Clichéd, I know. But I couldn’t help but feel a little sad when I took the last of my Tort Dutch to Jill and Ronda in Oregon last weekend. I’d had Torts for the past 18 years, so not having any to look at when I got home was very strange!
I had a pet English Angora and was in 4-H in 1990 when my parents started to relent on the idea of a rabbit project. (Little did they know what they were getting into!) My mom, pragmatic soul she is, gave me a piece of paper on our annual State Fair trip and told me to write down any kinds of rabbits I liked so we could learn more about them and pick the right one. My list was three long and looked like this:
- Gray Dutch (blue)
- Black Dutch
- Brown Dutch (chocolate)
It was love at first sight! Being a librarian, she had access to all sorts of books and brought home The TFH Book of Pet Rabbits by Bob Bennett. The book did promote Dutch as pets, but my mind was already made up. I read through it and scoured all the pictures. The back endpapers was a photo of English Spots in their show coops, but in the top corner a golden, blazed face peeked in. It was the most gorgeous rabbit I’d ever seen. Not knowing the proper name, we called around looking for “Gold” Dutch and were eventually connected to Bob Bergene who had some Torts. We made plans to go to his annual spring sale in May of 1991, shortly after my 10th birthday, to pick up my first Dutch.
We got there, and I searched up and down the aisles, in awe of all the gorgeous rabbits. There was only one Tort left, a little mismarked buck. And I do mean mismarked, he had a big drag from his neck onto his shoulder, a saddle that looked like a stairstep, a tied elbow, and a split stop! I brought him up to the table, but my mom and Bob both tried to talk me into a black buck that I could show. I agreed, and picked up the little Tort to take him back to his cage. When I got there I noticed he was born on my birthday. If you’ve never tried to convince a 10 year old that the one rabbit in their favorite color that was born on their birthday isn’t destiny, well, I don’t recommend it. You aren’t going to win.
I must add here, in case you’re doubting Bob’s wisdom as a breeder, I didn’t know at the time that this little guy was very typey, had great color, and was extremely well bred. I named him Forty-Niner (aka Niner) after my favorite football team. Because I’d chosen him, I had to wait another year to show at the fair, but I didn’t care.
As it turned out, Niner having been born on my birthday was destiny. A year and a half later, after losing my first tort doe, we made another call to Bob and purchased a tort doe who was Niner’s half-sister. A little doe from their first litter was one of my two entries at my first ARBA Convention in 1994 in nearby Tulsa, Oklahoma. Callie won Best of Breed and put a little girl from Kansas on the map. I went on to raise some nice Torts who took many BOB and BOS honors out of Niner’s lines, and eventually expanded into blues and blacks.
Briony’s D19, aka Callie, 1994 ARBA Convention Youth Best of Breed
Over the years, my old Tort line diluted and kind of died out, since I had few to begin with, and after the fire in 2006 I had none left. I quickly got some to start with, but mostly concentrated on the blacks and blues since I had something of my own to work with, and they took off. Then the Chinchilla Mini Rex popped up. I knew that something had to give, and that was my Torts. I’ll always have a soft spot for them, and this is just a temporary break!
It sometimes amazes me the coincidences that bring single rabbits into our lives that end up leaving such an impact, although I don’t believe it’s ever truly coincidence but rather a plan by “someone” who knows better than we do. Several years later Rick Lehmann walked up to me at a show to offer me little blue buck he didn’t have room for. Sure, he was nice, but I couldn’t help but smile when I saw the pedigree and noticed he was born on my birthday. That was McGrath, and I didn’t know it at the time, but he was one of the two bucks who would get me started the second time around. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.
