down the vinyl to my room and kept me company all night. She hasn't hopped on the vinyl for *months*. This morning, she kept looking down the hall, then at me, down the hall, rinse repeat. The human is slow, it took me a few to realize she didn't want to hop on the vinyl again. So what do I do? I go to Wal-mart and buy some cheap mats for the hallway and place them between her rooms and mine.

Her first use for the mats? Take a nap on the first one. I make an effort of showing her their intended purpose every time I walk between bathroom and kitchen. She mostly ignores me.

Then, this evening, she hops into the kitchen, around the living room, farts, and goes back to her room. "If you're willing to hop on vinyl again, why did I buy all those mats??" Her answer was to present her tail to me and start grooming.

A fart in my general direction from the Dutch diva. I should be happy with that, right?

Friday evening my Dad picked Sage and I up for a four day vacation at their lovely home on Vancouver Island. They have a sea view on three sides. They watch cruise ships, eagles, deer, and are twenty minutes from a huge shopping centre. It's a beautiful house in a beautiful place. Mum, while appreciative of my beloved bunny, refuses to let Sage run free. I don't quite blame her; the house is VERY bunny unfriendly. (Or a bunny snack in glory, depending on your point of view. :)

So, we go outside for a romp around the yard, nibble of the scenery and Sage's favourite game of 'Where can I go that the human can't follow?' Which, here, is up steep slopes. Of course, when the human on the end of the leash refuses to go up the steep slope (which I probably couldn't have managed when both legs still worked properly!) she is forced to come to a stop. She's on a fairly long retractable leash, but still, she's on a leash. :)

My little bratty bunny has been eating and drinking fine. Miss Plushie Bunny has even done a nose dive into the water bowl to get her share. But Sage's output has been quite low and after a couple of days I was starting to get concerned. Baby carrot disappeared like magic, grass in seed, too. When I was cleaning her cage this morning, I found she'd been burying her pooties under her hay. She had quite the output, she'd just been having fun making her human worry.

Now, the reality is probably hay is more comfy to lie on when there's not lumpy pooties on top, but I like the conniving, cunning bunny theory better.

This afternoon I'm off to visit my fellow petbunny slaves Lynn, Darin and their kit Caitlyn. Pictures will follow, I'm sure. :)

No matter how bad the mood..

So, the main shutoff tap for my water is leaking. This tap is located right beside the hot water tank which is in the wall between the bathroom and the master bedroom. In short, my master bedroom is being turned into a swamp. I can't afford groceries this month - I'm not sure how I'm supposed to cover plumbing emergency. (Okay, I do know how, I add it to my growing list of things I'm paying for by the month.)

Mr. Rooter wanted a $100 travel fee just to come to my house. This was on top of the service call fee and everything else. They were somewhat surprised when I said "No." Their office is 20 minutes from me. Why the hell would I pay them $100 to travel that far to charge me $80+ an hour in work, minimum of an hour billed? I decided to start calling local plumbers instead. I'm waiting for them to call me back.

Needless to say, I wasn't in an a very happy place while waiting for said phone calls. I went into Sage's room to bug her. I figure misery shared is misery halfed. She let me sit there and talk to her while stroking her nose. I started to feel better; less stressed and more cheerful. She then even tooth purred for me before she seemed to realize she was being affectionate and social. Once she realized that she tossed her head and disappeared under the table.

But still, I feel better. Even if I'm still waiting on plumbers to call.

We has a deal.

Sage and I have a deal; it works very well for us and it's quite simple.

She looks cute and I feed her, house her and clean up after her.

It may seem a bit one-sided to some two foots.. but she's damn cute.

Noises Bunnies Make.

Gus and Betsy's Dad over at The Life and Time's of Bunnies posted the cutest video of him feeding his starving, abused, unloved, never catered to rabbits(*) and talked about noises bunnies make. After writing a two paragraph comment I decided to steal it for a blog post. That way G&B's Dad can't complain he hasn't heard from Sage's warren ;)

What? Revamping something he's already read doesn't count as a post?! Damnit!

Anyway - noises my little furry masters have made. :)

Scout, my little heartbun of epic proportions. (2lbs, 1lb of that being her fuzzy mane) made all sorts of noises. She giggled when she was happy or amused - or at least as close to it as bunny vocals can get. She cheeped, she chirped, she snored. The last she did quite loudly. Considering she had some sort of respiratory infection or another the entire time she owned me, the last isn't too surprising. She also snorted, thumped, loved to bang toys off things, or in short .. she was one noisy, but very happy and cute, rabbit.

