Alaska State Convention and Judges Conference

Randy S talking about posing and handling.









Randy Cler presenting the Holland Lop.












Brad Boyce presenting the Thrianta.











Allen Mesick talking on the differences and similarities between ALF and Holland Lop.









Student judge April Wright working under Randy for her last show before licensing.









Randy and Allen are back from Alaska; Allen sends in photos and reports about the Alaska State Convention and Judges' Conference:


"We concluded our Alaska adventure with a rabbit show the way die-hard rabbit breeders do... with a rabbit show! The 5th Annual Alaska State Convention was held in Wasilla, Alaska. The rabbit judges included Brad Boyce, Randy, and me. Jason Whitehurst (Oregon), Sheryl Newland (Washington), and Randy included the cavy judges. Friday night hosted Alaska's FIRST Judge's Conference! It was well-attended with 35 people in the audience! A true success.


Randy S talked on two topics: Posing/Handing rabbits and Netherland Dwarfs. Randy Cler presented on: Holland Lops and Californians. Brad Boyce spoke on the Thrianta breed. I gave two talks: American Fuzzy Lop vs. Holland Lop and Judging Vocabulary/Language. The Alaska State Convention was held on Saturday and Sunday. There were approximately 150 rabbits (open only). A Tan won 2 BIS on Saturday and a Netherland Dwarf won the other show. On Sunday, a Tan won 3 BIS!


Alaska is on the verge of welcoming a brad new rabbit judge. April Wright finished her 7th and 8th shows over the weekend, working under Brad and Randy. April is a "kid judge" like me, and very enthusiastic and excited to start her judging career. April has raised several breeds, and even won BOS Tan over the weekend and Reserve BIS with her Brittania Petite on Sunday! We hope to fly April down in the near future! She will be an excellent judge, no doubt."

Pandora Wins All Breed Reserve In Show

NCAG Canadian member Holly reports a great day at the North Dakota State Fair in July. Pandora at 13 months old took all breed Reserve In Show.

Top photo is Holly with Pandora, second photos shows Pandora sitting pretty and the third photo is judge Mark Fronning with Pandora after awarding Reserve In Show.

Congratulations, Holly and Pandora.

Charlie and David Get Married

Same gender marriage became legal in CA in mid June; many weddings took place as soon as the city halls opened up to accept such applications.

Charlie and David have been together for a long time and they became one of the very first couples getting married in Willits. The top three pictures are the happy groom and groom. Their wedding made the first page of the Willits newspaper. To read the article and caption, double click the picture and a larger version will appear.

Charlie served two terms as the president of NCAG; he is currently our director.

Congratulations to Charlie and David, and thanks for sharing your happiest moments with us.

Pamm and Family

English Angora makes a perfect pet due to the breed's sweet personality; it also produces lots of wonderful fiber for spinning. For those who like to have a sweet pet and like to spin will find English Angora the best of both worlds.

Pamm and family were looking for such a combination. After many exchanges of e-mails and phone calls between Pamm and Betty, the entire family went to Lambtown to receive the new addition to the family. A 6-month-old chocolate tort doe and an 8-week-old tort girl went home with the Reed family. The two girls are very lucky to have love and attention of their human and companionship of their own breed.

Pamm says, "Thanks again for everything we could not have asked for better bunnies." The bunnies could not have asked for a better home.

Margaret's Two Handsome Boys

Margaret's lilac tort senior buck Hare E Potter won BIS MAAC Specialty and Reserve In Show in the Sunflower RB Open Show out of 1,000+ rabbits. He also won a Reserve In Show at Eastern Missouri RBA all breed show in May.

Margaret's white senior buck Mountain Man won BIS MAAC Specialty

In June, there were two huge all breed shows and two Angora specialty shows held in Wichita, KS. Our NCAG member and the NARBC secretary Margaret B. had a very successful weekend. Her two handsome boys did her proud: colored buck Hare E Potter took specialty Best In Show and all breed Reserve In Show; white buck Mountain Man took the other specialty Best In Show.

