Once again Peter’s Pet Foods sponsored the club and we would like to thank them for their generosity, not only in providing cash but also sample bags of food which we can give as prizes to kids entering the novelty classes or to people buying rabbits at displays as part of starter kits.

It was good to Jean ‘Rojeana’ Hill return to showing, at the October show, with her Polish, Netherlands, Satins and Rex. It has been too long since she has been able to show and she has been missed. Ill-health on her part or on husband, Ron’s, and the tragic loss of all her rabbits (as well as their house, dogs, cats and car) in the January bushfires have kept her away. She was fortunate to be able to acquire rabbits which were either her own stock or bred from her lines.

Six shows were scheduled this year but we had to cancel the May one due to insufficient entries, something we have never had to do before. Numbers at shows have been down this year though we did have a good turn out (by the standards of recent years) at the last show in October. If it were not for interstate breeders entries would be very woeful indeed. If you currently have pet rabbits, why not consider entering the wonderful world of showing pedigree rabbits? It’s not hard and there are plenty of people willing to help you. And if you do breed, why not come to the shows and get some top flight judges’ comments on your rabbits? It’s the only way you will know if your breeding program is on track and you can get good advice.

All shows are held at the Waramanga Scout Hall, Badimara Street, Waramanga. Two of the shows (30 March and 26 October) were held in conjunction with the NSW Cavy Club Southern Regional Branch. I've only put the top awards per show. Full details are in back issues of the newsletter.

NB: BiS = Best in Show; RUBiS = Runner Up Best in Show; REW = Red-Eyed White, A/C = Any Colour, AOC = Any Other Colour

30 March 2003 Judge: Jackie Colman (ACT) BiS, Best Adult, Best Fancy Petite Stud REW Mini Lop 02K00828; RUBiS & Best Fur Petite Stud British Giant 02H00355; Best Junior Bonreiki Mini Cashmere A/C 02C00592; RUBiS Junior Beau Stud Dwarf Lop Self 02C05247; Best Kitten Bonreiki Stud Mini Lop Self 03K00316; RUBiS Fancy Petite Stud Netherland Dwarf AOC (Himalayan) 02X01096; RUBiS Fur Petite Stud Satin Self 02E06889; Best Rex Beau Stud Mini Rex Shaded 02B07541; RuBiS Rex Petite Stud Mini Rex Self 01B03829

15 June 2003 Judge: John Mann (NSW) BiS, Best Adult, Best Fancy Petite Stud Netherland Dwarf AOC (Himalayan) 02X01096; RUBiS RUBiS Adult, Best Rex, Dorinda Pope Mini Rex Black Otter 02B0855; Best Junior Petite Stud Mini Rex Black Otter 03B00317; RUBis Junior Ben & Emma Unwin Mini Lop Shaded 03K00324; Best Kitten Jarwood Stud Mini Lop Shaded 03K00325; RUBiS Kitten Beau Stud Mini Rex Orange 03B00236; Best Fur Bella Stud British Giant 01H01140; RuBiS Fur Petite Satin Self 02E06889; RUBiS Best Fancy Petite Stud Tan A/C 02B10242; RUBiS Rex Beau Stud Mini Rex AOC 02B07541

27 July Judge: Vija Hone (Vic.) BiS, Best Adult, Best Fancy Petite Stud Netherland Dwarf REW 02X06331; RUBiS, RUBiS Adult, RUBiS Fancy Bugsy’s Stud Dwarf Lop Tan Pattern 01C01968; Best Junior Bugsy’s Stud Satin Agouti Pattern 03E00633; RUBiS Junior Buck N Doe Stud Swiss Fox REW 03E02896; BiS Kitten Petite Stud Mini Lop Shaded 03K00380; RUBiS Kitten Brialea Stud British Giant 03H00199; RUBiS Fur Buck N Dow Stud Swiss Fox REW 02E04524; Best Rex Liam Pope Mini Rex Tan Pattern 02B06955; RUBiS Rex Petite Stud Mini Rex Tan Pattern 03B00317

31 August Judge: Greg Irwin (NSW) BiS, Best Adult, Best Fancy Petite Stud Netherland Dwarf REW 02X06631; RUBiS, RUBiS Adult, RUBiS Fancy Bonreiki Stud Cashmere Lop AOC 02C00952; Best Junior Petite Stud Satin Self (Blue) 03E00367; RUBiS Junior Petite Stud Mini Lop Shaded 03K00334; Best Kitten Petite Stud Dwarf Lop Tan Pattern 03C00285; Best Fur Reguli Stud Satin Agouti Pattern 01E02428; RUBiS Fur Reguli Stud British Giant 02H00357; Best Rex Beau Stud Mini Rex Shaded 02B04559; RUBiS Rex Petite Stud Mini Rex Tan Pattern 03B00317

26 October Judge: Leonie Kelly (NSW) Results will be in next issue.

Club members also attended a number of other rabbit clubs' shows as judges (John Sowden and Christine Carter), book stewards (Christine Carter at the Australian National Rabbit Show and Nikki White at the Royal Easter Show) or exhibitors.

