Raindrops Falling On My Head

After weeks of drought the weather has broken and we've had four days of rain plus it's turned chilly. Wet weather is also a great time to discover that your gumboots are leaking. Well I actually knew they would as a long split appeared near the base of the right one due to age (they're seven years old) so I've endured weeks of small stones making their way into the boot and lodging painfully under my foot. So next time I get some unexpected cash I'm off to Farmlands (the mecca super store of rural dwellers) to buy myself a new pair.

After weeks and weeks of sitting Cordelia the hen still has not managed to hatch any eggs. The Wyandotte ones should have hatched a week ago but nothing happened. Can't work out what's wrong but I think we're going to have to blame the hen because she's tried three batches of googies without success and you can't tell me that they were all infertile. My friend John says you can buy small incubators cheaply and he'll keep an eye out for one for me.

My autumn clean up has faltered because of the rain. I was trying to remove coats off the angora youngsters but even though we were under cover they still felt damp. I will get back onto this today once we get some clear weather otherwise their coats will web and then matt and I'll lose the lot. I still don't know if I have enough fibre for the Creative Fibre Festival in Taradale, Napier next month but if I have a run on it (unlikely as most spinners are frightened to use it) I will take orders. I need to buy in more breeding stock but have to wait for other breeders to have litters and obviously if they're reputable people they'll only have a couple a year unlike the bunny mill breeders who churn animals out for the pet market, not caring where they end up. Tossing up whether to breed Meadow to Frodo again before winter as their last litter was so good. Then perhaps by spring I'll have new stock to bring in new blood.

Angel cat has still not returned and it's over twelve weeks now. Piper has also been gone four days. I don't know what is calling them out across the fields but when they return they'll be locked in each night from now on. I can't take the worry!

The Last Days of Summer

Daylight saving finishes tonight. This always makes me a little sad as I realize that summer has ended and winter is on its way. However on the other hand in six months it will be spring and I'll be looking forward to long evenings where I have the freedom to go outside without a torch and woolen gloves.

There is still the smell of burnt grass in the mornings as we have had no rain to speak of for weeks. If it doesn't arrive soon there is going to be trouble. Just the other day I saw a farmer feeding hay out to his cattle, something that usually only happens in July/August.

Of course the drought doesn't affect Briar the donkey and Tobermory the goat. If anything they seem to put on more weight in these conditions. Poor Briar has been relegated to the back hill paddock by my landlord and although she has company in the form of several cows she is missing hanging with the horses. However there isn't much grass in that field so hopefully she'll work off some of the rolls of fat that she's managed to accumulate.

I have begun my big Autumn clean up in the rabbitry. Taking off coats before I begin the soul destroying task of cleaning the cages. I am intending to have a change round in there as well. There are a couple of cages I want out of there so I can spray the walls down with disinfectant. I am still trying to save up to replace some of my cages and hopefully will have these finished by the winter as well.

As for the garden......well the least said the better. Doesn't matter how much I water the plants still brown off and die. Except the roses which seem to be thriving. I wish I had more than two bushes but always toss up as to whether I want to spend money on a place I don't own as I will have to move on at some point. On the other hand rose bushes aren't all that expensive and at least I would get some pleasure from them before I head off into the sunset.

The Egg Man

My Shetland Sheepdog Mishka has a problem with his stomach. Unfortunately it isn't big enough to match the size of his eyes where food is concerned. Bordering on the verge of needing a canine Jenny Craig Mish supplements his diet with what has turned into a secret obsession. Mishka is a sneaky egg eater.

With so many game fowl descended bantams I am constantly finding nests in out of the way places. Mostly. Usually Mish manages to find them before I do. The only way I know this is from his dirty white bib, a guilty look and "The Smell".

"The Smell" is a combination of chicken poop and sulphur. It pervades every corner of the room, soaks into your skin and makes your eyes water. If I haven't a supply of strong incense to burn I am exceedingly miserable. Often a good hose down of his hairy rear end is the only thing that can freshen his scrofulous odour.

