Back to COD holders page

#1:  Lee, tell us a little about yourself and your family, your rabbitry and where you live.  Rabbits have been a part of my life for nearly all of my life.  I was active in 4-H as a 10 year member and subsequently a leader, and have been a member of the ARBA since 1978.  In the early 1990's, I was also the Secretary for the National Silver Rabbit Club, and am currently a Representative for the Sunflower Lionhead Rabbit Club.  Over the years, I raised a lot of different breeds because I wanted to learn what makes each breed unique.  I really enjoyed the challenge of breeding to each individual breed standard and achieving success on the show tables.  My favorite breeds that gave me a great education about breeding for specific goals for type, fur, color and markings are Harlequins, Silvers, Rex,  all kinds of Lops, Havanas and Dutch.  In addition to raising rabbits, I have hand-raised several varieties of parrots and other small house birds, and have kept and bred many breeds of dog including Miniature Schnauzers and Dachshunds, Tri-color Collies and American Pit Bull Terriers.  Now, these many years later, I live in a secluded country home on 2 acres along with my other half of nearly a decade, Larry Nevills, and our 3 year old son Tye.  We have 2 cats, 4 chickens, a surly African Grey parrot named Moolie, one betta and nearly 100 rabbits.  We are planning to add English Mastiffs to our menagerie very soon.  Our home is at the end of a mile long gravel lane, and we are surrounded by corn fields and a horse pasture.  I am lucky to be a stay at home mom while Larry works long hours as an operating engineer.  Staying home has been a fun new experience for me since I always worked full time during my entire adult life up until a few weeks before my son was born.  I am a Purdue University alumni, and hold a professional property/casualty & life/health insurance producer license with a CISR designation.  I also am a state board licensed cosmetologist and own and manage several investment rental income properties.  In addition, I am an experienced bartender and banquet manager, and even do part-time body piercing for the local tattoo shop.  There has never been a dull moment in my life, and I look forward to any challenges that come my way.

What do you like to do in your “non-rabbit” time?  We love to enjoy nature as a family.  Especially, we like swimming, fishing, and camping.  We also love to go to area festivals, and spend good quality time with friends and family.  Summertime is busy with all the various local fairs, and of course, Tye & I do lots of "mommy & me" activities and playdates throughout the year.  As Tye gets older, we plan on attending more rabbit shows, and he will eventually become involved with 4-H.

#2:  How did you first become interested in the Lionhead Breed?  When and where did you first hear of it?  I recall that I first heard about Lionheads as early as 1999, but I remember thinking to myself that I would give it time for others to get a better handle on the breed before jumping in myself.  I kept tabs on the breed over the years, and watched it progress with great interest.  I knew eventually I would have to have my own project herd. How many animals did you start out with?  How long have you raised the breed and what other breeds do you raise? Our first Lionheads were a frosty buck and a black tort doe that came from a local pet store in 2007. They were my son's pets, and they were really bad examples of the breed, most likely they were single manes, as they lost their manes entirely after only a few months.  They were strictly kept as pets, and not used for breeding at all.  I then ended up with a couple of black tort does and was able to breed them to a borrowed tort buck.  Our first litter was born in January, 2008, and that litter produced the 2nd place jr. black tort doe in Open class at the 2008 NALRC Nationals.  That was pretty exciting, considering she was my only entry in the show.  At that time, we had a few blue Dutch rabbits, although we jettisoned them to make way for black and blue Silver Fox, black Mini-Rex and one lilac Polish in addition to our Lionhead herd.  I have also recently began putting together a small Holland Lop herd in various colors with my dear friend Anita Moore.  She and I are pretty much in sync when it comes to a collective vision for our rabbits, and it is a lot of fun to go to shows together and talk rabbits for hours on end.

