English Angora First Coat? Second Coat?

There is a fallacy in understanding the English Angora coat.  Some insisted that the English Angora could be shown only in the first coat thus a "one coat wonder".  WRONG!   English Angora can be shown in more than the first coat and could win in shows.   As an interesting exercise, I cut a tort doe around the same time when a litter of tort babies were born.   I groomed the cut down tort doe Susanna and groomed the baby doe Augustina the same way in the next 8 months.   At the end of 8 months, I took photos of the two does together and one of the photos is posted here.   Can you tell which is which?  

In this photo, one tort doe is in her first coat at 8 months old and the other tort doe is in her second coat 8 months after her first coat was cut down.    Can you tell which is in her first coat and which is in her second coat?    And what's the reason for you to make such a decision?  

One of the two tort does being blow groomed.

 

The other one being blow groomed.

One won the BOB in show A at Dixon. 

The other one won BOB in show B at Dixon.

Carol's Cute French Angora Bunnies

Carol's 7 French Angora bunnies are growing really well.  

There are three chestnut agouti, three chocolate agouti and an opal.  Mom is a fawn and dad a chocolate agouti.   Genetically, Mom Shelby is a black based fawn so the B gene in chestnut comes from mom,  dad Dasher is a chocolate agouti that cannot carry the black gene G.   Both parents must have carried chocolate gene b to produce the chocolate agouti and both parents must have carried dilute gene d in order to produce the opal. The E gene required to produce all these babies must have come from dad Dasher as Shelby is a fawn that carries non extension gene ee. 
  

The opal. 

The opal.

The dark chestnut.  

The light chestnut.   Both the dark and light chestnut have the same color genetics, but the mysterious modifiers make the appearance darker or lighter.

The chocolate agouti.

With 7 in the litter, it's obvious that Carol cannot keep them all.  If you wish to add a cutie to your herd, contact Carol at hoploppitry@yahoo.com   
Both parents are grand champions.     I heard there are quite a few girls in the litter!

 

Aabel Wearing Sweater

Who is that?

It's Aabel who is so tiny after a haircut.   He is warm even without his own wool coat, he has a sweater on.

 

Covering Aabel's butt is the commercial yarn part of the sweater.  The middle part is quite fluffy, looks like it's from the French Angora yarn.  The collar part is a mix of commercial yarn and English Angora yarn.   

The sweater has a pretty good fit on Aabel.   Aabel is a good boy, he has worn this sweater for a day already, so far no damage.  Most does can keep the sweater on without much damage for quite a few days or even weeks, but some bucks would destroy the sweater in one day.

For instruction of how to use leftover yarns to make sweaters for cut down rabbits, go to:

Northern California Angora Guild: Making Sweaters for Rabbits (ncag.blogspot.com)

 

Carol Has a Great Day at Dixon

Carol wasn't too sure whether she would enter her opal junior doe in the show.   Isabella is still young and she would be the only junior in the French Angora breed.

Isabella is young but Isabella is mighty.   Guess what? Isabella won over all the big boys and big girls in show A to receive the Best of Breed.    

Isabella won BOV in show B and receives the second leg. Carol's white senior doe Samantha won over Isabella to be awarded BOB.   

First time out, Isabella is already a 2 legger, only need a win in the senior class to be a grand champion.   

Carol's main breed American Fuzzy Lop did even better, this is the winner of the Best In Show in show A.

Another of Carol's Fuzzy beauty.

 

Betty Blow Grooming English Angora

When the wool exhibitors go to shows, all use their blowers to blow groom.  It's hard to take selfies when grooming so we don't see pictures of the frantic activities of grooming much.   At Dixon, Carolyn came to visit.   She takes the best pictures.  Thanks to Carolyn, Betty gets pictures of her rabbits being blow groom.

Betty blow grooming Augustina. 

Betty blow grooming Susanna.

Betty blow grooming Auston.

Betty takes some lose wool out of Auston.

 

Casey Receives the NARBC "President's Award"

The 2021 NARBC President's Award announced, Casey is a recipient.  

Congratulations to Casey for doing a great job for the Angora Club.    The award is a beautiful blanket with the four breeds of Angora.

 

National Angora Rabbit Breeders Club started this award in 2018. Betty received it in 2019:

Northern California Angora Guild: NARBC President's Award (ncag.blogspot.com)

 

Show B Best In Show Judging at Dixon

Show Best In Show judge is Uno Kivi.  Some of the exhibitors have left after the show A judging.  There are lesser BOB winners on the table for judge Uno to choose from.

The BOB English Angora and BOB French Angora are on the back table.  

Judge Uno takes the English Angora out of the coop.

Judge Uno poses the English Angora.

The shiney Satin Angora is being considered.

The BIS winner goes to Kelly's New Zealand.  This is one of Kelly's very early shows.  Husband Arian photo bombs.