Oh deer.

The Nanaimo deer are right cheeky little buggers.

Okay, so they were here first, I'll grant them that. And they do politely stand by the side of the road for cars to stop and let them across .. well, until they get tired of waiting and then just walk anyway.

Today I got home from the mall (the wrong mall, but more on that lower), and drove into the driveway to see a female (or first year male) nibbling on Mum's heather. I got out of the car, she twitched an ear in my general direction but that was about it. I was probably about twenty feet away.

"Oi, there!" I say and start walking towards her to shoo her away. "If you were nibbling on the cedars I'd let it go - they're pretty ugly. But as Scottish born, I have to defend my nation's plant." Well, probably the thistle is our plant, but shh, what does a deer know?

By this point I'm pretty darn close. I could probably reach out and with a quick lunge, grab an ear. The deer finally looks up at me warily. I say "Well?" She shakes her head and bounces away. Now, most would think this is typical deer antics, but as a bunny slave in waiting, I know better. I recognize that gleeful headshake and binky bounce when I see it. I KNOW the saucy herbivore is laughing at me!  I call after her "I could like venison, you know!"

She just flicked her tail in my general direction, not slowing down as she hit the sidewalk, skipping away. Cheeky bugger.

Ignore the stained shirt. :D Today was laundry day and that's one of the ones fished out of my dryer post-fire.

The quest today was to do some shopping for necessities to hopefully recover the data from the hard drives that survived the fire. (Survived being a loose term.) I also wanted to pick up some other odds and sods. I thought London Drugs was in one mall and everything else at the other. I tossed a coin and decided I'd data fetch and do the rest another day. So off I go, to discover I had been wrong - London Drugs was at the OTHER mall, along with Sears and Zellers and.. Oh buggar.

So I did what any bunny slave in waiting would do at a mall 30 minutes before closing. I bought a bunny hat and a Tim Horton's coffee.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year bunny friends!

I'm out staying with my parents on Vancouver Island again. My first trip, I came over and stayed for five days so my brother could have his home to himself for a while. It was weird, every time I walked into the main room in the basement I looked to Sage's corner to see if she was okay. Of course, there was no Sage for me to see. My Mum was on "Operation save the plushies." I'd pulled a few plush toys from the house which she'd managed to rescue from stench and stains, so I'd gone back and retrieved several more. One of this was Miss Plushie Bunny, Sage's friend and nemesis. I plonked her down in Sage's corner and I no more looked for the live bunny each trip in and out. 

 

My Mum thought Miss Plushie Bunny looked awfully lonesome in the corner, so as the other plushes were rescued from their spa treatments (15 rounds through the washer) she started plunking them down. Miss Plushie Bunny is now surrounded by sheepies, and bears, and a dog and.. :)

 

This trip it's my brother and I. He's staying for a couple days before heading back to the mainland. (As the islanders call the Vancouver area and beyond ;) I'll be staying here through most of January before (OMG, HOPEFULLY!) getting my own place once more. Yup, Insurance Adjuster is still dragging his feet. On the plus side, housing (apartments) in Chilliwack may potentially be within my financial reach, in the very area I wanted to live in previously. So there is a bright spot in the clouds. Lets hope it sticks around for long enough.

Three years ago I participated in a secret Santa exchange and my secret Santa sent me ornaments of Scout and Sage. Last Christmas I dropped the Scout ornament and it shattered. I cried my eyes out, it hadn't been *that long* since Scout had hopped off to the bridge and it was on top of a whole bunch of other "everything is falling apart" events. I posted to the PB list to whinge, and my secret Santa from the year before sent me a new Scout ornament along with a Fric ornament. (My Foster). I cried again, this time at the heart and caring of PB people. To many it would have been "just a stupid ornament" but the new one was not only a remembrance of my beloved little heart bunny, but of the wondrousness of bunny people.

After the fire, my secret Santa (Nancy, shhh ) sent me a new Scout and Sage ornaments. She said she didn't know if the "old" ones had survived the fire or not, but even if they had, she felt they'd make me smile. My brother said it was the longest and biggest smile he'd seen on my face since the fire. Those two ornaments, along side the others on my parents tree now, sum up the wonder that is both bunnies and the people who love them.

And I'm honoured and overjoyed to know you all. I hope you all have happiness and love in 2011!

Still Here!

I'm still here!

I've been staying with my brother in Langley. He's been remarkably long suffering about his little sister living in his dining room and infecting his bathrooms with GIRL STUFF.

