The Rabbitshepherd

Could it be?

2012-02-16T10:39:00.000-05:00

GC BIS Shepherds Sunflower

Westminister Dog Show Best in Show Pekinese

You sure can see why people get the English Angoras confused with a dog breed. When their ears are down, they look pretty much the same as a Pekinese. I wondered why I was enjoying the look of this little dog so much. Watching the trainer/show person fluffing and brushing. The dog just seemed to enjoy all the attention and seemed to know he was "all that"! Loved the expression on his sweet little face. He is just adorable. I for one can appreciate all the work that goes into these long haired show dogs. At least we don't have to give our bunnies regular baths, but the intense grooming has to be somewhat similar. So glad he won and he seemed to be very happy about it too!

PASRBA/ Part 2

2012-02-08T10:46:00.001-05:00

UARBC Breed winners from the Saturday Specialty Show.

GC Shepherd's Ring My Bell, BOB JW Open Saturday.

GC Shepherd's Princess Poppy, 4 times BOB winner

Alex Stepnoski after grooming angoras all day.

It is hard enough showing one breed at a large show but it is even more difficult showing more then one. My trick in the past was to put the exact same rabbits in each show. It makes it much easier to remember who goes where. Eight shows over 2 days with 2 breeds gets very expensive so I cut back on some shows this year. It made for a very confusing show with getting the right rabbit up to the right table at the right time. So I made a chart as to who was going where and under what judge. I used this technique in Maine at the triple show with 2 breeds. It worked out fine until they changed the judges in one case. Some scrambling went on and running as I was watching out for a different judge to be finished his breed.

I am glad mine are all wool breeds as everyone was located in the wool room, but for people with short and long wool breeds it made for alot of running, phone calls and help from each other. Only one mistake was made on my part with the wrong sister in the open show on Saturday. Oh well, not so bad considering, and I didn't miss one class, which was more of a worry. It was so much fun to catch up with everyone and we had a fun pizza party with all the roomies, Donna, Carolyn, Annie and Anita on Friday night. It was also fun to watch Alex in full grooming frenzy, getting all her bunnies ready for sale. We will miss her and hope she comes back to showing angoras soon.

PASRBA 2012

2012-02-06T10:13:00.003-05:00

The car is finally packed.

Arrival at the "New Wool Room"

Grooming crew, Donna, Annie and Alyssa.

Judge Morgan with French Angoras.

Everyone looks forward to PASRBA. It is the break from winter that we all enjoy. For most rabbit people, it is the first show of the new year. (Unless you are crazy like me and travel to Rochester and to Maine in January). PASRBA is a true mini Convention. Most years in central Pennsylvania, there is snow but we go anyway, including the year we had over three feet of the white stuff when we came out to go to the showroom on Saturday morning.

This year, with over 8,000 bunnies there on Saturday due to the really nice weather predicted, the four showrooms were full of people and bunnies. The layout changed this year. The fuzzy breeds were always located in a "wool room". This made everyone happy as all the Angoras, Jersey Woolies, Fuzzy Lops and Lion Heads were located together. We loved this as all the friends were together and we kept the fuzz and blower noise in one location.

This year the wonderful crew at PASRBA gave us a new and bigger wool room and it was great. Plenty of room to move, lots of tables to put cages on, wall space and outlets for blowers and all of our Open, Youth and Specialty Judging tables in one central location. I personally loved it and thanked the crew over and over again. It makes a big difference not to have to run all over the place with different wool breeds, especially when showing two breeds at two Open and two Specialty shows each day. I will add more photos in the next few blog posts but I thought you would enjoy my car packed with 27 bunnies and all that goes with them.

Plus, congrats to Charlotte Shwiekart (sp?) and her beautiful Pointed White French Angora won Best in Show Open against 8,000 bunnies and also Best in Specialty Show on Saturday. We are always so happy to see the wool win! GO WOOL!

Think Spring

2012-01-29T11:21:00.001-05:00

Princess Poppy

Cuddles up

on a furry throw.

It feels just like spring so I changed the blog site over to some new spring colors. The weather is crazy this year. I am not complaining as there is no snow to shovel, yea! The angoras and woolies are having a hard time keeping coats on though. It will be a problem if they are all molting by Nationals which seems to be the case.
How would they know what to do if one day it is 30* and the next day it is 65*. One day last week I came out to the rabbitry and it was 75* in there, time for fans not heaters. Many people I know are having baby chicks born like crazy at this time of the year. They all think it's Spring. Princess Poppy is keeping her coat so far so here's hoping.

More Supermodels and a Surprise

2012-01-26T14:59:00.001-05:00

Broken English Angoras,

Visit NYC.

Didn't like the traffic.

The surprise when we got home.

So a second trip was needed to finish up the photo shoot started last week. This time the broken English Angoras were requested for the trip along with the Jersey Woolies. It was somewhat of a daunting experience to take 7 bunnies to NYC by myself, but showing bunnies for so many years has given me some experience in this field so off I went. This was a new location in lower Manhattan in the West Village, right out of the Holland Tunnel. After locating the building, I drove around and around the blocks trying to find a parking space or a parking garage. Seems like I kept missing the right one way street, remember Rhode Island Convention anyone? My nicname is the Compass after all. Anyway, I finally found a lot and rolled the stack of bunnies up two blocks and over one. They were not liking the noise, fire trucks and belching steam pipes, so were happy when we rolled inside the building and up the elevator. Adult models were in this shoot as well as children and the beautiful model named Fabrizia was not to sure about holding any of these strange creatures. She wanted to know if they bite and was reassured that they did not. So holding them in her pretty white lace dress with her long perfectly curled hair worked out really well. After the shoot she even asked if she could hold them again and get her photo taken on her phone. I guess I converted another bunny novice to an english angora lover and over to the dark side. When bunnies and I finally all got home, I was surprised with a new angora goat baby girl, a very early birth this year and born on a warm day which is even a nicer surprise.

Supermodels

2012-01-22T20:01:00.000-05:00

Two Rews took the trip.

Two Blues went along.

They are very photogenetic.

A bunny friend of mine recommended me to an animal talent agent awhile back. We tried to connect for a few things but dates did not work out. Finally, I had what they needed and the date was good so off we went to NYC in a snow storm for a photo shoot. Four of my Jersey Wooly babies were the right age, 8 and 9 weeks old, and so cute and fluffy. Two REWs and two blues were chosen to come along, a brother and sister each.

Show bunnies travel well even at a young age, but to be sure, I took them on a few rides in the car in their travel crate during the week before. Posing them since they were young babies helps with the "stay still" part. The studio doesn't let you know who or what you are posing them for to keep their clients to themselves so I didn't really know what to expect.

Adorable child models started arriving, got there makeup done, hair blown out and styled and beautiful silk and satin flowered dresses were put on. Some of these little models were as young as four but very practiced with each smile and small movement expected of them. I was in awe of their poise and cuteness.

They were positioned on a white garden bench with a small easter basket and then they called "Bunny on Set!". I was cracking up everytime they said this as it seemed like they were for calling for Angela Jolie or Brad Pitt. But the bunnies sat on laps, snuggled into necks and were cradled in arms just like the pros would. They were great and very professional. My biggest worry was they would stain one of these beautiful, on loan, dresses or the very pretty children that were holding them. Phew, thank goodness they didn't, what a relief. They are my babies and I love them no matter what, but they sure amazed the studio staff at how they acted just like pros. I am very proud of my small Supermodels and hope to get to view the photos at some point in time.

PASRBA Sale List

2012-01-18T17:36:00.000-05:00

Broken Blue Tort English Angora

Black Otter Jersey Wooly

I am starting my sale list for PASRBA. Most likely, I will not bring all that are listed. Just what there is interest in. Trying to make room for the broken english angora project and get some funds together for the Nationals. Contact me at Rabbitshep@comcast.net for more information.

English Angoras For Sale:
All Pedigree, Many Grand Champion Registered Rabbits in Backgrounds

Broken Blue Tort Junior Doe, perfect markings and butterfly, 10 weeks old, BIS GC Sire
REW Buck, 1GC Leg, Proven, in Full Coat, Bigger Boy, GC Sire and GC Dam
Sable Doe, in puppy clip, ready to be bred, GC Lilac Sire, GC BIS Lines
Tort Doe, in show coat, Beautiful Wool Texture, GC BIS Sire, GC Dam

Black Buck, in puppy clip, Heavy density, Beautiful Wool, Spinning or Pet, No Pedigree

Jersey Woolies For Sale:

Black Buck, Broken Lines, dark color, heavy density, solid body, proven
Black Buck, 1 GC leg, Tort Lines, BIS GC Dam, heavy density, solid body, proven
Broken Black Otter buck, GC BISS Dam and Sire has 3 GC legs, heavy coat, great markings
Black Otter Jr Buck, GS BISS Blue Dam, GC Lines, herd buck potential/ Hold Jamie
Blue Buck, Blue and Broken Blue Lines, GC Blue Sire and GC Lines,dense coat, big head
Broken Tort buck, No butterfly, GC BIS Lines, proven, beautiful coat texture
REW Doe, Blue and Broken Blue Lines, GC Blue Sire and GC Lines, tiny show doe
Blue Doe, Black, Blue and Broken Black Lines, Brood, beautiful heavy coat, solid body, ready to breed

Contact me with any questions you might have concerning the bunnies listed and I will be glad to answer them.-Dru

Color Color Everywhere

2012-01-13T17:13:00.001-05:00

New Blue Jersey Wooly Babies

Aren't they sweet?

Broken Angoras Grow up.

Pretty spotted faces.

Interested in Everything.

Baby time is so much fun especially when they get fluffy. The blue wooly babies are adorable, a buck and a doe. Beautiful blue gray eyes to match their coats. The broken angoras are growing up and getting fluffy, two does, a broken blue tort and a broken tort. They are so cute but hard to photograph as they just wouldn't stay still. Can't wait until the Pearl angoras grow up. They will be really cute!

Reserve in Show

2012-01-11T10:40:00.002-05:00

Shepherd's Ring My Bell, Reserve in Show, Rochester, NY

Bell looking pretty against pink

Judge Joe Coulucci (sp?)with a very tired me and Ring My Bell

New babies in the nest, 2 pearls and a blue tort

New Babies in the nest, 2 lilac torts and 3 pearls.

What an exciting weekend! At the last minute I went up to the Rochester, NY show, mainly to pick up more broken english angoras from Brenda. I entered some Jersey Woolies and some English Angoras in the show since I was there anyway. There are some very well know breeders in that area, so I really didn't expect to do very well. To my surprise, Shepherd's Ring My Bell, rew self Jersey Wooly Doe, won BOG and then even more surprising, she went on to win BOB. This was a very long show as the weather was nice and many people and bunnies were in attendance. Someone said 2,000 rabbits? I was not even going to bother with BIS as we had a very long drive home. Since we were still there at the end with the angora specialty show, I asked Lauren to take her up. It must have been the lucky rug that Tia won BIS youth with her English Angora, rubbing off on her and Lauren winning Reserve in Show youth with her Fuzzy Lop. Judge Joe Coulucci picked Ring My Bell as Reserve in Show. Wow, was I surprised! One of my goals this year was to place better with my Jersey's and that sure was a great start. They gave out beautiful embroidered blankets as prizes and Bell really likes hers. All the prizes went to wool breeds, as Charlotte won BIS with her beautiful French Angora.
While I was at the show, my husband was watching the fort, and I had two beautiful litters of English Angoras born. Lots of pearls, blue tort and lilac torts in the nest box and they are all doing very well.
We had fun all around and I didn't get home until 2am, haven't done that since college.

