How is a Schnauzer Like a Bunny Rabbit?

How is a Schnauzer like a bunny rabbit? ... sounds kinda like, "How is a raven like a writing desk?" doesn't it?

I have recently decided I am interested in having a pet bunny. By interested I mean the little girl inside of me is whining "I wanna bunnnny!" So today I decided that after work I would go to the pet store and look at one, maybe ask a few questions about what it is like to own one. It would be a more difficult task that I had anticipated.
In the first store, they had no bunnies, but I decided to ask a few questions anyways seeing the girls in the store were going to follow me around like a criminal. I asked whether bunnies shed a lot. Well, this girl made it sound like everything I own would be coated in bunny hair and that I would be better off owning a Schnauzer or a hedgehog. What I'd like to know is, how does my interest in a bunny equate my being interested in a dog? Bunny. Dog. BIG difference. So I looked around a bit with the pet store bouncers at my side. Let me just say, $1300 for a Pug is crazy. What happened to getting a free puppy from your neighbour?
Back to bunnies... I went around to a total of 4 pet stores only to discover that it is very unlikely that I will find a bunny in the city of Vernon. Apparently, Vernon has recently passed a by-law requiring all pet stores to spay or neuter all rabbits before selling them. It might have something to do with the plethora of bunnies running all around the town a few years back multiplying like well, rabbits. From the sounds of things if I am lucky enough to find a pet store that is actually selling a bunny I can look forward to paying $200 as that is what it costs to fix a bunny.

I might have to resort to trapping one in Kelowna, I hear there are still some lingering around the bus depot. That is if this girlish whim doesn't pass by tomorrow.

PS: In the last pet shop I was in, AJs pets, they have 4 cats that they just let roam around the store, and I stopped to pet one that was on a cat post right inside the door and he didn't stir. I thought, wow, deep sleeper, then moseyed on into the store and continued about my business. On my way out, I was curious so I stopped to pet the cat again. No movement. So I poked him. Nothing. I nudged him a little harder and still, he was motionless. I started to wiggle him back and forth a bit. I felt kind of silly so I kept going out the door. Now it is really bothering me. I should have looked to see if his breathing was raising his belly up and down. Maybe he was just a really deep sleeper. Maybe rigor mortis had set in. I think I will go back tomorrow to check in on the little guy...

3 am

The craziest thing. I am up late reading a book of various poetry. I read one poem , then I flip the page. The next poem is called "Poem to Be Read at 3 A.M." by Donald Justice. I laugh knowing its late, and look over at my alarm clock which reads 3:o2 am. (It really was only about 2:40, but I keep my alarm clock 25 minutes ahead to trick myself into thinking I have more time in the morning.) I happen across a poem meant to be read at 3 am, and it is basically, 3 am. The words even seem to be written for me as I sit upstairs in my bed.


Except the diner
On the outskirts
The town of Ladora
At 3 A.M.
Was dark but
For my headlights
And up in
One second-story room
A single light
Where someone
Was sick or
Perhaps reading
As I drove past
At seventy
Not thinking
This poem
Is for whoever
Has the light on


It was me! I have a light on, and I am reading. Was it you driving past at seventy?

Cirque Sublime? Cirque Sublame!

Its unfortunate, but it takes a lot to impress in this day and age. I had the privilege of attending the Cirque Sublime show at the Wesbild Centre tonight and while the athletes in the show were all very talented, for the most part the show just didn't impress. It truly is remarkable that these people can twist like pretzels and fold themselves like origami, but with all that we are exposed to today it just isn't enough to knock one's socks off. One person balancing two people above their head while standing on a small box just doesn't wow a crowd. It might be more impressive if the combined weight of the two didn't barely equal that of an average person. We as a society, myself included, have become desensitized to really great talent. Besides a person spinning around like a coin stretched out in a giant hula-hoop, we expect the acrobat to be juggling flaming swords and eating a taco at the same time. Some of the acts, while they probably took months to perfect, looked easy enough for anyone to do. Even I have experience jumping in a Jolly Jumper. In another act a girl was twisted up in a piece of fabric hanging from the ceiling. She started out near the top and was twisting herself up and then unravelling down in epileptic like movements, like a bug trapped in a spider's web. While that should have been enthralling enough, one finds themselves thinking, "It would have been better if she let herself drop a little faster." The last act was two men showing their strength by lifting themselves and each other and balancing in difficult positions. At one point one guy went from sitting to standing while the other was balanced on one hand on top of the first guy's head. That did cause my jaw to drop just a little bit. All in all, it was entertaining, but I found myself thinking, Is that it? It didn't help that we were sitting about half a kilometre away and I found myself wishing I owned a pair of those opera glasses. Maybe the show would have been better if the people on the stage didn't appear to only be about the size of ants.