I have redone the about us section of my rabbitry website about a dozen times over the years. I have never been fully happy with the end results. How much do I say? What is too much? How much is too much? What is too little? I always seem to begin at the beginning with my first rabbit and then my second rabbit and so forth. I could create a time line and graph my progress over the years and the additions of the breeds and varieties to the herd. But I find that kind of boring.
So I suppose I’ll just say that the beginning was small and it has grown into much more than I had ever imagined.
As a kid I had a love for animals that was clearly demonstrated in my art, writing and just plain imagination. I became obsessed with horses and begged for a horse from my parents. We were city slickers and I finally figured I was never going to get my horse. It was about this time that my interest in the rabbits really blossomed. In essence I replaced my longing for a horse with my ability to raise rabbits. I could have my rabbits in town and they were within the means of my and my family’s finances.
My first rabbit was a Dutch from a pet store called The Pet Ranch. Incidentally the Pet Ranch recently closed its doors. Viva La Pet Ranch, thanks for selling me my first two bunnies. Anyway, the first rabbit was a Tortoise Dutch doe, Carmella. Memory fades, but I think I was going into First or Second grade it was summertime 1982 or 1983. I think we had her grand total of 3 months. She was a sweet heart. She survived daily handling from all the neighborhood kids, took a few swims in the wading pool and was then eaten by the neighbor’s cat right before school started.
The next rabbit was a planned event. I was going to be a 4-Her. I didn’t know what that was but I knew that is what I was going to be. My mom said so. She was a 4-Her and I was going to be one too. I needed a rabbit to show in 4-H. Back to the Pet Ranch we went. I remember picking out the rabbit. There were only two there. Both Chocolate Dutch, (not that I knew that at the time, pet store claimed they were Dwarf Dutch) One was male one was female. I picked the female. She was soon named Charrcoal.
Now, Carmella’s hutch was outside in the back yard, and that is why she was eaten by the Cat. I lobbied for an indoor cage so the new rabbit wouldn’t be eaten. Dad built her a nice cage with a wire floor and a pull out cat liter box for easy cleaning. Dad was very good at building things. When it was discovered that the ‘damn rabbit’ was peeing out the wire sides of the cage, dad took 2x4’s and made his version of urine guards. All of this on his own never having read a book on raising or caring for rabbits. My dad is a smart man. J Charrcoal lived inside that winter and then it was decreed that the ‘damn rabbit’ was going to get an outside hutch because she stinks.
Somewhere in there I showed her in 4-H at the Polk County Fair. She received a blue ribbon. My now good friend, Brent Rice was the Judge. He said, “This is a very well kept Dutch”.
The first winter that my rabbit had to stay outside, my dad and I built a stall like enclosure in the garage and filled t with straw to keep the rabbit warm. Thinking of it now, it was pretty neat. The rabbit really enjoyed being on the floor and digging, scratching and pushing all that straw around. I don’t remember cleaning that pen at all, so I ‘m sure I didn’t clean it until spring. Then, maybe dad cleaned it out when it was warm again.
My parents weren’t getting along, Mom’s dad died, mom’s mom had a stroke, I can’t remember the details or the order of these events, but they lead me to the next step. When going through the house my Mom grew up in, I found a metal frame with wire covering it. ½ by ½ hardware cloth. Rabbit wire. This could be used to make hutches, as in plural. I could get another rabbit. Now, to convince Dad that this was a good idea. It took some time.
Dad finally bought the hutch idea. He built it with a removable partition to separate my doe, from the not yet purchased buck. There were exterior nest boxes on both sides of the hutch. These were to keep the rabbit warm in cold weather. They really served more to provide the rabbit a place to hide when I tried to get her out of the cage.
Now, I know my memory is a bit hazy because I don’t remember the chain of events. I received my 4-H rabbit materials. They were free back in the day and were actual reference materials, not the activity booklets the kids get now. I read that rabbit book every night before bed. I kept it in my night stand. I stared at the pictures of all those exotic breeds like the Flemish Giant, the Belgian Hare, the Angora, and the Heavyweight Chinchilla. Almost all the breeds were posed in what we today would call a stretched out pose. I thought they all looked so incredibly regal and beautiful. Black and white photos. Solid information about picking out healthy rabbits. What to feed them. How to house them. How to palpate, how to breed, how to sex, how to wean. All the basic information in this free book! It talked about a group of people that started a club to promote rabbits. They called it the ARBA- the American Rabbit Breeders Association. I was in heaven. I read it like a religion every night and dreamt of belonging to the American Rabbit Breeders Association. Did I mention that I had a particularly active imagination? I kept harassing my mom to let me join this Rabbit Club. She kept saying, yeah, yeah we will. I just kept pressing her please, please let me join. Finally… I had filled out the membership application a dozen times and collected the dollars it was to cost to join and said “mom please can I join?” one last time and I remember riding in her car to the grocery store to buy a stamp to mail in my dues to become a member of the ARBA. It was 1987. Soon, my mail box was filled with ARBA materials, guidebooks, yearbooks, domestic rabbits magazine. It was a dream come true! The ARBA guide to successfully raising better rabbit sand cavies was my bible! I read it every day. I think I had it memorized by the end of the week. It had even more photos and descriptions of more exotic breeds. I soaked up that information like a sponge. I was a rabbit breeder I was a member of the ARBA.