Hoppy New Ears

2012-01-01T09:10:00.001-05:00

Best in Show, Mullica Hill, NJ

BIS GC Shepherd's Peony

Best in Specialty Show, GC Shepherd's Uptown

2nd Reserve in Show, Delmarva, MD

Hoppy New Ears to everyone! I hope everyone has a great 2012. Thinking of all the bunny related things I have to be thankful for in 2011 some of which are shown above. Some of which are just keeping my mind off of other things in my life. The bunnies are a labor of love and keep my mind off of other problems. Am very happy with my Jersey Wooly sweepstakes standings considering I have not been showing the breed for very long. Very proud of my English Angoras and how well, the few that I showed last year, did at the shows. Very proud of my home breed Jersey Wooly winning a Best in Specialty Show at Delmarva. Overall, a pretty good year.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-26T11:11:00.000-05:00

Pandoro cake

Christmas outfit.

Fluffy wreath.

Christmas cracker kid.

I hope everyone had a very happy Christmas and enjoyed family and friends. We had a very quiet Christmas this year as everyone went to Florida early. It was fun and relaxed. I even put up the fluffy wreath, because everything at my house has to be fluffy.

We tried to get some Santa photos at the mall. Liam would not sit on Santa's lap at all this year, with much crying when I tried, and even bribed him with a ride on the Mickey Mouse car ride. I knew last year was a fluke, everyone in my family is alway scared to death of anyone in a costume. My Christmas Pandoro looks nice but no one liked it except Liam and I am sure he was going for the whipped cream and strawberries that was served with it.. Back to the stand by pumpkin pie again next year.

We have English Christmas crackers at our house because it is a traditional treat in England, where my husband is from. You get a crown and a prize. Liam is enjoying his crown and whistle very much and seemed to enjoy his toys and gifts. Everyone was tired by the end of the night from too much Christmas.

Brokens Grow Up

2011-12-15T12:59:00.000-05:00

4 Weeks old

Nice broken markings.

Looks like 2 little girls

The Prince and the Pea.

The broken angora babies are getting big now and starting to look fluffy. They have very nice markings. Looks like two little girls, a tort and a lilac or blue tort. It's nice to see that the color looks to be nice and dark and there is quite a bit of color. The Mom has only a partial butterfly so I was not expecting such perfect butterflys. They already have personalities, the tort is very shy and the lilac is more outgoing and comes to the cage door for pats. Liam was playing the prince and the pea by bringing all of his blankets out of the bedroom. I layered them on him in the recliner so he could lounge, eat his cereal snack and watch Disney Junior. What fun to be young, humans or bunnies!

Richmond Show

2011-12-12T14:09:00.001-05:00

Shepherd's Iridescence

Best of Breed Show A

Shepherd's Iris Best of Breed Show B

Youth Skunk and Reindeer costume

Open Skunk costume

Open Stink Bug costume

English Angoras waiting to show

Very big and well filled showroom.

The Richmond show was fun as always but in a new location this year at the Richmond Racetrack. It was a much bigger building then the Firehouse, so there was lots of room to spread out. I did miss the ladies that cook such great Southern food at the Firehouse. There was no food in the showroom so everyone was going across the street to McDonalds. Not quite the same. Better weather then in past years, but that bring many more exhibitors and a much later show. Very tired but I di get to take photos this time. The costume contest was so cute, especially the 2 skunks and the agouti Netherland Dwarf dressed as a Stink Bug. I think the Stink Bug won a prize. It didn't look real happy about winning though.

Donna McGraw was missed at the show but I was able to bring her beautiful bunnies and show them for her. Her black buck won BOS at both shows with very nice comments from judges, Stacey and Sue. My senior doe sisters shared the day with Iridescence winning BOB in show A and Iris winning BOB in show B. Didn't really have to use the blower, just sat them on the grooming table and let the wind do the work. I also was lucky enough to win BOS Jersey Wooly with Shepherd's Polka Dot Bikini, broken senior doe, in show A and Shepherd's Belladonna, self senior doe in show B. Took a few best of varieties and best opposite of varieties in self and broken classes. A nice way to finish out the show year!

Brokens, Can They be Fixed?

2011-11-25T08:32:00.001-05:00

Cute Luke makes everyone smile.

New Babies in the Nestbox.

Pretty Lucy with her Beautymark.

What's not to love?

Sadly the brokens did not pass their second showing at the ARBA Convention this year. What a shame as they would be such a boost for the English Angoras in order to increase their numbers on the show circuit. Anyway, in order to get the judges and the public more used to seeing these guys and to get comments on improving them, I have started to bring them to shows as an exhibition. This means that the judge can give comments and get their hands on them. It lets the judges know we are serious about the variety, that we want them and we want to improve them for competition. Some of the judges have never even seen one or put their hands on one.

Besides, they are just so darn cute. Who doesn't love that cute spotted face? The rabbit breeders at the show went crazy over them and everyone thought they were really adorable. I have always loved them and have had them off and on for 15 years. It is very exciting to have 2 broken babies in the nest box with my Best in Show, Grand Champion buck, Wyatt for the dad. They look like a broken tort and a broken chocolate, both with plenty of color and full butterflies on their faces. I hope they turn out as nice as their mom and dad. So look for the broken english angoras at a show near you and let me know what you think of them.

Halloween

2011-11-09T09:20:00.001-05:00

Gnome Liam all dressed up.

Liam with Mother Gnome, Justine

On to the next house.

My daughter has a "thing" for Garden Gnomes. A really big thing, she even has them tattooed on each foot. So when she found this children's Gnome costume on sale after Halloween last year she was so excited. We all couldn't wait for this year to see Liam in his costume. Justine even dressed up as Mother Gnome. They were so cute and Liam really picked up on the treating part. He did try to give some of his candy back to people, at their door, after getting some from them. It was very sweet.

Bunny Body Type

2011-11-07T09:26:00.001-05:00

Shepherds Iris

Iris is very round

GC Shepherds Uptown

Smaller but also round.

Round balls of fluff live at my house, some are larger and some are smaller. English Angoras and Jersey Woolies should always have a round look when groomed up. They should not look flat or have a part down the middle of the coat. The fur can hide some faults underneath but can not hide all of them. If the bunny is flat on top, narrow or pinched, this will show. Body type is still very important under all that fur. It gives the bunny a correct look when they sit and pose. You can certainly feel the body when you groom and the judge always feels the body when judging.

After over 20 years of raising rabbits, I am still learning about body type. The Jersey Wooly should look like a cupcake with a small orange sitting on top, I read somewhere. This is a cute description but not really accurate, I keep thinking about the swirly icing. It should feel more like a small cantaloupe with a small orange on top. Equal in width and length, with a smooth, round rise over the top. The English Angoras should feel like a basketball with 1/3 of the bottom cut off, sitting flat side down on the table, with a little larger orange for a head. The best way to learn about body type is to keep looking at different bunnies, posing them and feeling the shape. This will help you to learn what you like in your bunnies, a round ball of fluff.

All Dressed Up

2011-10-27T08:35:00.000-05:00

Shepherd's Iridescence

Looking Fluffy

Sweet Lilac Face
So we are all dressed up and no where to go. English angoras have a limited time span in which you can show their coats. Many breeders time the coats for certain show events during the show year. If it doesn't work out that the breeder doesn't get to attend the event, you have a very beautiful animal and no place to show her. No other shows are timed during the ARBA Convention so that everyone can attend. Very sad to miss the ARBA Convention again this year. It seems like the heavens colid and I never get to go. I think Shepherds Iridescence would have been a good competitor. Oh well. Hope everyone else has a fun time.

DeMarVa

2011-09-25T07:19:00.001-05:00

Judge Joe with Shepherds's Peony

DelMarVa was lots of fun.

Shepherd's Peony

Another view.
Well, as always DelMarVa was lots of fun. I was able to spend time with rabbit friends and friend's rabbits. It seemed like everyone won some kind of prize. Katie won a Reserve in Show with her beautiful REW Jersey Wooly plus a few BOBs and many BOGs. Alyssa won a Best in Specialty show and a BOB with her handsome English Angora buck. Regan won some BOS awards with her Jersey Wooly buck. Donna won some Best writter awards. I was luck enough to win a 2nd Reserve in show award with Shepherd's Peony plus BOS in show B and a Best in Specialty show with my REW Jersey Wooly doe, Shepherd's Uptown. Well run show and we finished both open shows and many specialty shows by 4 o'clock. My favorite show of all.

Best in Show

2011-09-18T19:15:00.000-05:00

Shepherd's Iridescence

BIS Shepherd's Peony and Judge Josh

BIS Shepherd's Peony

What a way to start the Fall show season! Shepherd's Peony, tort senior doe, wins Best in Show at the Mullica Hill, NJ show this past Saturday. It was really a surprise for me as judge Josh didn't give her a second look and never really looked in her direction after he gave her a once over. He looked at a few other breeds a second time and there were some beautiful animals there. Sitting on the wool table with the Giant Angora, the French Angora and the English Angora was little Shepherd's Uptown, REW sr doe Jersey Wooly. She looked like she had been shrunk in the wash next to the bigger wool creatures.
The Reserve in show was announced with the beautiful broken black Mini Rex owned by Piper and Barbara Smith. Next he announced the Best in Show was the English Angora. You could have knocked me over with a feather. I was a perfect day for showing wool, cool and overcast but no humidity. Just a bit of a breeze to keep the wool fluffy, she did look nice and has a pleasant temperment for showing unlike some other torts I have at home that growl at the judges. Iridesecence did well almost beating out Peony but the judge said she needs to grow up just a bit and her sister Iris also got some very nice compliments coming in third.
My woolies did really well with Shepherd's Uptown winning BOB, Shepherd's Divine winning best of group broken and Shepherd's Ring my Bell, 1st place self jr doe out of 7 or 8 jr does. The self boys came in 2nd, 3rd and 4th I believe, and the broken boys came in 2nd and 3rd. So very happy with how the show season has started out, just saying!

Liam and Grandma have a Fun Summer

2011-09-18T07:33:00.002-05:00

Went to the Beach.

Enjoyed Cherrios for the First Time.

Only two allowed on the spoon at once.

Started his Artist Training.

Liam and I had a very fun summer. He is getting so big and of course, I think he is the smartest child in the world. We had a fun time at the beach after the tourists went home. He is very particular and will not allow any shells in his bucket, only sand. We learned to eat cherrios out of the bowl with a spoon. Same thing, only two cherrios are allowed on the spoon at any time. We are always telling him eat small bites and he really listens. He also like to color on paper and had a fun time with paper and pen. Jackson Pollack, anyone?

Sheep and Wool Festival

2011-09-18T07:21:00.002-05:00

Cute Booth with Yummy Wool.

Happy to be here.

Lots of fun Baskets.

Very Old Wagon.

My computer has been broken so lots to catch up on. Had my usual booth at the Garden State Sheep and Wool Festival which is always lots of fun. Strolling musicians, yummy wool, good food, lots of fun fiber friends and this year the booth next to me had "BASKETS"! A big mistake as far as I was concerned, since I spent most of my time sitting in my booth trying to not buy any. I did end up with only one but it was a close call for a truly basket addicted person. I did resist buying wool since I am still working on my wierd triangular scarf for a year now.

Met some really nice people inclucing some of my Blog fans, you know who you are LOL. Now I feel like I have to step up the blogging content to a higher level. Didn't really think anyone ever read this thing. Who knew? I have really slacked off this summer but will hope to have some better content this coming Fall and Winter.

Hurricane Distractions

2011-08-27T21:02:00.002-05:00

Shepherd's Peony

GC Shepherd's Sunflower

Small round ball of fluff.

GC Shepherd's Drizzle

Pretty bunny photos distracting me from Hurricane Irene. Tried to groom for awhile until part of my chimmney fell off. Very strong wind and tons of rain pelting down. We still have power but it probably won't last for long. There are many big trees in my yard and here's hoping they stay up. There are still some laying in the yard from the snow storms this winter. Try to get a landscaper to come cut them up while working 50 hours per week.

What is it with you Mother Nature? Us humans must have done some really bad stuff to be pelted with all this weather. Hope it is over soon. Bunnies don't seem to be bothered by any of it. They are tucked up warm and dry with their little raincoats on. There goes more of my chimmney, better go take a look. Wish me luck.

