Katianna Wins Fair All Breed Best In Show

Katianna on the grooming stand.

Left to Right, Carol G. wins Reserve In Show with her Jersey Woool Buck; judge Leslie and Betty wins Best In Show with her English Angora colored senior doe at the Contra Costa Fair in Antioch, CA.

Lealie Relaxes after judging; she is waiting for her next fair assignment of judging youth master showmanship.

This Himalayan buck is the youth Best In Show winner, picked by judge Ray. Youth show is a cooped show while the open show is a carrying cage show.

Marylouise And English Angora

Marylouise Cowan, ARBA Hall of Famer and the creator of the ARBA Rearch and Development raffle along with other contributions.

Fannie was the only Angora in Marylouise's barn that contained lots of top quality Netherland Dwarf, Holland Lop and Dwarf Hotot. Fannie's breeder is Chris O. of MA.

ARBA Hall of Famer Marylouise Cowan passed away two months ago. ARBA honors her by putting her photo on the cover of the current issue of Domestic Rabbits. Her life and accomplishes are detailed in the ARBA Hall of Fame Library Biography in the issue.

On page 36, Charlene Everette, the current chair of the Research and Development Committee, remembers her experience with Marylouise. In one paragraph, Charlene writes, "In 1994 in Providence RI, when at the booth she keep eyeing a beautiful White English Angora and we finally found the breeder and she purchased that animal. Fannie was taking home to Southport Island lived like a queen. I know you are saying to yourself, why would a world renowened Netherland Dwarf, Dwarf Hotot and Holland breeder want an English Angora? She had always admired this breed and wanted the joy of owning one."

Betty was there when this happened, she says, "The year was actually 2004 rather than 1994; Charlene has verified it by our e-mail correspondence. I was at the English Angora isle when Marylouise was there kept on looking at that white English Angora; we had a conversation about the breed and she expressed the interest of wanting to purchase Fannie. My best friend Chris O. is the breeder and owner of Fannie; she was taking care of our fiber booth at the time. I went over and told her to go to the English Angora isle and I'd look after the booth.

Marylouise and Chris O made the transaction and Fannie went home with Marylouise when the check-out time came on Thursday morning."

Dogs, Dogs, And More Dogs At Mushroom Mardi Gras

I am so cute.

I love this concert.

We smell something good.

I am the hot dog.

Look at my bushy tail, isn't it beautiful?

I need the rest.

What's going on?

I am a working dog.

Bye, I'm going home.

It's too hot for me.

Give me some shade.

Physical, physical, let's get physical.

Hay, what's up doc?

I'm so pretty, everyone loves me.

I'm the KING, get out of my way.

I am going home too, bye.

These are the best kind of dogs for Betty.

Mushroom Mardi Gras In Morgan Hill, CA

Neighboring city Gilroy has the famous Garlic Festival; Morgan Hill has its own Mushroom Mardi Gras. 2009 is the 30th year of this festival.

Sunny weather but not too hot, it's ideal for a street fair.

Eating and sitting around are fun things during a street fair.

The band plays on stage at the Community Center, people are dancing in front of the stage while the others enjoy the concert.

Adults and kids are trying out rock climbing.

What's cooking?

Mushrooms!!!

A Mushroom Mardi Gras got to have mushrooms.

Yummy!

Carol W. and Laura W. Go To San Francisco Zoo

Carol W. with one of her winning rabbits.

Laura is as pretty as a peacock.

Carol is worthy of being a professional photographer catching such a great picture of the lion.

The lion couple at the San Francisco Zoo.

The bear photo was taken through glass in the new Grizzly Gulch enclosure. He is sitting between two huge boulders as though posing.

The giraffe relaxes in the sun.

Carol's another award-worthy shot.

The man was giving one fish at a time to each bird and the woman was writing down the band # so that they would know exactly how many fish each penguin ate. And they feed them as many as the birds want. If they take a fish and don't eat it, it gets picked up and removed from the count. They also have to make sure that each penguin gets one fish that has had vitamin supplements added to it.

Lindsay's "Fool" Bunnies and "Tax" Bunnies

Lindsay does not breed her French Angora often; when she breeds, her bunnies like to pick a special date to enter the world. Here are Lindsay's April Fool Bunnies; they were born on April 1.






The next litter also picked a special date to join Lindsay's household. They were born on April 15, the Tax Day. Lindsay calls them the Tax Bunnies.

Visit From Shyun And Tiffany

Shyun and daughter Tiffany. Tiffany really likes Aaliyah who is wearing her summer hairdo.

