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Tribute to
YRA H072 "Petal"
On May 16, 2005, we lost our beautiful
Holland Lop show doe, Petal, to an acute unknown illness.
I remember the first day we
went up to Marshfield to look at Eric Henning’s Holland Lops; we were in
search of a show rabbit for Jody and Eric Henning was one of the only
Holland Lop breeders that responded to our email requests for show
rabbits! Eric promised he had several nice show rabbits to
choose from and offered to help us get started in this breed. Petal was a very young, pretty doe at the time, and was such
a show-off when Eric took her out of her cage – he explained that she
inherited her natural pose from her grand-dam, Daisy. We didn’t know much
about Hollands at the time and were skeptical of Eric’s insistence that we
show her and that she will do well for us.
Our very first rabbit
show was the fall 2003 Tri-County show at Jefferson, Wisconsin. We
felt lost and out of place with only our one rabbit carrier containing
Petal. It was a new experience and a long day for us….a large,
crowded show and Hollands were one of the last breeds shown. Late in
the day, Jody put Petal up on the table and we stood back to watch the
judging process for the first time. Judge John Grimm compared all
the rabbits, moving them around to different boxes – we even lost track of
where Petal was! It seemed that suddenly the judge was reading her
tattoo number at the same time we realized she won her large class!
The excitement continued when she also won Best of Variety and then Best
of Breed!! We could hardly contain our exhilaration! This is
truly a show we will never forget…… We had caught the ‘show bug’ and
looked forward to the upcoming 2004 show season
Petal was our teacher - she taught us about
posing Hollands; reminding us that you cannot manipulate a poorly-built
Holland to pose and look like a winner - the correct conformation has to
be there in the first place!
She taught us how to condition and feed a Holland and how not to feed a
Holland. She stood for the type of Holland we wanted to
produce in our rabbitry and provided a constant source of comparison.
We owed this rabbit a lot.
Petal was a truly
elegant Holland Lop to watch on the show table – under gentle, experienced
judges, she was an extraordinary show Holland and had a natural ‘sit-up’
pose that really showed off her beautiful type; she rarely left a show
without winning a GC leg. She earned 3 Best of Breeds in her short
career, at her first show at Tri-County, a the 2004 Union Grove show and
the 2004 Wisconsin State Convention, plus she was honored with many, many
Best Opposite, variety and class wins.
Our quest to breed
Petal proved futile – she would almost always refuse to be bred, and we
tried every trick in the book! She came up barren the few times that she
did accept a buck’s advances. It was as if she chose her own destiny to
be a show rabbit. It is for this reason that I am grateful we made the
decision last year, to purchase both of Petal’s half-brothers, YRA Muggins and YRA
Jack.
Petal was the queen
of our rabbitry – she was so regal, often giving her inquisitive neighbors
the cold shoulder as if she was scoffing at them! She was always a very picky
eater, sifting through her hay and only nibbling on a few select pieces,
barely touching her whiskers to her water bowl to lap up a very small
amount of water, which had to be absolutely fresh and sparkling before she
would touch it! Sadly, it was these refined habits that led to her future
problems with furblock, and possibly her death.
Her greatest joy was
when she was allowed to play in our indoor rabbit pen – here she would run
and buck, throwing the cardboard play tubes around if they got in her way!
We often laughed while watching her play – her blocky Holland physique
gave her the appearance of being a sausage with feet, but no legs!
In early 2005, Petal
suffered 2 bouts of furblock, both relatively minor – and with immediate
treatment she was back to normal quickly. Never a big water drinker or
hay eater, it was a constant battle to encourage her to drink more water
and eat more hay to ward off future furblock attacks and we often had to
tempt her to eat more hay by offering some alfalfa or clover, and give her warm water, which she
loved. On a regular basis, we offered fresh pineapple and papaya tablets
to her and one of our French Lop does, also prone to furblock, but Petal
steadfastly refused these preventative treats.
Her last show was in
Kasson, Minnesota on Saturday May 14th, 2005. Petal was fine
before we left and gave me no indication that she was ill - she probably
wasn't, but I now wonder if that furball that had caused her trouble
earlier, lurked inside waiting to cause a problem again. Despite the long drive and cold, rainy weather, Petal
performed well and won Best Opposite Sex. What a bittersweet show
this turned out to be.
Sunday, back at home,
Petal seemed fine, eating and drinking her usual small amounts. Monday
morning, Petal refused to eat her morning treat and we knew something was
wrong…..we looked her over and couldn’t find an obvious problem, but she
was grinding her teeth so we knew she was in pain. No other symptoms,
nothing. She passively let me hold her, so I knew she was ill, and I
stroked her head and talked to her.
Not finding any other symptoms of illness, I
assumed furblock was starting and I began
treatment, and thinking that
medicine would begin to take hold, I left for work. I got to work
but all I did was call as many breeders as I could find and ask for
advice. About an hour and a half later, I left work and went home,
armed with more ideas and medicine, but I was too late - she had already left us.
Thank you, Brenda Reilly, for your knowledgeable help and support-time
just wasn't on my side I guess.
This was a very, very
sad day. We buried her next to Zippo, one of Kelly’s favorite French
Lops whose young life was cut short when we found him in his cage one fall
morning, with a broken back, unable to move.
I still expect to
see Petal every morning, sitting so proudly in the front corner of her
cage, waiting for her treat; a sliver of fresh banana. The
‘what-ifs’ and the guilt plagued me as I wondered what more I should
have done to save her or prevent this from happening. None of our other Hollands became ill after
Petal died, so I can only presume the long drive and double show took more of a
toll on her than we expected, causing an acute gut stasis of some sort.
Since Petal came to
our rabbitry, many other Hollands have been born here or have come to join
us, but none will ever match her beauty and elegance! We are
grateful to Eric Henning for allowing us the pleasure of having this
special girl at our rabbitry. We feel great disappointment in ourselves
for failing her....
~It
is only an ignorant fool who claims breeders do not love their animals~
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