Beautiful Images from france

2011-08-26T07:35:00.003-05:00

A cart holding the lunch menu.

Soft colors and flowers.

Lavander as big as Me.

Palest of Pinks.

Here are some more quick images from France. Been really busy so not much time to blog.

Great Trip to France

2011-08-10T08:16:00.002-05:00

Tasted some wines.

Saw some landmarks.

Viewed the D-day beaches.

Climbed up some mountains.

My Dad and I took a trip to France. We had both been looking forward to it for many months and it did not disappoint. We saw almost everything in France from top, Mont St. Michel and the Normandy beaches, to the bottom, Marseilles, Arles and Avignon. The first half of the trip we drove from Paris Airport to Mont St. Michel and all over Normandy, then back to Paris. A customer of mine gave me advice about driving in France before I left. He said practice this: beep your horn, curse and shake your fist in the air. If I did that I would be ok driving. Well, I only had to use it once. The French drivers are actually more courteous and thoughtful of other drivers than any driver in New Jersey is. They never hog the fast lane, use their blinkers and flash their lights to let you know it is ok to move into their lane. We only got lost a few times and it was mostly around Paris where we kept passing a huge amusement park called "Festyland". I think they did this on purpose in order to get more visitors after tourists got tired of going around in circles. We came back to Paris for a few days and had some fabulous food, saw Versailles, Museum D'Orsay and had a dinner cruise on the Seine River. Next onto a train to Dijon and to Charlon sur Soame for our boat cruise on the Soame and Rhone river through the
South of France. What a wonderful trip! More later when I get over jet lag.

Hoppy Summer

2011-06-22T08:32:00.002-05:00

Baby birds on a shelf.

Lilac Pearls getting bigger.

GC Shepherds Sunflower finishes her show career
.

Liam learns to drive.

It is finally summer and the weather has cooled off for a bit. We have a metal bakers rack on our front porch where we put birds nests we collect from the ground. The other day there was peeping from one of them. When we looked inside, the top photo is what we saw. Mommy bird took atvantage of the pre-made nest and went crazy as she realized that her babies were really accessable to human hands. We left them alone and they are really big now, almost ready to leave the nest.

The last show of the season was at the Carroll County fairgrounds in Maryland. It was a midnight madness show and we were almost showing our angoras at midnight. What a nice set up for the wool room with AC and huge fans. We didn't even have to use the blower, just set the buns up in front of the huge fan. The judge even came to us and judged in the AC. Prizes were adorable with small concrete lawn ornament bunnies for BOB and BOS and large round FAT bunnies for BIS, BRIS and even 2nd RIS. What a showing of English Angoras with 9 colored senior does on the table at once and each one was just as beautiful as the next! Makes for a very hard decision by the judge. Donna won BOB with her beautiful REW doe and Alyssa won BOV and BOS with her two beautiful torts. Anita had some beautiful tort sisters she was showing. Lauren and Chris did a beautiful job with the two tort does they were showing in youth as well. And Liam is growing up so fast, he is even learning how to drive now. So cute and so much fun to be with the little guy.

Cool Thoughts

2011-06-09T18:22:00.002-05:00

Snow storm last December

Looks refreshing!

Shoveling was no fun.

Just trying to bring some cool thoughts to the bunny bloggers. It is only June 9th and it was 100* in New Jersey today. It's crazy, just saying. But it could be December and the cold and snow could be back. What's worse? I can't decide. Bugs are out in force with the flys being the worst I have ever seen and now we have an ant invasion. We all are being punished for some really bad things we must have done.

Went to the North haven, Ct. show this past Sunday and had a delightful day of showing. I haven't been to this show in years due to my not always being able to get my entries postmarked by a certain day. Who wants to be charged a day of show entry fee for 15 rabbits? Anyway, they have come into the modern world and now accept e-mail entries so all is well with the world. It is not a bad drive even at 3 hours and we found an even more scenic ride home through the backwoods of Ct.

My breeds were mid-way through the group so it was really relaxing to groom and chat. I even got to have breakfast sandwich, which never happens. We had some different judges including the ARBA president, Mike Avesing ( spelling?) for the second show. I am always so happy to hear a different judge's opinion on the stock that I may like or dislike. It is always a learning experience for me even after 22 years of showing. There is so much knowledge in the comments from each judge that it can help you improve your herd if you just listen. Very thrilled to have a mention of second Reserve from the ARBA president for Shepherd's Sunflower. He said it doesn't come with anything but a hand shake but it meant the world to me. It is very nice when after all your hard work and time spent on the bunnies, someone notices.

The range of breeds and the quality of the breeds at this show was amazing. Where do you ever see about 20 Belgian Hares? It was a smaller show but there must have been every breed there and they all looked great. I don't know how they could choose a best at the end. Oh and the woolies did well with some very nice comments. One of the REW does I had planned on selling won a BOB in the first show so I guess she is now a keeper. Entered her at the last minute, thought I might be selling her if someone was looking for a doe. She looked pretty nice. Who knew that little white bunny sitting in her cage would do so well? Stay cool everyone, think cool thoughts, look at my snow pictures and maybe that will help.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-11T11:06:00.002-05:00

Pepper with her twins.

Sugar with her cocoa colored baby.

Jersey Wooly GC Blue Diamonds with her english angora adopted daughter.

Our friend Julie doing Sheep to Shawl at Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.

What a fun weekend, a rabbit show on Saturday and the sheep and wool festival on Sunday. Then I got news that two of my angora goats had babies on Mother's Day. What a fun surprise! Sugar had a cocoa colored baby and Pepper had twins. It is so much easier to have baby goats in the spring instead of the coldest day in February. They have a much easier time and have such a fun time frolicing about. The rabbit show was fun and we had some different judges. It was interesting to hear the comments and learn something new. Donna won a Reserve in Show with her beautiful REW doe in show B. The festival was fun and I ate too much food. We got to talk to all of our friends that we don't get to see very often, walk around in the sunshine, buy beautiful yarn, goats milk soap and even more beautiful jewlery. Some of the girls took classes and some of us just looked at all the fun projects we could try if we all had more time. Wish I had more time and energy to see everything that was there but it is just too big. Now I see why you need 2 days to spend there. I bought my Mom some black 100% Alpaca yarn and some handmade knitting needles. She was very excited to see what she could make from them. My daughter, her husband and my grandson Liam gave me a beautiful pink alligator patterned Ipad case to keep it protected. I just love it and was thinking about getting one for myself. My son, the poor college student, gave me a nice phone call to wish me Happy Mother's Day. Hope everyone had as much fun as I did.

Blue-eyed white and other colors

2011-05-03T13:13:00.003-05:00

Ha ha, blue eyed white!

Lilac Pearl Buck, Shepherd's Luster, mad about getting groomed
!

His sister lilac pearl, Shepherd's Iridescence.

Another shot of Iridescence.

Everyone knows I have a thing for odd colors of angoras rabbits. My favorite angora color of all time is lilac pearl. I had a lilac pearl a few years back named Shepherd's Thistle. She produced many grand champions and mostly sable pearls and torts as I was breeding her to darker colors. One of her grand children, a blue tort Shepherd's Bouquet,was bred to a REW buck with lilac tort and dilutes in his background. I finally got some lilac pearls. They were raised by the Jersey Wooly mom show in previous blog posts. She did a real good job. They have such a delicate coloring but have are a bit of a cranky temperment. They are related to Shepherds's Sweetpea, who was famous for growling at the judges. Even when she was up for Best in Show, she managed to get a growl in. They were always surprised as angoras are know for their sweet temperment and would back away from her. I will have to work with these guys to get them to calm down a little. Their first show will be this Saturday. I hope the behave.

Thought I would tease a few people with my blue eyed white angora Webkin that I got for Easter. LOL, it is a different color.

Who says.........

2011-04-28T08:28:00.004-05:00

Litter of 6 woolies, 4 black and two white!

GC Amber Pearl's white litter.

Angora litter of pearls, lilac tort and blue tort.

Litter of 7 Jersey Woolies! There is another one under baby on left.

Who says Jersey Woolies only have one baby, they are all peanuts, the first litter never lives? Whoever said it are wrong, wrong, wrong! With the cold winter we had, not any litters were born. Rabbits are smart. They know it is too cold to raise babies. Now that it is warm, they say it's now ok. Just had a wooly litter of six last week, Mom is doing great and it is her first litter. The babies are very active. I usually bring the nest boxes in the house overnight as I worry about the babies. This Mom was doing so well that I left them in with her. The next morning two were missing. A white baby and a black baby. I crawled around on the floor looking for them and found the black all huddled up on a two by four. The white baby was no where to be found. I looked and looked and looked. Came back out about an hour later to look again and this little white baby was sitting in the middle of the isle like "Here I am, what's the matter with you, do you see me now?".

Next, a first time wooly Mom has 7 babies! Just crazy! I did split up that litter with a wooly Mom that just had two. She had 3 smoke pearl or blue, 2 broken blue and 2 broken black, all of equal size. Next, I have a english angora litter of 12, it was almost like two litters. She is down to just 5 babies now but they look to be pearls, blue tort and lilac tort so far. GC Amber Pearl had a very managable litter of 3 white babies with GC BIS/RIS Seismic. This is a most exciting litter for me. I haven't had REW babies in a very long time. GC BIS Contessa and GC BIS Wyatt's babies are coming along very nicely. More photos soon. No Easter photo's as Liam was teething and finally got his first tooth, so we spent most of Easter distracting him from his pain. Hoppy Easter everyone, sorry I missed my usually Easter blog post.

April Showers

2011-04-20T09:05:00.002-05:00

Shepherds Sunflower

Shepherds Picasso

Where's Mommy?

Jersey Wooly Mom with her 6 week old adopted angoras.

Hard to believe that I have not posted on this blog for so long. Life gets in the way of the fun things I like to do. The Jersey Wooly/ angora litter is doing well. I feel like the angora babies flip over their adopted Mom for a drink these days. They are almost 8 weeks old now and will go to their own cages tomorrow so I think I will have to get a final photo. The angoras seem huge by comparison to the wooly baby buck and his Mom. I think that I will have to breed Mom again as she will be so sad to see them go. Never saw such a proud Mother bunny, she sure knows she raised some special super big and fuzzy babies.

Have been to a few shows but I need to work out more time for my grooming. It really shows how little time I had. Hamburg was a hectic show and Shepherds Sunflower won BOB in show A and Shepherds Picasso won BOS. Not sure what happened in show B as Tia showed my buns for me so I could leave for work. Long Island was a fun show as usual, Donna came up to join us and Linda made the treck down. Shepherds Sunflower won a BOSV in show A. Linda and Donna had some beautiful bunnies and Linda won a BIS for the second show with her beautiful REW doe.
I will have some updated photos of the wooly/angora litter soon. Lots of babies in the nestbox so hope for some nice baby pictures also real soon.

Not Like The Others

2011-03-16T09:33:00.002-05:00

Liam Says Hi!

Only 6 weeks old and almost the same size as Mom. Same age wooly on the left.

She is good to cuddle with.

We love our adopted Mom.

Well, the angoras are almost as big as their jersey wooly adopted Mom. Very funny when all the nursing is going on. As you can see by the photos, they are all very attached to her and she has been a terricic Mom. She has saved some very nice angoras for me and I owe her lots of gratitude. Her baby is very nice also, except her is a charlie, not enough color to show and no nose markings. I usually don't keep charlies as they are not showable but He likes his angoras siblings so he might just have to stay. We will see.

Liam is walking very fast around the furniture. He is in his manly pajamas that Granma bought him. He says Da-Da and Kitty-cat plus lots of other words that no one can understand. He is very much fun to spend time with.

Not like the other

2011-02-23T09:30:00.002-05:00

Looks a little different.

Doesn't matter to me.

Mom and Sis seem small.

That's ok, we have lots of fun together.