Last Saturday Mish obviously discovered something nasty in the toi toi bushes. For that windfall we have been punished all week. In the mornings I open the kitchen door to find a mess on the floor as he hasn't bothered to tell me he needs to go out (this has happened four times this week till finally last night I just covered everything in newspaper which saved me alot of heartache).

The piece de resistance came yesterday when I had a rare visitor. We were talking at the other end of the cottage and on coming back into the sitting room discovered something definitely very nasty on my burgundy rug. Horrified my caller shrank back against the wall while I cleaned up the mess and disinfected. I'll be lucky if she ever comes back.

When I remember Mish in years to come it will always be his predilection for eggs and his bowels I will recall the most.............

Ides of March

It is the first of March here in New Zealand. I remembered to say rabbits first thing this morning (forgot about saying "hares" last thing before going to sleep though) so lets hope that brings me some luck.

Judy M dropped in nine Wyandotte eggs last Sunday. It worked out well as when I went to put them under Cordelia she was out having a drink so I was able to clean out all the old ones (another had exploded that morning) and put a fresh nest in. She knew what I was doing as she kept popping her head through the door and clucking abuse at me. However the joy of having a new batch of eggs overcame her objections and she's back on the boil. Poor thing seems to have been sitting forever.

I have an interesting problem with my house bun Muggles. He has fallen in love with Mishka the dog and unfortunately it seems to be in the biblical sense. I let him out to have breakfast with us (he gets a little crust off my toast) and noticed he was following Mish round the room. He then began circling frantically even hopping under his stomach. Next thing.......well I'm afraid that's x rated. Suffice to say that he got the wrong way round and it all ended in tears! However I don't have much sympathy for the dog either as he has a similar habit......with the cats. This is a twisted household.

Season Shift

There's always a point in late summer where the season slightly shifts from broiling sticky weather to cooler nights. This week we had one sultry 30oC day but then a cold snap swept up the country one evening and suddenly the nights are very cool. Looking out my front window I notice the leaves on the poplar trees are beginning to turn gold. Where did the summer go?

Cordelia is still stubbornly sitting on her exploding eggs. I deliberately left her perched on these eggy landmines until I was able to source some more fertile ones. Luckily someone who lives in my area is dropping off some Wyandotte bantam eggs this lunchtime so I will encourage Cordy out with some mash and put clean paper and hay in the sleeping compartment with the new arrivals. The breeder says if she abandons them not to worry as she has a breeding pair she doesn't want. I am hopeful Cordelia will have more success at hatching this lot as she no longer has the other hens trying to lay their eggs in with her which may have affected the Barnevelders. She is so determinedly broody I have to give her another chance.

It occurred to me once that I concentrate so much on the love lives of my animals (finding fertile eggs, mating rabbits, trying to get the donkey pregnant two years ago) that I can now add pet pimp to my CV.

The Eggs and I

The Cordelia situation has become a bit of a farce. I went into her nest box yesterday and discovered another pulverized chick beneath her. I am now of the opinion that she hasn't stood on them at all but that the shell has broken, exposing dead chicks. This one was white so it looks like the shaver eggs had been fertile after all.

I cleared out any dirty eggs that were obviously not going to hatch and threw out the nest box. I've made her an alternative nest with fresh hay and she's comfortably ensconced on this with her remaining eggs. I will give her a couple more days and then throw the rest out as I have a nasty feeling they're not going to amount to anything.

When eggs fail to hatch you have to ask why. Cordelia has done a great job incubating them so either the roosters weren't firing on all cylinders or the eggs somehow got cold which seems unlikely. This is also the tail end (scuse the pun) of the chicken breeding season here in New Zealand as it will soon be autumn so perhaps this was also a factor. Whatever the reason it has been an immensely disappointing exercise.

Piper spent three days away before returning Friday morning. She wasn't very hungry and disappeared Saturday but turned up again on Sunday spending all her time asleep in a patch of grass near the rabbitry. If only Angel would come home now my mind would settle.

