Update: A long time coming.

Well, where do I start. This is not Otter she is home taking care of her beautiful new baby boy who is now a whopping 2.4 lbs. He is still in the hospital, but is improving daily. So everyone can quit wondering. And everyone else is fine. Otter still has some leftover problems getting her system back to normal, but she is a tough girl and I know she will be grabbing this blog away from me very soon.

But the real reason I am here is because even though the Brazilian project has gotten off to a short of stellar start, there are a few things happening. We did get some rabbits from Ms Blair. They were hauled cross country by Trinity and O&itw. And are now residing in Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri. We have had two litters since the arrival. The does arrived already bred. O&itw has had a litter, and so have I. The down side is that out of 11 kits only 2 are does. We have bucks galore and if anyone is ready to take a buck I will see what I can arrange. The does have been rebred and hopefully we will be in business soon. Also I will need to know if anyone will be traveling west anytime soon. I will be getting ahold of Ms. Blair soon and see if she has anymore available before the hot weather sets in. If you are interested in starting your zils with a buck I have them available. Let me know. Hopefully, this slow start is over and we will get Zils spread out. Anyone traveling to or thru Arkansas or Missouri I can probably meet if it is possible. We will do this. Orphy.

Finally an update!

It's been all summer with nothing going on. But now, with weather getting just a little cooler, everyone is getting excited. There is now a Brazilian yahoo group and there will soon be a breed standard and a club. Wow.

There is a trip planned for this early winter to go get some bunnies, YAY!! Right now everything is in a just starting to come together phase and hopefully there will be more to post soon.

Down to the wire

Well, the rabbits are six weeks old and we don't have anyone to move them in two weeks. Unfortunately, they have been having respiratory problems and the breeder doesn't think that they should be moved at all. I think she's right, especially considering how fast everything is heating up!

This does not mean the project is over!!! After all, we don't have our bunnies yet and we all knew it would take a couple of years. So now the plan is to start making arrangements for the fall. That is a better time to move rabbits from Arizona anyway, the end of June was always kind of a long-shot as far as compatible weather was concerned. I think this will work out very well in the fall as it can coincide with holiday travel.

So, start posting comments and travel plans so we can get this party started!!

Bunnies to move!

Ok, we are at the point that we need to know who is going to be in Az at the end of June as we will have bunnies to move by then. Yaay!! When we determine where we can move them too, that will determine who gets them. Once we figure that out, we can start requesting the available colors. We don't know what the sexes are yet, so we don't know how many pairs or trios will be available. Also, if anyone was just interested in crossbreeding to get some 'Zil traits in your established herd, let me know as there will probably be some single bucks to pass around.

As you can see there are still a lot of things to figure out, but we are on our way!

Deep breaths!!!

Okay, it seems I panicked a couple of people with the above idea. Reading back it does seem a little overwhelming. No one will be asked to do something that will hugely inconvenience them, that would be unfair. The rabbits can be moved in batches. There are people who are making trips in and out of AZ. And there are people who do not want rabbits, therefore are not on the map, who are willing to transport rabbits. And we are all aware that we might have to pay for transport. But the whole point is that it will be easier by infinity for all of us to do this working together, then for all of us to do it separately. And hey, am I the only one who has a big old car they drive around anyway?? Other people have got to have minivans and station wagons. I drive a huge old boat and wasn't thinking (and still don't think) that baby rabbits each needed their own cage. But I moved across country once with 3 people, 1 dog, 1 guineapig, 5 parakeets and 7 cats in a two door '88 Dodge Aries, so maybe I am crazy ;)

Trying to speed it up

So everyone is very excited about this and pretty disappointed that it will take so long. So here's an idea that every one involved would need to vote on as it would be very intense and need more money from the participants.

What do we think of buying as many bunnies as we can. All of them and doing the whole chain in a couple of days. Everyone would have to pay for their own pair or trio right up front. So basically, we would all send money to the breeder, then the first person on the chain would pick up 50 or so weanlings and everyone keeps their own and passes the rest down the line till they all reach their owners.

The pluses: -Everyone would have their bunnies in a few days.
-No one would have to worry about missed litters messing up the time line.
-It would be much easier to maneuver the buns to everyone south and north, east and west.
-The effort might make the news. (joke)

The minuses: -It will be a very intense few days.
-Everyone will need to pay full purchase price for the bunnies instead of a buy-in co-op price.
-We'll need to work out a system so those up north don't feel like they're getting "leftovers" ...perhaps drops of food coloring in the ears at the breeders? ie, three blue dots on the left ear is me, a vertical red stripe on the right is you, a horizontal green one is someone else's.
-I don't know if the breeder would want to pre-sell that many rabbits. While she would get the money up front, she'd probably have to hold onto some babies until she had the full amount to be picked up.

It seems to me that we all want some Brazilians, we just all can't get to Az to get some, so this chain would solve the pick up problem and we could keep the original project going, slightly modified, for those who for whatever reason can't get their bunnies now. So what do we think?

I got to talk to Kathleen Blair!

I am so thrilled. She is exceptionally nice, but she has no rabbits for sale right now. She has promised to be in touch and will let me know when she has bunnies! So everyone pray to the gods of bunny fertility LOL.