Friday, November 30, 2012

A note on bunnies

Once upon a time I had a bunny. Here she is!



Her name was Calliope (after a Grey's anatomy character, whoops),and she was a french-german angora rabbit. She was very fluffy and odd and twitched and did binkys (yes, that is an actual word... supposedly its when they do those side hop things.) She was a fiber rabbit which means I plucked every week (some people brush, some people shear) for her hair which I spun into a 50% blend with wool. It is very soft. Turns out I am also very allergic to it too but I ignored that factor... Here is me plucking her: 



It was quite odd to have an animal so docile that they sit in your lap and let you rip its hair out (though it comes out easily and without pain, contrary to how it sounds...) 
I had many dreams of starting a rabbitry and tried breeding her but she died shortly of something called wool block. Its similar to when cats have fur balls except that rabbits don't cough them up so some of her insane hair (seriously this thing was 75% fluff and 25% skeleton) got stuck in her intestines. I guess its another example, like the cornish cross broiler chicken, of an animal people have bred to produce though it might inhibit a healthy lifestyle. Though they dooooo produce some really lovely fiber- great to spin and great to wear. If you have any questions regarding angora bunnies shoot em my way!

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