Disappearing Cats and Non Appearing Chicks

Angel still has not returned from her wanderings after seven weeks. The longest time she has disappeared has been nine and that was this time last year. Last week Piper cat went away for a couple of days and when she returned was especially clingly and wanting to sit on my knee all the time. Poor girl is cosmetically challenged but has a sweet nature and gets on with all the other cats. This behaviour is so unlike her but I guess the call of the baby wild rabbit season is upon her.

Cordelia's first Barnevelder egg hatched yesterday but by the time I got there it was dead. Either it died in the massive attempt to break through the shell as it was still wet or else she stood on it as her great clod hopping foot was placed neatly on its neck. None of the other eggs look like hatching which is incredibly disappointing. The whole exercise of John bringing the eggs out here may have been a waste of time.

Mother bantam and her chick have finally got used to sleeping in the hen house and I don't have to do my poor impression of a sheepdog each evening. Unfortunately the plum tree is still dropping windfalls so many of the bantams are stuffed to the gunalls and don't think they need to go into their house at night. I am afflicted with roosters and small hens wandering where they want, making a mess and a racket.

Bloody White Bastard is my oldest rooster at age ten but has lost his status as top man and been thrown out of the shed by the hens. He spends most of his day picking around the lawn and crowing, perhaps remembering better days when he was cock of the walk and an object of fear and loathing amongst the poultry population. How the mighty have fallen!

Roundup

The day before yesterday mother hen decided to fly out of the hutch where she was living with her baby in order to raid the windfall plums that have fallen on the lawn. Poor chick had no idea how to follow her so spent most of the day running up and down the cage terrible upset. However in the evening when I looked out mother had hopped back in with her offspring.

So yesterday I decided that since I was going to put them both in the hen house soon I would let them out for the afternoon. Worked a treat until the evening when I noticed that although the mother had hopped back in the baby was just running round and round the cage. Chickens could never be considered one of the brightest lights on the Christmas tree and this one seemed determined to live up to their reputation. However it made up for it's stupidity by being very very fast. Well that's what I found when I tried to catch the silly bird.

In the end I tipped the hutch on its side hoping that the bird would walk in and join its mother. Instead the mother flew out in a panic and I spent the next half hour chasing the pair of them round the front lawn. At a couple of points I nearly had them herded into the hutch but just as they were about to go in they would panic and run away into the garden. I am not a great sheepdog and became increasingly frustrated as they became increasingly obtuse. However in the end the chick tired and I was able to corner it and put it back in the cage. I tipped the hutch back over and then left them alone so that the hen would join her baby on her own. This accomplished I waited until it was nearly dark and then picked the pair up from their sleeping quarters and took them into the hen house.

But my night wasn't finished. It had been a hot day of 29oC and the two youngest cats decided playtime in the paddocks was called for. I managed to get Peach in at 9pm but Gypsy was harder to encourage into the cottage. I went into the paddock and nearly had my hand on her when she scooted further away in the dry grass. Every time I approached she would frisk away thinking it was all a big game.

Leaving her to cool down I came back inside and returned with a torch fifteen minutes later. By this time the landlord had let his sheepdogs out for their last run of the day and they chased Gypsy up a tree in my backyard. Trying to find my way amongst fallen branches and soft earth in the dark was not easy and when I managed to get to the tree Gypsy was perched on she scooted higher up into the branches before heading off back into the paddock. I shone the torch onto her as she went further and further out before giving up and coming back inside at 9.30pm. Gypsy finally came in with a despairing wail at 2am. It was not a restful night........

As I write this she is curled up asleep on my knee with not a care whereas I'm the one on painkillers trying to recover from the last roundup. Usually I don't have many problems getting the cats inside and was racking my brains trying to work it all out when I looked out the window and saw a large full moon. That explains everything about Gypsy's wild witchy mood. So note to self- in future shut certain small black cats in early on full moon evenings.

Stormy Weather

It's not very often that the meteorological boffins get it right but today they hit it right on the head. After a humid drizzly morning a strong nor'easterly storm has hit the North Island causing havoc. My friend John had driven out early to deliver the Barnevelder eggs for Cordelia to hatch and we watched as the hills gradually disappeared behind a grey sheet of rain. Chores this afternoon were a wet unpleasant experience.