Shyun, Tiffany and a little baby tort doe who is starting to have a show coat.

Betty says,

"My friend and previous student Shyun and her daughter Tiffany came to visit. They brought me some rabbit equipment that they received from another friend. I appreciate the visit as well as the gifts.


Tiffany is a senior in high school, will be attending the prestigious Carnegie-Mellon University in the fall. Time flies, Shyun was not much older than Tiffany when she was in my class. Only when I see the youngsters, I ask myself where did the time go?"

Samantha Gets A Hair Cut

Samantha in her pretty coat after winning an all Breed Best In Show.

Part of Samantha's coat is hanging off her body.

Samantha looks like a white peacock.

Samantha's wool in closeup.

Samantha's wool in bag ready to be spun or sold.

BOB Is Everywhere

Betty says,

"We take for granted that BOB stands for Best Of Breed. We all like to get BOB; I recall some new people asking about why everyone likes this BOB guy!

I shop at Safeway. A few weeks ago, I started seeing this sign with BOB repeated seven times in bold letters on catchy color paper. When I first saw it, I thought, this BOB guy must be very forgetful, or very overweight, and that the management was reminding him to walk around!

Then I saw the same sign on all checkout stations. There are way more lady checkers than guy checkers at Safeway, this could not be a reminder for this BOB guy!

Finally I asked what BOB meant. It's 'Bottom Of Basket'. The checkers are supposed to walk out of their stations to check on customers' carts and baskets.

BOB is certainly everywhere."

Kathy Knits Baby Sweaters

Our wonderful newsletter editor Kathy says,

"After years without knitting baby things, it's raining babies. There's still one sweaterin the works, but here are the first three. The pattern, a free downloadfrom Knitting Daily, is the Cabled Raglan Baby Sweater by Rebecca L.Daniels. The pattern called for baby alpaca, but for the sake of the parents I went with superwash merino, which is machine-washable and cooler. The yarnis self-striping, making for fun knitting and, hopefully, fun wearing. This is an easy pattern, and a terrific way to learn about sweater construction."

Katianna Wins Specialty Best In Show

Katianna in her sitting pose.

Judge Allen judges English Angora in the specialty show, Casey writes. In the far right, Judge Keelyn judges French Angora in show B.

Even the building has AC, it's so hot that a fan is blowing behind the judge's table.

NCAG sponsored an Angora specialty show in conjunction with the all breed shows, judged by Allen. Specialty shows are usually done at the end of the day. By then, the temperature in the showroom was in the 90s. People changed into shorts and sandles and the fans are on in addition to the AC.

Katianna was awarded specialty BIS; BOB French Angora went to Menn family's white doe and BOB Satin Angora went to Oscar's white junior doe.

Caitlin And Her Proud Mom Jacquie

Caitlin won Best In Show with her Mini Lop in show B at Stockton last Saturday. She won the BOB in the youth Mini Lop National in late April and also won two BIS the same weekend. She won these shows with four different rabbits.

Mom Jacquie is very involved in the rabbit activities. She not only takes Caitlin to shows, she works as show superintendent and assistant secretary and whatever job that needs a volunteer. Jacquie is very proud of Caitlin and Caitlin is also very proud of her mom.

Katianna Wins All Breed Reserve In Show

Left to right: Betty with RIS winner English Angora doe Katianna, judge Joe and Julie with BIS winner solid black Havana.

Judge Joe turns Katianna over to check on her tummy during BIS judging.

The two winners in show B look quite familiar: they are the same two breeders that won in show A except that the Best In Show and Reserve In Show switched place. Betty's English Angora tort doe Katianna took Reserve while Julie's Havana, a different one from show A, took Best In Show in show B.

Betty and Julie certainly had a great day, look how happy they are in the pictures. They are also sort of neighbors, both live in the same general area of South Santa Clara County.

Katianna Wins All Breed Best In Show

Left to right, Betty with BIS winner English Angora Katianna, judge Leslie and Julie with RIS winner broken Havana doe.

Katianna relaxes in the coop while waiting for the BIS judging.

Judge Leslie picks the Best In Show and Reserve In Show rabbits.

IT'S HOT!

This is not Paris Hilton saying her catch phrase; this is the description of the temperature on this show day. The day started in the morning in the 60s to 70s; then the temperature kept on climbing; by the time the show ended around 5 pm, the outside temperature was 105 degrees. The inside temperature, even with air-conditioning, was in the 90s because hot air coming in through some of the open doors when people packed to leave.