Congratulations Margaret and thanks for sharing these beautiful pictures.

Allen Says Hello From Alaska

Allen Salmon fishing on the Kenai River.

Allen and one of our 23 Salmon caught.

Randy S reeling in a catch on the Kenai River.

Randy Cler cleaning his huge Salmon filets. For a chance to have Alaska's Randy Cler judge your rabbits, come to the Monterey County Fair and CRCS Cardiff shows in August!

The day after judging our rabbits at Lambtown, Randy and Allen flew to Alaska. Allen is kind enough to share their trip details with us:

"Hello from Alaska! We are spending our last few days in Alaska judging the Alaska State Convention and speaking at the first ever Alaska Judge's Conference. Our week has been excellent, doing what we love best in Alaska... fishing! The short season when Red Salmon travel up the rivers from the ocean to spawn is flocked annually by fishermen from around the world. Randy Cler, Alaskan and ARBA Judge, took us to his favorite fishing spots for three days of intense fishing this week. We spent most of our time soaked and bone-chilled from the rain on the river, but it was well worth it. Each day, we caught our limit. The Kenai River (3 hours south of Anchorage) was jammed full of fishermen this week, despite the weather. Alaskans says this summer has been colder than normal; in fact, we saw fresh snow on the peaks of surrounding mountains! Though the sun stays out until almost midnight this time of year, it isn't a California sun by any means. Nevertheless, for Randy and me, the break from the "Fresno Furnas" was nothing short of awesome!"

Alpaca At Lambtown

Alpaca seems to be quite popular these days. There were several Alpaca association and commercial booths at Lambtown.

On the same day that we were at Lambtown looking at these Alpacas, Maureen in Ohio was touring an Alpaca farm that had more than 400 animals. She took many pictures including a pair of Alpacas having a love-making session. You can't miss that! http://bigtimesenglishangoras.blogspot.com/2008/07/alpacas.html

American Fuzzy Lop and Jersey Wooly Winners at Lambtown

Carol G. won two BOB out of the two shows her rabbits entered.

Jenny won BOB in the third show.

Fuzzy breeders watching Allen judging the rabbits.

Another picture of Allen judging the Fuzzies.

The two happy winners of Jersey Wooly: Angel at the left won three BOB and two BOS out of three shows; Nancy at the right won BOS in one show.

Angora Rabbit Show at Lambtown

Betty with Emmy on the grooming table.

Betty writes down judge Randy's comments.

Lindsay with her Giant Angora girl that won the Reserve In Show.

Lindsay puts her French Angora in the judging coops.

Tracy gets her Satin Angora ready for show. In the background is Casey grooming her English Angora.

More potential customers for the NCAG booth.

In the morning at Lambtown, we were busy getting our rabbits ready for the show table, not many photos were taken. John L. comes to rescue; here are the photos that he took and we appreciate the help.

Polly's and Jocelyn's Booths at Lambtown

Polly's booth, full of beautiful mohair products from her herd of Angora goats.

Polly obviously is totally devoted to Angora goats; she answers the question of "got wool?" with "get mohair".

Jocelyn has a colorful booth that is very eye catching. She did very well in sales during the Lambtown festival.

In the Lambtown festival, NCAG had a club booth that sold handmade items for members that were in the rabbit building. In the commercial building, Polly and Jocelyn, both members of NCAG, each had a fiber booth. Polly's booth is totally devoted to mohair that produced from her herd of Angora goats; Jocelyn has various fiber products, mostly colorful handspun yarns.

Both did very well in sales and had a great time.

NCAG at Lambtown

Emmy took Best In Show in specialty show A and C.

Marie took Best In Show in specialty show B.

NCAG booth at Lambtown. Franco and Lindsay worked wonders at the booth.

Franco put a Satin Angora on the table for people to touch and pet.