Eight newsletters (including this one) were published during the year, usually two weeks before each show. A copy is sent to the National Library on Legal Deposit (a requirement of the Copyright Act 1968) and a copy to our sponsor Peter's Pet Foods. There are 61 copies in the print run currently as membership is down on last year as a number of breeders and some pet owners have dropped out of rabbits (usually when the pet has died in the latter case).The exchange of newsletters with other clubs continues and seems to be working well. The CRCI currently has exchange agreements with NSW Rabbit Association, Rabbit Exhibitors and Breeders Society, Rabbit Fanciers Society of NSW, Rabbit Breeders of Tasmania, South Australian Rabbit Association and West Australian Rabbit Council Inc. These newsletters are kept in folders in the club library and can be borrowed by members.

I would like to thank Christine Carter for her popular and extremely useful series of articles on rabbit greenfeed and mating and Sue Sowden for her hard work in compiling and providing already photocopied show results for each issue

The contents of this year's Rabbit Droppings are as follows. Unless otherwise stated and except for the breed standards, all items were written by me.

No. 23 (Feb. 2003) Rabbit Fancy 100 years ago—Club Library contents—Playmate of the Month: Chinchilla/Chinchilla Giganta

No. 24 (Mar. 2003) Argenté Noir standard—Royal Canberra Show—What’s for dinner, mum? by Christine Carter.

No. 25 (Apr. 2003) Abscesses—Yass Show—A young buck’s diary—Wonderful world of weeds part 1 by Christine Carter.

No. 26 (June 2003) Winter bunnies—Royal Easter Show—Wonderful world of weeds part 2 by Christine Carter

No. 27 (July 2003) National Rabbit Show—Book review: Rabbits for Dummies—Rabbitry on Parade: Bella Stud by Angela Nicoli—Vegetation: source of rabbit food by Christine Carter

No. 28 (Aug. 2003) Hay mite—The Vegetable plot by Christine Carter

No. 29 (Oct. 2003) Murrumbateman display—Playmate of the Month: the Tan—The mating game part 1 by Christine Carter.

No. 30 (Dec. 2003) CRCI annual report—Book review: The Rabbit Handbook by Susan Batho—The mating game part 2 by Christine Carter—How to catch a rabbit by Christine Carter.

The rabbit breeds and colours project begun last year has continued sporadically with more colours and breeds being added to this section on the club website. Most of these photos are taken by Christine Carter but some have been sent in by non-club members. At present it looks as if CRCI is the only one continuing with the project. These are on the website under Rabbit Breeds and Colours. They are arranged alphabetically by breed and again alphabetically by colour under each breed. Each rabbit is listed by its colour then its name, sex and owner, no stud names are given.

I maintain the Club web pages on my own website which was moved to Netspeed in late October. The address appears under the masthead of the newsletter. It contains general information about the club for prospective members and a membership form that can be downloaded. There is also the online Breeders Directory, a list of show dates for the year, a listing of the contents of the Club library, a number of articles which have appeared in earlier issues of Rabbit Droppings and elsewhere by Christine Carter or me on aspects of rabbit keeping such as housing, feeding, showing and so on. There is also a "hall of fame" which features photos of members' rabbits - favourites or just nice examples of their breed. In addition there are also links to other useful sites such as the British Rabbit Council, the American Rabbit Breeders Association, Fur & Feather, Show Bunny, some Australian pet portals and any Australian rabbit breeder or club sites. I am constantly up-dating all of these. The OzPets portal has a link to the club website as does the Community Calendar on the ACT Government website There is a simple website in the Canberra Times local info section. with a link to the club’s website The information has been recently updated to reflect the change of web address and other contact details.

I bought a number of new books for the library during a trip to Sydney and this fresh infusion caused an increase in the number of borrowings. A complete list of what's in it will appear in the Feb. issue. Meantime, this list is available online on the club website under Canberra Rabbit Club Library. The library is brought to each club meeting I attend and books can be borrowed then. However, they should be brought back at the following meeting or arrangements made to return them to me either by dropping them off in person at my home or by posting them to me.

This year meetings were held on Thursday evenings. This is to accommodate committee members who have to work weekends. They have been held at the home of a different member each time, not necessarily a committee member.

Again I put all the clubs shows in this year's community calendar on the ACT Government website and also constructed a simple web page on the Canberra Times local info section, with a link to the main club website.

As happened last year, the Club was asked to mount a number of displays during the year, chiefly by Jane Southwell of FARM. Australia Day in the Park was cancelled because of the bushfires. The rest were as follows: Royal Canberra Show Animal Nursery (28 February-2 March, Mallee Pavilion, Exhibition Park – Dita Kruze, Margaret Sammut, Christine Carter, the Sowdens, the Milligans, Sarah Read, Rachel Eliot and Nikki White); Yass Show (29 March, Yass Showground - Nikki White); Cranleigh School (once a month in term time, Holt ACT – Christine Carter (mostly) plus (once each) Nikki White and Vera Sapov); Murrumbateman Field Days (11-12 Oct., Murrumbateman Showground – Dita Kruze, Nikki White and the Sowdens); Canberra Pet Expo was cancelled this year.