The insurance company was very cooperative and communicative up until last week and then my messages stopped being answered. Very frustrating. I got my "preliminary" cheque from the, which took nine days to reach me (apparently it's harder to get a cheque 35 km/s than it is from Vancouver, BC to Denmark. That only took four days.) and of course, my bank has a hold on it. (Can't really blame them on that one.)  I haven't decided if I'll be buying or renting. Both have a lot of attraction, but if I buy an apartment I'll probably be back to living hand to mouth.. but I'll also have an investment.

It's amazing how much life a little dutch diva brings to a home. When my brother's out at work I start feeling awfully hollow and lonely. No life around me. I end up going out to the stores to window shop and just have humanity around me. I do have a winter jacket and boots now.

I've gotten to meet an internet met friend twice now. Sas who runs rabbitsonline.net was part of a Flemish bunny rescue. For those not in the know, Flemmies are very big bunnies. A small Flemmie is about 17lbs. So you can imagine my heaven at getting to meet 21 very friendly, very happy, puppy-bunnies. Most of these rabbits were kept in tiny cages as meat bunnies and had zero socializing. Yet, they were happy to get head pets and follow you around and let you nuzzle them. Not to mention I got to pet my very first Rex - oh that velvet fur!! I think I am partial to the silky, soft, fur (satin) that Sage had on her neck. (Her white fur was satin, her silver normal) but I may be a tad biased! Two visits to bunny nirvana.. And Sas is every bit as wonderful as her buns.

It's amazing the floatsam than piled up in my car because I was too lazy to move things into the house. Seventy-five percentage of my wool, some of my knitting needles, my old jean jacket that my Mum had sewn patches on. (And by old, I mean high school!) The pacific ocean sea water that I'd collected for a friend but have become attached to. The Rose Alarm (a friend's band) concert poster.

The clothes I'd 'rescued' were a write-off. My Mum tried to save some of my plush toys (Unfortunately, half the cast of my webcomic were lost) but they're still very smokey scenting even after a good dry cleaning. Crossing my fingers that they can air out on the patio, where they've been exiled to. (It's covered, so they won't be rained on.)

Everyone keeps offering me rabbits. ("Oh, let me buy you a new rabbit" "Have you got a new rabbit yet? I have this rescue..") And I'm just not ready for a new pet. The next pet may even be a cat - something completely different. I appreciate the sentiments but wish that people would just leave off it.

On a yet another tangent.. I got to meet a Gus clone and pet his nose for a good ten minutes. He was almost as good at disapproving looks as our beloved Gus!

I haven't decided what I'll be doing with the blog.. Maybe posting old Scout and/or Sage stories that went to the petbunny list. But I'm sure I'll be around in some form or another. :)

Stay safe!

Thank you.

Thank you everyone. It HAS been a bit of a rough ride, and I miss Sage terribly. I have a place to stay (my brother's), I have got some clothes (the advantage of staying in Greater Vancouver is the rediculously good quality of clothes in the 2nd hand stores), I have food. My basic needs are taken care of and I have insurance that will take care of other stuff down the road. I want to appreciate every single offer of help - especially considering how the economy is and so many people are just getting by themselves.

But - bunny people being bunny people.. They want to help. They want to do SOMETHING. So, if you would.. Please make a donation to your local shelter. Whether that donation is time or money, it'd be appreciated.

Sage came from the Chilliwack SPCA, and they have very limited resources for rabbits. Its my dream that every humane society, SPCA, etc, can get educated about rabbits and how they are house pets, not livestock. Maybe come up with a basic breed guide in poster form. Something, anything. But this dream requires people, time, and money. If you have money you can spare, please donate. If you have some time, that's even more needed - teach the people who are helping house and rehome abandoned buns what they're saving.

So, if you can help.. Please do, there's a certain silver and white Dutch who lived 5 years longer than she would have thanks to the SPCA.

Sage ATB.

I don't have a lot of words at the moment.

I can only cut/paste what I posted to Petbunny.

I'm halfway between numb and crying at the mo. I'm sure nervous breakdown is around the corner somewhere.

 

I generally go to my brother's place on Saturday's to watch "Hockey Night in Canada" (two Canadian teams (min) playing back to back) on his monsterous HD tv. It's an hour'ish drive. This afternoon it was an early start so instead of taking a nap after lunch like I normally do, I just made tea, planned a stop at Timmy's, packed up and left. I got gas at the gas station in the village and was halfway to Yarrow when my Dad called. I normally don't answer the phone when driving but Forrest had been texting me bunches so I figured it was him and pulled over. No, it was my Dad to say Edith from the Park called to say there's smoke coming from my trailer. She's worried about Sage. We won't discuss velocity in which I travelled back.

