Remember When: Angora National in 1986

The Angora National Show was held at Puyallup, WA in conjunction with the WA State Convention in June 1986.  This was the first time that I ventured out of CA to an out-of-state show.   Hubby had to accompany me as I did not have the nerve to drive some 830 miles by myself.   I entered 4 English Angoras, all tort, one senior buck, one senior doe, one junior buck and one junior doe.   The senior buck Chu's Danny Boy was the sire of the tort junior doe.   The senior doe was Chu's Erica that won my first Best In Show in 1985, coming back with her second coat.   I cannot recall the name of the junior buck, or I did not name him before he went to another breeder.  The junior doe was Chu's Vanessa in this photo with judge Cindy Wickizer.   Giant and Satin Angoras were yet to be recognized in 1986.  With only two breeds, there were about 400 Angoras in the national, about 250 were English Angoras and 150 French Angoras.   The colored classes were huge, from 30-50 in each class. 

The left is Chu's Erica who had won my first Best In Show in 1985, coming back with a second coat. The right is Chu's Vanessa who is a half-sister to Erica on the mother side.  She was 5 months old when the Angora National was held.   By the way, in case you wonder why the coats were not as big as what we see today, because (a) blower was not yet a grooming tool, the only tools were slicker brushes and combs; and (b) 1986 was still in the early stage of “English Revolution”, trying to breed out the molting genes.    

With about 250 English Angoras and not knowing anything about the stock of other breeders, I was totally surprised that my tort junior doe Vanessa won the Best In Show.   In this photo at the banquet,  I am wearing my basket weave red/beige sweater accepting the Best In Show trophy.   The two ladies on the podium are Judy Sullivan and Donna Peterson. These two ladies had each won an English Angora BOB at the ARBA convention: Donna Peterson won with a white senior doe "Texas Rose" in 1985 at Houston, TX and Judy Sullivan won with a black doe in 1986 at Columbus, OH.     These two ladies later became judges, we knew them as Judy Paris and Donna Brak when they each changed their marital status and started their judging careers.   They are now retired, I believe.   

Here is Vanessa with her Angora National Best In Show trophy.   Erica won the senior doe class but won over by Vanessa who won BOV, BOB then BIS, the junior buck won the junior buck class (can't recall whether he advanced or not).  Danny Boy who was in his second or third coat took 3rd place in his class.  My 4 rabbits won 3 classes out of 4 and advanced to Best In Show.  As this was the first time I took my rabbits out of state to compete and received great success, I gained more confidence.  The next year I went to my first ARBA convention at Portland in 1987.