Northern California Angora Guild completed a very successful and fun filled weekend at the Lambtown. This is the first time that NCAG participated in putting on triple specialty shows and having a booth. Both activities were very successful. Our booth was a hit, full of people at all times. Lindsay delivered all the booth material the night prior and set it up beautifully in the morning. Franco had a rabbit on the table for people to touch and pet and he is a public relations genius. Our booth had raw Angora wool, yarn, scarves, hats, purses, ... available for the public to view and purchase. The booth both served the purpose of educating people about Angora rabbits and provided an outlet for members to sell some of their products.

In the three rabbit shows, Betty won specialty Best In Show with two different does. Emmy at 14-1/2 months old won specialty Best In Show in show A and C; Marie at 7 months old won specialty Best In Show in show B. Reserve In Show in all three shows went to Lindsay's Giant Angora; Best of Breed French Angora in all three shows went to Lindsay's white senior doe and Best of Breed Satin Angora in all three shows went to Tracy's white senior doe.

We are very appreciative that Lambtown included us in the venue.

Mohair Competition at Lambtown

Randy and Allen has the Best Mohair.






Mohair and wool judging.

More Mohair and wool judging.

People looking over Randy and Allen Mohair products.

The beautiful "thing" in the front are the Angora goat pelts.

There are more competition and shows than just triple rabbit shows at Lambtown on Saturday. Here are some pictures of mohair and wool competition.

Randy and Allen won every class in the mohair competition, shown in picture one.

Pictures two and three show the judging of wool and mohair. And the two bottom pictures showing Randy manning the Eureka! Mohair booth.

We all know that Randy and Allen are successful in rabbits; their Angora goats are also the best in the nation.

Randy and Allen along with Carol G. also judged the Angora specialty, American Fuzzy Lop specialty and Jersey Wooly specialty shows. More photos will be posted.

Eric Stewart For Vice President

Eric came all the way from PA to judge in the show at Watsonville last Saturday. Angora breeds were very fortunate to have him as our judge.

Top photo shows Eric talking with Gabrielle and the girls; the second photo shows Eric with the French Angora Best of Breed winner Carol W.; and the third photo shows Eric with John who won the colored junior buck and doe class in French Angora. The colored junior doe also won over the colored senior doe.

Eric is a candidate for the office of ARBA Vice President. He is currently district 9 director and is serving his 3rd term. He has commitment, excellence and motivation. He puts on the Judges Conference in the ARBA convention, works at Judges Academic in the ARBA office, writes great articles, and does excellent judging. He was voted in twice as the Open Best In Show judge in the 2004 and 2007 ARBA conventions.

The ballot has just arrived; it is hoped that our readers will take the responsibility of voting seriously and cast the vote for Eric as the Vice President of ARBA.

How Long Is Emmy's Coat?

The Angora exhibitors lucked out; at the CRCS shows in Watsonville, we got two of the very top judges in the country for our breeds.

During the judging of English Angora, Eric blew into Emmy's coat, the wool was clear all the way to the skin; he took out his camera and tape measure to record the length of Emmy's coat; Randy joined in. After measuring at several different areas on Emmy's body, it was determined that the length of the coat is between 11 and 11-1/2 inches.

Is Elvis Still In The Building?

Dust Bunny strikes again! Jayne Castle's new book "Dark Light" is about to be published and there is a new Dust Bunny in the book: Elvis. Elvis has a human, Sierra, who is a reporter and she is in danger. Needless to say, Elvis comes to rescue.

Who plays Elvis? Who else, one of Betty's black English Angora bucks. Chu's Donovan stars in this promotional video that has become a hit on Youtube since it was posted a few days ago.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UJ6uUiUGSo

The same video in high resolution could be viewed at:

http://www.jayneannkrentz.com/darklight.html

Panic Attack Attacks Best In Show Record

In show B at Watsonville on Sunday, Best In Show went to Randy and Allen's Mini Rex and Reserve In Show was won by Cathy S.'s Rex. From left to right are Cathy S., Allen and the Best In Show judge Eric from PA.

Just in case our readers are puzzled by the subject line, please rest assured that this blog is not being attacked by panic; don't be panicky!