 

By the time I got back, it was beyond unsafe to enter. Smoke was wisping out of the strangest places, but we couldn't see flames.. but the windows were all black from soot and smoke. It was obvious nothing could have survived, but I wanted to check anyway. Lawrence (the male half of land management) said no way Jose. Which, of course, was the right decision. I think it was 20 minutes later when our volunteer fire fighters got on scene, followed by Chilliwack fire fighters a few minutes later. Once it was established no human life was inside, they started the tactics on how to handle it. They ended up breaking the front windows (at this point my gallow's humour thought 'My Mum's poor curtains, they survived rabbit teeth to go to haven by fire.') and smoke billowed out and then we could see flames.  As it wasn't risking any other structure, they were mostly happy to let it burn itself out - but apparently my trailer was just too well built to do that in any hurry.

 

So, then became the war to get in to said trailer. Let me tell you, I'd had more than one nightmare about living in a home with no "security door" ala apartment building. (And we all know how secure THOSE are!!) The firemen tried kicking. They tried axe. They tried *chainsaw* and in the end one came over and asked if I happened to have a key. Yeah, that's how they had to open the door.

 

They found Sage, miscommunication and for a moment I was told she was actually alive. No, she wasn't. The firefighters placed her in her carry cage and brought her out. She looked pretty darn peaceful, no whites in her eyes, not even pinned pupils.. so all things, considered I guess.. as peaceful as she could go in the given situation. And I know Scout is hopping around up there saying "Look Sage! I have a bacon tree!" (Okay, now I"m crying) My neighbours insisted on burying her for me so I wouldn't have to. Some of these people I'd never met, but they *ALL* offered me couch to sleep in.. spare bedroom.. one guy offered me the use of his motorhome. Insurance would have paid for a hotel room, Dad offered the same. (He happened to be working) But.. I stank of burnt stuff, my clothes and myself were covered in black crap.. I just wanted a shower and to wash clothes.. so I may as well abuse my brother's home.

 

My friends, my family, my brother's friends.. have all been incredible. Thank you.  

Hitting the High Points

Just a quick status update to say "Yup, we're still alive!"

We spent an extended Hallowe'en weekend at my parents' place on Vancouver Island and I have pictures to post. Unfortunately, the pictures are on the computer that is currently being debugged and devirused. (It's not connected to the net while I do so.)

Sage wants to pass on her thanks to Hef and his Mommy for letting him come to the Petbunny party. She's sorry if he had one too many carrotinis, but she isn't sorry she helped him dance the night away and sample five different types of hay. Not to mention the buffet, the dancing, the music, the food.. Hopfully he wasn't too tired the next day! Sage spent most of it stretched out napping.

I tried moving Sage's litterpan into the main bedroom since she spends most of her time there, but she would go into the ex-computer room and thump. "I want my litterpan HERE, thank you very much!"  The bunny is always right! Silly human, you'd think she'd learn this..

To wrap up - another "Conversations with Sage" moment :D

The master bedroom is at the end of the hall, just before you get to it, the master bathroom is on the right. I was walking down the hall to do what humans do in bathrooms, and Sage was meatloafed by the closet doors in the bedroom.

 I said "Good morning, Sunshine!" She didn't even twitch an ear in my general direction. "You're looking particularly radiant." I added, even though by this point, I was fairly convinced she was deeply asleep.  Nope, not an ear movement or a whisker twitch. "You know, you're getting better and better at ignoring humans." I tell her with admiration. She doesn't like us two foots approaching *her* .. she'll approach US when she wants, thankyouverymuch.

I'm pretty sure, if a) she was awake and b) she could speak, the reply would have been "Well, DUH." She's a very articulate rabbit, after all.

Buttons (Furniture, not rabbit)

Sage here - Blogger's not letting me put a picture up. *Thump*

There has been discussion lately about bunnies eating buttons. (Not to be confused with Buttons - one of the cutest buns to ever hop.)

If you want to get your bunny to stop chewing on your buttons - stop making them so tasty and fun to play with.

Dearest Hef!

*Ahem*

*Scuffs floor with forepaw*

'Scuses me Hef.. I knows your hoomans are currently away.. so you're a bit busy.. but I was wonderin'.. if you had plans for Hallowe'en yet?