Sometimes a new mother bunny can't or won't feed her babies. That's why I always breed a group of bunnies. This time without thinking, I bred a bunch of first time mom's and no experienced mom's. My english angora doe wouldn't nurse and seemed to have no milk. First time jersey wooly mom only had one living baby. Solution, put the 3 living angoras with the jersey wooly mom. Even though she was a first time mom, she still seemed very happy to care for her new babies. They are half the size of her already but she makes a great foster mom to them. She has lots of milk and is very protective of her brood. She didn't seem to notice that there were 3 more additions to her litter or that they are some big babies. Little jersey wooly baby keeps up with them and pushes them away if she doesn't get enough food. It is very funny to watch the lone jersey wooly baby frolic around the cage with her much bigger angora siblings. It will be even funnier when the angora babies reach 8 weeks old and will be as large as their 3 pound foster mom. I will try to keep you up dated as they grow.

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T19:37:00.002-05:00

Liam had so much fun playing with the box of candy hearts that he fell asleep. Happy Valentine's Day to everyone!

One Year Old and PASRBA

2011-02-10T12:18:00.002-05:00

Can it be one year already?

Photo of PASRBA from Barb Smith.

Well, PASRBA was fun and interesting as usual. Everyone seemed so happy to be out of the house and visit with all the bunny people. I never stopped talking all weekend. The weather showed itself to be a terrible ice storm on Saturday morning with many accidents on the Pa. Turnpike. No one was seriously hurt and the show was delayed by an hour. My angoras were not is the best of show coat but Donna sure swept the classes with her beautiful bunnies. On the other hand my woolies did way better then expected against the top breeders in the country. The only two brokens I entered ended up take turns with top in their class. Riff-Raff, broken sr. buck, won on Saturday with a BOSG and a BOG in a large class of over 10 entries. Eat Your Heart Out, broken sr. buck, won the open show on Sunday with a BOS. Riff-Raff took back the win with 1st sr buck in the specialty show out of 12.

My self sr. does were in the top quater of all the classes with a third for Dior, blue sr. doe, and the rest of the group staying 4,5,6 for all the other shows. These were large classes of 15-18 bunnies.

And last but not least, Liam is one year old on Feb.12th. I can't believe the little peanut is that old already and boy does time fly. He is the most fun I ever have and just adore him. Looking forward to his birthday party and to his Christening on Sunday. I had a grandma withdraw at PASRBA when I got to hold Jeanea's adorable son Luke. Hope I get to bring Liam to a show before long.

Static and Snow Part 2

2011-01-22T07:20:00.002-05:00

What is that blur? Could it be a snowball?

Electric Angora.

So static-y you can't even focus.

Well, the static continues and from what I hear, we are due for another big snow storm next week. Not looking forward to it, I can tell you that much. It sure looks pretty and I don't mind driving in it. It's the other drivers that scare me and how fast it came down last time. I was at work and they didn't let us leave until later in the day. It was snowing so hard the plows couldn't keep up with it. I travel on a major highway. No problem right? It was so bad I couldn't see the road. Pulled up behind a plow and followed it down the highway. Next thing I know, I am pulling into a salt depot behind the truck. Not where I wanted to go, LOL. After that I drove the rest of the way home on smaller roads where I could make out buildings on each side and keep centered on the road. Bunny coats are still under a static alert although I am making a little more progress. It is 9* this morning so we can only hope for an early spring.

Snow and Static

2011-01-13T19:05:00.002-05:00

Backyard after more snow.

Static-y Woolie.

Why did you shock me?

More snow out the front door.

So I think I can truthfully say "I'm over it!". It is only January and we have had over four feet of snow. That is my SUV under that lump down the end of the driveway. We could only shovel a small area near the road in order to park the cars. It makes it very difficult to get 50 lb. bags of feed to all the animals at the back of the property. We usually drive them or put the on a wagon and pull them around. That can't be happening now. Even with 4 wheel drive, it ain't happening.

Next is the static. I am over that too. Poor bunnies, if I forget to touch something and scuff across the rug, shocks to what ever I touch. Something that does help the static is to keep a small purse size spray bottle of water and spritz the air around the bunny and your hands. Also, keeping hand lotion on your hands cuts down on the dryness. And yes, keep thinking Spring!

Merry Christmas

2010-12-20T20:06:00.002-05:00

Grandson Liam and Santa.
My children would never go anywhere near Santa. They just had to see his face and they started crying and crawling up over my shoulder. When I tried the Easter Bunny, nice and soft, fluffy and white, they acted like I was feeding them to the sharks. Forget about any clowns, they were like the worst possible scarry monster. This went on for years and I never have been able to get a photo of them with much of a holiday theme to it. So here is my tiny Grandson, not even a year old yet, giving Santa a huge smile and plopping down right in his lap like the perfect child he is. I guess the Shepherd family holiday terrors are not inherited. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my friends that I haven't had a chance to catch up with. Hope to have more bunny related things on the blog once I catch up in the New Year. Take care and enjoy your families. I sure am enjoying mine.

Pets 101 and BISS

2010-12-16T11:41:00.002-05:00

Here are some bunnies lined up for the Animal Planet shoot.

Grooming the angora on video.

Best in Specialty Show.

BISS Bl's Drizzle.

It's been awhile since I have been on the computer. A new job, broken computer and bronchitis has kept me away. Some news is that the Pets 101 finally aired and it was really cute. My son called me and he said" I saw your elbow. Your elbow is famous!" very funny. I was just relieved that the rest of me wasn't shown. It was very cute with lots of bunnies shown including Peter's Minilops, Meg's Belgin Hare and French Lop. My English Angora's Caprice and Amber Pearl and Jersey Woolie's Divine and Hydrangea looked cute, being groomed and eating hay.

Some other news is BL Drizzle, my REW Jersey Woolie doe, won BIS at the JW Specialty Show
at Delmarva. I knew she won BOB but I didn't even realize she won BISS until I got her leg in the mail. She is a very pretty doe that comes from Brandi Loughry in NC. I didn't name her and don't know where the name comes from. It is funny and she answers to it so I don't want to change it. Hope she keeps her coat until Pa. More later,

Philly, Costumes and Hang Loose

2010-10-26T19:01:00.002-05:00

The husband and I go to Philadelphia.

Beautiful Buildings

My Son's Halloween Costume.

Laim's Rad Hairdo.

What do rabbit people do when they are not away over the weekend at a rabbit show? In the weeks close to Convention there is usually a lull before the storm, so to speak, and many exhibitors hang close to home to let there bunnies prime out for the big show. Since I am not going, I looked to other fun closer to home. Well, we went to vist my son at Art College in Philadelphia on Sunday and had a great time. The weather was warm and sunny. We visited his dorm and walked around the city a little then had dinner in a 150 year old pub. My son showed us his Halloween costume. It is a "Gilly Suit" that he bought at the Army/ Navy store. Apparently, he has always wanted one. Who knew? He plans on going to some park on Halloween and scaring people. I just hope he isn't arrested. Liam was considering this outfit for halloween after his bath and hair combing today, but I think his parents have a shark costume for him where his head sticks through the mouth. Shudder! Happy Halloween.

Like a Box of Chocolates

2010-10-22T20:32:00.002-05:00

Box of Chocolates

Which one to pick?

The cream filled one on the left?

Happy Halloween!

Like Forrest Gump says"Life is like a box of chocolates" and that is just what I wanted. My friend Vinnie is very good with genetics. I am not. I have a good eye for colors but am not good with genetics. Everyone has been asking for chocolate colored English Angoras and I have not been able to make them. Vinnie said "Breed black to chocolate tort and you will get chocolates." How could this be? It didn't make sense to me but I went ahead and tried it and look at what I got. A box of chocolates! I don't know how it worked but it did. Very exciting to get some new colors. Now on to the lilac pearls. Liam is very excited that Halloween. We went to Target on errands and turned the corner to see a huge display of Jack O' lanterns. He gasped and waved his arms around excitedly. I got the hint and it was the best dollar I ever spent. We put things in it and took things out of it the whole rest of the day. Fun, fun, fun and it's not even Halloween yet!

Baby Bunnies

2010-10-14T17:03:00.002-05:00

Shepherds Peony

You smell like carrots!

Shepherds Seismic

Sad not to make it to Convention this year but happy to have some unlikely litters being born. It was so hot this summer that I figured it would be sometime before I would be able to get some bunnies bred. Some little bird told me that to keep breeding the bucks and the sterility would pass through. It sounded like a good idea so I tried it and have been happily surprised to have 4 does making nests this week. So far, Sassafras had 4, some chocolates maybe? It sure looks like it and with enough wool in the nest to keep an Eskimo warm. Bunnies are such willing foster Moms. I had a Wooly have a litter 2 weeks ago and she was feeding them well. Then I had another young doe have a litter about 10 days later. She would have nothing to do with the only living baby. I stuck it in the nestbox with the two older babies to keep warm. It looked so tiny peeping between the two big babies. I put Mom in to feed them and much to my surprise, this bitty thing had a fat tummy after. How it managed to get to the milk, I have not idea but it continues to thrive. I will have to get a photo.

Managed to make it to the MARCS Show on Sunday to support the club for the Convention Bid. It was a beautiful day and I really enjoyed the slower pace of a single show. Got to spend time with friends and the bunnies did better then expected. Amber Pearl won BOS in angoras and Drizzle won BOS and Perriwinkle won BOSV in woolies. Fun was had by all!

Delmarva Two

2010-09-29T08:20:00.002-05:00

BL Epic

RH Michael Jackson

BL Drizzle

GC Shepherds Divine

Almost forgot the other part of showing at Delmarva, Jersey Woolies. Poor little guys, I always forget about them with the big wins of the angoras. They all did really well at Delmarva. I was really proud of GC Shepherds Divine as she was the sub bunny for another one that molted the day before the show. She is already granded so I didn't want to bring her out again but she won BOB in the first show. Ragen beautiful shaded jr buck won BOB and Bl Epic won BOS in show B for her 4th jr leg. BL Drizzle won BOB in the Jersey Woolie Specialty show and I guess BIS? I'm not to sure how the JW shows work and no one really said anything. They are fun to show as they seem so easy after fussing with angora coats all the time, I am very happy with how they are progressing.

Delmarva Show

2010-09-26T09:12:00.004-05:00

Two pretty angoras and two very hot and tired exhibitors

GC LW Contessa sitting pretty.

Judge Dennis Holcomb did the choosing.

What a hot, hot day at Delmarva! They promised cooler temps but it just didn't happen. The angoras seem to handle it fine but the exhibitors not so well. There was one point where I was standing at the front of the writers table. I was trying to write for the judge and bring my bunnies up at the same time, when I thought I would go down for the count. I got some water and things seemed better. The poor Judges really seemed to feel the brunt of it as sweat poured over the bunnies being judged. The angoras had a great day! Donna McGraw won 2nd Reserve in Show A with a beautiful Lilac English Angora Doe. I believe that Tia won a Reserve in Show Youth with a REW English Angora Buck. I won a Best in Show B with GC LW Contessa. This was such a surprise as I have won BIS B at this show for the last 2 years. With 3 years in a row, this must be my show! They give beautiful directors chairs as a prize. Everyone was teasing me that I needed just one more chair and a table and I can host a nice dinner party.

My Jersey Woolies did really well also. GC Shepherds Divine won BOB in show A and BL Froggie won BOS. In Show B, BL Epic won BOS and BL Drizzle won BOB in the JW Specialty show. So the wins were spread out over all three shows. It was a very hot and happy day!

