How much wood would a woodchuck chuck...

When we were driving across country last year Mario developed a little problem.  He started chewing on walls.  Rabbits are funny in that they can ignore something for YEARS and then all of a sudden decide it's a great chewing toy.  Once this happens they don't stop.  Unfortunately for us this habit carried over once we settled in our current apartment.  Thus far a loud "Hey!" or "No!" or hand clap will stop Mario dead in his tracks when he starts to do something he knows he shouldn't.

As a rabbit owner I know it's my responsibility to make sure everything Mario can touch is chew-friendly, but there are some things you just can't easily bunny-proof.  I only get a little annoyed at Mario because I know he knows he's not supposed to be chewing on the walls.  That's the part of it that drives me nutty.  I can say this with certainty because when I had two buns and one of them was misbehaving only the guilty rabbit would jump around at attention when reprimanded while the innocent bun went on with whatever they were doing.

That's right:  Bun A has jumped up onto the sofa, Bun B is lounging by the fridge.  I clap my hands and say, "Hey!"  Lo and behold Bun A jumps quickly off the sofa and gives me a "I wasn't doing anything!" look.  Bun B continues lounging.  They are smart little cuties.

I'd like to submit my first piece of evidence against Mario:

And another:

When I start to hear the tell-tale chewing and give him an aural cue to stop, he quickly jumps 180 degrees around and looks like this:

Pretty innocent looking, huh?

But after you stop looking at him the chewing sound eventually starts up again!  I have to start taking better measures to break him of the habit.  There are a few isolated areas where he's gotten the paint off of the wood, but I'd like to minimize the damage as much as possible.

Beginning tonight as soon as he starts chewing he's going to get marched to a time-out in his pet carrier.  Last night I put him back in his cage when he started, but I hate to associate his cage with bad feelings.  So carrier it is!  I will let you know if this little project works or not.

Hey!  Stop!  That's private!  Who said you could take a picture of that?!  (The rabbit equivalent of hand in front of camera lens)

I apologize that the running news has been pretty minimal lately.  I went on a 2 mile run yesterday.  Today my right shin feels the teensiest bit tender so I took the day off.  I think all of the steep, STEEP downhill running on Sunday caused some strain.  I'm hoping to do 5 miles Thursday, an easy 2-3 miles Friday, then back to the group run Sunday.  I was going to make this my first 5 day running week since the shin catastrophe of August, but will hold off at 4 days of running for at least another week.