#3: Where and when did you get your original stock and what varieties did you start with?  Once I had made up my mind to pull a Lionhead COD to lend my years of attained rabbit raising experience to help advance the breed,  I quickly amassed the core to my entire herd.  Seemingly overnight, I accumulated stock from Dan Young, Lynne Schultz, Kim Croak and Becky Armstrong along the lines of my chosen color scheme of chocolate, chocolate tort, lilac, opal and seal.  These breeders have been instrumental in helping to rapidly advance the vision I have for my herd.  I am also extremely lucky to live within 20 miles of my good friend and fellow COD holder Anita Moore.  She and I work closely together to achieve our similar goals for our Lionhead herds.  With our resources pooled, we have found that we can get a lot further a lot faster by working together.  The Lionhead breed is a work in progress, and I feel that the sharing and exchange of stock, information and ideas can be a crucial benefit to the breed.

How did you use these first animals to move the breed forward?  Did you cross with other breeds?  Stick to what you had?  Experiment with several crosses?  Only breed Lionhead to Lionhead? I was very lucky in that the quality of animals I started with was very good.  Most of the bloodlines meshed well with each other, so I had positive results early on.  I did not have to hybridize, although I have experimented a little with Netherland Dwarf crosses just for my own information and observation.  I breed aggressively for my specific goals, and am a firm believer in a strict culling regimen to weed out undesirable traits and to reinforce the desirable attributes I am striving for.  I have a definite goal in mind with my breeding program, and do not keep or use any stock that is not in keeping with my vision. 

#4.  When did you receive your COD and what varieties are you working on now? My COD was approved in February 2008.   Of course, my COD varieties of chocolate, chocolate tort, lilac, opal and seal are high on my priority list, but I must confess that I also have a fondness for chestnut agouti, as well as lilac tort.  Those varieties are a by-product of my color goals, and can be used integrally, so that is a plus!

#5:  What do you consider the hardest part of raising this breed?  The most frustrating part?
Trying to find the perfect balance of good, compact, upright type and long-lasting dense mane is the biggest challenge.  Putting all of the pieces together on one rabbit, and being able to do it consistently on every rabbit produced is my long term goal.  The most frustrating part for me is all of the grooming involved, because I sometimes lack the patience to be as thorough as I should be.   The best part of raising this breed is the friendships I have made that I know will last a lifetime.  In addition, the exchange of information and ideas with other breeders has proven very beneficial to me, and I have learned a lot in a short time.  I hope to continue to expand and share the scope of my knowledge.

#6:  What do you see as the major changes in the Lionheads from the earlier years? Obviously, the size of the Lionhead has reduced greatly, as has the ear length.  The overall quality of the breed on the show tables and across the nation has improved by leaps and bounds very quickly in the most recent few years.  Breeders have become more concerned with the breed attaining recognized status with the ARBA, and are becoming more of a cohesive unit.  I am very proud of the breeders here in my home state of Indiana, as we seem to work very well together and present a united front when we are at shows.  I think this has helped the ARBA and the rabbit community as a whole understand and begin to embrace that the Lionhead breed is here to stay.  For the most part, we take the advancement of our breed very seriously.

#7   Was there an animal that was the most influential in your beginning stock? Lyne Schultz generously gifted me with KP's Crackerjack, a chestnut agouti buck that won BOS and Best Junior at the 2006 NALRC Nationals. He is the product of the hard work of Jason and Kadie Foss on their vision of the Lionhead breed.  Sadly, they are no longer actively breeding their Statler Award winning Lionhead herd, but left a legacy in what is left of their existing bloodline.  I just love the babies that "Cracky" has produced.  They consistently have short compact bodies, with good width to the head and correct little ears.  In addition, most of them are natural posers.  The chocolate herd buck that I got from Kim Croak in PA is the foundation of my chocolate, chocolate tort and lilac project, and his offspring tend to have smooth bodies and massive manes.  Lastly, I have to mention that my seal program has been majorly influenced in a positive way by the use of Aslan/Bastet bloodlines.