Bunnies at the Beach

Last week's rabbit show was a lot of fun, except that I didn't realize it was going to be in an open horse arena and the girls and I didn't dress for being semi-outdoors in the snow and wind.

Having the college student live with us is going pretty well. It helps that we like each other and get along well. :) The kids really like her, too.

She has been helping quite a bit with meal preparation and things like that. But mainly it's just nice to bless someone by sharing our home and helping meet needs. She is looking for a job, so if anyone knows of an opening in our area (or even just wants to hire a babysitter), she would love the opportunity to apply.

Right now I'm typing from a hotel on the coast, about 4.5 hours southwest of our home. DH and I decided to get a friend to stay with the kids and animals so we could make it a weekend away together.

I'll go to the rabbit shows, and he'll enjoy hanging out and relaxing on the beach and in our room. Then we'll have tomorrow evening to relax on the beach together, and Sunday morning we'll head home. We've always enjoyed long car rides together. Lots of time to talk, with few distractions.

DH found a very nice roadside inn, located about 30 minutes from the show in Sounds-Like-Abandoned by the Sea. The rooms are much nicer than your average motel room, tastefully decorated with amenities usually found in a suite rather than just a motel room.

Our rabbits haven't done too badly so far. We haven't won anything (well, a few best of class and one best of variety, but only one where we actually beat a rabbit entered by someone else--it's not quite as exciting to win best of variety when your rabbit is the only one in the contest. :) ) Even our rabbits who place low in the class are mostly getting good comments from the judge--it's just very stiff competition.

I went ahead and brought the mini satin doe who was supposed to kindle several days ago. After putting in the nestbox almost a week ago and seeing her cart hay around that day, and then nothing . . . nothing . . . nothing . . . I assumed it must have been a miss or reabsorption, and she wasn't going to have babies. But a more experienced breeder felt her for me and could feel babies in there, so she's just overdue.

Hopefully both she and the babies will be all right. I'm going to pull her out of tomorrow's show and leave her in peace to have her babies. I gave her a box with hay in it, and stuffed lots of extra hay in the biggest carrying cage for her.

My siamese junior doe kept thumping her feet at the judge tonight, so hopefully she won't get too grumpy by the end of the day tomorrow. The other rabbits seem to be doing well--eating fine, active and not showing signs of being too stressed out.

I'm so impressed with how kind and friendly everyone is at the rabbit shows, both judges and exhibitors. I'm learning a lot and having a great time.

And now, I need to go to bed so I can get up early for the show in the morning!