South Jersey R&CBA

2010-09-20T07:49:00.002-05:00

BL Epic wins BOS "A" and BOB "B"

GC Shepherds Bouquet wins BOB "A"

GC Shepherds Amber Pearl wins BOB "B"

GC LJ Contessa wins BOV "A" and "B"

Mullica Hill is a close show and a double so I always try to make it if I can. Numbers seem to be down this year as it was less crowed then in previous years. The two breeds I show were in different building so it made for some running around. The judges were very patient and Judge George Long was training a new recruit. She seem to like the "hairy beasts" so that is a good thing for the future. In show "A" GC Shepherds Bouquet, a Sweet Pea half sister, won BOB and GC LJ Contessa won BOV white. In show "B" GC Shepherds Amber Pearl won BOB and Contessa continues her wins with another BOV. In woolies, a beautiful blue buck owned by Bunny Turley won BOB and BL Epic, my REW junior doe, won BOS. In Show "B" she won BOB for her third junior leg. My black senior buck, RH Michael Jackson, won BOS for his first leg. I think they are coming along nicely. What a nice cool breezy day enjoyed by both bunnies and humans.

Liam Update

2010-09-15T08:14:00.002-05:00

Still Very Tired.

Holding Hands with Grandma.

Not yet awake.

Loves his Toys

On Mondays my Grandson, Liam, goes to his other Grandma's house. She also watches Liam's cousin Emily. They must have a rocking good time because he doesn't get much sleep. On Tuesday, I get to watch Liam. He is always very tired and we both get to catch up on our ZZZZZ's. He is always in a good mood even if he is tired and we have fun playing with all his toys. He also likes reading the "Meow" kitty book which is red, his favorite color. Liam is fun.

Sheep and Wool

2010-09-15T08:02:00.002-05:00

Much Bunny Hugging.

Tons of beautiful yarn.

More Bunny Hugging.

Cute baby animals.

The Garden State Sheep and Wool Festival has been a fun place to participate in for many years. It has always had plenty of traffic and a good place to sell bunnies for spinning pets. Besides bunnies, I usually bring wool, herbal sachets and chocolate bunny pops. Sadly, this was a very slow year due in part to the economy, a rainy Sunday and two other festivals in surrounding states. Why do they host these festivals all on the same weekend? Luckily, I was able to share the price of the booth with my friend Amanda and her daughter Madeline. we had so much fun and laughed all weekend. We took turns walking around and we could get a lunch break, so it worked out great for both of us. The baby animals here were just so adorable that my husband wanted to bring them all home. Lucky for me the Alpaca he wanted was $15,000. :-)

Jersey Wooly Sweeps

2010-08-21T08:45:00.002-05:00

GC CR Conspiracy Theory (following photos by Donna McGraw)

GC CR Blue Skies with her Best Reserve.

GC CR Blue Skies official photo

GC CR Ice Maiden and GC CR White Excitement

What a whirlwind year. I always said I would never show more that one breed because of the devotion needed to be the best at it. After having angoras for 20 years, I just felt I wasn't progressing. Being somewhat discouraged with the angoras and watching newer breeders excel way past me, I needed a boost or a new interest. Jersey Woolies have been in and out of our lives for some of those years and I thought that it may be time to bring them back again. Teasing that they are my retirement bunnies as they are small and much more portable, I started working on them about 3 years ago but never showed them. I wanted them to be the best that they could be before I brought them out in public. Billy Miller came along and helped me with my dream. He always had the most beautiful woolies and was selling out alot of his show stock. These are some of the bunnies above that came to live with me and made my first year of showing woolies so successful. Winning a Reserve in Show with Blue Skies put the icing on the cake. I was also happy with my own lines, much to my surprise, granding 3 and winning many BOB with home grown stock. The final JW Sweepstakes report is out and I couldn't be happier with the results considering this is really my first year of showing woolies.

#20 Overall (out of the 156 listed)

#7 in District 9 (with some of the top breeders in the country)

#17 in Herdsman points ( Not sure how they figure this out)

#20 in Awards of Excellence (BOB & BOS points out of 114 listed)

#18 Rabbit of the year (with 8 of my rabbits listed out of 467)

This has also helped me with my angoras somehow, by putting a fire under me, and they did very well this year also. These are two of the sweetest breeds and I just adore both of them. I am much more of multi-tasker now running from table to table and with much help from my bunny friends, thanks, you know who you are.

Speed Grooming

2010-08-10T19:52:00.002-05:00

LJ Contessa sits patiently.

Shepherds Amber Pearl is dozing.

What's that blur?

Just me, little LJ Kaolin trying to avoid both the brush and the camera.

You have to take advantage of any little drop in temperature to get the bunnies groomed. My front porch serves as the shaded, usually breezy, grooming area. It is still not cool enough so I quickly speed groom the tops and work on the bottoms inside in the "cold storage " area. It has truly been the hottest summer that I can ever remember. It is amazing that any rabbits have any coats on what so ever. This show season should be interesting as so many people are ranting that every bunny they have has molted. Who is to blame them? If I had any fur, I would certainly shed it off. It is hard to even have clothes on as I sit here at 9 PM and it is still 84* out. Most of my retired angoras are clipped down in May and this will keep them cool and they will have a coat on in time for Fall. The year, I am already clipping them down again for a second time in order to keep them cool. In 20 years of raising rabbits, there has never been a second clip in summer. Every single person I meet says they can't wait for winter, just picture last winter though, do we really want that again? I guess humans are never happy.

Mothra

2010-08-05T08:39:00.002-05:00

Looked dead to me.

Starts to flutter.

It's Alive.

Coming through the long hallway to work, I looked down to see this huge moth on the ground. It was as big as my whole hand and was not moving. I thought it came in the dark cool hallway to rest and must be dead. It was so beautiful sitting against the dark blue wall, I had to take some photos. When I leaned over to take the picture, it started to flutter. I was glad to see it was alive. By the time I left work later, it was gone. I guess it came in to enjoy the air conditioning and then went back to it's regular habitat. Every creature must be feeling the heat and this one learned how to adapt pretty well. This proves that you can enjoy nature anywhere, at any time.

Hitting the Sauce

2010-07-28T07:51:00.003-05:00

Waiting patiently.

What's that gooey looking stuff?

I think I'll try some.

Not too bad!

Tuesdays are my favorite day of the week. It is my babysitting day with my Grandson, Liam. We have a very special bond and he is a joy to be around. Only 5 months old, he is very smart, loves books and is really interested in everything around him. What a good baby and very easy to take care of. I'm not just saying all this because I am his Grandmother, it's true. He is adorable and has a great sense of humor even at a young age. We laughed and laughed at a big piece of my hair in front of my face. He is also very tickleish and loves his Mom to blow raspberries on his belly. Liam makes all your troubles seem very unimportant. He thinks applesauce is pretty yummy, too.

Too Hot to Bother

2010-07-26T06:19:00.002-05:00

GC PP's Bellisima

GC Shepherds Divine

GC Shepherds Hydrangea

It is so hot here, I can hardly make my brain work. Everyone I know has been working so hard to keep all of their animals cool. Many people I know have suffered lost animals from the heat. I have just tried to leave them alone as much as possible but they still need to be groomed. It seems like all the Jersey Woolies molted at once so the other morning, when it was a cool 82*, I got a few out to brush off the loose wool. It was fast work in front of the fan and I don't think they were too happy about it. They looked better afterwards and these are the few that still have coats left. When the Jerseys molt, it seems to be all at once. This can be a little shocking to new owners, one day a fluffy rabbit, the next day a pile of wool on the cage floor and a somewhat baldish looking bunny. Stay cool everyone and hopefully my brain will kick into gear, now that it is a little cooler, and I can come up with some interesting blogs.

Bye-Bye Nelly

2010-07-18T06:03:00.002-05:00

We adopted Nelly from a shelter in 1994. I had gone there to look for a cat but saw this adorable mixture of dog with a blob of pooh on her head. I was smitten. She was supposed to be part sheep dog and part shepherd but alway seem to have some afghan hound in her along with it. They didn't want to adopt her out because she had been abused and was an ankle biter but we wouldn't give up. She was the best dog ever and never caused a bit of trouble. She loved the big yard and guarded the kids and household pets alike. I had photos of her on my computer and on my stolen camera but don't have them anymore. I do have photos of her all around the house so she will not be forgot. She died in my arms yesterday morning. She will be missed by everyone that knew and loved her. Bye-Bye sweet Nelly. We love you.

New Arrivals

2010-07-15T06:24:00.002-05:00

Liberty Junction Kaolin

What a face!

GC Liberty Junction Contessa

What I do for bunnies, I can't believe it. My friend Lori White is cutting down her herd of beautiful English Angoras. So, last Saturday morning I got up at 5 AM and drove to Scranton, Pa. to pick up two cuties from her. Scranton is a 3 hour drive one way and I had to work the closing shift at work that day so it had to be a trip up and back. It was all worth it when I saw those cute faces. The broken tort doe, I was planning on showing for exibition during my regular show season. I hope to get support for the second broken presentation at the ARBA Convention this Fall. She is adorable and has a wonderful coat. Contessa also has a beautiful coat and should last into the Fall show season. The last time I purchased a bunny from Lori he won a BIS a few weeks before his senior show. Countryside LJ Wyatt has gone on to produce many Grand Champion off spring. I will have a few bucks from him for sale soon. I will look forward to showing these little cuties and thank Lori for trusting me with her beautiful babies.

For the Love of White

2010-07-05T07:33:00.003-05:00

Shepherds Avery

GC Shepherds Aegis

GC Shepherds Angel Cake

It took me many years to fall in love with the red-eyed white English Angora. The red eyes kind of spooked me. It wasn't until I grew rabbits with heavy furnishings to cover up the eyes. Then I didn't mind so much. They also had the best wool along with the torts and blend in well with almost any color. Of course, breeding white to white will only get you white. I see the white as a hidden color with a white sheet over it. This can give you a rainbow of colors most times. Once I bred a white to a black and got 9 white babies. That was the Fall when all I had to show was 11 whites and one black rabbit. It was pretty funny. I have been trying to breed for whites and they have not taken. The two new litters that popped out were color to color and color to white. Not really expecting it, each gave me a white baby. They will probably be all bucks as I usually have a bunch of white bucks living here. Surprise!

Maine Chance

2010-06-23T09:09:00.003-05:00

GC Shepherds Divine

GC PP's Bellisima

Shepherds Bouquet

Shepherds Amber Pearl

Well, I have been having show withdrawl since staring my new job. There were 4 different bunnies in the rabbitry that just needed one more winning leg to grand. I was trying to work out all kinds of things to get them to a show. I mentioned this to Colleen and Lauren Morrill and they both said "We'll take them to Maine for you! We love fuzz-balls!" Well, they do and they did. It was so nice of them and apparently they had a ball with them. The show was at night so it was nice and cool with a breeze blowing. Hardly needed to use the blower at all. They don't get many angoras in Maine so there were no other competitors in that class but the woolies did really well. Shepherds Divine won BOS in the first show and PP's Bellisima won BOV in the first show and BOS in the second show. Two new Grand Champions to welcome home. I was up most of the night texting to see what was happening so I almost felt like I was there. What is that saying? My bunnies went to Maine and I got to stay home and work :-( But very happy that both Divine and Bellisima completed their GC. The two angoras will have to stay in cold storage for the rest of the summer and come back out in the Fall for another try.

Angora Faces

2010-06-11T06:36:00.003-05:00

Shepherds Bouquet

Blue Velvet Nose

Hidden Under Fluff

In my humble opinion, there is nothing as cute as an angora nose. They are velvet-y soft and almost always moving. They are like a surprise hidden under all those soft furnishings. Angoras enjoy nose rubs and like to nudge you back if you don't give them enough attention. These beautiful photos were taken by Donna McGraw at the National Capital show in Maryland. She is always so kind to take photos. The photos she takes are truly beauty shots of the bunnies. It helps me out as I am not the best photographer and half the time I don't remember to take pictures. I have been having some bunny show withdrawl. There are shows to go to but due to my new job, I am unable to attend. It is a shame as some of the bunnies are looking pretty good including Shepherds Bouquet, half sister to Shepherds Sweet Pea. Her coat looks even better than in the above photo. She is only needing one winning leg to grand. Any volunteers?

Bath Time with Grandma

2010-06-03T09:05:00.002-05:00

All sweet and clean.