It's been a sad past few days as my new vet has closed his practice in order to go back to California on business for an indeterminate time. He has been so good with housecalls (and decent over the bills) that he's going to be well and truly missed by all his clients. Rabbit savvy vets are hard to find in New Zealand and those that are here charge like wounded bulls. Hopefully he'll soon be back here to resume his practice. Pretty depressed as I seem to have been going from one vet to another for a couple of years since my previous one went on sabbatical to the UK.

Muggles, my house bunny, was in need of vet treatment over the weekend as he developed a red itchy patch on his face. He scratched it so much he inflamed his eye. The vet sent up a tube of ointment which has settled it all back down so it looks like he may have set up a small infection (I'm blaming the hay as it's full of grass seeds and thistles). I've taken the hay away and will gradually reintroduce it and see what happens.

Angel is still away. Hopefully this savage weather will send her home.

Oh Cordelia.....

Cordelia came here about four years ago when a friend of a friend was downsizing her poultry numbers. A large black hen with ruffles of feathers around her face she constantly looks shocked as if someone has just told her a dirty joke and she doesn't quite approve. Not only that she lays green eggs. People usually go "yuk" at the mention of this despite my explaining that it's only the shells that are green, inside the eggs are perfectly normal. Someone told me Cordelia was probably an Araucana but she certainly doesn't resemble any pictures I've found. Even so when she's in a laying mood she presents me with a green egg nearly every day.

This week Cordelia went broody. She sits silently in the nestbox trying to hatch whatever egg someone else happens to lay there. This is a nice change from the bantams who sneakily lay their eggs in remote places and then one day just disappear, turning up three weeks later with a new family. To celebrate Cordelia's maternal feelings a friend is going to collect half a dozen Barnevelder eggs from his neighbour "Peter Goat" and drive out Monday so we can pop them under her. At the moment I am trying to leave her alone with her one egg so she doesn't go off the boil.

Apparently Barnevelders lay brown speckled eggs but aren't as prolific layers as the brown shavers. I told my friend "well my shavers have only just started to lay again after a year" to which he replied "yes but your shavers are on crutches" referring to their advanced years! Poor old girls would be mortified to hear themselves being so disparagingly spoken of. In their small chicken minds they're still young pullets.........

A Cat On The Head Is Worth Two Anywhere Else

Not a joke. I woke up Monday morning with a cat asleep on my head. Last night I found two asleep on my pillow despite them having started off further down the bed when I had turned the light off. Demelza always lies curled up by my right shoulder and doesn't move till 4am when she decides she has to go walkabout. What I'll do when winter comes and Piper and Angel want to come inside to sleep I have no idea. I see myself ending up asleep on the floor while the cats take over the bed.

Cooking Down Under

The heat is oppressive- real headache weather. I managed to dig out about ten thistles round the hen house before it really kicked in and now have finished the west side of the garden. The cats lie in whatever shade they can find and Mishka lies permanently by the back door in the breeze. I will not complain though as the thought of the cold weather a few months away is just depressing.

I am having a real egg explosion which is quite unusual for this time of year. Usually from August to Christmas is my best time but 2005 was quite different and I barely collected a couple of dozen. Now here it is, the hottest and usually the most eggless time of year and I have just come inside from collecting five eggs including one huge brownie from the ancient shavers. Even Peanut my 11 year old bantam hen is laying behind a bale of hay in the rabbitry!

I have been reading an agricultural newspaper that advertises organic apple cider vinegar with garlic. Much cheaper than at the supermarket with around 20 litres for NZ$45.00 and free delivery anywhere in New Zealand. I am going to order some in a couple of weeks and keep all the animals on it as a tonic and wormer. Prevention is worth a ton of cure.

Aftermath

The wind has finally gone after ripping plants out of my garden and bringing down branches. Even the tarp covering Chocolate's outdoor hutch kept whipping off despite being weighed down with eleven bricks! The fields are quite brown now and it doesn't get like that too often here.

