10/04/2026
Good Sunday morning everyone!
I have an interesting topic and I want to hear your story!
A phrase you will hear often in the rabbit world is to build your barn before you paint it. And while I 100% understand it, we all have those colors or varieties that sparked your love and attention. For me its always been the chocolate and otters with an end goal of "chocolate otters".
But we all have to start somewhere and of course I chose the combination of colors and varieties that are not commonly available. I guess go big or go home right?
I started a few years ago with a pair of foundation built lops that were gifted to me by an amazing friend and mentor. I still have my main man "Jester."
I then dabbled in the tri color world but found that it wasnt my thing and often became a teeter totter game of creating non showable colors and honestly animals with not the best depth. Not having the experience at the time or the stock to improve on that I stepped back and pulled in the basics. But my favorite Tri buck moved all the way to California and another friendship and mentor began talking me through my goals.
After a few shows I was introduced to another amazing woman who had phenomenal rabbits and I fell in love with a young black tort doe who has the depth and ear length that I needed. And yet another awesome friendship was born with someone who shared my love for these wonderful creatures and valued the world of mentoring to help build others up instead of breaking people down just to be the best!
As my barn got stronger and the foundation was laid more people joined my rabbit loving family of friends and mentors and through studying and our love, I too started mentoring others.
There have been ups and downs along the way, waitlists that magically disappeared, rabbits sold out from under me because someone offered the breeder a higher dollar, lessons learned and now enforced in my own barn about deposits on kits not weaned, etc.
But this year I was able to purchase the "paint" for my barn and start working with my color goals! I am so excited see what the future holds. But I will also always remember where I started, the friendships that were developed that brought me to where I am today.
My question to everyone is, what is your rabbitry story? And are you where you want to be yet or are you still building your walls? Let's take a minute to build each other up and reflect on where we all began. Sometimes we get lost and need to look back.
**photo of my "paint" just because they are adorable**
