You will want these rabbits!

Convention raffle trio is donated this year by three "pairs" of exhibitors who all live in the west. These three Fuzzy Lops should work together very well for someone who wants to get a start in Fuzzies, take their lines in a new direction, or just bump their game up a notch.


First this pretty girl is from Muriel Keyes and Diana Keefe from Oregon. The doe has one junior leg, very nice body and head.

Next up is a solid doe donated by Nate Burbidge and Lou Towne of Utah. This is Burb's Karma. She also has one junior leg and her sire is from the Greens so she is definitely a good match to the buck.

And here is the man of the house, AK's Cody from Adam and Carol Green. He is a really gorgeous solid sable point buck. This photo is a couple of weeks old and he has bloomed since it was taken. Wow the wool on this guy is beautiful!

Be sure to look up our trio at Convention and buy plenty of tickets, at $2/each or 15 tickets for $20. The winner will be selected at the AFLRC Awards Banquet to be held next Wednesday in Louisville.

See ya soon!

Start 'em young

If you have read the Autumn issue of Fuzzy Tales, then you know I am on a mission to get more youth involved in our club and to keep them interested in rabbits in general and Fuzzies in particular. Well young Mr. Burbidge is on the right track! At 2 yr old he is wielding the hose and helping his dad clean cages. Hey Parker, I could use some of that kind of help at my house. And the pay is good too. How about a fresh chocolate chip cookie?

Thanks Nate and Lisa for the photo. You made our day!

Sold! To the woman with blobs of wool on her shirt!

Its time to show your colors this year at Convention (and I don't mean "red" or "blue"). Your club, AFLRC, is only as good as the members, and that is you! We need your support at our Convention fundraisers.

First, we are raffling a gorgeous hand sewn quilt to start a scholarship fund honoring Lois Trump. We are probably a few thousand dollars away from awarding a scholarship, so please buy tickets to help us get this worthy cause off the ground.

Next we will be holding a rabbit auction, proceeds split 50/50 between AFLRC and seller, although you can certainly decide to donate the entire amount to the club. These auctions have been enormously successful for other breed clubs. Last year, I watched the Jersey Wooly club have a great time with their Convention auction. Dawn Guth told me that she donated a lionhead to their club auction once that sold for more than $1000. Whooeee!

Deb Levisay generously volunteered to organize our silent rabbit auction. She has planned the procedures which are briefly outlined below, but if you have other questions, please contact her and ask.

If you want to donate a rabbit:

• Come to the AFLRC booth at Convention and complete an Auction Seller's Sheet, which asks for information on the rabbit and its care, coop number, and the starting bid ($50 is recommended but the seller may specify higher or lower)
• Turn in the seller's form, completed sales slip and the rabbit's pedigree, which will be placed in a binder at the booth for buyers to peruse.
• Pick up a auction tag and place it on the rabbit's cage.
• Rabbits may be entered in the auction from the start of Convention to end of the day Tuesday.
• A bid sheet will be prepared for each rabbit entered in the auction and these will also be kept at the AFLRC booth.
• Seller must transfer the rabbit to and from the examination area for the actual auction on Wednesday afternoon.

If you want to buy a rabbit:

• Review the pedigrees and Seller's Sheets at the AFLRC booth
• Do not remove a rabbit entered in the auction from its coop without the owners permission prior to the completion of judging on Monday. Open examination time will be held Wednesday afternoon.
• Wednesday, immediately following the Awards Banquet, the auction rabbits will be moved to judging coops by the seller and will be available for examination. We expect the time for this will be ~3 to 4 pm, but check the club booth for up-to-date information. Bidding will close at 4 pm.
• Winning bidder must pay AFLRC treasurer, Paula Grady, immediately at the close of bidding. Paula will be available at rabbit auction area to collect. Sellers will receive their money within one week of the auction by mail.

Doesn't this sound like fun! Please be sure to donate a nice rabbit. Also do your part to help the youth of AFLRC--Bid high and bid often!

