Maine Chance

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

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

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

Standing Guard.

Look what's below.

Swimming Ducklings.

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

Animal Planet Bunnies 2

Bunny Line-up.

Grooming a English Angora.

The Belgain Hare strikes a pose.

A model sits with baby Mini-lops.

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

Bunny Stars

Shepherds Bouquet posing for her beauty shot.

Bunny line-up.

Sideview of Shepherds Bouquet.

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

Seal & Sable

Sable on the left, Seal on the right.

Yin and Yang.

What cute faces.

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

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