Caprice Wins in Richmond

Tulamores Caprice enjoys her BIS chair.

Tired Caprice and Dru.

Caprice, Dru and Judge Frizell.

Just enjoying the breeze.

Caprice is the most layed back rabbit I have ever met. She lays in her cage with her feet sticking straight out behind her and a huge dust ruffle of wool sticking up like a hoop skirt. Nothing bothers her or phases her and that is why she makes such a good show bunny. She just loves showing and will just sit on her little carpet square (aka:the lucky carpet) and not move. She would sit in a natural pose all day long and not move a muscle if I asked her to. I never have to re-adjust her to a better pose, just sit her there, fluff a little and she does the rest. These are the bunnies that make the best show rabbits. It's just in their nature.

Caprice is shown above enjoying her winning BIS chair from the Hamburg Show B. I think she likes it because she went on to win Reserve in Show B at the Richmond show on Saturday. We were hoping to keep it in the family as Donna McGraw won a Double BIS with her beautiful GC Tulamores Lilliana, chestnut agouti EA senior doe, the previous December. But it was not to be. A beautiful blue tort Jersey Woolie, owned by Cher and Carrie of Rabbits of Harvest Moon, went on to win Richmond Double BIS. She was a show stopper! Not many woolies win BIS or RBIS in our area so it was exciting to see it stay in the wool family. Donna and I had a fun day, she got to sunbathe, while I was running around with two breeds on opposite tables. Oh, and I amost forgot in all the excitement, Shepherds Mystery( Self Senior Buck) won BOS Jersey Woolie in show B against a bunch of really nice bucks. We made the ride home go by really fast by talking the whole way home. What a fun show and the food it always great!

Big Wool Wins

Tulamores Caprice

Eric and Bob with beautiful youth BIS woolie.

Bob posing the woolie.

Ruth Ann Bell picks Caprice for Open BIS "B".

Well, a big afternoon was had by fans of wooly bunnies. The Lehigh Valley R&CBA in Hamburg, Pa. hosted a huge show yesterday. The weather was beautiful, warm and sunny so everyone came out to show. We all had a fun day looking at bunnies, eating cupcakes and talking to all our friends that we don't get to see very often. The friends are the most fun of the bunny shows and all the talking and laughing made me partly loose my voice by mid-afternoon.

The wool reigned for show "B". Eric won the youth show with a beautiful Jersey Woolie chosen by Bob Frizell. He was thrilled and so were his happy Dad and Uncle. A really nice family and a well deserved win. Jersey Woolies don't get picked that often in our area so this was an extra special win.

Tulamores Caprice, a black English Angora doe, won BIS for me in show "B" which was a total surprise. Ruth Ann Bell was the judge and was looking very closely at a beautiful tan that looked to have the win. Caprice is a wonderful doe from Donna McGraw that she has allowed me to show for a very successful show career. Caprice is getting to the end of her show career and will be soon cut down to have babies so this is the icing on the cake for her.

Marcus Rohden won a double BIS with a E.A. REW senior doe up in Michigan the previous weekend and Margaret Barthold won BIS with a E.A. colored senior doe out by her home in St. Louis, Missouri yesterday, also. This must be the month for wool. Go wool!

Babies Part 2

Blue baby from Shepherds Cezanne.

GC Shepherds Sweet Pea baby 1

GC Shepherds Sweet Pea baby 2.

GC Shepherds Sweet Pea baby 3.

Sweet Pea had a litter of 3 torts and they range in color from an orangey-gold to a dark chocolate. They are all about the same size and have the same body type and wool density. The orangey-gold one looks less dense but actually feels the same to the touch. It is terrible trying to get them to hold still to take a photo but I found that if I gave them a little cloth to sit on, they stayed still for just a second. We will have to work with them to practice their posing instead of trying to run across the counter and get into trouble. They are generally a calm bunch except when they are let out for recess.

Tulip Babies

Tort Junior Buck

Tort Junior Doe

REW Junior Buck

Repeating a successful breeding and you can never tell if it will turn out the same. Breeding Tulip and Boy-Toy last time resulted in GC Shepherds Sweet Pea (double BIS and 1 Reserve in Show), GC Shepherds Tinker Toy (BOSV Nationals), GC Shepherds Posey(3 BOV legs and 1 BOSV leg) and GC Shepherds Bramble(3 BOV legs). A pretty successful breeding considering that you often only get 1 or 2 really great babies from a litter.

This time she only produced 3 and although I haven't named them yet, I think they look cute so far. I have never had a REW from this breeding so I am interested to see how he turns out. He is a chubby guy who likes his food so I hope he doesn't get too big. The torts seem just the right size for their age but are very shy. It was hard to get a photo of them while chasing them across the counter. Next time, Sweet Pea's litter.

What's the Difference?

Shepherds Nautilus, lilac buck.

Tulamores Caprice, black doe with chewed shoulder wool.

Shepherds Cezanne, blue buck.

I have a thing for color. Everyone who knows me, knows that. Often I am asked for the color on a bunny and what's the difference between, black, blue and lilac english angoras. Nest box babies are often the easy way to tell color. The color at birth gives almost instant color except torts as they tend to change over time until the full coat comes in.

Looking at the nose is another easy way to tell the color. The nose 0n a black is dark black even when the coat appears silver and on some older angoras, almost white. The nose on blues look slate blue and the body is a more silver blue or powder blue. The lilac looks more like a dove gray, kind of pinkish gray and the eyes will often have a red cast to the pupil. They are such pretty colors and so beautiful to spin in their natural state. The middle photo above shows Caprice trying to spin some of her own wool by removing it from her shoulder. Bad bunny!

Velvet Noses

Shepherds Monet

Has a blue suede nose.

Who's da' baby?

We have a saying at the Rabbit Shepherds and that is "Patience Pays Off". We even have a REW senior doe in our herd that is named Patience. There is this litter of 5 bucks born a few months back and I kept 4 of them. Who in their right mind would keep 4 bucks from the same litter? Patience. They were each a rainbow of different colors so I named them after some of my favorite painters. Patience. The black one had ear control problems so I taped it up and hoped for the best. I named him Van Gogh because he had the ear issue, get it. The blue tort is named Monet because he looks like a soft water color (photo above). The blue is named Cezanne as that artist used blue in many of his paintings and the REW is Picasso as he tilts his head when I talk to him. Their nick-names became "The Starving Artist Series" as a joke. None of them did very well at the shows, molted a little, looked gangly, not so hot. The black did the worst with terrible comments from the judges followed by the blue tort. Should I sell some of these dud bucks. Patience. Who was the first of the 4 bucks to win enough legs for his Grand Championship? Surprising us all, it was Van Gogh! Now his runner up brother, Monet above is coming into his own. Let's see how he does this winter and spring. Patience.

PS-Had to stick in one other little velvet nose with blue binky, Liam.