A judging hiccup at Convention

Judging started on Sunday this year, which was new and different.  Woolies were slated to go up at 8am, so we all made arrangements to get to the showroom about that time.  Since I had no Agoutis or AOVs, I was able to shoot to arrive slightly later than some of the other folks.

I ran a brush through one of my woolies and then I was happily done grooming.  I love easy care coats!

Around this time, it became obvious that no woolies were going on the tables!  Unfortunately, though woolies had been scheduled to go up as one of the first breeds, we weren't assigned a table.   It reminded me strongly of the trouble the Hollands had in Minnesota the year before.

We waited around, twiddling our thumbs, unsure as to whether we would go up that day or if we would be bumped back to Monday.   We finally got word we'd have a table as soon as the fuzzy lop people were finished- which ended up being right at 3pm.  Eurgh!

Our judges were troopers and judged as quickly as they could, but around 8pm they had to call it a night.  After all, they had also been up early and had been on their feet all day, unlike those of us who were able to find chairs at various points through the day.

Our traveling buddy ended up having to write for Rhinelanders and while they had been tentatively scheduled to go up at noon, they also didn't actually hit the tables until 3pm.  They did finish on Sunday night, but it wasn't until 10pm!  The Rhinelanders had their own hiccups, which I won't go in to as I wasn't there and can't accurately relate what happened.  I ended up helping write out the placement awards for the Rhinelanders, once the woolies were done.

We left the showroom late, as one of the last sets of people out the doors.  Unfortunately, I had to return the next morning at 8am so woolies could finish up on the table.  We were late getting to the showroom and my last class, Shaded Junior Does, was already up.  I'm so thankful that a friend of mine, Cathie, was looking out for me and made sure my doe's cage tie was clipped and she was on the table.  I would have been extremely upset if I had missed that class!   Keep's Muse, my little sable point, took 6th.

The self group had not yet had the group winners chosen, since one judge had to finish up self junior bucks the second day.  I was dismayed to see that Puzzle, who had won the Self Senior Doe class, was blowing her woolcap! It really gave up between judging Sunday and Monday.  However, she still took BOSG and nearly took BOSB as well.

It was a bit frustrating, knowing we had gotten up early and rushed to the showroom, only to spend 7 hours wandering around or twiddling our thumbs. It was even more frustrating knowing that this mistake meant there was no chance to catch up on sleep the next day and another 3 1/2 hours were going to be spent watching judging.

In the end, all the rabbits were judged though.  I guess that's all that matters.

-Kristen
Keep's Rabbitry