Picnics and Fuzzy Lops?

To most people, Memorial Day means a long relaxing weekend filled with fun, picnics and the official start of the summer season.  Its no surprise that rabbit people, know how to have a party, and can always put on a good picnic, but there has to be a rabbit show involved.  

On Sunday, there was a backyard show at Ginger's house in North Carolina.  Dawn G and Steven H took the drive south from Ohio and joined in on the fun.   
BOB winner, Dawn G and BOSB winner, Steven G stand on each side of Julie Ueno and her son Joe
Next show, BOB went to Ginger and Helen, with Dawn winning BOSB.  Judge is Bill Rice (who looks like he is glad to be judging a show like this!)

Ah, there was a picnic after all!

There was also a show on Saturday in Taylorsville, NC.  In the first show, Dawn won BOB and Steven won BOSB.  Dawn's broken senior doe, then went on to win Reserve in Show.  What a great weekend for Dawn and her bunnies!  Well worth the long drive!

 In the second show on Saturday, Helen and Ginger took BOB while Jennifer B won BOSB.  

Check back in a couple of days for a report on another Memorial Day show.

Not fuzzy, not cute, but it rattles

Some of us live in rural areas, giving us room and freedom to pursue our animal related hobbies.  That makes for fewer human neighbors, but there are wildlife neighbors who are undesirable.  In the photo above, check out the visitor, Randy S and Allen M found at their house in the foothills of California.  Yikes!  A rattlesnake!  Fortunately no one was hurt (other than the snake) by this encounter.  

Are there other animals, especially predators that you have to contend with?  At my house, I hear coyotes nightly, but have never seen them come in close to the house.  When my daughter was little, she was sure there were "packs of wolves" outside waiting to jump on her.  The "predators" that cause me more problems are raccoons.  Both rabbits and chickens have to be closed up tight or raccoons will catch and devour them.

On that note, enjoy the summer but listen for rattles!

Noted ARBA Judge is Tough Wii Competitor

I don't know about anyone else, but once Nationals was over, I breathed a deep sigh, sat down in my comfy chair, and realized I better go complete an entry for a show the next weekend!  Yes, we are in the middle of heavy rabbit show season throughout the country.  

Tom K traveled to Utah the first weekend of May to judge a show there.  But we'll get to the show after this:

Yes, its a photo of Tom in heated competition with Stuart B playing a Wii game.  Boy that looks like fun.  Which of you was the winner?  Tom looks like he knows his way around a Wii (he has grandsons after all), but Stuart definitely has winning form!

And now for some rabbits.  Tom poses with the Best of Breed winner, a broken senior doe owned by Lou T and Nate B.  Beautiful rabbit!

Send photos and reports on other shows and Fuzzy Lop activities to me.  I know its that time of year.

And the winners are.....

Nationals was about more than just pretty rabbits.  The owners of those bunnies were there too in Colorado!  In youth, BOB is owned by Karli Z, from Washington state, and BOS by Matthew H, from Colorado.  They are just as photogenic as their rabbits, aren't they?

Open BOB and BOS are both owned by Brian H from Ohio.  He is grooming one of his rabbits in the photo below.  It takes some work to get Fuzzies that look as beautiful as Brian's rabbits!

The day after Nationals, we held a specialty show.  In youth, Karli won BOB with the same doe and BOS with a junior buck.  In the open show, Adam & Carol G, California, won BOB with a solid senior buck and Nate B/Lou T, Utah, took BOS with a broken senior doe.

Hope you are enjoying the National show update.  I plan to post a little more about the show tomorrow so check back in.  Then it will be on to more current reports.

If you want to see all the Natioanl show results, check out the AFLRC website because Rob has posted it all there.

So how did the big kids do?

The open exhibitors were showing rabbits at the same time as the youth but of course the show took a bit longer.  There were so many beautiful Fuzzy Lops at the show.  Our judge, Allen, said several times that all the gorgeous animals were making him miss his Fuzzy Lops.  We watched him more than once go back and forth to decide on the first few places.  

Here are the open show results.

BOB -- solid senior buck, Brian Hartzell

BOSB -- broken junior doe, Brian Harzell

Solids

BOV -- SSB, B Hartzell

BOSV -- SJD, Adam & Carol Green

SSB -- B Hartzell

SSD -- A & C Green

SJB -- B Hartzell

SJD -- A & C Green

Brokens

BOV -- BJD, B Hartzell

BOSV -- BSB, B Hartzell

BSB -- B Hartzell

BSD -- A & C Green

BJB -- B Hartzell

BJD -- B Hartzell

Pictured above are the BOB and BOSB rabbits.  
Brian and Allen pose with the winning rabbits.

It was a great show.  Watch the AFLRC website for full results.