Sage, my Dutch Diva, isn't particularly talkative. She's tooth purred for me once. I'm not even sure why. I was leaning off the bed, she was sitting at the end of it, watching me. I was talking the sort of nonsense things one talks to one's pet about. (Balancing your cheque book, the latest boyfriend, how the rain sounds like music on the roof..) She started making the oddest noise. Her ears were forward, she was sitting up, it couldn't be pain.. so I immediately dashed off an email to the Petbunny mailing list. Once they stopped laughing at me (again) I got "Your bunny is HAPPY, she loves you, she was tooth purring!"

She'll grunt if I interrupt her nap and it's not with treat in hand or child following me. She'll turn her tail towards me (the ultimate in bunny insult! 'You're not even a threat!') and close her eyes and go back to sleep. (Or at least try to) With a few grunts to let me know her dissatisfaction. She's also grunted while getting toweled down after her very rare butt baths. The rabbit LIKES swimming (She likes swimming and children - she's one damn odd bunny.) so I think she's just upset that she's been yanked out of the water and now the interfering monkey is not only holding her, but rubbing her ticklish private areas. Every so often when I walk past her napping room (She has two rooms, y'know.) she'll just grunt at me randomly. I think that's to remind me of my place in the pecking order. ("THE BOTTOM!")

Foster, the Foster bunny I had for less than twelve hours before he was adopted by a neighbour, never made a noise. He had a bit of a noisy gallop through Pat's trailer, and he certainly did the 'Dead Lop Flop' with the best of them, but that was it. He was one mellow dude.

Fric grunted, growled, lunged and bit. I donated blood to that rabbit when he was separated from his brother. He grunted if you touched him, he grunted loudly and regularly if you picked him up, he grunted when I passed by in the hallway and I didn't have a treat (even if it was a strand of hay!) for him. He was a diva. (Probably still is!)

Frac was a lover, not a fighter. He would tooth purr if you held him and rubbed the ends of his ears. That was it - no other noises, just happy little sighs if you held him in your arms and stroked him from noise to tail. Fortunately, his attention span for cuddles was about the same as my own.

Or to sum up - bunnies are pretty much all individuals, just like the monkey pets they keep. :) *Grunt, Grunt*

* - This is, of course, the BUNNY opinion and probably has absolutely nothing to do with reality.

She's no dumb bunny.

Yesterday I came in with dandelions for the beast who lives in the spare bedroom. I am not brave enough to enter the house without a treat for her highness. I put the dandelions down and continued on down the hallway to get changed. I was barely finished before I hear thumping and grunting coming from Sage's room.

"What the..?" I ask as I come back down the corridor.

There's a smudge of dandelion flower sitting under Miss Plushie Bunny's chin. There is no further sign of the dandelions that have apparently been inhaled. Sage is growling at Miss Plushie Bunny and thumps and looks at me.

OBVIOUSLY Miss Plushie Bunny stole all of Sage's dandelions.

So to pacify the poor, wronged, bunny, I had to go back out to the garden and get another one. (But just one, too much Dandy Candy wouldn't be good for her tummy!)

I'm pretty sure she stuck her tongue out at Miss Plushie Bunny when I wasn't looking.

Update from the furry farm.

Or at least, I'm pretty sure the tumbleweeds that go billowing past are fur.

Last week I decided that maybe Sage is lonely. So I brought Miss Plushie Bunny off her shelf and put her in the spare room with Sage. I was three steps down the hallway when Miss Plushie Bunny passed me.

"What are you trying to say, Sage?" I say with some facetiousness. She snorted. I'm fairly sure it was 'Humans are idiots.'

Well, this means war. So Miss Plushie Bunny goes back into the spare bedroom the next time I go past. Miss Plushie Bunny was back in the hallway on my trip back down. Since she was sitting, I took it to mean she hadn't been grabbed by an ear and flung out the door as per previous visit and just shoved out. Miss Plushie Bunny went back into the room.

I put her in the far corner from the door, which is Sage's least favourite corner of the room. There she sat for a couple of days. She didn't eat Sage's dandelions, she didn't use Sage's litterbox, she didn't even start any fights. Then she started moving around the room. Sometimes she's under the table, sometimes she's back in her corner, sometimes she's sitting beside Sage in her favourite lounging spot.

