I have been holding back a secret that I am now ready to tell.
At our very first show, the judges commented much on the type of our Silver Foxes presented. One thing that I heard more than a few times was that many of our rabbits had long shoulders. So, I made a decision to try to find a doe with short, deep shoulders so that we could get better shoulders into the Georgia Silver Fox lines. The first breeder that came to mind was the same breeder of GC Miss Maggie's Leon.
To my surprise, she had a junior doe entered into the 2018 ARBA Convention that she believed would be what I wanted and after talking about her back and forth for a short time, I was sold. I contacted my transporter to be sure she had space, which she did. Then I sent the breeder the full payment for Avery on October 9th, about 3 weeks before the convention, as well as paid my transporter.
Imagine my surprise and excitement when the breeder contacted me to say that Avery had won Best of Breed at the convention! The breeder had not gone to the convention herself because she was in the middle of moving her farm paying a transporter to take and show Avery, but she decided to drop everything to go to the convention at that point to be available for pictures and to receive the accolades for her win.
My transporter had some very difficult hardships during the convention, some personal and some related to her service, but she picked up Avery as was the plan. My friend, Hannah picked up her convention buy, a buck from a top breeder, as well as Avery from the transporter on the following Saturday and then I picked up Avery from her after my daughter's piano recital the next day. Then Avery's 30-day quarantine began.
Avery was close to minimum weight for a senior and by the time she was six months old she was at senior weight and a couple of weeks later, she had gained another pound and was out of quarantine! In examining her, she appeared ready to be bred, so I contacted my friend Hannah to make arrangements to have Avery bred by her Dallan.
Dallan also came from the same breeder and was doing quite well here as a blue. The breeder already wanted an offspring from him and I knew it was likely she would want one from Avery also, so as soon as I heard about Avery's win at the convention, I had contacted Hannah about breeding the two together and gifting the breeder two offspring of her choosing. Hannah agreed.
Avery was bred with Dallan and is due the middle of January, which will make her kits 12 weeks old for the Silver Fox National Show in April to which Hannah and I plan to go. We hope to show the kits and meet the breeder so she can choose the two she wants.
Between then and now, after Avery has weaned her kits, I hope to be showing my very special tail in hopes of her winning legs and being granded. Avery a very special addition to my tale of tails!