California Rabbit and Cavy Shows put on double open and double youth shows at Stockton. The original location was the Beef Barn; due to the weather forecast, the shows were moved to the air-conditioned building. Such move would set the club back at least a thousand dollars. Exhibitors appreciate it.

In show A, Betty's English Angora Chu's Katianna won all breed Best In Show and Julie's broken Havana doe took Reserve In Show. Judge Leslie did the picking.

Friends Are Forever

Samantha holding Katianna.

Left to right, Ruth D., Samatha with Katianna and Anna D.

Samantha writes for Ruth during her judging.

Samantha grew up in MN breeding and showing Holland Lop. She and Ruth and Anna were good friends and fellow exhibitors of Holland Lop. A few years ago Samantha moved to So. CA. When she heard that Ruth and Anna and their mom Susie were judging in Monterey, she flew to Monterey to visit.

Samantha wrote for Ruth during judging and English Angora fascinated her. Katianna got to take a picture with her and Anna and Ruth.

Friends are forever, no matter where they live.

Scenes At Shows

In some shows, the showroom is so crowded that some exhibitors had to set up outside. Luckily in CA, weather is usually good enough to keep the rabbits and the equipment outdoors. Here are some photos of the exhibitors who are indoors and outdoors.

Menn Family Activities

Elsa is the little horse that pulls her sister Dominique and brother Tyler.

Susan and all her five daughters spin, weave and knit. They went to the Menn home after dance class to pick up three large bags of fibers that Gabrielle offered to share. Dominique and Elsa were excited to show off their baby bunnies. It was neat to see ten people in my kitchen each holding a baby bunny. Hmmm.... future angora owners???From the left, clockwise: Dominique, Elsa, Tyler, Corrine, Katherine, Brianna, Rebecca & Elise.

Fiber Stuff At Rabbit Show

Franco is an excellent demonstrator; he is in front of Betty's fiber display to show how Angora rabbits are multi-purpose rabbits.

Two lovely young ladies showing off their hands. The big sister has a pair of fingerless Angora gloves on.

Julie Enters Retirement

Julie shows off the card she received for her retirement.

Julie's announcement of retirement on her new "uniform".

Havana breeder Julie wore her retirement "uniform" in the Big Valley RA shows at Stockton. Her Havana has been doing very well on the Best In Show table; now that she's a full time rabbit mom, her rabbits are going to be even more competitive in the future.

Congratulations to Julie's new "profession" of being a retiree.

Catch The Snake If You Can

Gabrielle says,

One of our late winter/early spring projects involved giving our front yard a face lift. We had the hedge pulled, the lawn tilled under (mostly to take care of holes and lumps that developed after the ground settled from when we replaced the sewer line years ago, okay, and from some rabbits that decided to have some fun digging...), some other shrubs pulled, decorative rocks removed, and reseeded the lawn.Now that the lawn is growing in nicely, it was time to enjoy a little croquet. We played our first game on Saturday, and enjoyed a few rounds on Sunday. We love our new lawn.




After a brief visit to my sister's house, we came home to find that someone else was loving our new lawn too!! We were absolutely thrilled to find a baby Gopher Snake!!










I wanted to catch it. But first, I had to run inside to grab the camera.

I came back out to find that Curt had already tailed it! "I never would've done it if I hadn't seen Steve do it." (Referring to our hero, Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter.) Ty kept hollering out, in true Steve Irwin fashion, "Crikey!"

Kelly Is A New Mom Again

Kelly and Aaron are the proud parents.

Carson makes his debut on our blog.

Carson is sound at sleep.

Cousin Ella is holding little Carson.

A little over a year ago, we reported that Kelly, breeder and owner of the 1998 Youth Best In Show English Angora, has become a new mom to Cora Elizabeth http://ncag.blogspot.com/search?q=kelly+is+a+new+mom

Now Cora Elizabeth has a new brother, Carson, born March 27, 2009.

Congratulations to grandma Vicki, grandpa Scott and the proud parents Kelly and Aaron.

Moms Who Follow Daughters' Footsteps

Susie follows the footsteps of Anna and Ruth to become a rabbit judge.

Anna became a rabbit judge way before her mom Susie.

Ruth is also a senior judge to Susie.

Valerie is a junior judge to her daughter Michelle.

There are two sets of mother-daughter rabbit judges in the entire country. Interestingly, both mothers received their judges' licenses after their daughters. Susie, Anna and Ruth are mother and daughters from Minnesota; Valerie and Michelle are mother and daughter from Washington.