This morning I found her in the computer room, beside the food bowl. I guess she got hungry.

Sage has let me pet her nose four times in the last seven. Obviously Miss Plushie Bunny stole her sanity when she wasn't looking. Poor Sage.

Sage's Diary

If my bunny kept a journal, or a diary, it would read something like this..

Dear Diary,

The human sucks. Today she plucked me bald and then cut off my toes. She only gave me ONE papaya treat after the torture. I flicked her several times, thumped to make sure she was watching and then flicked a few more times for good measure.

I know where she sleeps. She's getting a soggy pillow tonight.

I'm not actually sure about the soggy pillow, but if you saw the LOOKS I kept getting.. Apparently it's MY fault she's middle-aged now and can no longer stomach as many sugary treats.

Bad human, no snuggles.

Snuggle Buns.

Day before yesterday I brought her in some dandelions. She presented (lowered her head) to be pet and let me pet her nose three times. I was truly honoured.

LAST night, she'd obviously completely lost her marbles. I went into "her" room to talk to her and she didn't even move away so I picked her up and cuddled her. I didn't get grunted at, she didn't try to struggle. I asked her if she was feeling alright. But no tempreture, no tummy distention, no yucky tail and she ate a papaya tablet with gusto.

So I carried her into the living room and lay down on the couch with her on my chest. This is NORMALLY when the mad scrambling begins and the bunny takes off like her tail is on fire. Nope, she just meatloafed and let me pet and stroke her for almost twenty minutes. In all honesty, I got sick of it before she did. I put her down on the ground and she hopped off behind the chair.

She's been there since. I thought this would be a great opportunity to pluck some of the fly away fur, figuring it would also get her to high tail it. She watched me for a bit plucking fur off her butt and then closed her eyes and seemingly went back to sleep.

There is rumour of tooth purrs during the snuggles, but she's denying it all.

P.S. Sage says, since she was such a snuggly Easter Bunny, I should tell Gus is the most handsome Easter Bunny she's ever seen. Betsy is one lucky doe, even if she is a no good, stinkin' lop. (SAGE! Lops are NOT bad.. Just because Sheeba.. Oh, nevermind.)

I may be in the D-A-W-G house.

After five days at my brother's I was happy to crawl home. It was a wonderful vacation but there's no place like home. :)

I came in and said my usual "Hi Pookie!" as I started my multiple trips in from the car. (My brother is a very generous, wonderful, individual, but he's still a BACHELOR and his house proves it!) I got everything in, locked the car, locked the door behind me, took off my boots and went looking for a rabbit.

The bunny who was sitting in recline in the master bedroom sat up as I approached and her ears flattened. Uh oh. So I turned tail (so to speak!) and went and fetched a piece of papaya. I made sure to make the "treat!" noise as I went back down the hallway.

She met me at the door and very daintily took the piece of papaya from my hand (Thank you Lisa!!) and turned and hopped back to her favourite lounging spot. Phew, I may not be dead meat. She then turns her butt to me. Uh-oh. She then wiggles her butt and kicks a pootie right at me. Have we discussed Sage's amazing aim with thrown objects recently? Her ability with kicked apparently is as good, she nailed me right in the forehead and then hopped under the bed.

After unpacking, etc, I decided it was nap time. Sleeping on my bed instead of my brother's couch was nice.. Snore, snore, snore. I half woke up at one point to a small warm fuzzy lying against my back. When I woke up for real the spot behind me was still warm. When I got out of bed, she stopped in mid-hop to ear flatten at me. I said "I love you too, shnookie bear!" and decided it was computer time. :)

I suspect, however, someone will be getting a second piece of papaya tonight before bed so I'm allowed in my own room. ;)

Sage, the friendmaker.

I'm going to stay with my brother for a few days and the debate was whether to bring the heathen with me or not. Edith, half of the land management team is an animal lover.. (spoiler!!) .. and offered to look after her for me. I decided to take Sage over there to meet her and get Sage's opinion.

Sage likes kids, doesn't like adults. I wasn't expecting much. However, Edith is 4'9.. apparently Sage considers that a kid, because as soon as I walked in the door she was trying to get at Edith and as soon as she was in Edith's arms promptly stuck her head under Edith's chin and started tooth purring. Edith was tickled pink to stand pet the bunny for thirty minutes while my spoiled little diva was happy to be pet.