Peek-a-boo.

Loves his Grandma.

On Tuesdays, I get to babysit my Grandson, Liam. He is such a good baby and I really have fun with him. I can't believe how fast he has grown up. He will be 4 months old in one week. Liam likes to stand up already and may skip right over the crawling stage. He likes to pull up to a sitting position now. He loves to smile at everyone and try to talk in baby gibberish. It is very funny to hear him have a conversation with you in his own language. Bath time is fun and he holds on to my shirt with his tiny hand. I got him the monster towel before he was born but he is very far from being any kind of monster, just a sweet, happy little boy. I guess you can tell I really love him.

Dru's Zoo

2010-05-25T18:30:00.004-05:00

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

2010-05-25T17:42:00.003-05:00

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

2010-05-19T14:04:00.003-05:00

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

2010-05-17T09:38:00.004-05:00

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

2010-05-09T19:35:00.002-05:00

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

2010-05-01T19:46:00.002-05:00

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!

Round Ball of Fluff

2010-04-15T19:57:00.003-05:00

Shepherds Amber Pearl/top & side view.

Front view.

Top and side view.

Many people ask me to explain the round ball of fluff that the english angora standard calls for. While grooming Amber Pearl for the show on Saturday, the thought dawned on me that pictures can be worth a thousand words. Although she is still growing in her coat, I think she looks just like the round ball of fluff called for in the standard. Very circular in shape and pretty even through out with nice thick density. She is still a little coarse due to the guard hair growing out first and the under wool not yet caught up.

Since she won 1st junior doe at 2009 Nationals in New York, she molted her junior coat so has had a hard time competing with both Caprice and Sweet Pea. Now that they are both almost out of the picture, Amber Pearl can move into the limelight. Her competition is Bouquet (a Sweet Pea half sister) who has a softer coat at the moment. She won BOB at the Long Island Show A. Plus GC Shepherds Angel Cake is still holding her own with BOB at the Long Island Show B.

Anyway, I hope that helps to explain what a round ball of fluff looks like to me.

Long Island Show

2010-04-11T09:09:00.003-05:00

Shepherds Aegis waiting for his turn.

Judge Donna Grimm going over the English Angoras.

Look at me, I'm a really big bunny.

Shepherds Miss Pretty checking it all out.

Grooming Shepherds Angel Cake.

Going to the Long Island show is always fun. It is held at a park full of re-located historic buildings. The show is held in a huge re-created peg and beam building that is just beautiful. It is open to the public so there is lots of people visiting on a sunny day. The visitors were facinated with the bunnies and ask tons of questions. My friend Joni has been asking to come to a rabbit show with me because she couldn't believe that people really do this for a hobby. I thought this show would be perfect for her because it is pretty close to home and there are other things to do if she got bored with the show. I have always wanted to tour the historic village but have never had time or was just too tired after showing. Thinking that Joni would take the tour if showing got too long and boring for her, was I wrong. She loved the show and spent most of the time following me around with her mouth open. She also took my camera and captured some wonderful show photos, which I always want to do but never seem to find the time. She was the most funny when after showing angoras, she asked to help carry some back some bunnies to the cages and looked shocked when I plunked a big furball in her arms.

Between her and the park visitors, it was tons of fun to see the bunny show through their eyes. The look of amazement from the little kids is still making me chuckle even today. Some things we just get so used too and just take for granted, like the sight of carrying 3 big fluffballs back from the table after showing, can just give joy to someone's day. In all the serious competion of showing, I think we sometimes forget that. Joni's phone message home to her son was "Clear out the shed!". Opps, I've brought someone else over to the dark side =:>)

The Easter Bunny Visits

2010-04-07T12:32:00.003-05:00

The Easter Bunny got tired from delivering eggs.

Love the hat!

Very cute little bunny.

The End....................

We had the Easter Bunny over for Easter Dinner. He had a very fun time delivering eggs at his other Grandparents so was tired when he got here. That's okay, he seems to like his Grandma's shoulder to rest on. Guess who found the Easter outfit? The pants had bunny feet but they were a little long on him. I'm sure going to pay for that when he gets older but for now I couldn't resist. Just adding another bunny to the Rabbit Shepherd's herd.

Hoppy Easter

2010-04-04T11:46:00.002-05:00

It's all about the goodies.

It's all about the bunnies.

It's all about the goodies.

It's all about the bunnies.

How about both! We love goodies and we love bunnies so how could we ask for a better holiday. I hope everyone has a good one. Hoppy Easter!

Spring Projects

2010-04-02T15:44:00.002-05:00

My Little Buddy.

Pushing Up.

Here's looking at you, kid.

Spring time is usually when I start in on bunny projects. Heavy duty cage cleaning, changing floor wire, clipping down rabbits and shearing goats. Something little has been distracting me this spring. I can't imagine what it could be. It's rather small, now 10 pounds and 10 ounces, is looking at everyone, pushing up on his hands and falling asleep on his Grandmother's shoulder. Really, I should be out there power washing cage wire but this somehow seems much more fun. More on bunny stuff later, maybe.

Caprice Wins in Richmond

2010-03-30T08:32:00.005-05:00

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

2010-03-21T08:37:00.003-05:00

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

2010-03-14T19:21:00.003-05:00

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

2010-03-11T08:30:00.002-05:00

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?

2010-03-08T20:02:00.002-05:00

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

2010-03-05T09:11:00.004-05:00

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.

Goats in the Bathroom

2010-02-25T11:06:00.003-05:00

Pepper and Jenny playing.

Pepper wants her bottle.

Another goat battle.

As I am trying to do some work on the computer, I hear the clatter of little hooves in my downstairs bathroom. I know everyone in thinks I am crazy to have goats in the house. Thank goodness we have not finished the renovations and all the floor will be replaced. The goat babies have woken up from their nap and are rough-housing around the area of the bathroom that they are blocked off in. This is my que to get Pepper's bottle ready. She sure lets me know when she is hungry. Jenny goes out to her Mom for feeding but sometimes she will take a bottle as well. They are growing up so fast that they have almost out grown their coats. We left them inside as, yes, we are having another snow storm, a big one. Pepper's mom wants nothing to do with her so if we put her outside she would have no one to protect her. They are really good company for each other and play and play. Pepper is full of beans and when let loose with the big goats will dance on everyones backs. I am surprised the big males put up with this but they are all pretty gentle with the little brat. Baby goat kids are really silly and boink all over the place with the joy of life. It helps me to think that spring should be here any time now.

Babies Keep Coming

2010-02-19T12:18:00.003-05:00

New little gray doeling.

She sure is hungry.

Ruby checking her out.

My husband had a shock this morning. We were expecting twins from Sugar, our cream colored angora goat. She is huge and looks to pop any day. She is the mother of Pansy and Petunia born last winter at around this time. Surprise, surprise, her daughter Pansy gave birth to a little gray doeling and she is only a year old. Never had that happen before. Our goats have always been 2 years old before they got bred. Anyway, Pansy wants nothing to do with this loud, robust little creature and she runs to her Mom Sugar crying. Ruby took pity on the new baby and let her nurse from her. That was a first for another Mom to foster some other goat's baby. She had lots of milk so maybe it is a way to make her feel less full. The new baby also took a bottle of Ruby's milk so maybe she is bonding with her. I put sweatshirt sleeves on them as little coats so they can keep warm. My husband pointed out that they are color coordinated to the goats that they are on. Certainly didn't do that on purpose, when I was woken up from a dead sleep by a screaming, wet goat kid and a panic stricken husband. Just trying to get them dry and warm. Now we are watching Petunia, Pansy's twin sister, to see if she will have something. They are so woolie, it is very hard to tell if they are bred and forget about trying to catch them in the snow. I think we would both have heart attacks trying to do that.

Liam Comes Home

2010-02-18T08:24:00.004-05:00

Big Bright Eyes.

Justine doing the feeding.

Listening to every word.

He follows me around the room.

My daughter and son-in-law are very happy that little Liam was able to come home yesterday from the hospital. So are we. It is very hard to leave your first child in the hands of others and go home. It is such a worry to think that there might be something wrong health-wise but he came through all his tests with flying colors. He is eating well and doing great. Sure is cute, even cuter that angora babies, says his adoring grandmother. I think we'll keep him :-)

Snow Babies Part 2

2010-02-16T15:42:00.003-05:00

GC Aphrodite's litter of 2 REW and 1 ?

Goats staying out of the Nursery. "The Brat" in the middle.

Little cutie angora doeling.

Blue boys from Daze.

Just a few more snow babies to finish off the blog. Aphrodite's colored baby was a blue all along and I looked at it today and it might now be a tort. Very strange color changes on this bunny. I am not at all sure what color it will turn out to be. Last time Aphrodite gave me 9 REW babies when bred to a black buck. This time, a different black buck and it looks like I don't know what color. The blue boys are cute, here's hoping the nails are good. Daze also had 2 REW with the big one a boy and the little one a girl so far. Let's wait and see what the woolies bring next.

Snow Babies

2010-02-16T15:19:00.003-05:00

REW English Angoras from Daze.

GC Sweet Pea's tort litter.

Tulip's litter of 2 torts and a REW.

Baby angora goat born this morning.

Baby Human sleeping.

I promised baby photos but I never expected to have so many. There are so many, I may have to add another post or maybe they will fit them in at the end of the text. The snow storm (yes, another one!) brought along another baby this morning, Ruby's little doeling. She is staying pretty warm in the little sweat shirt sleeve but Mom is still tired from the delivery. We milked her and gave it to her baby with a syringe. She perked up after that and has been on her feet complaining. Ruby is a really good Mom if you remember her buckling "The Brat" from last winter. He would still be nursing if given half the chance but since he is now bigger then his Mom, that probably wouldn't be possible.

All of the angora babies are doing well now after the initial non-feeding Moms

issue. Unfortunately most of them seem to be bucks. Things can change but that is the look of things right now. They sure are cute though. Must be the time of the year for boy babies, humans included. The little angora doeling may change things around now, but mostly we are waiting for Jersey Woolie babies this week and two black (I hope) angora litters at the end of the week. We will see. Babies sure do break up the winter cabin fever we have all been feeling. They are so much fun.

Just 2 More

2010-02-14T09:16:00.002-05:00

Liam all dressed up.

Looks just like Dad.

Just have to post a few more without all the tubes and wires. He is darling and boy! does he have a loud voice. He is out of the incubator but still in the NIC-U as of yesterday afternoon. He is off all the IV's and oxygen and looks great. I promise to get back to the bunny business soon, as I have bunches of baby bunny photos to post but the human baby takes precedence at the moment. Thanks for all the well wishes. I think the McGraw girls might be lining up to be baby sitters:-) Too bad they are so far away.

Human Baby News

2010-02-13T09:24:00.002-05:00

Well, having a migraine all week must have been in sympathy for my daughters labor pains because it finally went away yesterday and beautiful Liam Ronald Aten was born at 10:32 Pm last night. He weighs a whopping 8.5 pounds and is a big baby for my tiny daughter to give birth too. He took 28 hours of labor to come into the world and was a little worse for wear after the experience so he is in the incubator for a while. Isn't he cute? We are all thrilled and happy to welcome him into the world. I can't wait to get my hands on him (spoken like a true grandmother) and my son (his Uncle) says he's already big enough to go on a skateboard. I can imagine the two of them in trouble already! Hope to post more photos soon.