Panic Attack is the name of this awesome Mini Rex that has just received all breed Best In Show #14, breaking the known record of 13.

In 2004, Cathy S.'s broken Rex doe Rhonda won all breed Best In Show 13 times.

In 2005/2006, Betty's English Angora chocolate tort doe Emilia won 13 all breed Best In Show and 5 Reserve In Show; see http://home.pacbell.net/bettychu/2006allbreedbisris/

Now Panic Attack broke the record of 13 held by Rhonda and Emilia. The way she made #14 is even more amazing than a fantasy; here is what his papa Randy described:

"She has won 14 all breed Best in Shows in 3 different states. She was second place to the BOB doe at the national mini rex show. She won BIS at the Alameda County Fair last month out of 571 rabbits and was 27 days pregnant. She kindled a litter of 5 healthy babies- I left them with her for 3 days and then fostered them to another doe and they are all still alive and doing well. We have always had your record of 13 BISs in mind- (I believe that is a record for any rabbit in the country). I had no idea she would come back after having a litter- so we were satisfied with tying your record. When she looked as good as she did last week we brought her out again. She won 3 BOBs- 2 on sat and one on Sunday, and then BIS."

Imagine, winning an all breed Best In Show two weeks after delivering 5 bunnies!!! Panic Attack really deserves to be considered Awesome with a capital A. The three photos of Randy and Panic Attack were taken last November and January when she won 3 of the 14 Best In Show.

Congratulations to Randy and Allen, it's a great accomplishment.

Show A Top Winners at Watsonville

Keelyn won open Best In Show with her Florida White in show A. Keelyn is no stranger to winning Best In Show, especially in youth shows. Though she had won open Best In Show when she still was a youth, this is the first Best In Show after she became a member of the "open" shows after her 19th birthday less than a month ago.



Chris Z. had a wonderful weekend. Her Holland Lop won the triple crown in three specialty shows on Saturday; then on Sunday her Holland Lop won open Reserve In Show in show A. This picture shows Chris judging Mini Lop at Watsonville. Her winner rabbit Armani is not in the picture.

UK Angora National

Don from UK sends in the following:

"Greetings from a very wet England! and this is Summer :)

I have been following the NCAG blog, love that site, I was interested to read Candy's comments on the Angoras she saw here, so wondered if your readers might appreciate seeing the attached photos.

I took these photos at the recent National Angora Club stock show held in June 2008, this is the Angora specialty club in the UK. Best in show was a lovely chocolate doe bred and owned by Sally May. I think you can see the type of coat this rabbit has from the photos. It is a very long, ultra silky, a coat that falls and drapes on the rabbit, This is the type of coat that is winning here in the UK. Furnishings are more sparse than the American Angoras although there are lines here in the UK carrying much more furnishings. It is obvoius though that our Angoras have evolved differently to the American English Angoras.

Best wishes"

One Thousand Posts

In summer of 2005, Carol G. invited Northern California Angora Guild to host specialty shows at her summer backyard party. We all had a great time; to show off the photos of our good time this blog was born. Originally the posts were all about NCAG members and activities. Over time, many others contributed and made this blog a meeting place in the wonderful world of rabbits.


It is hard to believe that this is our 1000th post. Thanks to everyone who helped to make daily posting possible. We appreciate it. Please continue to support our blog and make it even more informative and interesting.

Prize Winners in Home Art Competition

In the San Joaquin Fair, there are quite a few very nice looking high quality craft creations entered. Here are photos of some of these beautiful creations.

Snake Around The Collar

Rita is a top breeder of Satin and Silver Martin rabbits. Her Satin was one of the four finalists for the Best In Show at the 2003 ARBA convention in Wichita; both her Satin and Silver Marten regularly won Best In Show in the all breed shows.

Rita works as show secretary in the majority of shows in this area; and she is also the small animal manager at the San Joaquin fair. Her granddaughter Jessica and grandson Brad both stayed at the fair as helpers; their bright green T-shirts identified them as volunteers at the fair. During a break, Brad and Jessica went to the reptile building to be "snaked" around the collar.

