It was one year ago today that we were at the Wisconsin State Fair and returning home with a brand new boy baby bunny that we eventually named Chip.

Today, Chip is still the smaller of the two bunnies, but he's what we've been calling a "bruiser". When you pet Indy, she's soft and silky, but you also notice that she's got more skin than bones and her skin kind of moves around (she was heavier and has lost weight over the past year or two - she's at a much healthier weight now). When you pet Chip, you notice that his fur is a little courser (not as silky as Indy) but he's all muscle - just built like a tank. And no wonder - the kid is constantly running around, sometimes just running in circles, tossing his head. He's happy and he shows it a lot. He's also sort of a rebelling teenager. He's always doing things we don't want him to do, and always grunting to show he doesn't like it when we yell at him to stop doing something. His latest "thing" is that he loves to "shovel" - he stopped digging (using his front paws to rapidly dig at something) and now he's shoveling, where he'll reach forward with both paws and scoop up whatever bedding or whatever is available and throw the whole lot through his back legs.

Something that Chip loves to do which fits his "bruiser" moniker is that he loves picking up things. He'll go after a section of the newspaper that we may have just read (or sometimes, may not have read if he jumps up onto the couch), and grab the corner and pull it up in the air. He'll start doing that with heavier objects like slippers or one of my Rockport shoes, which must weigh almost as much as he does. Lately, he's not content with just raising it in the air - he's using his back legs for power and now when he pulls things up, he stands straight up in the air as tall as he can reach (that's when you know he's having a good time). Unfortunately, especially if he's really over-exuberant, when he stands straight up he doesn't take into account the direction he's pulling or the weight he's lifting. He often falls over backwards, landing either on his butt (which he did last night for the first time and sent screams of laughter from me and Carol) or landing flat on his back. Once he landed flat on his back on the marble hearth in front of the fireplace and I think he hit his head because he looked like he got stunned and had to rest and get his bearings before he traipsed off somewhere else.

It took a while to get Indy & Chip to be together, but now they are absolutely inseparable. They are constantly together, laying next to each other, snoozing, or awake and constantly grooming each other.

Unfortunately, this has become a downside - as the rabbits bonded, they didn't interact with their human "parents" the same way. Indy, when she was alone, always looked for me and begged for "lovin's" (which is just petting, but she just loved it). Now, she gets constant attention from Chip, so Indy doesn't look up to us as much. Chip started to bond with us when he was little and before he "matured" and got interested in Indy. Now, we're constantly trying to make sure Chip understands who we are and even though we try to show our affection to him, he's not all that interested.
We do this by picking him up - something that he allowed us to do since we first saw him at the State Fair. (Indy flat out refuses to be held - that's not her thing and she'll scratch and even bite to get away). Chip allows me to hold him in my arms with him on his back and I can stroke his head and tummy and he seems to really enjoy it. He just doesn't like to be picked-up and grunts and growls sometimes when you try. He quiets down in your arms, though.

He's been great. Having two rabbits has been great - I really think having a younger bunny in the house has been good for Indy, keeping her active. We've had some great times.

I need to get a Chip webpage up and running on this website... maybe someday I'll get some time... and sorry for a lack of pictures lately - I'm having some very odd performance problems with my computer dealing with large files and Windows Explorer that I need to solve quickly...