The great clean-up has finished. My eastern shelterbelt is trimmed so I've lost privacy but gained light. While the landlord's backpacker was here I got stuck into the garden as I knew they would cart the rubbish away. Tidied up the brick windowbox at the front and pulled a creeper out of the fushia bushes which left them pretty bare as it was strangling the life out of them. I have lost two plum trees that were growing in the wrong place and the landlord also cut trees on the southern bounday so the hen house has lost alot of its shelter. I may have to string a tarp on the run to shelter the chooks when winter comes. Otherwise it's looking very tidy and once I tidy up two more flower beds (an hour's work at most) it will be set till the Autumn clean up.

Angel

When my sister left her long-haired tabby cat Angel here three years ago she assured me that she was a bit of a couch potato who didn't do much else but sleep and eat. However on coming to the farm Angel discovered her "wild side" and spent much of the first month stalking birds in the front paddock.

In September 2004 Angel disappeared for a week on a hunting expedition. When she turned up again she greeted me as if she'd never been away. However this developed into a pattern and she would only stay here a few days before going walkabout for a couple of weeks. Late February 2004 she took off again but this time the two weeks turned into three, then four, then five etc. I printed off fliers and put them in all my neighbours' mailboxes but with no result. My landlord said not to worry as there isn't alot that can happen to her up here as we're not near a busy road. I had given up hope when nine weeks to the day later I went to feed the other cats one morning and there was a bedraggled and very thin Angel sitting in the laundry. She stayed round all winter till last September she began heading out over the hills again. As of writing this she has been gone three weeks. I don't worry so much any more as I'm certain once the weather cools down she'll be back. Whatever else Angel is, she looks after number one.

The nor'wester winds we're having at the moment have burnt the countryside brown. Yesterday my landlord decided to come in at 8.30am and began cutting down trees with a chainsaw while someone else mowed the lawn. I had to go out but when I returned I was a bit shocked to find the eastern shelterbelt had been severely trimmed and there is no privacy left. Admittedly it's alot lighter but I was really hoping that the tops would be trimmed as that's what prevents the sun from entering the cottage till 10am in winter. A couple of plum trees were cut down round the back as well. They brought in a large truck to remove the debris although there is still some foliage lying about. I guess a change is as good as a rest!

Happy New Year

New Year's Eve went by in a blur. Decided to watch "Phantom of the Opera" and by the time it finished it was dark and I had to try and find the youngest cats who had been up to hijinks outside. Peaches was so obedient and trotted inside but Gypsy couldn't get past Demelza whose entire existence is now devoted to keeping her up in the trees/roof/any item of furniture with her seated at the bottom glaring. Gyps ended up skipping across the cattlestop with me in hot pursuit holding a torch. This turned into a game with my temper unraveling as she did her wild witchy cat dance across the fields. In the end I shone the torch in front of her and she came to a full stop without her spotlight to perform in so I was able to bundle her up and get her back to the house. I am not a night person and if I can't get to sleep early I get decidedly cranky.

I hope 2006 is a much better year here although it has started shakily with my washing machine going into decline. Even refurbished ones locally cost NZ$445.00 yet you can buy a new one for just over $600.00 with a warranty. The vet bills I had in 2005 would have bought two and a drier as well. Best not to think about it really!

Christmas

My days at the moment begin at 4am although I try to sneak more sleep till 5am when the cats begin their early morning chase scenes. Gypsy thinks it's funny to use me as a spring board so will leap up from one side of the bed onto my chest and then fly off the other side. She's the smallest cat but she can really pack some power into those rear legs and I ended up with a bruise the other day.

I am Queen of the Scum People according to the cats at the moment as their Christmas started with me spraying them for fleas. The dog being a total woose took his treatment without a sideways glance but the cats were terrified. I know it's the sound of the spray that scares them but I still have half a bottle of the stuff so they'll have to tolerate it. I'm going back to herbal prevention though once I work out how to apply it. I can't sneak garlic into their food like I can with my dog Mishka and don't trust collars as they're so easy to snag on a branch so may have to return to dabbing them with wormwood.

My little chick hatched the day Taffy died is doing well with her Mum in the hutch out front. I was so relieved to see she was a female. She is a mixture of browns, gold and there are some white feathers in her wings so hopefully she'll be a speckled hen. I would really love to develop more speckled ones if possible but think I may need to buy in more stock to do so.