Yeah. I think she'll be fine. I'm not sure, however, she'll want me back again as her slave..

Olympic Wins.

Olympic Wins

To me it's not about medals. Would I like to see Canada take number one in the medal rankings on our own soil? Of course I would, however, it's not terrible realistic. The U.S, Germany, both have ten times out population and resources. Finland, Sweden, Switzerland have centuries of practice ahead of us. However, we can try our best, be good hosts and try our personal bests and that's a win. We want to share out beautiful city and country, we want to show the world who we are and what we're about. We're not about being showy, we're about being Canadian.

A win to me is being Canadian and showing the world what that means. Being Canadian is our figure skating pair (whose names I failed to record and it's not on CTV's site yet!) showing up at Robson Square to skate with the public. The female half gave skating lessons to some kids while the male half gave the kids airplane spins. They did some demonstrations with smiles on their faces since they were obviously having *fun* and not just doing a public stunt. That's Canada, that's Canadians.

There's always room at the table for one more, there's always some instruments being played in the kitchen, and there's always a helping hand. We won't carry you, we'll help you get back on your feet. We won't hate, hurt and hit, but we will defend with enthusiasm. We're good-humoured, we're sharing, and we love our neighbours. Even Torontonians. Heck, say something nice and we'll probably even share our beer, explain curling and invite you to skate on the backyard rink. (Well, outside of the pacific south-wet where they actually have winters and backyard rinks.)

We'll sit on the edge of our seats and pray for gold in hockey (Women's AND Men's!) and we'll cheer each and everything athlete who stands on the podium. The world's success is our success. And heck, our Olympic village is one million dollar condos.. Top that Russia!

Hello Gluten, my old friend.

After several months of gluten free, I'm pretty much where I started. The short version is I have all the symptoms of malnutrition; hair loss, weight loss no matter what I eat, irritable bowel syndrome, feeling exhausted twenty minutes after I eat, etc etc. It all seems to be fat related. The advantage of gluten-free was I was ingesting a lot less fat so I felt better for quite a while, however, once I figured out the 'bad' foods I could still eat.. back came all the problems.

So, bread is back on my list, but without marge or butter or mayo, I'm not quite sure what the point is. Ooo.. wait.. I can start going to Subway again.. Wooohooo!

What this means to Sage (after all, this IS a blog about Sage!) is that .. no more potato or corn chips. While Doritos don't affect me too heavily, they do affect me. And the 'cleaner' my system gets, the better I feel so when I have something I shouldn't, the worse I feel relatively. Poor bunny will just have to make do with papaya treats in the near future.

Me, I'm thinking cheeseless pizza..

Things I call Sage.

Still no working camera. So you get text once more. Just picture in your minds a beautiful silver and white Dutch flopped on her side.. giving her human 'the ear' for disturbing her nap with rapid fire typing. See? No camera needed.

I was talking to Sage this morning as I was trying to work out if she was chewing on one of her cardboard pieces under the bed, the carpet or just digging a tunnel to China. (I will eventually move the queensized bed and look.) I realized that the only times I really call her Sage is when I'm trying to get her attention. Typically "What are you doing Sage?" or "Sage, if you don't stop that.." It's about then I realized I have turned into my mother. My mother called me "Missy Chrissy" for years, I got "Lorna" when I was in trouble or it was a serious matter to be discussed.

Sage has a plethera of names; the most common is "Boo". Also "Sage-a-lina" is common for her habit of adopting every injured creature in existance, from abandoned kitties, to injured birds, to three legged spiders. (I kid you not.) The list, which is far from inclusive, would go something like the following:

Boo, Princess Perriwinkle, Princess Fuzzybutt, Princess Fluffytail, Sage-a-lina, Sagey, Sagey-Wagey (which ALWAYS gets flattened ears), Funky Furry Fuzzy Girl, Pookie, Miss Sage-a-licious, Dutch Princess, Mistress of Destruction, Queen Domain Bunny, DAaaaaAAANG RABBIT! (You'll have to picture your own Yosemite Sam accent on that one), Love-a-bunny, Squooshy Nose, Lady Twitchynose, and on the most depserate of occasions.. Sage.

Its a lot of names for a little bunny, but she's worthy of them all. ;)

A Review of Resolve Carpet Cleaner.

Re: Resolve Three in One Carpet Cleaner.

