goto bunnyrabbit.com news 2002 issue 1
From: Remsfarm [mailto:remsfarm@alltel.net] Sent:12-03-01 To: bunnies@bunnyrabbit.com
Subject: Ok.
I don't even know what to CALL them, but I want one!!
Ok. I don't even know what to CALL them, but I want one!!
My friend, Clydell raises and shows rabbits. I have always thought rabbits were cute little creatures... always for sale at Easter time.... usually white. Clydell invited me to go with her to a rabbit show at the State Fair in Georgia some months back. The trip was a three hour trip and she wanted to be there at 7:30 am as judging was to begin at 8:00.
Do the math. We left in the dark. In the "middle of the night" as far as I was concerned. I am a 64 year old grandmother.
Well, I learned more than I wanted to know about rabbits, but it was interesting. I didn't know that rabbits urinated in a stream like a puppy, for instance. Or that if you pick one up and it objects it is capable of ripping your new shirt with its claws. Before the day was over I was filthy and exhausted. But I had fallen in love with a gigantic fluffy creature with Pekingese cheeks called a French Lop. What an adorable animal!
Meanwhile I was learning more about rabbits. My daughter (26 going on 4!) talked Clydell out of a nine month old Standard Otter Rex buck which she was going to "housebreak" and keep loose in her home. But when she got "Pepper" home the landlord where she and my son-in-law are living said "NO PETS!" so she brought Pepper to ME. I installed him in a cage.... 30 inches by five foot of cage used at one time for a brooder for baby chicks. I put the water bottles (two of them!) and the metal feeder (big one) in, layered the bottom with fresh coastal hay and some alfalfa and said, "how long am I to keep this rabbit for you?" Well, Pepper was one of a kind. He would run to meet me every day as I filled his water bottles and made sure the feeder was full. He never scratched when I picked him up.... he cuddled up against my neck. But my Pekingese thought that rabbit pellets were COOKIES and spent too much time under the rabbit cage rolling in urine and eating rabbit pellets. He stunk. Stupid darn dog. I would let him out the front door with the Chowador and SHE would do her business and come back. HE, on the other hand, was GONE! And he would NOT come when I called him, or even when I bribed him with "cheese" which usually got him back. I would have to go out to the BARN (way way off) and pick the stinking thing up and carry him back to the house. So I told Julie (the daughter) the rabbit had to go. We sold him to a lovely couple for THEIR grandchild. Pepper cuddled her just like he did me. A big baby that rabbit.
Meanwhile Clydell invited me to go along to another rabbit show. In Deland. Five hours down state. We left home at 3 a.m. this has to be some form of total insanity, no? I mean for a dog show or a horse show, maybe......when you are YOUNGER!!
We set up the grooming stand, and our chairs and got the six double cages of rabbits. It doesn't matter WHERE we "set up" - the place we are to be judged is at the diagonally opposite end of the huge hangar. MOST EXHIBITORS HAD THOSE ROLLING CARTS OF SOME KIND TO MOVE THE CAGES. Clydell simply picked up the two bunnies and walked with them. This gets really old with 12 rabbits all going in different directions.
I learned about lops. I learned to tell the Holland Lops from the Mini Lops. I can tell the French from the English and I know the Wooly Lops from Angoras. I am learning. I also learned to be able to tell the Mini Rex from the Standards.... and I even figured out how to identify the chocolates (the deepest solid brown) the Tortes (solid brown with lighter heads and shading) and the Castors which are in between in color. Most of the time I can tell them apart..... I discovered a silvery blue rabbit and trotted over to fetch Clydell to identify it. She asked me, "well, what does it LOOK like?" and I said, "it looks Lavender to me" and she said it was. A lavender mini rex. How nice.
Two young ladies (one of whom didn't look OLD ENOUGH for this kind of education) had apparently met at the show and one had a black Wooley buck and the other a doe. .... I got a whole new slant on sex education. Clydell says this isn't normally permitted unless they seek the permission of the show secretary. Maybe they did. They put those two bunnies together so many times during the day that I asked if each mating produced one bunny and asked if they were after a BIG litter.
Some weeks ago a well known judge and breeder had a dispersal sale of his Standard Rex rabbits. Clydell was eating her heart out over one of the does...... but she didn't want to spend any money.
She told me if we got that doe for $20.00 it would be a real deal. Well, I am accustomed to thinking about animal purchases which concern imported European HORSES.... and $20.00 is a bale of hay when you are thinking money and horses. $60,000.00 is "big money". So I bought the bunny for her and said "we will co-own her. We will be partners." Well this little doe was one that Clydell chose to take to Deland. I could tell her for two reasons: she is English bred and she is smaller than some of the American does; and she is exceptionally white and thick coated. Very very densely plush. You can actually SEE a difference in her coat. I am told this is indicative of the English bloodlines.