This was completely independent of actually having successfully raised a litter of rabbits of course.
I had bought a beautiful Blue Dutch buck and named him Cody. He came from another 4-Her in my own county. He had a blaze, but was still severely tied. No matter! The books said that two mismarked Dutch could produce winners! I was going to make my own winners. My Dutch doe refused to raise babies. I tried and tried and tried. She had no interest in making a nest, no interest in feeding the young, no interest in being a mother. After several unsuccessful attempts, we saved one of Charrcoal and Cody’s babies, a black. He was raised on KMR kitten milk replacement formula. My mom took him to work every day with her and fed him on her breaks. She worked at Richman Gordman and the baby grew to be a store favorite. They called him RG Gordie. I despised that name. I settled for RG. But with the help of my mom and the entire Richman Gordman Store, I had now successfully raised a rabbit. I was a rabbit raiser. Full Fledged.
Around that time, I had been reading more and more about a different breed of rabbits. A small breed. The smallest breed. The Netherland Dwarf. I had seen them at the State Fair. They were very special rabbits. Very small, but formidable looking with their stocky bodies and short ears. I wanted to raise Netherland Dwarfs. I set out to find some Netherland Dwarfs. They were not a common as they are now especially in my area. Dara Queck was our county rabbit co-superintendent and she raised Netherland Dwarfs. I called her on the phone and made arrangements to come over and look at her Netherland Dwarfs. Dara had the Dwarfs in the basement. Stacking cages with drop pans. It was such a neat set up. I saw REW’s, Smokes and a Siamese Sable. She had only one rabbit for sale. DQ87. A Siamese Sable Senior Buck with 3 and ½ white toenails. He was $10.00. I bought him. I had a Netherland Dwarf. I WAS SO EXCITED. He had a pedigree, full three generation pedigree.
Dara and Steve Queck are great people. They have 3 beautiful daughters and a wonderful son. Their youngest two kids were not even born at the time I went to look at these Dwarfs. The Quecks later moved on from rabbits into bigger livestock and out of the Des Moines area. We see them every year at the State Fair. I will always be grateful for their help and start in purebred rabbits.
Now my quest was to find a Netherland Dwarf Doe.
I attended the Open Class Rabbit Show at the Iowa State Fair that summer (1988) and met Kenny Nelson, Darrell & Joy Bramhall, Carol Gillott, Judith Graf. They knew I was looking for a Siamese Sable Dwarf doe for 4-H. Carol Gillott had Sable Martens and Sable Points. (Back then color genetics were much less well known so I was advised against these color choices) The Bramhalls had a mismarked Sable doe (looking back now this was probably a Vienna Marked) and Kenny had a very nice Siamese Sable doe. I looked her over carefully. No white toenails, no bad teeth, very good type in my inexperienced eyes (looking back now with more seasoned eyes, she still had very good type) short ears, round face. PERFECT! $50.00. I only had $40. I asked my mom If I could buy her she unceremoniously said NO WAY that is way too much for ‘just’ a 4-H rabbit. I still remember having to tell Kenny that my mom said no it was too much for a 4-H rabbit. I knew in my heart that that was a bad decision and I should have bought that doe. $50.00 was a bargain. I often think how much that doe may have helped my Dwarf project if I had purchased her. Oh well, so is life! We learn from our mistakes. I was only 12 years old and $50.00 was a lot of money.
Now here my memory fades a bit too. I can’t remember which came first, the Dark Sable doe from Gerry Weaver, or the Smoke Pearl Doe from Colorado? I think it was the Sable doe. But I can’t remember when I bought her. Gerry Weaver and his daughter Haley lived in Omaha. I bought this doe from him; I think it was at the Council Bluffs RBA show in some small town in western Iowa by Council Bluffs. She had decent type, good head, short ears and very dark color. T4 was her ear number, I named her Tina. (Like Tin-a, soft vowels like tin the metal and a as in alone) I remember her having a baby by Smokey (DQ87) and it was a Sable doe and it died at about 10 weeks old. Very sad. In fact it seems like most of our early Dwarf babies does before they were 3 months old. L
I know we made another trip to Omaha to Gerry Weaver’s house to buy some rabbits later that year. My brother got a Smoke buck he named Randy I got a Sable buck I named Benrill, and a Smoke doe that got wry neck a few days later. Sad again.
