Rabbit & Cavy News

The other day I learned that Gary Smith of Creek Haven Lops decided to sell out of his entire rabbitry.  Gary has been raising French Lops for 20 some years and has developed a successful line of colorful French Lops here in southern Wisconsin.

Although I will greatly miss seeing Gary at our area Wisconsin shows, I can understand why he’s decided to hang it up; with retirement looming he’s decided to take on some new interests.

If you are looking to add some quality rabbits to your herd, just starting out in French Lops or you are interested in cages, carriers or other equipment, contact Gary directly:

Gary Smith

Wisconsin: Cottage Grove

email

phone:  (60 837-8250

French Lops

Friday Madelyn is coming down from Minnesota to pick up our last two French Lops; Amber and Bacon.  We’ll try breeding Thunder to Amber in hopes that this cross will give Madelyn some nice rabbits - she’s had good luck with others from Thunder’s lineage….

After these two leave we will only have Thunder and Star left - well, I guess I should be clearer, they aren’t going anywhere! 

This will be an excellent time to powerwash cages and rearrange the rabbitry.  I’ll be selling two of the larger cages to free up some much-needed space - but I’d like to powerwash them first.

Signing off to do chores.  Can’t wait for some cooler weather!

Cathy

Yesterday, the first day of summer, I lingered in my rabbitry after I finished chores.  I looked around to the many empty cages and thought of all the different French Lops that had once inhabitated them.

Those very first rabbits from Creek Haven Lops - how Kelly was so excited when we brought them home!  Our first litter, which Kelly took out and played with for hours- feeling sure that every one of them was a grand champion!  Kelly’s first win with Creek Haven Janet.

Breeding, learning to identify faults and buying rabbits to correct those faults.  Kelly developed a natural eye for these large rabbits and became very accomplished at producing her own quality French Lops.

Our first significant win with her own-bred rabbit, Thunder, was memorable and so worth all the hard work that brought us that far!   The subsequent wins…rise in the points…more litters born….producing several more grand champions.

I never thought it would end so suddenly with Kelly!  She had always been such an ‘animal person’ and I never thought she would pass by her rabbits, so readily, for other interests!   She has decided to move ahead though and seems to have the ability to simply move on without looking back.  I wish I could do that so easily!

So here we are, with only Thunder and Star left as permanent residents, and only two more French Lops to sell.  Tons of empty cages.

After I get over the ‘finality’ of it all and get moving,  LaReau Lops & Cavies will go through another transformation.  I am not sure exactly which direction I’ll take, but I have no intentions of getting out of rabbits myself. 

I will always have the Hollands - no bones about it, they are permanent here and I’ll continue to breed but with more gusto, now that I have a lot of cages to play with!  My Polish endevour is still new to me, and I’ll keep trying with that breed to.  I may decide to pick up a new breed, perhaps a rarer breed.  Not sure. 

Our website will need a major overhaul too.  It is still painful for me to look at, so many memories and rabbits that were once here.  I’ll have to redo a lot.

Well, the one thing I am really looking forward to is getting back to rabbit shows, beginning this fall.  Now I can just pick up and go without so much work!  I really am excited about this…….

Well, have a great weekend everyone

Cathy LaReau 

Hi everyone, here is a quick update about LaReau Lops & Cavies.

It is finally going to happen - Kelly is selling out of her French Lops!  A few years ago I would have never thought this could happen, with the way she loved those big ole rabbits, but high school has really been a busy time for Kelly, plus she is making plans for college next year.  We knew the rabbits were going to go next year for certain, but I was a little dismayed when she decided to sell out now instead of waiting another year.

I will be keeping at least a few of these large creatures; Thunder is staying for sure - he is retired now and I can’t imagine our rabbitry without the ‘big gouti’ there.  There are a couple more I am thinking of keeping, and perhaps I’ll show a few down the road. 

Kelly has two litters from this past winter that haven’t even been shown yet and many look pretty nice.  

