I had a good time. Always great to see friends I don't see very often. I delivered rabbits, but didn't sell any that weren't presold. This show is usually good for day sales but not this day.
Came home with one I didn't plan on. Isn't that how it always goes? A friend loaned me a real nice himi buck. I just happen to have a doe or two that he can have right away. Chevelle's litter is about 4 weeks and she's in good condition so she'll get him sometime this week. I think that will be a good match. I need more diversification in the himi lines. They're getting a bit tight, but not at the point where line-breeding would be a good idea. I might even toss him a broken doe for his type.
I headed out a bit earlier than I usually manage for this show. I've always miss-timed it and get there after the showroom and parking lot are already crowded. I was there plenty early enough. The drive down was easy and I made good time. Coming home was another thing. It was a drizzly dreary day, and it began raining for real when I got on the x-way and it didn't stop. That slowed me down a lot. I didn't get home until after dark and I unloaded the rabbits in the rain.
I only had AOVs so I had a lot of free time. The show moved along pretty fast, this one is run very well, but the agouti and tan pattern classes were big as usual. We had good dwarf judges, but results were all over the map. It was very cool that Show B was taken by himi (not mine) and smoke pearl. I'm always happy to see something other than otters win. Show A I think was otters, Show C was otter and siamese sable. Like I said...all over the place.
How'd I do? Dotson got the BOG leg in C. Yay, finally someone appreciated him. My friends thought he was real contender. He was up against a very typey broken smoke marten sr buck who was borderline for over 50%, and took it in A and B. We had Jamie Green in C and his is the opinion I respect the most when it come to brokens. He DQ'd 2 bucks for over 50%, which left Dotson standing, and he showed himself very well.
I don't think I got any other legs, although Judge B really liked Chevette. I wish now I had entered her as the jr she is. She's only a couple oz over, and I doubt any of the judges would have questioned her weight. She doesn't look big. But I was being ethical. That judge did knock her down for condition. She had been rooming with Dreamspinner and I didn't notice until 2 days ago that DS had yanked a patch of fur off Chevelle's back. They're separated now.
I got the legs for the Spartanburg show, and Cirocco and Dreamspinner each earned one. Neither is likely to come out again, though. DS is broody with a rather heavy pattern and already well over jr weight. CC is probably going to breeding very soon. I'll get a couple litters out of CC for her pattern and HQs, but since she's an otter, I'll move her on as soon as I've proven her.
In other news:
Why do I never have the camera when I need it? There was the coolest scenario Friday while I was out getting things ready for the show. There's a yard bunny who is getting braver. He will now come up and chin my shoes, and he isn't afraid of the dogs. Whipper I'm not worried about, he won't bother him. I have to keep an eye on Tanner so he doesn't chase too hard. He's pretty good about listening to me.
At one point as I was going into the barn, both Tanner and the bunny were right there with me. We stood in a close triangle for a minute or so and just stared at each other. I went into the barn and then saw something I wish I had the camera for. Tanner was sitting as straight up as physically possible. Front legs tight to his body, and his neck was curved like an Arabian horse with his eyes and ears trained so hard on the rabbit I could see the tension. The bunny was about 18" from his front feet. And there they stood for several minutes, not moving anything other than an occasional ear flick. Then Tanner broke the spell when he tried to move his head closer to the rabbit. I think he just wanted to touch noses or something. The bunny bounced off and Tanner followed, but he wasn't chasing. I was fascinated watching that little drama.
Damn, still raining hard. It's been real bad and there's a lot of flooding in the area. The bottom of my yard is real soggy. There's was quite a bit of wind the last couple days and I hoped it would dry it out some. Doesn't look like that's going to happen for a while.
13 Days until Spring!
tnt
