the Saltbox: Dreams of snow, show jumping bunnies, and a salute to pet lovers everywhere

Last night I had a most glorious dream. I was walking in the snow at the end of the street I grew up on and I had with me three trained bunnies. Yes, bunnies. And they were spectacular. I'm not sure what exactly I had trained them in, but they were very well behaved and followed me everywhere. I taught them to burrow through the snow drifts and race up the hill and back, like it was some sort of obstacle course. When I woke I was quite disappointed that my little dream rabbits weren't all nuzzled up against me in my bed. So naturally I YouTubed "bunnies in the snow." Wowza, there's a lot of boring footage of rabbits snuffling around frozen backyards. One video from Germany even edited in little thought bubbles above the rabbit's heads as though you could understand what they were thinking out there in the snow. Lucky for me I'm semi-proficient in German so I could understand the thought bubbles, which said things like, "What's all this white stuff?" "It's fun, but cold on the feet." Let me tell you, I really would have been on the edge of my seat if it weren't for that German minor back in college.

My dream did bring to mind a video I'd seen years ago, one that was actually pretty impressive:

Bunny Hopping, as it's called, is a pretty serious sport in Sweden and Denmark, where it's grown in popularity since it's advent in the 80's. Now, I know this all seems a bit out of the blue, but it made me start to think about the fanaticism of pet owners these days. Let me tell you, if I had one of these rabbits I'd spoil them rotten, and I have a couple friends who are cat moms and they'd do about anything for those felines. There's actually some pretty sweet stuff out there for pets of all sizes these days so here it is: your holiday gift guide for pet lovers. View it after the jump!