Happy Hoppy St. Patrick’s Day 2026

 Northern California Angora Guild 

Wishes Everyone 

A Happy Hoppy ☘️!

Sceneroom Scenes at San Jose

The much anticipated Santa Clara County Rabbit and Cavy Shows March show has arrived.  

We are sharing photos of showroom scenes.

Rabbits stayed in the building overnight, exhibitors arrange their carriers on high stands.

Exhibitors are putting rabbits on the judging table.

On another table, Angoras are waiting to be judged.

Even though this is quite a big show with 9 judges on Saturday and 6 judges on Sunday, the showroom stll look sparse because this is one of the largest venues used for rabbit shows.  It's 45,000 sq. ft., larger than an acre that is 43,560 sq.ft..

Satin Angoras are on the table with judge Ray Stacy examining them

We have visitors from Thailand, Mr. and Mrs. Bart.  Bart is working on his ARBA judge's license, Saturday is his first "assist" and Sunday the second "assist".  He needs to pass 8 assists to be granted the license.   His wife video tapes the entire process.

 

Baby Growth Condos

We saw the indoor maternity ward for Princess Ga Ga and Raelynne in yesterday's post.  After a week or so, the two mama does are back to their condos in the barn, but babies stay inside.  When babies are old enough to jump out of their nestbox, I turn the maternity ward into a baby growth condo.  Here are Princess Ga Ga's three babies.  They have a "bed" that they can jump in and out to exercise and to drink water and eat.   Their nestbox is barely visible on the right side, I use the nestbox to bring the babies to Princess Ga Ga at nursing time.

This is a closeup of Princess Ga Ga's three babies in their bed.

Raelynne's babies are put into a large carrier, they also have a bed to hop in and out.

Raelynne's three babies.

It's very cute to see them exploring their surroundings and tasting food and water.

 

Indoor Maternity Ward

I don't breed much, each mama and each litter is precious to me.  
I set up inside cage or cages for possible pregnant does to keep an eye on them.
This arrangement is beneficial in many ways: (a) I don't have to go to my barn in the middle of the night to check whether babies are born, (b) The babies won't be chilled in case the mama rabbit does not cover them well, (c) In case the mama rabbit has difficulty in kindling, I can jump in to help.  Here is a case in point: Northern California Angora Guild: A Miracle Birth

I have bred two does: white doe Princess Ga Ga and tort doe Raelynne, and both have babies.  It was a very happy and surprised moment for me for both to come through with litters.

Princess Ga Ga at the top and Raelynne on the bottom both are nursing their babies.

This is Raelynne's litter of 3, one white and two tort.

This is Princess Ga Ga's litter of 3: two white and a chocolate tort.

 

Mac and Mutley 1986 Video

 

On February 15, I posted a few screenshots of a 1986 video that my rabbits and I did
in a program called "Mac and Mutley": 

Northern California Angora Guild: Mac and Mutley, Memory from 40 Years ago

I did not post the video itself, I could not get the video to upload to this blog site.  My wonderful hubby signed up for a YouTube account and uploaded it.   If you are interested to see the 1986 look of me, my English Angora and my French Angora, go to:

(23) Mac&Mutley - YouTube

When you are watching it, please remember that in 1986, the grooming tools were combs and brushes, the Angora rabbits were all "pluckable", in other words, they molt!   The concept of "non-molting" did not exist until I started promoting it.

End note: The host of Mac and Mutley Doug McConnell passed away on January 17,2026 at 80 years old.   The CBS San Francisco station KPIX where "Mac and Mutley" was produced reported on Doug's passing: (23) Former KPIX host and news reporter Doug McConnell dead at 80 - YouTube

 

Micro English Angora Baby

On New Year's day 2026, I had a litter of 2 English Angora babies born 2 days earlier than expected.  They were small and looked like premees, but still health looking.   They needed help to nurse and mom was cooperative enough to allow tummy feeding.  

The two babies stayed alive but not thrieving as much as I had hoped for.  On January 11, one died and the other one was as small as the day was born.   I did not expect it to stay alive but today at 10 weeks old, she is alive and well, but as small as a  4 or 5 week-old.   

This is the little girl next to a container for 48 oz of Macaroni Salad. 

She is so tiny that she fits into the container.  She is still less than 2 pounds at 10 weeks old.  A normal 10-week-old English Angora should be be between 3-4 pounds and some chubby ones could be more than 4 pounds.     We call her the Micro Girl, smaller than a Mini.   She is as sweet as tame as it could be; if not grown to the minimum weight for English Angora showing, she will be a perfect indoor pet. 

 

Finding Nemo

There is a large fish tank at a Toyota customer lounge.  I had my van serviced, had a great time watching the fishes.

This yellow fish seems to be the most flashy one, catches my eyes the most.

