Election Results

Rhinebeck Rabbit Show.

Berks County Show.

Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.

I wanted to thank everyone that voted for me for Vice President of The National Angora Rabbit Breeders Club. Anything that I can do to help the club or any of the membership, just let me know. We have some wonderful officers, directors and members of NARBC. I am always glad for new ideas and suggestions. As you can see by the photos above, I do get around to rabbit show and fiber festivals. I try to get to all the National shows and to most Conventions. Let me know if there is anything that I can help with and I appreciate being elected. Always glad to promote the angora rabbit, the wool and the products made from them.

Fiber Festival

G.C. Shepherds Posy strutting the fluff.

A little peek?

She can flirt with the crowd with the best of them.

At the last minute, I was invited to come to a fiber festival in north western Ringoes, New Jersey. It was at the Woods Edge Wools Farm owner by Linda Berry Walker and her son Brendt. What a beautiful farm and what a wonderful operation! They raise about 300 llamas and alpacas. There were baby critters everywhere from new born llamas and alpacas to a whole pen of about 20 young gelding in the middle of the beautiful show barn. Take a look at their website if you get a chance. http://www.alpacasllamaswoodsedge.com/

Always glad to promote the angora rabbit as a small fiber pet and companion animal, I thought I would go and asked my friend, Donna Mcgraw, to come along. It is so much fun to talk to people about angora rabbits and to watch the look of wonderment on their faces. Donna is really good at talking about the breed and gave a wealth of information to potential bunny owners. Part of the festival requirements was a one hour demo at the front of the show barn and Donna and I shared duties by each doing a demo. Donna showed how to pluck down her beautiful tort doe, Raisen on Saturday and I talked about grooming angoras with Posy (shown above) on Sunday. Too busy to take pictures, but I am sure Donna got to take some. It was alot of fun and we enjoyed showing off the angora rabbit and fiber to the world outside of bunny shows.

Angoras Can Fool You

Wyatt as a junior.

Wyatt winning Best in Show.

G. C. Pearly Mae in show coat.

Well, just when you think breeding a white bunny to a colored bunny will only give you white babies, they come along and fool you. Pearly Mae who comes from a white father and has much white in her background and has given me white in her litter before. She was re-bred to G.C. B.I.S. Wyatt and there is not one white baby in the litter, not one. The colored bunny gods must be feeling sorry for me that there are 13 REW babies at my house. There are torts and blue babies and all 8 are doing well. I am excited with the blue as there is blue in the last 3 litters that were born here. Blue and black being the favorite colors around here.

Mom is a little worn out as she had a harder time of it then usual. She had one little baby on the wire at 9am and then didn't have any more. I could feel them in there so I let her run around on the floor for awhile. This got things moving and she had 7 more in the nest box at 9 pm. There was a very large one with a big head and this was probably the hold up. They are very active and really cute.

The other litters all have their eyes opening and have that funny, half-focused look. They sure do recognize my voice at feeding time. I keep the nest boxes in the house and put mom in them with a towel over her to feed. I do this until the babies are big enough to manage the cage floor. This gives the mom a chance to rest and recooperate. The babies don't seem to mind being in the house either.

Heavy Heart

Wooley babies having a snack.

Nap time after lunch.

Mom got the comfy spot.

The rabbit world is filled with lovely people and when one of them leaves us it makes for a very heavy heart. Brian Hartzel is one of the reasons that I added Jersey Woolies back into my herd after many years without. He made such improvements in the breed that I felt they were back to being a wool breed again rather than a Netherland Dwarf having a bad hair day. Many years ago daughter was showing in youth English Angoras and her best friend was showing American Fuzzy Lops. Brian was the big competition and was constantly the topic of conversation.

Years later, I heard that he had was able to get the broken Jersey Wooley passed. This made me happy because I was in love with broken bunnies and that they were wooley was great. At the Rhode Island Convention, we were all grooming together in a very tight area and this handsome young man set up his grooming table. The only problem was there was no plug close enough for him. He said "Did anyone have a spot to plug in?". Everyone ignored him. I thought this was mean so I offered him my extension cord only to find out later that this was the famous "Brian Hartzel". Everyone was too busy grooming or maybe no one wanted to help the competition. He was very thankful and polite.