We’ll be getting pictures and info posted to our website by the end of June.  It was our wish to be able to attend a rabbit show or two in June, to bring along and sell her herd, but with my son’s graduation, other family graduations and all the other end-of-year stuff going on, we can’t get away!

Because of this busy schedule, I will be unable to meet with people or even respond to emails in detail, until the third week in June or even later.  Sorry!

It looks like I will be the only family member showing rabbits from now on - oh well, I think this will be a lifelong hobby for me; I can see myself doing this for years and years! 

My recent Polish litters are so funny - the youngsters are quick little characters.  I let each out on our large carpeted table so they can run around and just get used to handling.  Each younster is quite a show off!  They buck, run, and all do the ’scared bunny’ thing, you know- where they run really fast, darting back and forth on the table as if they are being chased!  All the sudden they stop and for a brief moment they are statue-still before darting off bucking - I just love watching them!

I’ve only got two Holland babies right now, one seems to have some show potential, but the other already appears to be a larger brood type rabbit, hopefully it is a doe!  I’ll be breeding more Hollands this week hoping for litters before any bad heat spells hit.

Well that is all for now.  After graduations this June, I’ll be updating our main website within info on our sale French Lops, then I’ll begin working on all my other website projects again!

Cathy

Well it seems that it was so long ago that we finished up with our huge Badger Rabbit Breeder’s show, but in reality it was only a few short weeks ago!

During March and April of each year, my personal (or family) appointment books seems to just explode - all of the sudden spring high schools sports take off with a flurry of activities, rabbit shows heat up and just general chaos.  This year I have one graduating and getting ready for college, and one right behind him too, so I’ve been really busy!

Finally, we just got our  juniors tattooed today - a task I never look forward to even though it never turns out badly.  I just don’t like the idea of it so I tend to procrastinate as long as I can.  

Kelly’s last two litters of French Lops are looking nice - all finally getting their adult coats in.  A few are already nearing the top junior weight and still have a few more months to go in junior age.   Kelly thinks every single rabbit from both litters are all does! 

I have two Polish and one Holland bred - all due around mid-month.  I should of bred a few more Hollands along with this group, but wanted to treat everyone for coccidia so I decided to hold off till April.

Looks like we’ll miss all the rabbit shows in April; Jody has two out-of-town soccer tournaments in April, and the other two weekends are, well, Easter and then airsoft games.

May looks brutal also - I am hoping to make at least one show during May, or rather, I am determined to make at least one show!

Enjoy the weather while you can!  

This, being the first rabbit show of the year for us hardy Wisconsinites, is always an exciting one!  Bitter cold, as usual, how could we expect anything different? 

We got to the show about 6:45 so we could get a decent spot in the ‘cold room’  (the attached cattle stall barn that is unheated), somewhat near the warmth of the main showroom. 

Only Kelly and I went today - Jody stayed home nursing a cold.  Turns out this was a great decision anyways - Kelly’s French Lops were all finished by 11:30 today and we didn’t have to wait around to show Jody’s Hollands as it usually turns out.  I think this is the earliest we’ve ever gotten home from a rabbit show.

This show is held in a fairly small building and is always tremendously crowded, but I think there were fewer people this year than in the past.  Navigating through the crowds just seemed a lot easier for some reason. 

Kelly only brought 6 French Lops to show, and one was coming because her new owner was picking her up at this show.  This group of French Lops just turned senior so they were at a bit of a disadvantage competing against more mature seniors, but Kelly’s rabbits did well anyways.  Her senior broken buck, LaReau’s Bacon, won his class, best opposite of variety and went on to win Best Opposite Sex, so this was exciting and I thought unexpected (well at least according to me, if you ask Kelly, she’ll tell you he’s a really nice rabbit….and who am I to know this?)

It is always wonderful to see all our rabbit friends and rabbit people again after the long winter and holiday season - my gosh how the youth breeders change from year-to-year!  I am starting to feel old or something.

