Don't stop believing

Guest blogger Nate B reports:

Burb's Cease Fire (G.C. Burb's Ta Dah x Burb's LER) is pictured above. He was a double BOB winner and double RIS winner at the Eastern Idaho RBA show on 2.12.2011. The judges were Cathy Armstrong, Allan Ormond and Lawrence Weeks.

Cease Fire is a 7 month old buck who is just now coming out of his "uglies" stage. Many times, several breeders told me to cull him. For once, I took the advice of a wise mentor who always says that this is a breed that requires a lot of patience ... they get better as they get older.

Anyway, I am glad I kept Cease Fire and look forward to more shows with him.

Thanks for the wise counsel Carol.

Thank you, Nate for the reminder. I have some really ugly juniors right now with ears straight, long bodies and thin wool. When I look at them I try to see them as 4 week old babies. Ahhh much better!

A little help from a friend

Christina is a familiar face in California at the rabbit shows.  Actually she is a familiar face and name for AFLRC too.  She is now the District 2 director for the National club.  But don’t be surprised when you see Christina with her new assistant, Irving.  He’s a black lab, 2 years old, from Canine Companions for Independence.  Don’t Christina and Irving make a great team?

A little hug for her boy.

Nice profile, Irving!

Irving helps Christina open doors.

See you both soon!

Show me

Rabbit shows are in full force here in California.  Its fine fun to get those rabbits out of the barn and bring them to shows.  Also provides better motivation to groom the rabbits!   One of the very popular shows of the year in my area was held last Saturday in Stockton, CA (yes, it’s the same weekend as the PA show which is HUGE in the east).  I hadn’t planned to attend this year because I was scheduled for a work meeting in the midwest (obviously NOT planned by an ARBA member), but the wonderful blizzards of 2011 stopped air traffic cold (hahaha) and I was “stuck” at home in spring-like temperatures and time to go to a rabbit show.  Enjoy the photos of a day with the American Fuzzy Lop exhibitors!

Take me to a rabbit show

We have so many shows in California that its possible to pack up bunnies and drive to a show nearly every weekend.  But due to a convergence of real life and holidays, I hadn’t been to a rabbit show since early December.  Well that changed last weekend.  The Kern County Rabbit Breeders Association held their double open/youth show on Saturday, Jan 29 in Bakersfield, hired me as one of the judges, plus High Flying Fuzzies put on a specialty show for AFL.  Yeah!  Time to travel! 

The sad part of this story is that even though I packed my camera and my new Flip video camera, I had a severe case of “no-photo-it is”, and pretty much left the picture gear untouched!  GGGRRRRR.  I hate it when I do that.  Kendall even came with me to the show but she was so busy showing Fuzzies and her Thriantas while I judged, that she didn’t take pictures either. 

At least I got one shot of the showroom and a few AFL exhibitors.  Marian is wrestling the paperwork for the specialty show, while Pam and Anita peak over the coops.  Jessica was at the show too, but she was the general show secretary and was very busy all day.  Chris Z judged the specialty show and did a fantastic job.

Best of Breed in all three shows was Carol & Kendall Green’s broken buck, Christian, pictured here waiting for Show A Best in Show judging.  Best Opposite of Breed was also owned by Carol & Kendall and was their solid doe, AK’s Vane.

It turned out to be a great day for Fuzzies!  In show A, Randy S picked Christian as Reserve in Show.  In Show B, Joe L picked Christian as Best in Show! Pretty exciting for Kendall and I.  Christian seems less impressed!