Stuffed Animals

Last week, as I was happily (okay, not so happily, it was more like frantically) scrapbooking the last few years of my life, I came across a photo I'd taken in a shop in Pisa, Italy. I suppose the owner thought four oddly dressed pigs (weasels?), sitting down to dinner and wine would draw in the customers. It worked--I came in far enough to take the picture (click on the photo to enlarge):



It reminds me of a television commercial running in Canada for the restaurant Montana's Cookhouse. It features a wall mounted deer and moose head chatting about the great food and customers just meters away. Is it just me, or does thinking about dead animals with their heads chopped off turn most people off their feed?

One day when my daughter was quite young, she came home from a birthday party with a knick knack in the form of a kitten.


It was soft and cute, and she quite liked it. I didn't tell her that the fur had once belonged to a rabbit.

But I'm just as guilty. Looking through my cat's basket of toys, I found several rabbit fur-covered playthings. I know I bought them, but can't imagine what I was thinking when I picked them off the store shelf. I guess I was thinking the toys were soft and cute, ignoring the fact that the fur had once belonged to a bunny.

I promise to be more aware (and awake) in the future.