A few years later I added 2 of Brians beautiful Jersey Woolies to my lines that improved the broken color and wool tremendously. He has made such improvements to the Jersey Wooley and American Fuzzy Lop breeds that his legacy will be felt forever. Everywhere that I saw Brian, I made sure to stop him and tell him what a great job he did with him bunnies and how beautiful they were. He was always humble and would say "Well, I still didn't win Best in Show". Well, in my eyes he will always be the Best in Show.

White, White, White Angoras

Aphroditi as a junior.

Here's lookin' at you mom.

I don't want to pose! stomp!

You caught me again.

Last fall I was showing 11 red-eyed white English Angoras and one black one. It looked like positive and negative. Everyone was asking me why I had so many red-eyed white rabbits or REWs as we call them when showing. It took me a very long time to warm up to the REW rabbit. I didn't really like that pink eye staring at me but in the end the magnificent white coat won me over. I am a sucker for anything fuzzy, fluffy and soft.

Someone once said "Hey, you don't even see the eyes once the furnishing grow." and that was true. The answer to showing 11 REWs is that most of my best bunnies are REWs and even when bred to a colored rabbit, I always get some white babies. Sometimes more that others and last fall that certainly was the case. I very rarely bred REW to REW as all you get is REW. No choice there!

I usually bred a color to a white so I get a rainbow of babies. There is nothing more fun than getting all kinds of colors in a litter. Anyone that knows me will tell you I have a thing about colors and have been working on my blacks for the last few years. Yesterday, my beautiful Grand Champion REW doe Aphroditi (shown above)bred to handsome black buck Grand Champion Tulamores Ashley gave birth to 9 white babies! No rainbow there but boy are they going to be cute. Guess what you all will see me showing this fall?

P.S. If I can ever get my photos to download I will be sure to share a picture.

Angora Friendly, Not Computer Friendly

Amber Pearl won first colored junior doe at Nationals and Berks County.

Sweetpea won a second at the Berks County show.

Sandstorm won BOS at the Berks County show.

Lydia won second white senior doe at Nationals and BOV at the Berks County show.

As I am tired of waiting for my photo program to work in the "repaired" computer, I thought that I would post some photos of the show string when they were younger. Later, when it is working and I am able to get the new photos posted, we can see how they might have developed.

The bunnies are doing well at shows considering they are very young seniors or chubby juniors shown in the senior class. Many comments from judges lately have included: "Keep going with this body type.", "Now that's the body we are all looking for." and "Hey, they do have a body under all that wool." It may be easy to get wool on an angora but not always so easy to get a good body under there. Angoras can win with a shorter coat if they have a solid body underneath. As they grow up, they will use so much of their energy to produce wool that they can loose body condition when the winning coat grows in. These attributes seem to balance out the points at shows. Good body and a shorter coat, rougher body but a bigger coat, each can win.

Much fun was had by all at the Nationals, although it has taken most of us awhile to recover from what I hear . There were some truly stunning animals with the coats to die for. I missed seeing the black satin that everyone was talking about as the open show was in progress when the satins were showing. The giant angoras were something to behold and the youth BIS was won by Alex Steponski with a junior giant angora. BOB english youth was won by Collin Burns with the same white senior doe that had won at ARBA Nationals. That has to be a first, I don't think I have ever heard that happening. Amazing that a coat could stay on for 16 months.

Linda Cassella won BOB english open with a beautiful tort doe and she had a lovely REW english still in a Convention coat. Jack and Karen Bailey won BOB giant open and Charlotte Sweikert won BIS with a beautiful French Angora. I think the black satin won but I am not sure about the owner. It was very hectic. More about Nationals next time.

Ahh, Technology

One woolie creature that still has a little bit of coat.

What me sleeping in the warm laundry?

Still cold pups even on warm days.

Doug is happy on the down filled pillow.

Well, I have been away from posting for awhile (with a broken computer) and although I have a bunch of new photos to post, my "fixed" computer won't let me. You see, the computer repair man says the computer was full of some kind of hair. Can you imagine? I don't know where that could have come from. With a few days of over 90 degrees, everyone at our house has started to molt, shed and slip. Here is hoping that my entries to Nationals keep some of their coat on otherwise they will be staying home and I will be going fancy free. I do have some photos to post from the Rhinebeck show where Bramble won BOS in both shows and is now a Grand Champion. That is two G.C.s from that litter so far. I am really happy with how the litter has turned out. One of the boys is living in Mass. with Hannah Pyne and one is living in MD. with Donna McGraw. Both owners seem really happy with the coat texture and easy care. I have to take some photos of them at Nationals when I get them groomed up. Safe traveling everyone and I will see you there.