Well I am off to get caught up on some rabbit chores here.  Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

 Cathy

What a crazy week this has been!  First of all, we had the arrival of our new computer, thanks to my friend Robert up in Alaska.  I’ve spent a couple days now setting it up and tweaking things so it is the way I like it - and boy, is this thing fast!  I didn’t realize my other computer was such a dinosaur until this arrived!  Well I now have no excuse to begin working on the websites again, that is, when I can squeeze out some time……

Saturday there is an all-lop triple show in Rockford, Illinois that we were planning to go to, and of course, there is the Lakeland Rabbit Breeder’s Association show at Elkhorn, WI on Sunday. 

We are leaning towards just going to Elkhorn at this moment - my life seems to be busier than I can manage lately and right now I don’t want to be gone for both weekend days.  Kelly also was invited to play lasertag Friday night, of all things, and there is also a high school dance Saturday night that all three kids want to go to.  Who am I to argue?  Actually I am looking forward to working on the computer for at least some of the time the kids are gone.

When we narrowed it down to one rabbit show this weekend, we at first were going to go to Rockford just because it is a triple show, but Saturday is just not looking good for any of the troups to be semi-awake after the Friday late night lazer tag.  Oh well.

I can say that the Miller’s, who are purchasing Emily from Kelly on Sunday, are getting a top notch show doe - she is just awesome - and we even venture to say she could win a best in show the way she is put together.  I am sure the Miller’s will be happy with her.  Kelly is happy she is going to a good home, but also a little regretful of selling her I guess - after all, she’d make a good showing at this year’s ARBA convention!  We hope the Miller’s will show her and gather some good points with this lovely doe! 

Recently, I quit smoking, hopefully for the final time.  This past month has been absolutely brutal for me - I’ve lost every iota of ambition that I ever had and it has been difficult to concentrate on just about everything - hence the lack of updating or working on our other website The Rabbit & Cavy Directory as I had planned.  I’ll get around to it soon since now I have the computer at my disposal.

The cold snap continues here - I think it came with my computer from Alaska….LOL

Happy weekend to you all.

cathy

Today the Driers came to pick up Kelly’s buck, Pluto.  He is going to live in Michigan with the Driers - some very nice people who’ve been breeding English Spots for about 15 years, and just decided to start with French Lops.

Kelly was very pleased to have Pluto go with them - they seem as though they will really spoil Pluto, which of course Kelly loves to hear!

Good Luck with Pluto!

Just wanted to report that both French Lops, Emily and Pluto, have been spoken for already; Emily is going up north to live at the Miller’s, and Pluto is going to, I believe, Michigan after Lop Nationals in Illinois. 

I just haven’t had time to update our website - been so busy with some personal things. 

Finally, Kelly and I had some extra time to go through all her French Lops and update the French Lops For Sale page at our website http://www.lopsandcavies.com/

Kelly decided to keep LaReau’s Fudge a while longer - she cannot make up her mind about which buck to keep - Talon or Fudge……

She also has decided to sell LaReau’s Emily - a broken agouti doe.  This doe is very nice and should do a wonderful job for another youth exhibitor or if you’d like to add these bloodlines to your herd.  Emily has always placed 2nd, right behind her sister Erin, but we’ve observed judges having a hard time making up their mind between the two of them!

LaReau’s Pluto has really surprised us - Kelly had him listed for sale before but he didn’t sell - his junior pictures showed him as a rather plain buck.  We took him out today and looked him over and weighed him - geeez he just turned senior this month and he weighs 12 lbs, 6 oz!  He has developed nicely too and doesn’t appear as ‘flat’ as he used to.  If you are looking for a nice herd buck, Pluto should fit the bill nicely! 

Both these rabbits carry a dilute gene for sure - so either would be nice if you are looking to add some color to your current herd!

We also have two French Lop litters currently in the next box so I’m sure we’ll be updating the sale pages again come spring.

Hoppy New Year to all of you!