Here is a close up of this flashy yellow fish.

It's always floating back and forth in the front of the tank.

It's a beautiful set up in the tank.

There are lots of hiding places in the tank.

There is something pretty hiding in the coral.

It's NEMO.   I am finding Nemo.  

 

Three Recent Year English Angora ROY Winners

 

Chu's Raelynne, First Place English Angora Rabbit of the Year 2023-2024.
9 open Best In Show, 4 open Reserve In Show and 1 specialty Best In Show. 
28 legs, 23 Best of Breed. 

Chu's Aurelia, First Place English Angora Rabbit of the Year 2024-2025.
10 open Best In Show, 5 open Reserve In Show and 5 specialty Best In Show.
33 legs, 33 Best of Breed.

Chu's Raeberta, Raelynne's daughter.   
She is currently in the lead of the first place English Angora Rabbit of the Year.
As of now, she has 9 open Best In Show, 1 open Reserve In Show and 3 specialty Best In Show. 
21 legs and 21 BOB, still in shows.  Final number and placing will conclude on July 31, 2026.  She and littermate sister Raeanna are sharing the winnings during this show year.     

NARBC Sweepstakes Prizes, 2023-2024 and 2024-2025

This is the final numbers for the show year of August 1, 2024 to July 31, 2025.  It's a bit late to post it, better late than never.   I am fortunate enough to have stayed at the first place English Angora since 1988, and that is 37 years in a row.    The English Angora Rabbit of the Year (ROY) is BC1AG, Chu's Aurelia.   

What prize did I get for the wins?  This year it's a cross-shoulder bag with the NARBC logo in the front.

In the back, there is a tag with my name on it.

Here is a close up of the tag, showing that I'm the first place winner of total numbers and Chu's Aurelia BC1AG is the first place ROY.   By the way, I like the color of the bag.  Warm color is my thing.

The prize for the 2023-2024 sweepstakes is a jacket.  Somehow I did not post the numbers and now have a hard time finding them.   

I was still at he number 1 English Angora competition and my rabbit was also the ROY first place.  And that's Chu's Raelynne.    Why wasn't any post about it?  I believe it's (a) a confusion during the change of the NARBC management and (b) the color of the prize was so uninspiring that I just put it into my closet and never looked at it again until now.    The size of the jacket is way on the small side, I could barely fit into it though it's a size Large!  I am 5'3" and 112 pounds, a Large should give me a lot of room but not this one.   Sorry, Raelynne, such a beautiful doe but you did not get the spotlight that you deserved.

What's my current standing?  It's looking good, still at number 1 English Angora and Raelynne's daughter Chu's Raeberta is sitting solidly at the number 1 ROY.   The show year is August 1, 2025 to July 31, 2026.  Will see what the final result in a few months.

 

Carol's French Angora Rocks at Antioch

In August 2025 Carol had a litter of 8 French Angora babies born.   There are 1 buck and 7 does; how many breeders can be so lucky to have that many does in the litter?   There are 3 white does, 3 fawn does, 1 black doe and 1 fawn buck.   

The colored French Angora babies are in high demand, especially with Carol's high quality stock.   In no time, out of the 4 colored does, 3 went to different homes.   This is Carol's pick of the colored does, she is named Ava.

Pretty Ava does not disappoint, she won 2 BOB out of the three shows at Antioch and she is just 6 months old.

 

Though the colored does are in high demand, Carol's favorite is this white doe Genevieve.  She won 1 BOB out of the 3 shows at Antioch.  The two littermate sisters are neck to neck in many shows in the past and we suspect that will be the case in the future shows.

This post concludes the reports and photos from the CRCS triple open shows at Antioch on Saturday, February 14, 2026. 

Alex Ong Visits at Antioch

We have seen photos of Alex doing his 6th assist at Antioch.   Here is Alex came by to visit before the show started in the morning of the show.   Alex's main breed is the English Angora, so there has been quite a bit of communication between Alex and me though this is the first time that we met.  Alex has grooming and boarding facilities in several countries in Asia and put on shows regularly.  His judging license will definitely be very helpful in promoting rabbit exhibition in Asia.   He further designed a very pretty slicker brush for Angoras, Alex is very kind to give one each to Carol, Casey and me.    Here is his facebook page:   https://www.facebook.com/alex.ong.1048

At the end of the day, I was very lucky to have won double Best In Show out of three open shows. The prize from CRCS is a steel drinking bottle.   I gifted my show C Best In Show prize to Alex.   Randy Shumaker takes the photo for us.

Here is one of the pictures Randy took.

It's the end of the day, most people have left and the showroom is getting empty.  It's also getting dark outside.   We all had a great day.   Wish Alex all the success in his rabbit business and adventures for many years to come.