Keep's Rabbitry

Howdy from Kristen of Keep's Rabbitry! This blog was created as a way for me to talk about the happenings around my barn. Not to mention, all my rabbit friends seem to be doing it :). I guess it comes down to "if all your friends were jumping off a bridge, would you too?" to which I can now answer "Yeah, I guess I would". Though, considering my semi-sarcastic sense of humor, I would have said anyway. :D.

Keep's Rabbitry is newly located in the North Carolina Mountains. My husband Tim and I currently have 3 breeds- Jersey Woolies, known as "the fluff of the fancy", Mini Lops, gentle semi-giants, and Holland Lops, who I think have to be the prissiest breed on Earth.

My rabbitry also houses 2 Rhode Island Red chickens (one of whom escaped the pen today and caused an uproar among the rabbits), as well as my black otter mixed breed rabbit Scout. He started it all- and I guess I should end this blog with my beginning.

I have had several rabbits over the years- my first being a little lop ear my mom brought home from her job and the last rabbit of my childhood being a chinchilla colored psychotic "up ear" doe from the pet store. After Babs, the up ear, I swore I'd never have another rabbit. Nevermind Thumper, Whiskers, and various other hand-me-down rescues- Babs was crazy enough I had no desire for more rabbits.

Years later, I was in college at UNC-Chapel Hill (GO HEELS!- sorry..it's required) and my then-boyfriend now-husband Tim and I headed back to Burlington for my mom's birthday dinner. We happened to stop at the same pet store I got Babs from, and what did I see? You guessed it- tons of little baby bunnies hopping around. One really stood out though- instead of running to cower in the corner of the cage as we approached, this little one stood up on the bars of the cage and tried to lick my hand. Now what's a girl to do? We were heading to dinner, so I left the baby there.

At dinner, I told my mom about the bunny, and somehow talked her in to buying it for me! (Yes, at her birthday dinner, I'm so bad). Tim and I left the dinner in a rush, I couldn't bear the thought that someone else might buy my rabbit! Not to mention, I had Tim so caught up in the excitement, he'd forgotten he said I couldn't have a pet at his apartment (dorms being so unreasonable about furry friends). I ran to the back of the store with 15 minutes to closing time- and there it was, happy to see me. Thus, Scout came in to my family. We had a bit of a drama naming him, but as this blog is already overly long, I'll save that for another day.

We decided a few months later to add a little holland lop gal, as a friend for Scout and a rabbit for Tim. We never had the intentions of breeding the two- in fact, Scout is neutered. I'm a big believer in not breeding animals to create mutts. Little did we know, Wicket would turn out to be insane. She was, however, our first link to showing.

I purchased the book "Rabbits for Dummies"- a great read, by the way. It was in this book I first heard about showing. We hauled Wicket to a nightshow in a large dog carrier. She placed 10 of 12 and I was tickled- a Top 10 finish I told my new found friend Sam Bright. We later discovered Wicket was a horrible representation of the breed- and an unshowable color to boot! However, at this show I bought 2 more hollands, a buck and a doe, and won a buck off the Raffle. Keep's Rabbitry had begun.

I'll leave for another day how we came to have three breeds-and don't worry, you'll find out all about my first four holland lops.

Thanks for reading :).

-Kristen