A New All Breed Rabbit Club in Japan

From left to right: Nippon Rabbit club president Koichiro Sasaki, sec./treas. Hiroyuki Nakayama with Betty and Yumiko in the 2006 ARBA convention. Picture taken in Fort Worth, Texas.

Hiroyuki Nakayama with Betty in the 2007 ARBA convention in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Jim Rowland (L.) and Josh Humphries (R.) working on English Angora last December in Red Bluff.

A new all breed rabbit club has started in Japan in 2008. It is called Nippon Rabbit Club.

President of the club is Koichiro Sasaki, Vice President is Sayuri Yamakoshi and Secretary/Treasurer is Hiroyuki Nakayama.

Koichiro and Hiroyuki attended all recent conventions. The first two pictures were taken in the 2006 and 2007 conventions.

They are putting on their first shows in May. Holland Lop Specialty Show and Mini Rex Specialty Show are to be held on May 24, 2008; then on May 25 2008 there will be an open all breed show. Judge Jim Rowland will travel from Florida to Japan to judge these shows. We are quite familiar with Jim. He flew to CA to start working on his judge's license in Red Bluff last December. He did such a good job that most people thought he was already a judge. He completed his 8-show requirement for his license within one month and received his license to judge in January.

The Nippon club will also host mixed breed pet show. In Hiroyuki's words, it is a "Cute Rabbit Contest by vote".

We wish Nippon Rabbit Club to have as much or even more success and longevity as our club. Northern California Angora Guild has been continuously active since 1982.

Cali's Puppies Update

Just like Cali, "kissing" seems to be in the genes

Three puppies lining up.

Mama Cali kisses "Tank" who is going to Tom and Muriel in Oregon.

Another view of Tank, belly up.

Allen sends in new photos of Cali's puppies. They are so cute! Allen says,

"Cali's puppies are growing so fast! Here are pictures of the three
babies. Today they discovered they can easly climb over the puppy pen
and into the living room... the fun has begun! Muriel is excited to
get her new puppy in two weeks at the Cow Palace show. Brooke plans
to pick-up the other boy for her brother at the same time."

We look forward to seeing these puppies in Cow Palace. We also look forward to seeing Tom and Muriel from Oregon and Brooke. Tom is a great judge and we are looking forward to his judging. Brooke has retired her judge's license at the end of 2007, this will be one of the very few chances that we will be seeing her in rabbit shows.

Carol G. Guest Blogs About PA Trip

Carol in her "normal" setting of a show.

Liberty Bell

Liberty Hall.

Adam with the giant walk-through heart.

Jim, Lisa and Adam in front of the Franklin Institute.

Franklin.

Stella (L.) and Lisha (R.)

During a recent trip to the East Coast, I played tourist in Philadelphia for a couple of days.

What is Philadelphia known for? If you said cheese steaks, then go back to the history books! The famous Liberty Bell (which may not have been the actual bell that rang when the Declaration of Independence was signed) is on display in Philly; afterall Philadelphia was the "birthplace" of our country. The Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Conferation were signed here in Independence Hall.

The Franklin Institute is a science museum that is wonderful (see statue of Ben Franklin). Adam, Heather and Jim pose outside the museum and Adam stood for a photo beside the giant walk-through heart. I'm pretty sure the giant heart was for little kids, but Adam and I loved it!

Finally I am sending a photo of Adam and Heather's dogs, since this is a blog devoted to animals. Stella, the little one, is an Italian greyhound and Lisha is a retired racing greyhound. They are hilarious since Lisha is about 10 times bigger than Stella but marked exactly the same! But since Lisha was trained to run by chasing rabbit fur, we don't think she would do well around Fuzzy Lops.

Bob's Interesting Collection

Franco found an article in the newspaper of Beaumont, TX. It describes how Bob had his first rabbit at 6 years old and got interested in rabbits for life. It also describes his valuable collection of antique rabbit arts. His interest is mainly on rabbit items that are at least 100 years old.


As we know, Bob is the ARBA District 4 Director.


To read about it, go to:


http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19415569&BRD=2287&PAG=461&dept_id=512551&rfi=6


The top picture was taken at the Fort Worth ARBA Convention in 2006.

Spring has Sprung in PA

New kids on the block.

Storm's boy, beautiful curl.

Michael with the blue eye white kid.

Quill's girl, gorgeous curl.

Galadriel's handsome boy.

Rose with pups.

Puppy Myrtle.

Eric writes from PA about their Angora goats and Manchester Terrier puppies:

"The stork is circling over Higher Ground Farm! The does are kidding and doing a great job as mothers. We've mostly had color factored whites, but my favorite does have yet to kid. Allen and Randy sent out the most beautiful goats and I couldn't be happier with them! You can see the exceptional curl on Galadriels and Storm kids. We did have a BEW color factor doe kid born, so you know which one is Michael's favorite.
Rose had pups last week, just as I was leaving for the TX state convention. The 2, brother and sister, are growing like weeds. Pending how she develops, we plan to keep the female as a show prospect."

Flowers sprung up in CA; babies sprung up in Eric and Michael's farm in PA. Spring has definitely arrived.

Spring in Minnesota?

Spring has come to CA long before the official start of spring.

It is a different story in other parts of the country.

Vicki sends in pictures from MN; her entire backyard is still frozen on March 21, a day after the official arrival of spring.

Vicki also sends the photo of daughter Kelly, son-in-law Aaron and grand daughter Cora on baptismal day. Kelly won the youth Best In Show in the 1998 ARBA convention in Portland with her white English Angora doe Lauren.

Happy Easter 2008

Northern California Angora Guild wishes everyone a Happy Easter.
(Thanks to Barbara D. for the Easter picture).