Wow. Just Wow. Bunny pee is notoriously hard to get out of carpet, especially after it's dried. Vinegar + water will sometimes clean it out, but often not. Products for cat and dog pee don't seem to work on bunny urine; perhaps the enzymes are made for carnivore acidicity or something.

Phyllis O'Beollain, the lady who writes the small animal blog over at the Dayton Ohio Examiner, recently posted an article about Resolvbe Pet Stain Carpet Cleaner. I was pretty cynical about how well it could possible work. Yesterday I went in to wash the sheets in the spare bedroom and discovered what a mess Fric had left me.

He'd been housed in the spare bedroom for a couple of days *at most* but in that time he'd managed to soak the spare bed AND the carpet underneath. In the weeks since the mattress has started to mold. I'd wondered why my allergies were worse than usual but there'd be no smell from the room so it wasn't until I was pulling off the sheets I realized. HOW a male rabbit managed to pee with no scent is beyond me, Sage could learn from him! But, needless to say, there was one heck of a mess to be cleaned up.

The bed is a write-off. It irritates me since it's such a comfortable bed, but it was my Nanna's before me and its certainly far from new. The carpet was gross. There's just no other word. Remembering the article, I decided I had nothing to lose and went and paid the $4.69 (plus tax) for a bottle of Resolve. It wasn't the identicle stuff as described in the article, but rarely are products the same both sides of the border. I figured at $5 I didn't have a lot to lose anyway.

The directions say spritz, leave for five minutes, come dry the carpet with damp towel. I use paper towel because I'm lazy. The stains were less after the five minutes, by the time I was done with the cleaning procedure, they were 95% gone. I'm thinking a second treatment will have it 100% gone. If you could have seen this mess, you'd have said "No way."

Yes, way.

Two thumbs up. Non-toxic to animals and cleans up the worst bunny messes from carpet in minutes. I have found my new love in life.

For Chico

*Waves to Chico*

The handsomest of handsome has asked for updates from the bunny blogs he reads, and who am I to say no to that cute little face?

The slow down here is mostly my camera has gone gibbly and need repairs. The debate is between 'just replace it' and 'pay for shipping, repair, etc' No wonder our society gets less and less efficient when repair is so much more expensive than replacement!

Sage is good. Her Auntie Lisa sent her, Fric and Frac, a whole box full of treats and toys. She's been slowly decimating her way through her share. I dropped off the rest at Deidre's. This morning I got up to find that she'd gone through her bunny cookies box, pulled out all the bunny cookies (but not the hay!) and lined them up in a row. She doesn't want to eat them, just play with them.

She's taken to napping on the blanket beside me when I'm on the computer. I'm still not allowed to touch her, but she wants to be near me. It's cute. I'm pretty sure that means she's lonely and wants a bunny companion, but after the heel clicking that went on after Fric and Frac left, I'm not sure I want to try that again in a hurry!

Fric and Frac have Deidre firmly wrapped around their paws. You should see the damage Fric has done to her coffee table.. Her philosophy? "No point in replacing it until he's done with it!" .. YEAH, if Sage had tried that, the coffee table would have been sprayed with Febreeze so fast she would have sneezed.

So Chico, sometimes no news is good news. We're all good, just pictureless. Hope all is well in your world too. I think you're a little short on blueberries though.. Has Princess been hogging them all again?

More Conversations with Sage.

I came in from Boxing Day dinner at my parents to a very dark house. My original plan had been to stay overnight but I pretty much forgot all my toys excluding my laptop. It would have been daylight when I returned, so I hadn't left any lights on excluding the low watt energy saver I have in the kitchen. Sage doesn't seem to care if the house is dark or light so I tend to go for what makes *me* happy.

So, I came in, turned on some lights and wondered where the rabbit was. I took off my boots and wandered down to the master bedroom. Sage was sitting and staring off into space. "Sage?" I say. She doesn't even twitch an ear. "Saaaagey?" I call, she twitches in my general direction. "Oh good, you ARE alive."

She turned to look at me, turned away, and promptly flomped over in a dead-lop-flop. (Dead Dutch Drop?) That shows me. Human is never right, after all.

Sage types : Christmas.

Hi, dis is Sage, guest blogger. Don't expect dis to happen more dan once a year - I gots better things to do. Like nap.

But - fuzzy friends, I FINK I've finally got dis "special day" figured out.

