Dru's Zoo

Standing Guard.

Look what's below.

Swimming Ducklings.

Do someone put a sign out at the road that this was a pet friendly home? We have been meaning to fix the inground pool for a few years now but with no spare money, many other projects on the list, it didn't get done. Soon there were frogs that moved in and even a small heron was fishing one day. Recently, 2 mallard ducks had been hanging around. They come most years to our neighbors pond. This year our pond must have looked better plus there was plenty of food put out for our chickens. We looked out yesterday and there were 6 duckling swimming around the pool with the mother duck watching over them. Welcome to Dru's Zoo.

Animal Planet Bunnies 2

Bunny Line-up.

Grooming a English Angora.

The Belgain Hare strikes a pose.

A model sits with baby Mini-lops.

Here are some more photos from the Animal Planet filming. The bunnies mostly co-operated except the English Angoras refused to do anything but sit still on the table. They did the same thing they are used to doing when at a show. The Photographer asked"Don't they do anything?" Not, really as they are used to sitting still when the judge looks at them. "Can't you get them to hop around or something?' No, they don't really seem to want to hop around. So I had to hold one so it looked like a bunny and not a "mound of fur". It was pretty funny. The other bunnies were more inquisitive and the Jersey Woolies ate hay while being filmed from underneath a glass top table. The different breeds of bunnies did move around on the white floor to be filmed but kept turning their backs to the camera. The baby mini-lops looked cute on the red chair with the young girl pretending to pick out a pet bunny. Caprice was more active when we put her on the red chair as well. It must have had many types of animal smells on it as she spent her time in the chair sniffing around. Lil Pets 101 should be showing on Animal Planet in the Fall. I'll let you know when to keep any eye out for it.

Bunny Stars

Shepherds Bouquet posing for her beauty shot.

Bunny line-up.

Sideview of Shepherds Bouquet.

It's funny how these crazy things happen in life. This lady contacted me after I posted English Angoras and Jersey Woolies on my Facebook page. She is an animal talent agent and she has done a program for Animal Planet called Dogs 101. I never heard of it so didn't really know what she was talking about. She explained that she was doing a new program on household pets called Lil Pets 101 and was looking for some rabbits to film. Would I be willing to come to New York and have the bunnies filmed? Of course she wanted Sweet Pea, as she had seen her photo on Facebook, but she is cut down now. Would her half sister, Bouquet, do? And a darker angora and could I bring some Jersey Woolies? So off we went to New York City for a photo shoot and had a lots of fun. Hopefully the bunnies will be on TV this fall, to be announced later. And more photos later.

Seal & Sable

Sable on the left, Seal on the right.

Yin and Yang.

What cute faces.

We have had the pearl color of English Angoras in our lines for almost 15 years. They go back to a really pretty lilac pearl doe name Tallulah. I bred tort into them and we continued to get pearl but in the sable pearl coloring. I have worked on getting lilac back so I can breed back to get the lilac pearl again. We finally had a couple at the right age to breed together but I guess the sable coloring is too strong because we ended up with a seal and a sable. This is a good example of the coloring that you don't see very often see in English Angoras. The seal is often mistakenly called black in the pedigree. The way to distinguish this color is to hold it up in the light and you will see a dark chocolate cast to the coat. As they grow older, the face stays dark but the coat often gets very light gray/brown. The sable looks chocolate at birth but starts to look shaded as they grow older. The face stays a very dark brown and the coat becomes a cafe au lait/coffee and cream color. Both colors are very striking in the adults in full coat as the contrast between face and body wool is very attractive. Both are does so I will be keeping them to breed back to the lilac buck in hopes of increasing the chance of the forever searched for lilac pearl. Tallulah we keep on trying!

PS.-Sorry about the backwards color description I posted before. I must be tired.

Mother's Day Surprise

Just Born Baby Goat Kid.

Very Tiny Little Boy.

Bellisima showing off her wooly coat.

Shepherds Angel Cake gets fluffed.

While we were at the National Capital Show in Gaitherburg, Md, I got a frantic phone call from home. A new baby goat had been born. I knew the goat was going to have a baby but my husband didn't believe me. Usually the goat babies are born in February, always the coldest day of the winter months. This was a very late baby and I was almost giving up the idea that she was expecting. All the signs were there and look what a cute little boy showed up!

The National Capital show was fun and the weather was perfect for showing, cool and dry but a little too windy. Many of the angoras got a good fluffing right in their cages but the high winds. We had a good time catching up with all the news and talking to everyone. Much to my surprise, Shepherds Divine, my tiny broken black Jersey Wooly doe just 7 months old, won Best of Breed at the first show and BOSV at the second show. She is very cute so I will have to take her photo for the blog. PP's Bellisima is shown right before she won 1st junior doe for her 4th or 5th junior leg. She became a senior today so I hope she continues with her nice coat. Shown above is GC Shepherds Angel Cake being fluffed up by Donna and mother nature. I put Donna to work taking some of her wonderful professional photos of the buns before the are cut down for the summer. Can't wait to see the end result.

Bunny Hair-Do

Long bangs and velvet nose.

Which end is which?

All one length.

I have been a really bad blogger lately, like not at all. After a full year of searching, I finally found a job. Getting back into work mode was tough but after a week at it, I finally am getting the routine down a little better. Poor bunnies are unhappy about this lack of attention, so I did some bunny beauty parlour to make them feel spiffy. I don't know about your bunnies but my guys sure love being groomed. The boys look pretty even, in fact, it is hard to tell which end is which. That is a question that I have been asked at least a million times. Don't you guys know, the front has the ears and the back has the tail. Easy! Anyway, we will be off to the National Capital Show in Gaitherburg, Md. on Saturday, May 8th and will have some angora bucks for sale. This will most likely be our last show for the season due to the new job, unless I can find someone to show the bunnies for me. See you there!