Spike as a youngster.

This is our bunny, Spike. We got him in March of 1999 at Mega Pet in Parsippany, NJ. He was a baby dwarf gray. Peggy picked him out. We were looking at the cage full of young rabbits. They had a double deck trough system for feeding them, one about six inches above the other. About five of the rabbits fought for position at the bottom trough, shoving each other ot of the way in some sort of rabbit Three Stooges routine. Spike was the only one who wnt up on his hind legs and got food from the upper trough. So Peggy picked him.

I wanted to name him "Spike" and Peggy wanted to name him "Murphy" because Saint Patrick's Day was a few days away. If he had been black and not gray, I probably would have called him "Murphy" like the beer, "Murphy's Irish Stout." But he wasn't, so we compromised and named him "Spike Murphy."

Spike is usually well behaved. He only makes his messes in the litter box in his cage. But he does like to chew at things like the carpet or the wall paper, so he needs supervision when he is out.

I built him a house for inside his cage out of a cardboard box. It has entrances on both ends. I built it to have two skylights, a second floor within, a back porch and several front windows. Spike likes going on to the roof and hanging out. The skylights are big enough for him to go through but I haven't seen him use them yet. He sometimes hops over the back porch and other times hides under it. He destroyed the second floor, so I may just remove it. I'll see if he enjoys the inside of his house more like that. He tends to tear up the newspaper floor and bunch it up in the house to build a nest for himself.

Unfortunately, Ozzy has not accepted Spike very well. Ozzy has tried jumping up on Spike's cage and has stolen some of his treats as well. So Spike does not get to run around the house as much any more. But I try to make time for him, especially when Ozzy is outside on his line. Spike makes our time spent together fun.

Spike does not have an email address.