Once a year da hoomans get trees and put them in their houses. Dese are the things they call 'Gods' and they try to get SUPER treats by giving da tree presents/offerings. But, dese offerings are never goods enough, so da tree rejects them and then they just trade them amongst dem selves. (Lucky bunnies get some left overs too.) What da hoomans expect to get from a tree-god dat's better than the stuff they offer it, I dunno.

I do know hoomans get upset if you chew on their tree-god (Hay, it doesn't DO anything, how're we to know??) and play wif it's jewelry. An' apparently, no matter HOW annoying da blinky/flashy/jewelry is we're NOT allowed to trim the vine to get rid of it. Da tree-god must be pretty to be kept happy.

My Mummy put a bunny at the top of her tree-god, so maybe she was hoping for anudder bunny? Hurmph. Oh! Or maybe treats! But Aunty Wisa sent those, so I'm not quite sure what anudder option IS.

Aunty Criss said she prays for self-cleaning litterboxes. Which is just silly. But, if they DO pray for dat to their tree god, no WONDER they don't get anything year after year.. because everyone knows hoomans were put on this planet to clean litterboxes'n'feed us'n'stuff. If da tree-god took that away, the hoomans would all die of boredom an' then what would all the fuzzy creatures do? (Well, besides celebrating our naps are no longer interupted!)

Anyways. Whatever da hoomans ask for.. I hops dat everybun gets their dreams an' if not their dreams, then love, n' binkies/smiles and hugs. If dey like hugs, I don't - so Momma better not get any ideas.. Grunt, grunt.

-Sagey Bun.

Fric and Frac in their new home.

Well.. the boys are gone.

Last week, my vet's office called to ask if I knew of any rabbits up for adoption. I looked in the computer room and said "Yeah, why?" and the vet tech went on to explain her sister had been caring for her rabbits while she was on holiday and now wanted one of her own. I said she could come over and meet Fric and Frac.

I'll confess, I was hoping she'd take Fric. I had hopes I'd eventually get Frac and Sage to bond, but Fric and Sage both being very stubborn alphas.. well. Scout was an alpha, but she was also a mommy bun so she generally caved and groomed. Deidre came in, sat down, Frac crawled into her lap and started covering her in kisses. Needless to say, the two of them went home together.

Fric was aggressive again. Growling, boxing, throwing temper tantrums. "You're kidding me!" I told him, "You two FIGHT." He lunged at my foot and I retreated. I phoned Deidre and asked if she would be willing to take Fric too, that he was very upset at being seperated from his brother.

She said she'd give it a try so I drove out to her place with Fric. He wasn't a particularly thrilled passenger, but wasn't nearly as bad as poor Scout was. So I put him down at Deidre's and immediately the chase was on. Watching them though, it didn't seem to be bunny fighting (which is very similar to horse challenges if you've seen footage of those. SCARY!) it reminded me more of how two seven year old boys interact.. with hyperactivity, punching, pinching and lots of chaos and mayhem. If we tried to interfere, they'd both give us dirty looks. So we left them to it.

The next morning, her royal fuzziness woke me up at 0430 by doing the bunny 500 through the house. She did several binkies, I haven't seen her even do a bunny headhsake of happiness in months. She nose bonked my shoulder awake but disappeared off the bed when I tried to pet her. She did a double binky out of the bedroom and raced down the hall. All day she was bounces and hops. She was one damn happy rabbit Fric and Frac were gone.

I don't know why she was so cranky about them. She wanted to be friends with Scout the minute they met. She was okay with Foster, and he wasn't even fixed when he first entered the home. Maybe she's just gotten to like being the solo boss of the warren. She's been very friendly (for Sage!) since too. She'll sit on the blanket that hangs off the couch beside me, where as before she'd make sure to stay WELL out of reach. I don't pet her, and she stays put.

She even let me torture her by retaking the Christmas card pictures (I'll post some on Christmas Eve) without a footflick or protest. Okay, there was one big bunny sigh, but she tolerated me with remarkable patience. She did get rewarded with one Cool Ranch Doritos chip. (Not a recommended bunny treat. *cough*)

So, Fric and Frac are happily demolishing Deidre's home, Sage is happily hopping through mine, all seems well in this part of the world. :)

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Krazy Kwanza, Festivus for the Restivus, Sparkling Solstice, Rousing Ramadan and an enjoyable have a pint 'cause it's the middle of the bloody winter to one and all!