Muggles my house rabbit is feeling the heat despite having the window open near him. I have been removing his coat to cool him down and prevent wool block. He gets on so well with the cats and dog it's unnatural.

Finally photos

I have been trying to scan photos from my last developed film (oh for a digital camera)for a while but only managed to find some time this morning. Although my last litter are now four months old these are their five week old photos.
This is Giselle and Sherbet who was the kit I had to revive in warm water when he managed to get out of the nestbox aged three days. Little guy has been outgoing and inquisitive right from the start and his sister is not far behind.
Harmony and Goblin are a bit more shy than the other two but quiet and easy to handle. It still amazes me that the white took five generations to pop out. Genetics!

I began the angoras on papaya tablets bought from the health food shop last week. The vet advised me to put one in each water bottle once monthly and this, along with their usual hay, should help prevent wool block. I also have them on apple cider vinegar once weekly which is a good tonic and is meant to prevent kidney problems.

The heat is bothering all the animals at the moment as it is quite muggy. I also haven't seen Angel the cat in a couple of weeks now as she's on one of her periodic hunting expeditions due to the current wild rabbit explosion. Even Piper cat brought a baby one in a couple of days ago and had to sleep the effects off all day. Fortunately Demelza is not too interested in hunting anything except cicadas and the youngest two, Peaches and Gypsy, are still at the fly catching stage. They are also now getting to sleep with me along with Dem so things get a bit fraught as I am contorted in all sorts of interesting positions. Sleeping With Cats is a lifestyle choice!

Taffy

Last week I lost Taffy my new angora buck. On Monday 21st November he wasn't drinking much and not as perky as usual. I thought it could be a touch of heat stress so dragged his hutch under the willow tree on the front lawn. The next day dawned cold and windy and he brightened up so I thought I'd solved the problem. However on Wednesday although he was still eating he wasn't his usual self and I noticed his droppings were a bit hard. I began him on pineapple juice thinking he had a touch of woolblock but by Thursday he was completely off his food. I rang the vet who drove out and after palpating his stomach diagnosed extreme wool block. David said that the mass was three inches by one inch thick and had been there for months and months. As I only had Taffy five weeks I emailed his previous owner who confirmed he had been off his food a couple of times in the past six months. The vet was concerned his temperature was now dropping so took him back to the clinic to heat him up, rehydrate him and syringe as much pineapple juice into him as he could. Unfortunately Taffy passed away during the night. David said there was a touch of pneumonia in his left lung as well, probably a result of stress from the blockage, and as there was another rabbit nearby he put her on antibiotics just in case. However a week later she is fine.

I was pretty hard hit with this loss. I spoke to his breeder the next day and she said his coat was pretty fine and that she has another doe that also goes off her feed periodically. She has a couple of bunnies she can send up to me later this month so I now I will save up to pay for their airfare from the South Island.

While he was up here on the farm the vet also vaccinated the four last babies against RHD. I then separated them into their new cages. Looks at this stage as if I have two boys and two girls. They seem happy and healthy so that's something.

Also just after the vet left with Taffy I went to put the hens to bed when I heard cheeping. Sure enough there was a little chick with ten eggs in a broken down bin that the hens used to lay in before one of the big hens sat on the top and broke it. I gathered the chick, the eggs and the little bantam mother into a cat carry cage where they stayed for a couple of days inside while we experienced an unseasonably cold and violent rainstorm for a couple of days. Unfortunately the hen abandoned her eggs a couple of days later as there was no sign of any of them hatching. I cleaned out one of the rabbit hutches on the lawn this week and mother and child are now safely ensconced in this much to the frustration of my dog Mishka who wants to lick them (he has a licking fetish!) It's the new life that keeps you going when things get rough.

