Northern California Angora Guild: 4/3/22

Bunny Tryouts - Everybody Wants to be a Bunny at Cadbury

Each year Cadbury chocolate selected an Easter Bunny. All sorts of animals want to be the Easter Bunny. These are the ten 2022 finalists:

There isn't one single real bunny on the list. Maybe we should work on getting some Angora into the competition next year?

The winner of the 2022 Easter Bunny is:

A Dog!

Tree Cutting

We have been living on this property for over 40 years. There were only a few old walnut trees when we moved here, all other trees were planted by us. These trees are now over 40 years old.

Some of the trees are not growing as we had wished. This huge pine tree is growing skew toward the driveway.

Some are growing so close to the house and rabbit barn that the pine needles are everywhere including but not limited to the gutters.

Though the shade is nice, the pine needles are no fun. With the drought, there is always the threat of fire. With heavy heart we decided to cut three of the big trees down.

Tree cutting is a profession that most of us cannot do, climbing and cutting at the height of some 30 plus feet in the air is not for the fainted heart.

Planting the trees 40 years ago was not very expensive, cutting them 40 years later is quite an expense.

Big logs from the 40-year-old trees, too bad we cannot find any use for them.

The workers collecting the logs and doing the final clean up.

The leftover of the 40-year-old tree provides a good resting place for a rabbit statue.

Even with a major cutting, there are still big trees left to provide a good shade for the rabbits.

Rabbit Production Book, 9th edition

The Rabbit Production book was the bible in the 80s about raising rabbits. The yellow one was the newest edition when I started, it was the 5th edition. Remember that there was no internet, all information were from books and articles. The orange copy was the following edition published a few years later.

This is inside the 5th edition. As we can see this book started in 1955!
From what I've read in the 5th and 6th edition, the material are quite academic, nothing about showing. Time flies and time changes. Now the book is in it's 9th edition!

There is a whole chapter of "Rabbit Shows".

There’s a photo from an ARBA convention.

Guess who is the primary writer for this chapter? Our Allen Mesick! Look at the photo used to illustrate showing, it's Allen juding our English Angora. Watching the judging are Pattee Singer, Carolyn Sawai and Casey Jones. And the photographer is Betty Chu. From the painting on the wall, we know that's Building 1 at the San Joaquin Fairgrounds in Stockton.

This page talks about judging and showing.

The photo is about meat pens.

About the clubs.

The registation application form.

The registration.

The other side of the registration showing three generations of lineage.

The reference and additional reading.

Rain Cloud Please Bring Rain

California is in a severe drought. Is this a rain cloud?

Looks like a rain cloud.

Sun is still visible, but we would really like to have some rain.

Day of Ouches - Vaccination Clinic at Aptos

One of Carol's chocolate agouti French Angora junior gets the antiseptic liquid on the body.

Then gets the shot. Ouch!

Gifta gets the shot. Gifta is the grandma of Carol's French Angora juniors. Chocolate agouti grandma and chocolate agouti grandkids.

English Angora sister gets the antiseptic liquid.

Ouch, the shot!

Another sister also gets the ouch!

Shyun's chubby Fuzzy Lop get her shot.

Another of Shyun's Fuzzy Lop getting ready for the shot.

All the buns actually behave well, they do not show any sign of distress from taking the shots, Dr. Kopley is skillful in doing the injections. It's the human mamas that are imagining the ouches more than the buns themselves.

This is not from the clinic but equally ouchy. Princess Imari gets her shot at Davis a couple days before the vaccination clinic at Aptos. Princess Imari got the domestic Medgene vaccine, so she will have to go back to get her second shot in three weeks. The European vaccine requires one shot while the Medgene is a 2-shot regimen.

The Last Vaccination Clinic with European Vaccine

After celebrating the St. Patrick's Day, sisters are ready to debut at shows. However, without RHD vaccination, it'd be a risky venture.

Luckily, our wonderful judge Chris Zemny still have 70 doses of European vaccines on hand so she arranged the last clinic that uses this imported vaccine. Due to the domestic vaccine Medgene's emergency approval in October 2021, no more imported vaccines are allowed. On top of the cage stand at the left corner are the two sisters waiting for their turn to be vaccinated. Alysia is an able helper to Chris.

Carol is chatting with the four people who are running the clinic, getting ready to start. Betty is taking photos. Left to right are Tessa, Alysia, Dr. Jeanne Koploy of Del Mar Vet Hospital at Aptos, Chris and Carol.

Dr. Jeanne Koploy is getting ready to start the vaccination. Tessa is helping to check the ear tattoos for vaccination paper work. The little bottle is antiseptic liquid, the vaccines are loaded in the syringes ready to be used.