Susie and Valerie love their daughters so much that they followed their footsteps to become rabbit judges.

Kudoa to Susie and Valerie and Happy Mothers’ day to all mothers.

Danielle Goes To Her Prom

Danielle changes into her prom dress.

Danielle with her admirer.

Danielle with friends in the show.

Only a diehard rabbit person would fit a rabbit show and a prom on the same day.

Danielle wants to go to the rabbit show, also wants to go to her prom. She went to the Big Valley RA show then in the late afternoon changed into her prom dress and rushed to her prom.

Judy And Buckshot

Buckshot wins the broken senior buck class and the honor of the best non-tort Holland Lop.

Judy is very proud of Buckshot.

Buckshot loves his mama Judy.

Tort is the most popular and common color in Holland Lop. Though there are solid and broken varieties, the winners are usually the solid tort and the broken tort.

In Monterey, Judy E. has a broken black buck, Buckshot, who won the broken senior buck class, over all the broken tort bucks. It speaks for Buckshot's quality; he also won the honor of the "Best Non-Tort Holland Lop" on that day.

Boo Visits California

Last time we saw Boo, he and mama Tomalene and sissy Vanessa were in Myrtle Point, Oregon in March. They came to Monterey for the Mini Lop National in April.

Boo is not too thrilled to be in the rabbit shows for two days plus the long 10+ hour drive.

Betty says, "May I hold Boo?"

Betty and Boo are practicing ballroom dancing; two heads have to be as far apart as possible!

Boo is happier to be in mama's arms.

Don't Get Our Secretary Mad!

With three all breed shows, two national breed shows and over ten specialty shows going on in Monterey, our able secretary Rita is buried in paper work.

Rita says, "Who judged this breed? It's not marked; I am all confused!"

Dr. Steve R. says, "It's me, don't get mad!" Both are happy after the clarification.

Dolores And Granddaughter Colby

Proud Grandma and Colby in 2009.

Colby in 2007.

It's hard for grown-ups to realize how fast time flies.

In September 2007, Dolores brought granddaughter Colby to the BVRA show, see http://ncag.blogspot.com/search?q=colby This past weekend we saw Colby growing into a little elegant princess.

Where did time go?

Youth Winners

Northern California has many talented and knowledge youth rabbit breeders. There were royalty contests two weekends in a roll. Here are some of the notable youth winners.

Big Valley RA youth show A winners, left to right: Kasey with her Polish that won RIS, Jordan with his BIS winner Californian and Judge Troy who picked the winners.

West Coast Class "Lady" winner Lena and her proud mother Melissa. Lena is no stranger to winning, her Himalayan won youth Group in the 2008 ARBA convention in Louisville.

"King" Justin won the title in both West Coast Classic and in the State contest two weekends in a roll.

State royalty "Duchess" Logan and "Duke" Cody. Cody also won the title in both contests.

Melanie holds the "Princess" title in both royalty contest.

Eleanor won the "Princess" title in the Dutch National in KS the week prior.

Katianna Wins Double All Breed Reserve In Show and Specialty Best In Show

Left to right, Tracy with her BOB Satin Angora, Betty with her BIS English Angora, judge Ray and Dominique with her BOB French Angora.






Katianna in the judging coop.







Judge Jeff J. from WA examines Katianna on the BIS table. Katianna was awarded Reserve In Show in show A.




In show B, judges Joey and Sharon pick the top winners; Katianna once again was awarded Reserve In Show.











Big Valley RA held double spring show at the San Joaquin County Fairgrounds in Stockton. There are over 1250 rabbits entered. English Angora Chu's Katianna won Reserve In Show in both show A and show B.

Northern California Angora Guild held a specialty show in conjunction with the all breed shows. Judge Ray picked Katianna as the specialty Best In Show.

Both clubs put on great shows; exhibitors had a fun day.

French Angora Winner

Left to right, Laura, judge Ruth and Carol W.

Judge Ruth examines a French Angora.

Carol W. has a great weekend. Her French Angora won Best of Breed in all five shows, her daughter Laura came to the show with her. It has been quite a while for the mother and daughter team to come to shows together.

Judge Ruth from MN did a great job. Laura and Carol W. were very pleased at how gentle Ruth was in handling their rabbits.

Danielle Is The Queen

Danielle in her "Queen" tiara.

Danielle and her very proud mother Melodye.

West Coast Classic show sponsored youth royalty contest on Saturday. French Angora breeder Danielle won the "Queen" title.

Needless to say that her mother Melodye is very proud and very happy. Congratulations for a job well done.