Ok. There are 14 or 16 white Standard Rex in the class. "Our" doe is in the fourth little cage. The judge begins with cage one. He takes out the bunny, feels it, examines it and puts it back. he takes out the second bunny, does the same thing, doesn't put it back. Instead he takes out bunny number one and puts them on the shelf side by side to compare them. He puts them both back. He takes out number three.... and studies it. Then he takes ours out. He feels it all over. He reaches in and takes out bunny number two and puts both of them on the shelf. He puts them back in each other's cages. I think he is getting them in order by quality.... and at the end of the class the rabbit in the first cage will be Best of Variety or something. He goes on taking out rabbits and the scribe writes it all down. Then he points to a couple of cages and says "you can take those out now and put them away." An exhibitor reaches out and takes out the bunny in cage two and puts it in her carrying cage. I tap her shoulder and politely say, "excuse me, but that is MY bunny." She shakes her head with irritation and checks its ear. W 117. My bunny. She puts it back in the judging row and looks for HER rabbit. Meanwhile the judge has pulled our little English doe again (her ears are nearly white because of the density of her coat - not PINK like most of them.)He looks at her and begins comments again. Clydell points out that he has already judged that bunny. They go way back and most of the exhibitors know one another and talk to each other during judging. I am keeping a wary eye on my rabbit. The class just before this one was BLACK Standard Rex and someone accidentally walked off with someone ELSE'S rabbit and it took awhile to find it among the people with cages all over the building. So I was keeping an eye on my "investment". It was beginning to remind me of the "shell game" with rabbits going in and out of
cages like crazy. Pretty soon the same woman picks up one of HER rabbits and puts it in the carrying cage - and then gets MY white rabbit again. I tap her once more and this time I am firm. "Miss, that is MY rabbit." She is visibly annoyed. She leans over in a huff to show me the ear tatoo and then snatches the poor baby out of the cage and practically THROWS it into a cage on the judges row. She thinks SHE is annoyed? I am becoming angry!!! Keep your hands offa my bunny.
Class is over. Bunny needs more weight, more depth of loin, maturing..... well, we knew that. We got her for her exceptional fur - which the judge commented on. We grab up the cage again. I look longingly at the various little wagons, carts, wheels...... I actually get the phone number off one of the wheel things so I can call the manufacturer. This is ridiculous!!! I am far too old and too fat to be carrying (panting) these cages from one end of the world to the other.
Meanwhile Clydell has a pile of Rex at one end being judged. Blue, Lynx, Otter, etc. and I hear them call for "California Sr. rabbits." I race over, grab the cage with the two (HUGE) black and white rabbits and trot back to the judge at the other end. I open the cage, grab a rabbit, toss it into the judges cage. I grab a second one and put it up too. I then go and tell Clydell that I got the two "calis" entered. she said, "good". We watched the Rex judge, who was slow. I looked up and the exhibitors were taking the Calis out already.... that end was done. I galloped over and there were only two left. Made it real easy to identify MY rabbits. I put one in the carrying cage and reached for the second one. Two exhibitors, the judge and the secretary all yelled at once. "No no.... Clydell only had ONE California entered." Well!!! I know that I tend to become confused lately, but even I can count to TWO and I had two of them when I came in. I tried to tell them that. They were all adamant. I went to get Clydell. What was it with these people - did they ALL want to steal my rabbits????
I asked her, "how many california rabbits did we have in that cage?" She looked at me as if I were feeble minded. (I am. I admit it. Being there was simply a visible sign of insanity). she said, "well we had two of them." I told her she had better come and explain that to the people who were trying to KEEP one of her rabbits. It seems that she had entered one for someone else, it wasn't in her name at all. I found and purchased two RED rabbits for her. She had been wanting some. That left me with two loose rabbits in my LAP on the way home????
Ok. guys. Now what I want from you is a set of those WHEELS you put your rabbit cages on when you are MOVING them from one end of a place to another. Lightweight, foldable? I can't find any in the website - probably because I don't know what they are called. I am NOT going to another show and have to CARRY 12 rabbits from one place to another if I can help it. At this point, I may not be going to another show at all. I was totally exhausted when I got home long after dark to discover my husband had not fed my horses; he had thought I had done that before I left (at 2 am in the DARK? My horses wouldn't even COME to me at that hour if I were to stand out there and call them!!) My cockatiels were uncovered (we cover the cages at night - all eight birds can sleep that way), the baby cats had not had their eggs, and HE was not fed. At eight pm. When I am home he insists on dinner being served at SIX.
Can you make any sense out of this letter? To review it again. I need to find those rolling wheels that you stack cages on for shows. Ok? Yours, Lanie Jones, Live Oak, Fl