Ready Set Go to Louisville

Two weeks from today, the ARBA Convention will be underway, with judging starting Monday morning. Fuzzies will be one of the starting breeds. There are many other activities in addition to showing our animals so here are a few things to remember as you are packing to attend the Louisville convention. Details on the membership meeting and Awards banquet are on the AFLRC website http://users.connections.net/fuzzylop/. Fuzzy Tales, Autumn 2008 is also in the mail and you should receive your copy this week.

Meetings and Banquet

• General membership meeting on Tuesday, 10:30 am, followed by meeting of Youth and their supporters
• Awards Banquet, Wednesday, 11 am. Tickets are $20/person. Send payment to Paula Grady. See club website or Autumn 2008 Fuzzy Tales for details

Auctions and Raffles--Not Rabbits

• Raffle at AFLRC booth--plan to bring a donation for the raffle
• Quilt raffle. This beautiful quilt was made to start a youth scholarship fund in memory of Lois Trump, who was a great supporter of youth participation in the rabbit hobby. Tickets can be purchased at Convention or by mailing entry to Paula Grady.
• Auction at the Awards Banquet. This event is always a huge amount of fun, if only to watch Brian H perform as auctioneer! The moneys from this raffle are used to buy awards for the spring AFLRC National show. Please bring a donation for the auction.

Auction and Raffle--Rabbits!

• Raffle trio. We have a fabulous trio donated. Early next week, I'll post photos of all three rabbits--there is a broken doe from Keyes/Keefe, solid doe from Burbidge/Towne and a buck from the Greens. This looks like an amazing trio. So far both does have won GC legs. The buck is still busy trying to grow wool so hasn't attended a show yet.
• Rabbit Auction. This year we are holding a silent auction for rabbits with sales price split 50:50 with AFLRC and the seller. Sign up to sell a Fuzzy at the AFLRC booth. Bids will be accepted throughout the week with the final viewing of the rabbits immediately following the Banquet on Wednesday. Bidding will close mid-afternoon on Wednesday. This is a great opportunity for you to take home some wonderful rabbits if you don't win the trio!

Back to our regularly scheduled program

The boys have been busy growing their coats here at Casa Verde. Look at Camden! Its a big improvement. His wool is even, though short. Still it was good enough to attend a show last weekend without causing huge embarrassment for his owner (that's me).

Look at his wool when I blow into his coat, dense fresh wool! Its looking very nice.

Cadet has also made big improvements. His wool still looks uneven from the side. You can see new wool still needs to be longer especially over his flanks. There is time still (says Ever Hopeful Exhibitor).
Cadet does have a very nice looking head. It sure makes a difference in the width of the head when it has wool on it.

I'll post one more update on our boys Cadet and Camden just before Convention and photos of them at Convention. Remember we started watching them grow wool (yes it is very similar to watching paint dry) in late August. Patience patience patience is the key.

Just a brief break from our feature story

Can you believe it? Some of our members are interested in something besides American Fuzzy Lops? At least its another critter with wool! Here are photos of the Eureka Mohair Team at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival last weekend showing mohair goats, Muriel K, Allen M, and Eric Stewart.

Its a Numbers Game

The numbers of Fuzzies entered at this year's ARBA Convention in Louisville have been posted. I love numbers (sorry if you don't share my enthusiasm for math), so I started wondering how this years entry numbers compare to past years. Remember this is the 20th Convention at which Fuzzies have been shown as a recognized breed. So below are the numbers (unofficial because they were collected from old Fuzzy Tales and the Guidebook.).

20 Years of AFL Shown at ARBA Conventions

You can see that the number entered in open is up at the top with Indianapolis in 2005. That makes since since Louisville and Indianapolis are only ~100 mi apart so similar numbers of exhibitors should make it to the show. The peak in numbers for youth in the past has been around 200 Fuzzies and has occurred at the Conventions held in Indianapolis (2005), Louisville (1999), and Columbus (2000). I'm surprised and disappointed to see the low youth entries for this year as a result.