Y'see the Pet Bunny mailing list buns have a Hallowe'en party every year. An' its wots and wots of fun. There's games, and food and food and food and singing and story telling and food. You can get there by magic carpet or closet portal or even ride a dragon if you're feeling brave! (I go by closet portal.) You gets to dress up! I was thinking of being a penguin or Bugs Bunny or .. okay, I haven't decided at all yet.

Anyways - I was wonderin' if maybe you would be my date? I pwomise to have you home before beds time and not drink too much carrot-shine.

Sage's Revenge and other things.

Sage took careful note of all the suggestions on how to take revenge on her human. She decided to take "revenge is a dish best served cold" literally. Halfway through the night, she yanked all the bed clothes off the bed.

This is a fairly impressive feat, since she's a 5lb bunny, and I have a queen size bed. She pulled off both comforters AND the duvet. When I woke I figured I'd just kicked them off even though I normally toss them to the other side of the bed. The next night, it got repeated. A little more awake this time, I registered the bunny looking quite smug and lounging on the pile of bed clothes. "Yes Sage, I'm sorry I stole your toes. Quit stealing my covers!"  That just got a bees in bonnet head shake and a half binky as she got off the duvet. Yeah, yeah, love you too, Princess Fluffybutt.

Speaking of her Fluffybutt.. She likes to play in water. Unfortunately, for her, she doesn't then groom after her playing with water.. so her undercarriage tends to get matty. While combing a bunny's belly is a little less dangerous than combing a cat's.. It's still Not Fun.

In other news, I took up knitting again. I haven't knit a thing in 27 years.. but its amazing how much I remember. With minimal reading of instructions, I was off and running. "In goes the needle, around goes the thread, in goes the needle, off with his head!" (Taught to me by nuns!)  My Mum tried to show me how to crochet once, but I'm not getting my head around it. So a trip to the island is in order so she can try again. :)

And while I completely blame a certain needlepointy rabbit slave (You know who I mean!) for the re-addiction, I decided to attempt to relearn on scrap wool, so I posted on Freecycle asking if anyone had any to share. A surprising number of people responded with "Oh sure, some spare needles too!" or "Yeah, I even have some patterns you can have.." or basically any number of ways to add to the addiction. One lady was up the highway 20mins (so a 45m drive) and had a huge bag of wool and things for me. Of course we started talking rabbits and she had to show me her rescues. Over a dozen featheredkids, and five furkids. I fell in love with a little ND. I told her Scout stories, I resisted asking her for him, and went home.

The entire drive home I thought of him. I asked Sage if she wanted a boyfriend. (She thumped and ran away, I figured she was just playing coy.) I talked it over with friends. I thought of it overnight and in the morning phoned the lady. Before I could even ask about stealing him, she started gushing that she'd sat him on the back of the couch like I'd said I'd done with my Scout and he immediately rubbed his head against her cheek and meatloafed beside her. She added, just like my ND, he was happiest when he could see her eyes. .. And she's fallen in love with the little guy who is a foster no longer.

So, little ND is happy, Sage is happy, Mom has to deal. But at least the covers are staying on my bed.

Buttons - you stink!

It's no secret my humom reads WOTS of bunny blogs. (See da list below!) An' she eben has made some new friends. (*Waves paw!*) This mornin' she was catchin' up on what all our fwiends had been doing for da weekend. Buttons' humom posted a video of Buttons doing what bunnies do best. (Wookin' cute!)

SHE decided dat SHE needed a hug and snuzzle. As if being cornered and being picked up wasn't bad enough, SHE decided dat my toes needed stealing, my fur needed yanking out and my teefies checked. FANKS BUTTONS.

So she carries me into da wiving room. The Humom turns me onto my BACK and den starts baby talkin' me. Hewwo?! Does dis torture never end?!?! Out come da toe stealers. Chomp. Chomp. Chomp. ALL my toes, she cuts dem right off. Baby talkin' da whole time!

DEN she looks at my tail. My perfect, perfect, perfect tail. She then TOUCHES my tail. Do hoomans have no respect or sense of privacy or sense of decency or sense of smell! Or hearing or.. Well, I coulds go on all day about the deficiencies of da furless two foots. She decides dat the fur is all matty. So she.. she.. she.. CUTS FUR OFF MY TAIL! MY FUR!!! MY TAIL!!!!!

..Buttons stinks. Dis is all HIS fault.

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.