Thursday, February 10, 2011

OH THE WEATHER OUTSIDE IS FRIGHTFUL, and rabbit news.

So, we live in the freezing cold tundra called OHIO. The weather this winter has been disastrous to say the least. We had freezing rain, then snow, then rain, then snow...oh when will summer come? I would take 30 degree weather at this point, because 8 degrees makes my nose hairs freeze inside my nose.

Well thanks to that freezing rain, I went to my new job and fell and almost broke my ankle. They said it was just sprained, but the jury is still out on that because as it heals, the pain increases and my toes and the bottom of my foot turns a darker purple. SO now I need to go see a specialist and make sure I didn't tear any ligaments or tendons...oh that makes me hurt thinking about it. On top of that everyone has had the flu...EXCEPT me! Whew, but of course everyone is sick and I have to lay on the couch with my foot propped instead of making home made soup, sanitizing, and babying everyone. Boo.

In the midst of all this craziness I have managed to sell all of my rabbits but two, and then acquire fresh ones. I just didn't have the right colors, to go with everything, so I decided to get rid of them, and we purchased the most beautiful, friendly and stoic rabbit named Sophia. She weighs in at a whopping 10lbs, she is a French Lop. She has one 4 best of breeds at the shows, so I am looking forward to breeding and showing her. I got her a friend named George, but he is to young to breed right now, but they will make wonderful babies when they do breed.
As for other rabbits, we were able to purchase some Mini Rex in phenomenal colors, of black, broken black, blue, lilac, and chocolate.
Last but not least we got a Giant Flemish rabbit we named Athena, she is a beautiful girl as well, and I have yet to pick up her counter part the lovely black buck. She has Grand Champions in her blood line so this will be interesting to see how she does at the shows. Our first show is Feb 27, and we are excited.

Recently we had a problem with a buck that wanted to be to aggressive and bit my daughter and I while we were trying to feed him. The woman I purchased him off suggested some ways to help show him who is boss, because he is trying to enforce dominance on us. So for those of you who ever run into this kind of problem I hope this method helps you. This is a direct quote from my 4H friend.


 flick his nose when he does that.  actually i would pull him out quick and put him in pose condition, flip him over play with his feet then in pose then back over and do that several times to let him know who the boss is.  I wouldn't tolerate that behavior.  I am so sorry.  he should learn to be respectful quick if you work with him a bit in a quick straight on fast way to get him in order. 
i had a rabbit get fidgety on me but they know they work harder when they are fidgety so they give in easier.  : )



It did work a little for me, but he was so overly aggressive I had to cull him. And for those of you who don't know, cull means to get rid of by selling or to kill. Well I don't have the heart to sell him to someone that will also probably get bit, nor am i able to kill him with my own hands. My lovely neighbor on the other hand has 7 dogs, and well needless to say they had a good exercise trying to catch that varmint. I know it sounds mean, but trust me after you get bit by a rabbit, and then he tries to box you like Muhammad Ali, the only thing you want to do is throw him to the wolves. At least I didn't make him into stew, and he's actually still out there, the dogs couldn't catch him.