The next summer right after the county fair, my mom, brother and I took a family trip to Colorado. We were there visiting my mom’s brother and family, but I was on a bunny hunt. I had my ARBA yearbook, and I called a few people looking for Dwarf Does. One person gave me the name of a lady that had dwarfs and probably some for sale. I called her and we went over to look at the bunnies. She had a really neat set up outside in the back of her antique store. Stacking cages Dwarfs in lots of colors! I saw Chestnut agoutis, REWs some thing I didn’t even know what they were. She had one Smoke Pearl doe for sale. An older doe had raised litters, had 2 arba legs. I was sold! $35.00. Barnes Moonbeam. I immediately nicknamed her Booger. I still really don’t know why. We took Booger home from Colorado when the week was over and she ended up raising a couple really nice litters for me bred to DQ89 Smokey Twister. One offspring was a REW buck named Zazion. He won my very first BOB and Runner up 4 Class in an ARBA show!
Later that year I had contacted Gerry Weaver again about buying a brood doe. He had a nice sable doe that he would sell to me bred to one of his bucks. YAY! I was so excited. Kenny Nelson had a couple super nice Siamese Sable Bucks that were consistently winning BOB’s I wish I could remember the ear numbers on those two bucks, but I can’t. Anyway, Gerry Weaver had bought one of the bucks from Kenny or traded or whatever and the doe I bought was bred to that buck. She ended up having one baby I think and it was a dark Sable buck.
I had a total of 10 cages at that time. Dad had built two 4 hole hutches and I had a double compartment all wire cage in the garage. Dad had decreed “no more hutches! This is IT”.
Because I was SO limited on cage space I had to cull very hard, too hard. I basically couldn’t keep any offspring if I wanted to keep the parents. I had gotten rid of all my Dutch rabbits and was only working on Dwarfs. My brother Andy was showing as well. One bad thing about the Dwarfs at that time was that they were very unthrifty. I don’t know if it is the better feed we have available now, or that we have culled for health and vigor, or a combination of things, but Dwarfs today are a 100 times healthier than they were in the 80’s & 90’s. Like I said earlier, many of our babies died before they were 3 months old.
These were what I refer to as the Pre-Otter days. Otters were not a recognized variety yet. But I LOVED them. I wanted Otters SO BADLY. I had attended a rabbit show in Central City Iowa which is kind of by Cedar Rapids and traded my Old Smoke doe Booger for a Mini Rex since we were dabbling in Mini Rex at that time. They were either just recognized or almost recognized by ARBA. Anyway, the man that took my Smoke doe was none other than Larry Long of Davenport, Iowa. He not only had Otters, but he had TANS. I chatted with him looked at his rabbits and told him I was looking for Otters. He told me to check back with him in a couple months and he would have some available. Oh I was so excited. This guy was amazing. He knew so much about the relatively unknown world of GENETICS. A couple months later I rode to a show in the Quad Cities with Brent Rice to pick up my pair of OTTERS from LARRY LONG. I was so excited. I couldn’t wait to see them.
The doe was pretty nice, the buck was so-so. I remember Larry telling me that if the buck didn’t develop into anything worth keeping he would replace him with a different one. I named the doe Dacia and the buck became Hey Squirrelly because was so hyperactive. We showed them at the fair and then Squirrelly got snuffles. I put him down and told Larry I needed another buck.
Really from that point on, the words, “the rest is history” seem fitting. Larry became my mentor and through him I met Bob Pettit. They gave me love and support and something immeasurable, knowledge. They shared their knowledge with me. For no gain other than the friendships forged. We traded rabbits, breedings, equipment. Every time I saw Larry he always said to me “Do you need anything?” I always took it as the literal, do you need any rabbits, what colors are you working on, but it really meant more than that.
I spent hours in his barn looking over his ‘genetics projects’ as he called them. Things people see as novel these days, I saw over a decade ago in Larry’s Barn. Larry’s wife Lolly though the Dwarf Hotots were cute. So he made some. She swept the classes that year at ARBA Convention. Look it up if you don’t believe me. J Through my friendship with Larry and Bob I got to know Mike Wardlow. I always felt it was such a privilege to be able to visit Mike’s Barn and see more good Dwarfs and Hollands per square foot that anywhere else possibly on earth.
I spent as much time with these people as possible in my teenage years and early 20’s. I learned so much from them. I learned that knowledge in practice is the best kind of knowledge.
In the last few years our visits have been less frequent. Usually limited to the Iowa State Fair, The Des Moines Pigeon Show and National Conventions. Busy lives seem to fill up the spaces where friendship should. We have stayed in touch via emails and the ever present fun of the yahoogroups like showbunny. People get busy with life and time has a way of just speeding right by. I regret not spending more time with my beloved friend in the past few years. But I’ll never forget the memories! I think of YOU every time I see a Dwarf Rabbit and I know you know that is true!
So that is a not so brief history of my Dwarf Endeavour. I have so many more things I would love to extrapolate on. Maybe I will fill in some blanks as I get time.
