Northern California Angora Guild: 5/28/17

Dyeing Red Wool

Angora wool is soaked then cooked with red food dye.

After the temperature is cooled off, the entire pot of red wool is poured onto a towel on top of a rabbit carrier.

A rabbit carrier is very suitable for spreading the dyed wool.

Use another dry towel, the wool is spread out to dry.

It takes quite a while for the dyed wool to dry, empty rabbit cages are perfect to air out the wool and protect it from birds or neighborhood squirrels or cats.

When the dyed wool is closer to dry, use fingers to tear apart the wool.

Repeat the cooking/dyeing and drying several times, now we have a lot of red wool ready for spinning.

Another view of the red Angora wool ready to be spun.

Sophia's First Reserve In Show in Connecticut

Judge Mark awards the open all breed Reserve In Show to Sophia's French Angora Shaws Fuzzy Friend's Jeannie.

Sisters Olivia and Sophia are two youth breeders who are into Angoras. Olivia works on English Angora and Sophia French Angora. They normally show in youth shows but on May 13 they went to the Central Connecticut Rabbit Show, they entered in open because the youth show was not breed sanctioned.

Sophia's French Angora not only won BOB in both shows, in one of the two open shows, judge Mark awards the open Reserve In Show to her beautiful doe. Sophia is only 14 years old, with her sister Olivia's help and encouragement, the future is bright for both sisters to make a splash in the wonderful world of Angoras.

Jeanne sitting pretty with her trophy.

Katelyn's First Best In Show in Minnesota

Katelyn was born into the Angora family on December 30, 2008. She was featured on our blog when she was 3 months old:

https://ncag.blogspot.com/2009/04/katelyns-first-easter.html

Over the years, we have posts showing her attending ARBA conventions and in various shows being the little helper for her mom's French Angora and grandma's English Angora:

http://ncag.blogspot.com/search?q=katelyn

A photo shows that Katelyn was seriously grooming a French Angora in 2012 when she was less than 4 years old!

Finally she has her own French Angora to show and wins her first Best In Show at 8 years old. Grandma Deb is more excited than Katelyn herself, Deb says,

"We went to our Memorial Weekend shows this past weekend, and Katelyn got her first BIS!! It's kind of a funny story.

We make her groom her rabbit and carry her rabbit. However, because the rabbit does not feel secure with her, it nips her (same one that I sent a video of her with at Nationals. You can see her jerking her hand away several times), and scratches her when she carries it. I think it only does this with her because it doesn't feel secure. However, because she insists on showing this rabbit, we make her do the work. We have attempted, several times, to get her to sell this rabbit because it is getting too big for her. She has Jersey Woolies that are much easier to handle.

Well, after blowing the rabbit out, I made her carry it to the BIS table. On the way, the rabbit started struggling, and scratched her quite a few times. Eventually, she dropped it and started crying because we have told her if she drops a rabbit, she could injure it or even break it's back. When she finally got the rabbit to the table, she was very upset, but the rabbit was not injured. I told her I thought maybe French Angoras were too much for her, and she should stick with her Jersey Woolies. Well, then she won BIS, so now, there is no convincing her that she should not show this rabbit.

The show was held at Hutchinson, MN, the date was 5/27, the club was WeBe. The name of the French Angora is 7 Pine's Luna. The judges are Eric, Alyssa and Tex."

Katelyn with her Best In Show French Angora and Katie with her Reserve In Show Rex.

Baby Goat Feeding Time at WCC

When Eureka! Mohair Farm has baby goats, they are taken to the shows for bottle feeding.

There are always many volunteers who want to handle the baby goats at the feeding time. This young lady is having the time of her life getting to bottle feed the babies.

Linda Bell Receives Service Award

Linda Bell has been a judge for a long time. She was the first judge to have judged English Angora that was blown by a blower in 1989. So. CA show scene has its ups and downs but Linda is the constant in promoting rabbit shows. She not only judges, she also does show secretary work up and down in California. In a recent show at Fresno, her husband Stan Bell who is also a judge had a heart attack the day prior to the show. Linda went from the hospital to the showroom to perform her duty without skipping a beat.

During WCC, Allen reads a tribute to Linda thanking her for the dedication to the wonderful world of rabbits.

ARBA president Josh Humphries awards Linda the ARBA Service Award. From left to right are:
district 8 director David Moll, district 6 director Rusty Westoff, district 2 director Joe Lugo, Linda, ARBA vice president Randy Shumaker, ARBA president Josh Humphries and emcee Allen Mesick.
(Photo by Lindsey Vaught)