It's too early in the morning to be online!

Oh well, here I am. I've been anxiously awaiting my red mini rex doe to kindle, she developed a dewlap ever since I bred her and was kind of grumpy the other day, was been picking at her grain, but other than that she's made no attempt at making a nest, but I've had pregnant does act perfectly normal right up until the hour before they kindle. My last litter the doe didn't show any signs of being pregnant, I didn't feel anything when I palpated her although I'm awful at it, then I walk out to check on the rabbits and I see her bringing hay into her nest box and ripping fur out and within the hour she had her babies. I'm hoping this is just one of those cases. I've checked on her a few times but nothing yet, I think I'm just going to leave her alone and stop going into the barn :P.

The boyfriend and I had a talk with his uncle last night after we discovered all the drama going around the internet about our barn we didn't even know was happening until a worried friend called us with some "information" he obtained while talking with another breeder. We basically shook our heads and shrugged it off, stuff gets around the internet all the time. There is always going to be drama within any sport, we've just got to suck it up and deal with it. These people don't know us, they don't know our animals, they don't know our barn, they don't know anything about the situation, other than they might know I obtained a rabbit that was being sold without a pedigree although I received one. We're going to let them think what they want to, we know the truth now, and have contacted interested parties that were going to buy this rabbit to tell them what we had just been told this night. We're still trying to figure it all out, if the pedigree we got was fake, or a mix up with someone else's rabbit. We'll get to the bottom of it soon, but until then, we're going to ignore the immature and cruel "hate mail" that flooded our inbox last evening. Why should we put up with it? We don't have to, so we're not going to. People will always talk about each other, it's pretty much a fact of life. I've grown from the experience! I will no longer buy animals from buyers I do not trust 100%.

I do not for one minute believe we are at fault for advertising the animal the way we did. Kristen from Keep's Rabbitry made a good point. We were selling the rabbit how we bought it and believed it to be. We believed he had a pedigree and it was correct at least to the best that I knew, and I was selling him as such. I was not the breeder of this animal, and I still do not know who is, it's a work in progress trying to sort it out and find out whose pedigree I have and what rabbit is in my barn, but it will all work itself out eventually. I've been told it was one persons rabbit, then another's, and still yet, another's.

I'd like to touch on the subject that just because this happened to me, or happens to any other person, does not mean they have bad animals and are trying to cheat and steal and lie their way through the rabbit world. If that were the case, I'm sure there would be a lot more "bad breeders" out there. People are sold rabbits with false pedigrees all the time. Particularly people who are just starting in rabbits, or just starting in a breed. The best we can do for them is to supply them with animals we know to have correct bloodlines, if the animal has half a pedigree, then so be it, don't fill the other half in to make it look better or to raise the price and get a better profit on the sale.

People who unfortunately obtain such animals, should not be shunned as bad breeders either. They were just as unaware of their mistake as the person who was going to buy animals from this unknown/nonexistent line from them. Neither party knew until it was brought into light by someone else, and as I stated before the best thing a fellow breeder could do, is speak up. It doesn't have to turn into an all out internet brawl of bad mouthing and bashing each other and making someone feel uncomfortable and not want to attend rabbit shows. If you know the rabbit is from your line, and you didn't supply a pedigree, let that person know. They may have some other rabbits pedigree that was meant to be sent somewhere else and now someone is wondering where their rabbits pedigree is, or someone may have created one to make a rabbit look better. I've caught my own friends doing it before desperate to make room and make final attempts at getting rid of overstock bunnies in their barns.

I'm not worried about being shunned from the rabbit world, sure it's disheartening to know there are people out there who would rather get involved and act tough and fight for the "reputable breeders" while making a fellow breeder look bad who doesn't deserve it, but I've made enough friends over the years who will stand by me and back me to the fullest extent. I'd also like to bring something else into play here, not meaning to stir up anymore trouble then there already is but.....

If you're such a reputable and respected breeder, why can you not find it in your heart to respect other breeders? Why not contact people to discuss your information in private, why make a big deal of it and get everyone else involved? A respectable, a TRULY respectable and ADMIRABLE BREEDER, would operate in a much more mature fashion, or so you would think. Then again, what is the definition of a respectable rabbit breeder? Someone who is out to make everyone else's life a living hell, or someone who is willing to help solve problems within their much loved rabbit world. How much can you really love it, if you're putting other people in the line of fire.

On an ending note, the boyfriend and I have been talking all...well morning now haha. We're rearranging the barn, tearing some stuff down, storing stuff away, and going up to 50-60 holes. We're on the hunt for top notch Mini Rex from the best breeders we can get recommendation's for, and we're not going anywhere >:).

-Domonique & Matthew