Raising rabbits, or anything you care about, I suppose, is much like gardening.  We began our rabbit hobby for our daughters and have spent the last year guiding them and helping build their confidence in a somewhat unfamiliar world.  We have been fortunate to meet some nice people who have helped us along the way.  And as much as I  love our rabbits I also do have other passions that equal or exceed them.  One of them being gardening.
So while gardening over the weekend I made the comparison of raising rabbits.  It was kind of a funny comparison but makes sense just the same.  Last year I ended up with a weed in my front flowerbed.  From my botanical obsession I knew what it was.  Salsify.  The flowers are actually quite lovely.  So I thought, what's the big deal, this beautiful flower has every right to be here.  So I kept the weed quite proudly.  
Well, this spring, guess what came back?  And it brought friends.  It's friends didn't pick the greatest areas to hang out.  So now this weed that I decided to keep as a flower, has proven in the end it is a weed.  I still think it is pretty, but I can not have it showing up wherever it wants to in my garden.  
This caused me to think of our rabbits.  Sometimes you get a rabbit that you think is such a lovely flower, but due to one reason or another, it really should be weeded from your program.  We would always weed out bad teeth or split penis as those are genetic traits that can cause so many more weeds later down the road, not just for you, but for whoever you sell to.  Surely you don't want to sell weeds.  We are faced with a weeding dilema of our own.  We have an absolute gorgeous girl with the most massive head.  Her head is possibly the largest in our rabbitry.  She however has so much white on her ears.  Judges have not once complained about it, but it's more of a personal issue for us.  We don't want all of our brokens to consist of it.  So we have to think hard about this beautiful flower and decide if we want to keep her in our garden.  Sometimes the best choice isn't always the easiest.

Well we for sure came home with a Grand Champion in Zilla today!  She won best opposite of Breed!  We are so proud of our little home grown girl.  Now we can retire her to our rabbitry for a long life of love and pampering :).  
The second great part about the show was finally getting to have Allen Ormond as our judge.  He is so respectful of the youth and speaks in such great terms that it really sets in for the kids.  Kaits favorite thing he said, was Basketball, baseball, horseshoe.  So the body should be round like a basketball, the head round like a baseball and a horseshoe to crown it.  Kait was right in loving that analogy!  Perfect way to look at your Holland.  So we also learned some things about some of our home growns that will help us move forward in our herd.  A doe we were a bit skeptical about got some great reviews from Allen who highly recommended keeping her in the barn as a brood doe.  Being so new, it's just simple guidance from a respected judge that does help us along our way.  
Allen was a wonderful judge and then our next judge was clearly not as familiar with Holland lops.  Which in the end it is all fine because he made some very amusing remarks that we will get a kick out of for some time.  It was also interesting as a parent to sit back and observe my kids as they listened to him evaluate the hollands.  I like to see that they are quickly aware when one is not quite as educated as another.  
On a less positive side of showing it reminds me of when I had my first child.  I was so excited to take my 1 year old to her first Easter Egg hunt.  She was barely able to tottle around and slowly made it to her first egg.  As I stood back to take her picture a mom swooped in and truly grabbed the egg from her little hand.  A part of me wanted to pounce on that woman like a wild tiger and tear her to shreds.  But then I realized I must be an example for my children.  I am finding that I see this similar behavior at the shows.  Sometimes it seems more like the moms are swooping in when it is really a youth show.  My daughter over heard one of the moms saying rude things about our rabbits.  I again felt the urge to scratch someones eyes out, but at the same time, I was so completely proud of my daughters to be able to laugh it off and accept the fact that some people will just never get it.  If they find joy in belittling something a child is working for then clearly something is lacking in their life.  

Well, growing out these brokens has been quite the learning lesson and challenge.  They went through phases of me hating them all to loving them all, to loving only some and back to loving them all.  From the beginning Kait picked this girl as the one she was going to work with.  Well that was easier said than done because she hated being handled.  However something clicked over the last couple days and she has really turned out to be quite nice!  I hope Kait always has that eye for the nicest in the litter!