Bunny Arrival

Our Canadian member Holly sends in the pictures of the bunny arrival.

In the first one, the plane carrying the bunnies has arrived.

In the second photo, Holly's husband Glenn is ready to give water to the rabbits. Martin, the American Fuzzy Lop buck is checking out the does. He is in heaven with three does in the same carrier.

In the third photo, Glenn's hand is seen giving water to the rabbits. It's easy to see the tuna cans are still securely tied to the carrier with some pellets left upon arrival.

It's a relief to know all the rabbits are doing fine after the long trip.

Elaine's Questions

In the blog comments from yesterday,
"Elaine said...
May I ask questions? Must the tuna cans be secured or is it acceptable to leave them loose? can the animals be fed and watered when you drop them at the terminal and then have feed in the carrier during the flight? Would it be acceptable to have small hay bundles in the carrier? For traveling to shows, I have frozen water bottles so that the water melts more slowly and is available longer. Would this also be acceptable? Thank you for presenting this. It's not a subject often discussed. "


Betty checked the remaining photos, there isn't one which shows the tuna can clearly. She prepared a can for the purpose of taking a photo. Make two holes with a sharp tool (ice pick and hammer) and use a cable tie to tie it to the carrier. Use the cans which need a can opener, not the pull tab type to avoid the edges. Hammer down any place that looks sharp.

On the other part of the questions, Betty answers, "I can feed and water the animals in the cargo office but I still will have to fill out the form of when the animals are fed and watered. It's a standard form. I don't usually use hay because once I did, the cargo personnel had to look up the receiving state's requirement about agricultural material. To avoid complication, I just use regular rabbit pellets and water. No one pays any attention to the grain mix in the pellets though. I don't use water bottle for shipping because either I or the buyer would have to pay for the water bottle. Tuna can is "free". Additional frozen water bottles (for cooling?) are fine, except that they add on weight. The freight, after meeting the minimum charge, is based on dimensional weight and actual weight, whichever is more. Whatever I do, I try to minimize the cost to the buyer and the possible hassle that I might encounter in the cargo office."

The second photo gives a more clear view of the top with feed and shipping information.

The rabbits have arrived safely and Holly is thrilled. She has taken pictures of their arrival. These pictures will be posted as soon as she sends them.

Bunny Shipping

Betty and Carol G. each shipped two rabbits, two English Angora and two American Fuzzy Lop, to our Canadian member Holly. Since some of our readers have not experienced shipping bunnies by air, we are sharing two photos of the shipping.

In the first photo, four rabbits are in a large carrier with a solid top. In this case, the solid top is metal. It makes the carrier heavier but more sturdy and safe. A bag of feed is taped to the top. In the past, such care package could be put under the carrier. 9-11 changed the packing. Everything has to be in transparent bags and put in a visible place. Taped to the top is a piece of paper that contains the addresses and phone numbers of the person who is shipping the bunnies and the person who is receiving the bunnies. If a metal top is unavailable, a cardboard could be used in place of the metal top.

On the left corner of the same photo there is the cart to roll the carrier into the cargo office, a bottle to take water to the cargo office and the pink paper pile that contains four health certificates, one for each rabbit. The health certificates have to be issued within ten days of shipping.

In the second photo, it shows the rabbits inside the carrier. The two American Fuzzy Lop are younger and smaller, the larger one of the three holes is divided into two by a piece of cardboard. The two English Angora are does, the broken Fuzzy Lop is a doe also, and the one in the back standing up trying to see what's going on is a buck. Each compartment has two tuna cans, one for feed and another for water. Water is added after arriving at the cargo office.

This shipping is handled by Air Canada. It requires the carrier to be dropped off 3 hours prior to the scheduled flight. The person who does the shipping also has to show ID and sign papers to show the time when the animals were last fed and watered and that there's no dangerous material in the shipment. The cargo office personnel also does a visual check to make sure everything is safe.

At the time of this post, the flight with bunnies just took off. We wish a safe trip for the bunnies and pleasant reception for Holly.

Chris Z on Scooter

Our favorite judge Chris Z was on scooter on the day of the Watsonville shows. As our readers probably recall, she and her partner Christine F won Best In Show in show B with their handsome Holland Lop boy.

Chris had a surgery on her Achilles tendon earlier. She was on scooter zipping from place to place in the showroom. She seemed to have a such a good time that Christine took pictures of her on scooter. She was getting all better and ready to be off the scooter, she fell a few days after the show. Chris said, "I do have to tell you though that I fell off the scooter last night and broke open my incision. It was bad - blood everywhere. Anyway I had to be stitched up again today - so it is back to bed rest and foot elevated for a while. Guess I have to break out the knitting again."

We wish Chris a speedy recovery. With her outgoing personality, it's hard to be in bed rest for long.

American Fuzzy Lop Shows at Carol's

The main event at Carol's yard is the American Fuzzy Lop shows, Angora shows are the guests of the Fuzzy Lop. It's a very generous deed that we all appreciate very much.

Here are scenes from the Fuzzy Lop shows. At the top, Melissa is judging open Fuzzy Lop show A. The third from the right with a cherry apron is Carol, our hostess. Carol's son Adam, the tall young man next to Melissa, is the Carol's show partner. Adam has just graduated from college with honor, will enter medical school in the fall. The very left is top youth breeder Christina who is also the show secretary of both the open and the youth shows.

In the second picture, Kellie is busy grooming. Kellie is the hostess of the Sierra Foothill RBA all breed shows in Orland. Kellie told us that the September show in Orland will be the last shows that Sierra Foothill RBA puts on unless there are more help in the future. It's too hard to set up and tear down by the very limited number of people. It's sad to hear this but that's the fact of life.

In the third photo, children of the exhibitors are having a great time in Carol's beautiful pool. Some of the exhibitors also join the kids when the show winds down.

Tracy wins BOB in French and Satin Angora at Carol's

Though the number of rabbits shown at the specialty shows is relatively small comparing to our other shows, the quality is definitely high.

Tracy wins the Best Of Breed in both French Angora and Satin Angora. The top picture shows her with the two winners. The second picture shows Ray judging the French Angora. Ray said that he really liked the Satin Angora a lot at the time when he was selecting the specialty Best In Show.

Good job, Tracy.

NCAG Specialty Show B at Carol's

At Carol's backyard, we had two specialty shows. In Show B, Casey won Best In Show with her white senior buck.

At the top, Casey stands in front of the beautiful roses with white boy and the trophy he won. Second picture is show B judge Melissa judging the colored senior buck class, with Casey recording her comments. The rabbit being examined is Chu's Avanti, the model of the cool guy with sun glasses a couple of weeks ago. Avanti won the award of Best Opposite Colored.

We had a great time.