Wade Memorial Show

2010-02-01T19:21:00.002-05:00

GC CR Conspiracy Theory

GC Tulamores Caprice

GC CR Conspiracy Theory

The Wade Memorial Show was great fun and a little bit hectic. That is always the way for the first show of the season. You have to get into the rhythm of showing and it doesn't usually start so early for us out on the East Coast. The Pennsylvania Convention, a 2 day, double open, double specialty extravaganza usually kicks off the new year for us. This year the powers that be decided that due to the passing of Sherry Wade, they would have a memorial show for a scholarship fund with everyone donating their time, judging and registration fees and donating baskets for a HUGE raffle table. Everyone was happy to come even though there was a snow storm on the day before and it was 9* when we started out to the showroom at 6am. "This is why we don't show in January!" was every one's remarks as we slipped and slid across the parking lot pulling bunny carts through the snow and trying to avoid the snow plows zipping past us.
It was worth it because CR Conspiracy Theory, REW Jersey Woolie buck (aka: The Raffle Bunny) won BEST OF BREED over 25 woolies. I was so excited to see him do so well. I just love him and had the confidence that he would develop into something special. Having his Mom, GC CR Blue Diamonds(4legs) and and his sister GC CR Blue Skies (9 legs, RIS and many BOBs), I kind of thought he would do good. He now is a Grand Champion, keeping it all in the family.

In English Angoras, Caprice continued her winning streak with BOB. One of the boys from the "Starving Artist" series of Pandemonium's 5 bucks, which I kept all but one, snagged the BOS award. Van Gogh, the black buck, was my least likely to succeed having a ear carriage problem as a baby, hence his name. He has come around, you just have to have the patience and and let them grow.

Donna's beautiful Annouk won BOV white and her brother Shepherd Aegis won BOSV on his first show out. There were 18 English Angoras entered for some pretty large classes. I hope this continues for the rest of the show year. Hope to get photos of the boys for my website. No, I didn't get one photo at the Wade Show, it was too hectic but lots of fun and I think Mike and Sherry were looking down on us the whole day long. You could feel them smiling. It is just the way they would have wanted to be remembered.

Nest Box News 2

2010-01-25T09:37:00.002-05:00

Cut up the wool.

Bungee hook with plastic sweater bin.

Plastic mini clamps

The cute little munchkins.

Sorry, for some reason my photos never downloaded and another photo showed up instead. Here are the correct photos of 3 little darlings, two torts and I think a pearl. They are from the same breeding as Sweet Pea so here's hoping.

Nestbox News

2010-01-24T20:32:00.004-05:00

GC Shepherds Sweet Pea in her BIS chair at Delmarva

When you have a long awaited angora litter you want to give the new babies the best of care and when they a really special litter then you are even more on guard. I gave up using the regulation metal nest boxes many years ago when I had frozen babies. I then gave up wooden nest boxes because they were so hard to clean. What to use as a replacement? Plastic sweater bins work out great for me. They are the size of an English Angora (I use shoe box size for the Jersey Woolies), easy to clean, they stack together and are see through. They have a smooth lip around the top so the babies seem to stay in the box when Mom jumps out. The only problem was they are light weight and the Angora Moms like to throw them around the cage. I did alot of experimenting to keep the boxes in one place. First I tried wrapping bungy cords around the sides of the box and hooking it to the sides of the cage. This worked for awhile until the Moms found out they could chew through it. Then I used bungies outside of the cage by hooking it over the edge of the box pulling it down and hooking it to a lower cage. This was alright but then I found these mini clamps and they work perfectly. They are like clamps or plastic clothes pins and they hook over the cage wire and pinch the bins in place. Perfect!
Keeping the nest box clean and safe is also important. Depending on the weather and the Mother bunny, I might keep the nest in a safe place and bring it to Mom once or twice a day. If it is left in with the Mom, I take the nest box out of the cage at least 2 times a day to make sure the babies are doing well, Mom is feeding them and that they are not tangled in wool. Angora wool makes yarn and it will do that in the nestbox with wiggly babies moving through it. The wool can easily get wrapped around a leg or a neck and really hurt or kill a baby. Clipping the doe short before she has babies are born, will start the pulled wool off at the right length. I then go back and cut up the wool in short bits mixed with hay to keep it safe. You want to clean out the soiled hay and wool regularly to prevent illness and nest box eye. Holding the babies at an early age really gets them used to the sound of your voice and makes them so comfortable with humans as they grow into adult bunnies. But there is nothing as cute as a baby angora bunny!

Grooming the Show Bunny

2010-01-17T16:03:00.002-05:00

Shepherds Hydrangea

GC CR Ice Maiden

GC Shepherds Lydia

Tulamores Caprice

Growing a beautiful coat of wool doesn't start with a comb, brush or blower but with good nutrition, fiber and clean water. It starts many months before you might actually be showing your rabbit with care and nutrition as a baby. I have always said that wool breeds require a good deal of patience and waiting for wool to grow. A good quality rabbit pellets, fresh grass hay and clean water will give you the best quality wool but it is a waiting game. My best english angoras may never be shown or do well as juniors because they are at home growing in that winning senior coat. It has density but not much length at the junior age and it really shouldn't need much grooming. Just keeping it matt free and clean is the plan at this age. Then as the coat starts to blossom, more intense grooming is needed but less often. I think the best coats need very little care and just seem to never tangle. The bunnies just see to sit there and look beautiful.

The woolies are a little different in that they go through the junior "uglies". This can be a full out molt or just a weird looking growth spurt where none of the body parts seem to go together. If you like them as babies most likely you will like them again after the growth spurt. It is a little frightening when they hit this phase as you often think they will never grow out of it. The senior coat is the most beautiful coat and the most easy care.

As show season creeps up on us, lets just sit back and watch the wool grow.

Woolies Grow Up

2010-01-12T10:36:00.003-05:00

Shepherds White Diamonds

Shepherds Hydrangea

Shepherds White Hot.

It is hard to believe how time flies by. Remember those REW bunnies in the mug before Christmas. They are all grown up and ready to show now. I named the after their father White Excitement and their mother Blue Diamonds. They are the sweetest little bunnies and love being groomed. Very much like their father and mother who have a wonderful temperament. Can't wait to show them.

It is surprising how fast you can fill up a pedigree with your own breedings. I already have some Shepherd great, great grandmothers on some of the pedigrees in only 4 years of raising woolies. Shepherds Hydrangea has almost a full Shepherds pedigree on her mothers side but I thought it was important to keep improving the type. So I added PP's Tom Thumb aka: "The King of All" to her mother and to every one of my blue does. As you can see by Hydrangea, he sure made a vast improvement to my blue and broken blue lines. She needs only one more leg for her grand championship after winning two BOB's at the Richmond show. Here's hoping.

PS: I finally have had some angora babies born this week, hurray!

Ideas for the New Year

2010-01-06T13:45:00.002-05:00

Comfortable temps for bunnies and humans.

Feed scoop made out of a laundry soap container.

Feed bucket and measuring cups from the dollar store.

Rolling oil filled heater.

Sorry, I couldn't get the heater photo to go in the right direction but you get the idea. Winterizing your animals is a much for their comfort as for yours. There is nothing worse then trying to defrost frozen water bottles in 20 degree weather. Many years ago, I was searching for a safe heater that would just take the chill off of the rabbitry and found these oil filled rolling heaters that are temperature controlled. I started using these and they kept the barn just warm enough so most times nothing froze. Now that I have moved the rabbits to a new location, I again was using the heaters in a smaller but less insulated area. They work great as you can see by the thermometer, inside 40* outside 20*. Very comfortable for everyone. They sell these heater everywhere now, Home Depot, Loews and Wal-mart for between $35-60. Well worth the expense in my opinion. I keep mine on low so they use very little power. Just keep them clean of wool and hay, center them in the middle of the rabbits and away from hay bales, spraying bucks or fabric. You never want to use a heater with an open heating element around livestock as there is such a big chance of fire.

If you want to change out frozen bottles, one idea a friend of mine does is to have 2 sets of bottles with the rabbits name written on with sharpy marker. When you replace the frozen ones with fresh ones, run the frozen ones through the empty dishwasher with no detergent. Defrosted bottles every time.

I am a big believer in recycling things and have used these laundry bottles with the tops cut off for feed scoops for many years. They last forever and can even go through the dish washer when dirty. Cut off the top section, but leave on the handle, with a sharp knife and wash out very, very well. The other thing that I found just recently were these small black buckets from the dollar store. They have handles and hold enough feed to fill a whole row of bowls. The measuring cups are also from the dollar store. I use them to measure out food to make sure I can see that everyone is eating well. Just some ideas of mine to start out the new year with.

Looking Back on 2009

2009-12-29T10:06:00.002-05:00

GC Sweet Pea wins Best Reserve at Delmarva.

GC CR Blue Skies wins Second Reserve at Shenandoah Show A.

GC CR Blue Skies poses for her official photo.

GC Shepherds Sweet Pea win BIS at Delmarva.

GC Shepherds Aslin wins Best Reserve at Shenandoah Show B.

The year 2009 has had many ups and downs for me but I can't be more pleased with my show season. My goal this year was to win one open Best in Show with one of my English Angoras. That was reached at the Delmarva show B with a Reserve in Show A. My next goal became winning a BIS or Reserve with an English Angora Buck and/or a Jersey Woolie. Both of these goals happened at the Shenandoah double show. Jersey Woolie Self Senior Doe GC CR Blue Skies won Second Reserve in show A and English Angora REW Senior Buck GC Shepherds Aslin won Reserve in show B. The English Angora Show Season ended with:

8 Grand Champion English Angoras with 5 very close to GC.

2BIS, 2RIS, 12 BOB, 16 BOS, 16 BOV, 7 BOSV winning a total of 44 legs.

I just want to thank everyone for their support and to particularly thank Mr. Bill Miller for selling me some of his most precious Jersey Woolies. The bunnies from him and my breeding with the "King of All" have really made my first official Fall Jersey Woolie Show season start off with an unexpected bang:

3 Grand Champion Woolies and 3 very close to GC.

1 Second Reserve, 8 BOB, 4BOS,7 BOG,11 BOSG winning a total of 18 legs.

Being very unexperienced with showing Woolies, all of these wins were a true surprise to me and totally unexpected. The bunnies made it easy for me as they just love to show as seen by Miss Blue Skies official photo above. You only have to look at her sideways and she does that! No help needed by owner except love and a little brushing.

Hoppy Christmas

2009-12-21T09:02:00.002-05:00

Hoping all my bunny friends have a great holiday.

Hope your mug is overflowing with holiday cheer.

And you all get some rest!

To all my bunny friends have a hoppy, health Holiday season and hope everyone has full nest boxes for the New year. Thanks for all your support during a very trying year. Bunny people are all the best and I wish the best for all of you from The Rabbit Shepherds.

Snow Job

2009-12-21T08:51:00.002-05:00

Winter wonderland.

There is a truck under there.

Bird Bath.

How deep can it get?

No words are necessary for the snow storm that we got on Saturday. I am hardly walking today from the big shoveling out. Our very kind across the street neighbor helped us with the street part of the driveway. It was still snowing when these pictures were taken and we ended up with 24" of snow in the end. The only ones happy about this picture are the angora goats and they already have on big fur coat.

The Big Haircut

2009-12-21T08:31:00.002-05:00

The King of All says"What is that?"

Could that much wool come off of one Rabbit?

Buried in a sea of wool.

Aah, that feels better.

GC Shepherds Sweet Pea finally had her big haircut. She has been growing her coat for a full year. There was never a coat molted out. Even I was surprised at how much coat came off of this one rabbit. Her density and even, non-molting coat must have been her winning ticket to the two Best in Show and one Reserve in Show wins. Her sisters and brother held their coats for a long time and her one brother even won two BOS with his second coat. That doesn't happen very often in the English Angora world. I have had very few angoras to win with a grow back coat. GC Shepherds Aphroditi won two BOB with her second coat going on to complete her grand champion title. She is the only one I can think remember at the moment. Can't wait to see Miss Sweet Pea's coat spun up and knitted (by someone other then me:-) into something very beautiful.

New Goats

2009-12-14T17:58:00.002-05:00

New Black Goat.

Both joining the herd.

Smaller black goat.

We have added some new members to our goat family, a large, black male goat with some silver to the edge of his coat and a smaller black male goat with a white saddle. They have joined our herd and you would think they had lived here all their lives. They really enjoy playing with our 3 young goats that were born this spring. It is fun to see them frolic around the yard. They also get our goats up and moving around the property grazing on the grass and shrubs instead of laying around sleeping in a big lump.

