How It All Started?

A friend asked me recently how this Holland Lop hobby started for me. Well, here is the story or should I say history. LOL...

Pets has always been a part of my life as I was growing up. Both my parents love having pets around and has been very supportive of me having my own pets. We had our first mixed Spitz puppy when I was 5 years old and Puppy (as he was named) became the foundation of my interest in keeping animals as pets. I cannot remember if there was any period of time that we did not have any pets in the house. Puppy was replaced by many other dogs that came and left us - some living their full terms and some wasn't as lucky. My dad taught us to be kind to animals and on many occasions we would rescue stray puppies on the streets and they came and stayed with us until some other good Samaritans came along.

I remembered there was this female mixed Spitz dad found sprawled in a pool of blood (victim of an accident). Dad brought her to the vets and paid for her medical bill. She recovered and we kept her and gave her the name Ruby (she had ruby red eyes). A neighbor fell in love with her and took her home a few months after. She lived full term and passed away in good hands. We were there when our neighbor buried her in their yard.

My interest for pets somehow became an "obsession". LOL. Petshops interest me more than anything else. But being a child I couldn't afford those "expensive junks" offered at the petshops. LOL. Mind you, they now have quite competitive quality pets to offer.

So what about rabbits? My first pair of rabbits were gifts from a best friend in primary school. Apparently he bought them from this breeder a few doors away from my house and brought them over for me one fine Saturday morning. They were New Zealand Whites. I was 8 years old then. As usual, my dad helped me build this cool triangular hutch with an attached run. It was based on the sample showed in a rabbit book I had back then (I still have that book with me on the shelves in my studies!).

That pair of rabbits gave birth to a litter. My first litter of rabbits at 8 years old. Like many inexperienced kid, the doe seemed to be acting nasty towards the kits and naturally, I separated them. I cannot believe now, that I actually learned how to restrain the doe to allow her kits to suckle at that tender age and that is a valuable skill that has helped me in most of my breedings recently.

So throughout the years, I have kept many rabbits and other pets. I always return to having rabbits as pets and I was particularly drawn to the lops. Personally, I hate joining the bendwagon and dislike stereotypes. I like things that defy the norms and those lop ears actually attracted me because they were different.

I had my first local lop ear rabbit when I was 16. My then girl friend (now my wife) named her Lola. She was quite an elderly doe when I got her and she died 2 years after. When my last rabbit died, I stopped keeping rabbits until two years ago. I guess when we are all grown up and earning our own living, we tend to walk down memory lane and try to materialize something that we once passionate about but could not really afford.

The internet has helped me realize my passion. To be very honest, I fell in love with Holland Lops the moment the image of Laurie Stroupe's rabbits loaded on my screen that faithful evening in 2006. There and then, I told myself that I will start working towards the standard of perfection.

Holland Lops - The Hallmark Breed indeed.

And that my friends, is how Tru-Luv Rabbitry was born...