Rising from the dust

It is six months since I last added an entry to this blog. It wasn't that I lost interest but that I lost hope. Within a few days of writing about Max and Adam (my two new angoras) they were dead. Firstly one began hiding in the sleeping compartment of the hutch and then he began having trouble keeping his balance. He ended up dragging himself around and died shortly afterwards. The vet said it sounded as if something had happened to affect his central nervous system and suggested poisoning from the hutch wire since it is new. When Adam began having the same symptoms a couple of days later my heart went through my stomach. His head waved from side to side and he ended up on his side dying quickly in great pain. My brother took his body to the vet for an autopsy which showed up bleeding in the brain (indicative of poisoning) although the rest of his organs were fine. At great expense ($172.00 NZ) we sent tissue away to be tested to ascertain what had poisoned him. Two weeks later the results came back- not poisoning but Calicivirus (RHD). Although I was through the quarantine period it must have still been in the area as my friends who had cared for Max and Adam for three months took it back to their property and lost their pet rabbit Ridge three weeks later.

I was in quarantine for another four months. Luckily for me none of my other bunnies died from the dreadful virus. In July my new vet (a Californian who is running practices in New Zealand and the Nappa Valley) drove out and vaccinated my remaining twelve rabbits against RHD. Only one rabbit had an adverse reaction to the vaccine and went off her food for a week but the others were fine and didn't even feel the jab (the difference between a professional doing it and me!).

Despite hearing how the vaccine causes temporary sterility I mated up my sooty fawn (chocolate torte) French angora Meadow in August. She had been mated before with no success but this time all went well and she had a kindle of six kits on September 1st 2005. Although she proved a competant first time Mum the babies were contrary and constantly got out of the nest box. Whent they were three days old I had to revive two in a container of warm water and two days later another got out during the night and died of cold. I began bringing the nest box inside at night and taking it back out to Meadow early morning so she could give them a feed. She managed to wean four babies and here they are aged three weeks

In March I was meant to take in another angora buck from someone in Rotorua who no longer had time for him. However due to being in quarantine Taffy didn't arrive here till last month. He is a cinnamon english angora who was originally bred in the South Island. A big sized rabbit he has apparently won a couple of shows and even beat the top angora breeder in New Zealand. Hopefully he will improve my bloodlines.

Adam and Max

I rarely get visitors out here and days pass quite quietly albeit busily. That was why I assumed that Sunday would be as uneventful as it usually is and was sitting at the computer replying to emails at 8.30 am. However that was tempting fate and a brown station wagon pulled into my driveway while I was trying to shut the back door so my small fat Sheltie Mishka didn't run out to bark at whoever was arriving. It turned out to be my friends Marg and John who had driven out to drop off Max and Adam, two angora rabbits they had been caring for on my behalf while I waited to come out of quarantine after the RCD hit here. These two boys had been bought aged six weeks from a pet shop by a lady who was obviously an animal lover. Unfortunately the shop had not bothered to tell the woman how much care these animals needed and as they grew, and so did their coats, she discovered they didn't like being brushed and would scratch her. As she is a diabetic these scratches became infected and she ended up having frequent trips to the doctor to get antibiotics. So it was as they reached six months she put an advert in the paper to ask for someone to take them on. John rang me and I went along to see them and realised the woman was terribly upset at having to give up her pets but that she couldn't manage. She was even prepared to put them to sleep rather than leave them in a bad way.

The rabbits are quite small with broken brown markings on their faces and bodies. They both have brown eyes and one has floppy ears. This means there has been some cross-breeding in the background so I have a very good idea which breeder was responsible for them. I had taken on several of her rabbits in the past when people couldn't manage them and she had promised that she wouldn't sell her rabbits to pet shops (especially at such a young age) after she saw one come in to be clipped at the only rabbit show we held here in Hawkes Bay. Obviously she broke her word and was continuing with her outcrossing. Fortunately she's moved out of the district now so others will have to cope with the copius litters she produces for the "pet market". One thing I know- angoras do not make good pets except for spinners and those prepared to clip or pluck them.

So Max and Adam are currently in a quarantine hutch on the front lawn for a month before moving into the rabbitry. I don't know which one is Max and which one is Adam but as I am tempted to change their names to something more "rabbity" it makes no odds. Unfortunately they've discovered hormones much to the horror of my cats who seem severely traumatized at such uninhibited behaviour!