Livestock at the San Jaoquin Fair

It's a hot day, the cow enjoys a little running water from the facuet.

If this place looks familiar, it's because it is the "Beef Barn" that some of the rabbit shows were held.

It's hot, get the sweater off me!

An afternoon nap works for me.

Ditto, it's important to get the beauty nap.

Baling Twine Doormat

For most of us who have rabbits and other animals, buying hay is a regular activity. Hay bale use baling twine that become trash after it's cut to let loose the hay. Our newsletter editor Kathy S. is very creative and very green; she likes to reuse material that would normally be discarded. Here is her creation, a doormat made from the baling twine.

Kathy says,

"Here's a little bit more about the doormat. After seeing a doormat woven out of baling twine in Make magazine, I knit one. While physically tough going, I found this knitting completely compelling. I've written about the doormat in the Guild's Summer '08newsletter, but here are the basics.I used big, polymer needles (Susan Bates #13). Needles of other material and smaller needles reportedly bend or break. I cast on as many stitches as the ten and one-half inch long needles would hold. Jamming on this many stitches made for challenging knitting as twine is slippery. Circular needles would make this project much easier. (Another option is to knit narrower bands and knit them together, though that might make for a floppier doormat, albeit one that is easier to knit.) Garter stitch creates a bumpy surface, well suited for removing debris from footwear.To tie on a new piece, a simple overhand knot works best. I pulled the knots to the doormat's underside, but you may prefer otherwise.Color placement on this doormat is random; whenever I got a new piece of twine I tied it on and knit. Just think what someone with good color sense could accomplish!Finished size: 20 by 30 inches.I'm still pretty excited about the doormat, and greet visitors with "Look what I made". I then have to convince them to wipe their shoes on this handcrafted finery."

A Happy Ending: A Dog and A Corvette

Here is a picture of John's '69 corvette. It is a top flight winner which means it has been restored to it's original state. I guess you could say the dog chose well!

The lucky but homely looking dog is now safe and sound at Maureen's lap.

Little girl likes to be a lapdog.

A warm bed sure beats surviving in the wild.

Maureen in OH says,

"Tonight John and I went out with some friends on a Corvette 'cruise' which is basically a really long car ride through country roads. When we started out we came upon a mangy looking little dog in the middle of a country road and a bunch of us stopped to try and catch it. Honestly, it looked like something wild. Unfortunately we were not successful but at least it had left the road and ran into a field.

Two hours later we came back the same way and wouldn't you know it, but that same little dog was STILL in the road. A new group of people were attempting to catch it including us. After a half an hour of trying I was able to use John's belt to lasso the skinny little thing. I think it was ready to be caught.

Attached are pictures of the pitiful looking little thing. I think it is a yorkie poodle mix or something like that. Very dirty and matted. After the initial shock of being caught she warmed up quite nicely and seems to like both John and I. Fortunately John is bigger dog lover than a corvette lover as we put the stinky little thing in his recently redone '69 corvette!"

UK Angora breeders Les and Tess

During the trip to UK, Candy spent a day with our friends from the TOULAARP Yahoo list, Les & Tess.

Candy says,

"They live in a suburb of London in part of a large Victorian house just crammed with everything wooly and fibery. I could have spent hours looking at all the spinning wheels and things they have spun, dyed, knitted, etc. But it was beautiful weather, and most of our time was spent in their back garden (yard) under shade trees, just visiting and having a relaxing day.

Les and Tess are wonderful people, and would fit in perfectly here in our Angora community. They don't show, but they make full use of the wool. Their cages (pens/hutches), like most in England, have solid sides and bottoms, and bedding is shavings, newspaper, and straw. I know, we wouldn't think of such a thing here, but, as I also saw in Norway a few years ago, it works very well for them. One convenience they had that I really liked, was that they had French doors leading from their bedroom right into the rabbitry! How convenient for checking for new litters during the night.