I drove up to get them in New York State near Utica. I got a chance to visit with Linda, bringing her my famous pumpkin pie, which she seemed to really enjoy. Then the next day we drove over to Maggie Alexander's to pick up the goats and thank goodness Linda was with me because I don't think I would have found her farm by myself as many of the roads didn't have any signs.

Her son helped to catch them and we put them in a crate in the back of my SUV. They stood up most of the way home and I think there were many people on the New York Thruway that wondered what kind of crazy looking dogs that lady from New Jersey had in her car. When I stopped at a rest stop I saw people looking in the back at them too. They did very well for being in the car for over 5 hours.

We kept them in a pen in the barn so our goats could come in and sniff them and get to know them but the little goat got out and joined right in with the herd so we let the bigger one out and he was happy to meet everyone. The only problem is the dogs keep barking at them because they can't figure out what they are. They will get used to them eventually.

Sweet Pea Poses

2009-12-12T09:55:00.003-05:00

Sweet Pea in her show coat.

Sweet face close up.

Angora on velvet.

Haven't blogged for awhile because my computer was sick again but this time I lost everything on the computer. These beautiful photos were taken by Donna McGraw at the end of Sweet Pea's show career. She looks lovely posing on velvet. The longer she was shown, the better her attitude became. I remember that in the beginning of the fall, she was growling at some of the judges. Looking startled, they would usually place her last. Sweet Pea would never bite but just give out a warning that she was done being touched by strangers. She never growled at me by let me know when she had enough grooming by nudging me with her head.

The growling simmered down over time and she reluctantly decided to cooperate with showing, ending her career with 2 open Best in Shows and one Reserve in show with 7 BOB, 3BOS and 10 GC legs. Quite a show career for a slow stater that didn't have 1 GC leg as a junior. Her sister GC Posey, brother GC Bramble and other brother GC Tinker Toy always seemed to beat her. But she showed them by holding onto her coat for over a year and ending up with 12" of wool at the longest point.She has had the big hair cut which I will post photos of when I find the cord to my camera. She was surrounded in a sea of wool after her haircut and is very happy now running around her cage playing with toys. She will be bred soon but I have already re-done this breeding and hope to have good luck with babies again.

Behind the Times

2009-11-20T09:37:00.003-05:00

Magic and Crazy Di's litter.

GC Tom Thumb and Hyacinth's litter.

GC White Excitement and GC Blue Diamonds litter.

I promised baby pictures and with one thing and another, they all grew up. That is the thing with dwarf breeds, they look full grown at 4 weeks old because they are so small to begin with. They always look cute no matter what age the are. Everyone of the babies look to be all girls except for one REW buck which normally is good but I was really hoping for a blue boy out of one of the litters.

When working with brokens, it is always good to have a solid color to cross back with if you don't want to get any charlies. I was planning on trying a broken to broken litter later in the year or into the spring. I wanted to see what they turn out like and use the charlies back to a solid with broken in the background. This is supposed to intensify the color on the broken and give more pattern overall. We will see.

I am looking forward to seeing how the baby Woolies grow up especially the 2 REW babies as they have a really nice coat and body type already.

The Baltimore and Howard show was fun but I still felt in a fog for most of the day from my cold. Most of my angoras are out of coat or not grown up enough to compete yet. GC Shepherds Aslin took BOS in English Angoras and GC CR Blue Skies took BOB in Jersey Woolies. Aslin is now retired. He molted all of his coat off his belly but he ended up with a Reserve in Show and 11 GC legs. I am very tempted to breed Blue Skies but might wait until after PASRBA in Feburary. Have a few other does hopefully bred. Wish me luck. The last 4 Angora breeding produced nothing.

Glamour Shots

2009-11-12T10:06:00.002-05:00

Tulamores Caprice posing after her BOB win.

GC CR Blue Skies after her BOB win.

CR Conspiracy Theory sitting up nice after BOSG win.

I am falling behind on the blogging after getting a big head cold and taking 6 1/2 to drive home from the Carroll County show. It is only a 3 hour drive but with accidents and road construction, it took double the time it should have. So it has taken me 3 days to recooperate only to turn around and do it all again tomorrow. Well, there are only 2 more shows until show season finishes for winter so I will have to make the best of it.

Donna McGraw took these beautiful glamour photos of a few of my winning Woolies and of my English Angora Tulamores Caprice. She is one talented animal photographer. Sorry I couldn't get the photos of Caprice bigger as the detail of her wool shows up just beautifully. If you want to see Donna's many other animal photos look up the photo gallery at her website Tulamore Farm. I am trying to get her to go into business:-)

Caprice looks really nice and is a very young senior. She had a hard time showing against Sweetpea but is coming into her own now. What a nice silkey texture she has.

The Woolies are brother and sister (can't you tell by looking at them?) and have come along well during the fall show season. Blue Skies has 7 GC legs, 4 BOB and a 2nd Reserve in Show. I aquired her brother later in the season and he has won 2 GC legs with 2BOSG wins. They are the sweetest bunnies and just love going to shows. Their GC Mom is sweet like them and has a beautiful litter of 2 REW babies which I am holding out high hopes for spring 2010. I have to get some photos of them, they are so cute. Will have to wait and see how they do. Here's hoping.

Over to the Dark Side

2009-11-03T08:08:00.003-05:00

Oh No! I actually bought yarn.

My very wavy knitting.

They do make a pretty pile.

After almost twenty years of having angora rabbits, I finally asked my Mother to teach me how to knit. Horrors, this is from someone that used to throw away her angora wool. It is all Donna McGraw's fault. She said "We know how to knit but we need to learn how to cast on." So I said I would get my Mother to explain it. She could make a diagram or something. The next thing you know she is "making" me knit.

Now mind you, my Mother is a very talented knitter, seamstress and cross-stitcher. My Mom has offered to teach me to knit before but I never really had the time. I am also very un-coordinated, having been throw out of ballet class, at age six, for going in the wrong direction too many times. But ok, I would learn how to cast on so that my friend and her children could become expert knitters.

Well, the casting on went fine. I have a talent for casting on. It's when the rest of the knitting happens that I get into trouble. Remember the whole wrong direction thing. It kicks in when I am knitting. To add to the trouble, my Mom taught me on wood needles and gave me some metal needles to practice on. They are like knitting on ice. You can see, in the photos, my imitation of the ocean waves with my practice knitting. So I thought that if I got some wood needles at the craft store, I would have an easier time practicing. But the yarns were all 25% off and all the colors were so pretty and they were so soft, so now I am in big trouble. Apparently, the person that dies with the most yarn wins? Anyway, that is what all the ladies buying yarn were saying. You are in big trouble, Donna McGraw!

Spooky Taco

2009-10-28T12:08:00.005-05:00

Candy corn eyes.

All dressed up and nowhere to go.

Yes, I wrapped myself up in the rug.

It is nice and cozy in here.

Whoooh! Look at the Spooky Taco. We have some crazy pets that live at our house. Jemima was brought home from the Stop n' Shop by my husband. She was too little to be away from her mother but the people were going on vacation and just wanted to be rid of the kittens before they left. She spent a lot of time with our dogs so she really doesn't think she is a cat. She rules the house and will not let the dogs pass her without permission. We put a throw rug down by the back door to keep the wet from traveling into the house. Jemima thinks this was put there just for her Halloween costume. Spooky isn't she?

Berryville, West Virginia Show

2009-10-26T07:57:00.002-05:00

Judge Owen Yates picked a REW.

Judge Chris Howell's choice for BIS and second reserve, photo by Donna McGraw.

GC Shepherds Aslin in his beauty shot by Donna McGraw.

The Blue Ridge Rabbit club threw another fun filled "woolie" show at the Shenandoah Fiber Festival in beautiful Berryville, West Virginia. This Rabbit club goes all out to make sure everyone has a great time. They do a wonderful job with prizes, giving gift baskets full of goodies for BIS, Best Reserve and 2nd Best Reserve, to help us make the long drive home. A very handsome French Angora sable pearl Senior buck won BIS at both show "A" and "B" owned by Pam.

I was lucky enough to come home with 2 baskets of goodies won by 2 different breeds of bunnies. GC CR Blues Skies, blue Jersey Woolie Senior doe, was lucky enough to win 2nd Reserve in show "A" and GC Shepherds Aslin, English Angora REW Senior buck, won 2nd Reserve in show "B". We now have it on record that Judge Owen Yates actually picked a REW bunny. We all know they are not his favorite but he said he will pick it if it's a good one.

The club also had another fun and wool related raffle table with lots of goodies to take a chance on. Even some pouring down rain storms did little to dampen the spirits of the group and spectators. The food on the fair grounds was great serving grilled lamb sausage with a dill yogurt sauce and many other yummie things. My only regret was no time to actually see the festival. Next time, the show should give us an hour off for lunch so we can tour the vendor booths. Many thanks for the unexpected overnight accomodations. Had a great time at the McGraws Bed and Breakfast, Donna knows what I mean. What a fun weekend!

The Stork Arrives

2009-10-17T08:46:00.002-05:00

The King of All and Hyacinth, 1 broken blue and 2 blues.

GC CR White Excitement and GC CR Blue Diamonds, 2 REWS

Mystery and PB Crazy Di, 1 black and 2 broken black.

The Nest boxes lineup.

The stork was here yesterday and I am just waiting for one more arrival today. Woolie litters are so small, usually 2-3 babies. Once or twice there will be a big litter of 4-6 babies but that is unusual. They are the size of a women's thumb when they are born. The colors show up almost right away or at least by day 2. So you can see who is broken or charlie and if the marking have turned out pretty even. I am very excited about my first woolie litter with both parents being Grand Champions.

I use plastic bins for all my litters and I use stacking office bins for the woolies. They are just the right size and even have a spot for a label on the front where I list all the information about each litter. I put this on right away, Mom and Dad, how many and what color and date of birth. This way if any babies escape, I know who it belongs too.

The nest boxes are taken away from the Moms right after birth, covered with a dish towel and brought in the house. They are kept inside a cage and brought out to Mom twice a day, morning and night, to nurse. If the Mom doesn't get the idea, I put the Mom in the nest box and put the dish towel over her so she has some quiet time with the babies. When she is done, she will poke her head out from the towel to let me know. I do this for the first 2 weeks until the babies have grown some wool and the Moms have a chance to re-cooperate. After 2 weeks, it depends on the Moms. Some are happy to have a cage to themselves and some want the babies with them. I let the Moms decide.

BIS at the Lebanon Show

2009-10-14T18:34:00.003-05:00

Whitney's beautiful Belgian Hare.

Shepherds Sweet Pea sitting on the lucky rug.

Judge Travis Finkle with me and Sweet Pea.

Shepherds Sweet Pea listening to the judges comments.

Yea! I got a new camera for my birthday and am able to post photos again! Just in time for some exciting news and photos.

I almost didn't go to the Lebanon show after I realized that it was nearly 3 hours away. Thinking that it was a closer show, I didn't look at the directions until the night before. It was a single show but with an additional Jersey Woolie specialty show. Blue Skies needed one more leg to grand and she was looking really nice so I made the trip. Sure am glad I did. Sweet Pea won Best of Breed and then went on to win Best in Show along with Whitney's beautiful grand champion Belgian Hare as Reserve in Show. How exciting to win along with such a nice friend! She almost didn't stay for the Best in Show judging but needed to register her rabbit. I think she must have forgotten all about the registration after her win. This is her first grand champion and now her first Reserve in Show. No matter how many times you might win best or reserve, it never looses it's thrill. But the first time will stay in your memory forever.

Thanks to Judge Travis Finkle for picking Sweet Pea. Karen, show sectrary from the Delmarva show, brought my lucky rug back to me. I must have left it on the table after all the excitement. I sure that is what helped us win. Rabbit people are the best. Oh, and Blue Skies did get her last leg after all.