idiot free to roam at ARBA

(off topic--ARBA is the National Bunny Convention--held here in Indy this year)
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 Gosh, it was like being in bunny disneyland!!! The sensation of being in the midst of all these fantabulous rabbits was sensory overload. I just wandered in a daze glancing at random rabbits in various rows, not really knowing what I was looking at. I mostly got vague impressions of body shape and activity levels, a blur of colors, shifting patterns. So much energy and people talking. Tension. Excitement.

Of course I didn't know anyone, until I got to the Angora section. There was Betty Chu's name on a cage card! Wow! a Rabbit Rock Star! I even glimpsed her getting one of her rabbits and taking it off to the grooming area. She was all business and I didn't feel like bothering her. I did chat with a few tourists. There was an English Angora that had everyone's attention because she was playing with a set of plastic keys, throwing them, digging them with her front paws and flinging them behind her. The owner had written a phone number on the cage card, so I impulsively called it. She was only a few feet away, returning one rabbit from the grooming area and taking another.

I asked if I could watch her groom the rabbit, which surprised her but she said okay. Donna was very patient with my questions and showed me how to groom the little oily area behind the ears with cornstarch and how to use corn starch to remove webs. Seeing how powerful the blower was and how strong it had to be to get through 6 inch fur was amazing....all the bands of color on each hair shaft made a sort of bulls-eye wherever the blower was parting the fur. Even though she'd finished with the blow out, Donna let me touch the coat, feel how soft it was. I felt like crying, it was so soft, so beautiful. My husband joined up about then, eager to talk about toys and tools of the trade, making suggestions on where to get surgical scissors, and what-not. 

We wandered over to the junior's area and I eavesdropped on all the show advice that people were just thrilled to give each other and the kids. A lot of the competition edge was reduced in favor of education and improvement....I was finally where I fit in!!!!

Oh, the reason I called myself an idiot in the title.....there were some guys with a Checkered Giant letting it run back and forth along an empty judging table. I suggested to them that their rabbit really had a secret ambition to be an agility rabbit. They looked at me like I was from Mars and said they'd keep it in mind. (Bad enough) But then I noticed it had identical patches on both sides!!! Wow! That was so cool....now the guys looked around, hoping I had a handler near-by to come haul me away. That was when I noticed a whole row of Giant Checkers who ALL had identical patches on both sides.....uhm, never-mind......do you think "that's" why they are called Checkers?


Later, I discovered that part of Checker judging involves watching them hop 3X down the judges table.  Those guys were just pre-judging a rabbit, possibly talking sale....and I interrupted.  Sorry, folks.