Skip and Hazel... a love story?

Last December I got Swine Flu and sat on my couch moaning with a fever for over a week. With roommates gone for the month and the intense need to be quarantined from outside community, Skip became my only companion. In feverish dream-like moments, I believed we were talking. I worried about him contracting the swine flu... can a rabbit get pig flu?

I called the vet. Rabbits cannot get swine flu and no one at the office made me feel ashamed for asking, thank you very much.

Anyway, I thought a lot about Skip during the illness. I wondered if he was lonely. What would it be like to live my whole life with another species? A colleague later noted that the worst case scenario would be to live among another species AND an annoying creature of your own species... this is true, I thought.

Now, it's important to keep in mind that Skip doesn't like girls like normal boy rabbits. He's been "fixed." I still wondered about him feeling lonely, though. Skip needs a girlfriend.

Enter Hazel...


My roommate, Tonia, adopted this cute Holland Mini-Lop back in March. I was excited... and worried. What if Skip liked Hazel more than he liked me? Skip very infrequently expressed affection towards me as it was. Hazel was cute, and furry, and lapine. She was every male rabbit's dream companion.

We kept them separated for a while so Hazel could get comfy... Hazel living downstairs, Skip living upstairs. Then, the introductions were initiated. Skip and Hazel were placed in a pin in the backyard. (Rabbits are very territorial so we had them meet in a neutral environment... trust me, Tonia and I did our research.)

The result... carnage. Skip and Hazel tried mostly to pretend the other wasn't there. I thought they were playing the whole hard-to-get strategy. I was wrong. Intermittently, Skip chased Hazel, pounced, and ripped her fur out. He was angry and he wanted her to know that he was the dominant rabbit. Hazel cowered and tried to run away. Tonia and I panicked. Skip gave Tonia "the eye." It was scary. Chunks of Hazel's fur were floating in the breeze. I removed Skip from the scene.

And we never put them together again.

Since this encounter, Hazel has... ummm... how do I say this delicately... gotten big. Basically, she eats everything. You'd think she's a goat. And Tonia is pretty sure she's not a "mini" lop.

Tomorrow, the two will meet again. Will Skip attack? Will Hazel assume dominance due to her tremendous largeness? Will they fall in love? Only the next blog will tell...