I saw my son for lunch today. He'd had a bit of upsetting news so I went to cheer him up. I brought his beloved golden retriever, Kitty, to see him at school. Kitty speaks with a Bronxian accent, and sounds as if she smokes 20 packs of unfiltered cigarettes a day - at least this is the way we envison her voice. We had her on her leash in the field in front of the library at the university. There are many domesticated bunnies at the university. Kitty loves to go to the university  and never gives up the dream of capturing a bunny even though she is about as stealthy as a black hawk helicopter down a couple of engines, piloted by Ross Perot.. We let her go and she stood there with the leash in her mouth watching the bunnies, as still as David Hasselhoff's cranial activity, one front paw up in a true hunter's position. She crept closer and closer, her  chain leash jingling like a tamborine until she was about 6 inches from the bunny. Then she leapt at the thing with the grace of a rogue elephant, chain rattling and of course by the time she landed, the bunny was on Hornby Island sipping Mai Tai's.

Since this is a favorite activity for the dog, my son and me, we were up there last week as well. We let her loose on the lawn with about 100 rabbits. She scattered the lot and then managed to corner this little grey baby bunny and of course I was totally freaking out thinking that she was about to eat this poor little darling bunny...however, she just stood and stared at it. My son said, 'it's like she was thinking..."I actually don't feel like eating bunny right now...so much fur, ew gross...what sort of damage would those claws do to my intestines? I had such a big dinner last night and the rabbit's stomach is probably full of rabbit shit"!

What would we do without animals to make us smile?