Carol's Beautiful American Fuzzy Lop

At the Portola Valley show, all six wool breeds are present.   The six wool breeds are: English Angora, French Angora, Giant Angora, Satin Angora, American Fuzzy Lop and Jersey Wooly.

The English Angora and French Angora are the "original" wool breeds, accepted by the ARBA as far back as in the 1940s.  The Satin Angora was accepted in 1987, Giant Angora in 1988.  In the same 1988 convention, American Fuzzy Lop and Jersey Wooly were also accepted by the ARBA.     

Interestingly enough, both American Fuzzy Lop and Jersey Wooly have French Angora in their background.   According to the American Fuzzy Lop national club website:

"The background of the American Fuzzy Lop is interwoven with the history of the Holland Lop. When first introduced, the Holland Lop rabbit was only available in solid colors, and some breeders wanted to add the broken pattern to the Holland Lop gene pool. To do this, they bred their Holland Lops to English Spots. While they achieved the goal of producing broken pattern rabbits, they failed to keep the rollback fur the Holland must have. The offspring instead had the flyback fur of the English Spot. The breeders then bred Holland Lops to French Angoras, a breed that has a very gentle rollback coat. The result of these manipulations was that the wool gene was also introduced into the Holland Lop gene pool and a Holland with long wool was occasionally found in Holland Lop litters. These were generally sold to people who were enchanted with a small wooled lop-eared rabbit."

As for Jersey Wooly, it was originally considered as a miniature sized French Angora so that the pet people can handle it better that the large French Angora.  Over the years, the image of a miniature French Angora is no longer the ideal, today's Jersey Wooly resembles a wooled Netherland Dwarf.

The above photo is taken by Christine, rabbit owned by Carol.  Carol's American Fuzzy Lop is ranked #1 in the nation. Carol will very much like to promote and help those who are interested in the American Fuzzy Lop.  If interested, Contact Carol at hoploppitry@yahoo.com