Most of Tess' Angoras were clipped down, but I was happy to see that hers looked a lot more like mine than the ones I had seen at the show. You could tell, these Angoras had some wool on them, and decent furnishings."

Rabbit News from Hawaii

Beautiful sunset in Hawaii

Judge Josh with Zeia and her junior English Angora.

Judge Jim and Zeia and her junior English Angora.

Zeia brushing her black English Angora.

Judges Jim and Josh with happy owners of BIS Holland Lop and RIS Champagne d'Argent.

Josh with Sandy whose Rex won Best of Breed.

Judges Josh and Jim are everywhere; recently they were in Hawaii judging a show.

There are English Angora in Hawaii, Josh wants to pass this info to NCAG. Thanks to his photos, now we see them. Also he shares with us photo of the Best In Show winner Diana M. with her Holland Lop and the Reserve In Show winner Sandy T. with her Champagne d'Argent.

Giant Angora Wins Reserve In Show

Pat at home with Giant Angora doe Sigrid when she was a baby.

Giant Angora doe Sigrid wins all breed RIS.

Pat D. from So. CA sends good news: her Giant Angora doe Sigrid took all breed Reserve In Show in Pomona in June.

It has been quite a while since a Giant Angora getting the top honors in shows; it's certainly great news that it's happening. Congratulations to Pat.

The Fourth of July

Northern California Angora Guild wishes everyone a happy Fourth of July.

A Family Affair

The entire family with new French Angora bunnies.

Dominique and Elsa holding their picks of the bunnies while baby brother Tyler sitting on the table.

Mama Gabrielle with Tyler.

Daddy Curt enjoys the beautiful pool with the little angel.

It is a family affair for the Menn family when it comes to rabbit shows. In some shows, daddy Curt brings the two girls Dominique and Elsa; in some other shows, mama Gabrielle would bring the girls. This is the first time that the entire family came together including little brother Tyler. Carol's summer party is too hard to resist.

The have their first French Angora litter since coming back to raising rabbits. We all looked at the bunnies to sex and to tell the colors; the bunnies are so cute. Dominique and Elsa already have their eyes set on one each as their show stock in the near future.

It's A Wonderful Day for Danielle

Danielle and her broken French Angora senior doe that has just become eligible to be a Grand Champion.

Danielle and her Jersey Wooly that won an all breed Best In Show at the county fair.

Danielle working as the judge Carol's clerk.

For the first time that Danielle and mama Melodye came to Carol G.'s summer show. They did not realize how much they had missed in the past three years!

They enjoyed the event thoroughly; it does not hurt to have a winner Jersey Wooly and a winner French Angora. The beautiful French Angora doe Jingle Bell took Best of Variety in two out of three shows and earned enough legs to be eligible for Grand Champion.

Danielle's boyfriend also tagged along; this is his first time in any kind of rabbit show. A warning to him: not all rabbit shows have a beautiful swimming pool, green lawn, a tennis court, a guest house and BBQ steak served for lunch. He would be too spoiled to go to other rabbit shows.

Valerie and Michelle From WA

Valerie and Michelle with their BOSG Jersey Wooly.

Valerie judging French Angora.

Valerie and Michelle are both judges, they are mother and daughter. This is the first pair of mother/daughter rabbit judges in the country!

Valerie and Michelle use driving to shows as their special time together; they drove 900+ miles one way to come to judge the all wool triple shows at Carol G.'s place. Comparing to their annual driving to ARBA conventions, this is not the longest distance that they drove together.

Valerie and Michelle did great judging, and they are a really fun pair. There were constant laughter at the judging table and everyone had a good time. Have you ever heard a fun statement like this? "It sucks that the senior judge in the family is your own kid." Daughter Michelle got the ARBA license before Mama Valerie; their judges' numbers tell the story: Michelle is #759 and Valerie #828.

They raise exactly the same breeds as the clubs putting the shows: American Fuzzy Lop, Jersey Wooly and English Angora. They entered some AFL and JW in the show judged by Carol G. and their JW took Best of Breed.

We hope that they had as much fun as we did; hope to see them again in the near future.