Yesterday our beloved breed doe, Willow (DVR's VC200) was found dead in her cage.  This is a sad loss for us as Willow had such a great personality and was one of our favorites as well as having beautiful body type.  Found her laying upright next to her nestbox with no signs of distress.  She never went off her feed or showed signs of illness.  This is a mystery.  Her sole baby is now being fostered by MIss Sassy.  If we are lucky this baby will grow up to take Momma's place.  Hop on at the rainbow bridge little girl!

Well there is a lot that happened in April.  Maria was able to attend the 4-H Adult Volunteer Training in Pueblo County and is exploring how she can serve this wonderful organization.  We helped with and attended the Colorado Rabbit Round Up at the Colorado State Fairgrounds.  Rascal (Edens' 1MP1) earned his first leg at the specialty that weekend.  And finally, we have had the arrival of 3 new litters of French Lops.  It appears that rabbits like the spring for having babies!

We had a great weekend at the 2010 RMHS State Convention held at the Adams Co. Fairgrounds.  Congratulations to Laurie Hauska & Matthew Stevenson for winning Best of Breed in Show A and for Walter & Shirley Sloan for winning Best of Breed in Show B.  We are proud of our Grumpy, Edens' 4WF2, for winning Best of Opposite Sex in Show B!  Grumpy got rewarded for winning by getting to breed three does.  I suspect he is in the rabbitry right now smoking a cigarette!  We also got to meet a lot of great rabbit lovers and purchased a nice little promising doe from some outstanding young ladies who are youth members who collaborated on an excellent litter of french lops.  Maria was honored to be asked to help Judge the youth projects.  The youth did some great projects!  

All of Miss Sassy's Babies are now weaned and separated from Mum.  It has been a joy to watch them grow! Three of the babies will be remaining here at Willowbrook Rabbitry and 4 will be going to new homes.  

 

Babies are now a month old and growing fast!  They lined up like this recently all by themselves for the photo op!

Miss Sassy and Grumpy's Babies continue to grow and we are enjoying watching all their antics.  They are little hopping bundles of cuteness!  Here is a recent picture with Momma Bunny and her babies.

Yesterday we attended a double show held by the Long Peaks Rabbit Breeder's Association in Loveland, CO.  This was our first show since relocating to Colorado.  We met a lot of fellow French Lop lovers and local rabbit breeders.  We entered 6 French Lops.  King won Best of Breed in Show B earning his second leg toward his title.  Grumpy won Best of Opposite Sex in Show A and the judge called him "Mister Manners".  He is called Grumpy for a reason!  So Grumpy earned his first leg.  And Darlin also earned her first leg for winning Best of Opposite Sex in her variety.  All in all it was a good day and we had fun!  Looking forward to the next show in March.

2010-02-01

 February is Adopt a Rabbit Month!

If you are considering having a house rabbit as a pet there are many homeless rabbits in shelters and rescues across the country waiting for someone to adopt them.  Rabbits are the eco-friendly pet for the 21st Century and are often the most overlooked in shelters.  To find an adoptable rabbit in your area go to <http://www.petfinder.com> and select rabbit on the search menu on the left and then put in your zip code.  The adoptable rabbits closest to your area will come up first.  The advantage to adoption is that for the most part the rabbits will already be spayed and neutered (which is more costly than altering a dog or cat) and may even be litter box trained.  

2-1-10  We are pleased to announce that Miss Sassy had a beautiful litter of 7 kits in January.  So far it appears there are two broken and 5 solids.  Miss Sassy is being a very good Momma and they are growing big and strong.  This is a photo taken of the nest box today.  Unfortunately Trixie did have 7 babies but 6 were still born and one live a few days.  Delilah turned out not to be pregnant.  So we have 7 healthy babies as of today.  

We are excited about expecting kits at the end of January.  Please check in then to see what's in the nest box.