Today I paired some of the rabbits up. I paired Feather to Thatcher (witnessed two fall offs), Spotty to Fabio (witnessed one fall off), and I attempted Bacon to Yang (for #1), and Quince to Rascal, but neither Bacon nor Quince would participate. I will try them again tomorrow.
#1 is doing a science presentation at school about rabbits and she wanted to include a punnet square for genetics. She asked about dominant and recessive genetics. I told her white masks all colors, and agouti is also dominant, but I'm not sure which is more dominant. I've never bred a white rabbit to an agouti rabbit before. She asked me to try so we could fins out. Of course it will be too late for her assignment, but in the name of curiosity, I paired Bacon (agouti lionhead doe) to Yang (white New Zealand / Californian buck). They should make some interesting, and likely ugly babies, but we will have learned something from it.
I emailed the Science Museum today. While researching Kuma the polar bear for yesterday's blog, I came across some information about a gorilla from the same zoo that is supposed to be on display as well. I want to see him, but at the same time, I don't. You see, I am phobic of taxidermy animals. What a weird phobia to have, right? I'm slowly trying to work through it and desensitize myself. So far I'm getting better with birds and small mammals, but big things still scare me. Deer heads, bears, and presumably gorillas too. Anyway, I asked a bunch of questions about their taxidermy specimens in hopes that maybe I could have some bit of information to focus on so I wouldn't be in panic mode. Thank you Allison I. for getting back to me so fast and forwarding my questions on to the taxidermy expert, Dick O. It turns out they're having some kind of an open collections day in July where people can see how the specimens are prepared. If it helps me to get more familiar with taxidermy, and be less afraid of it, then I think it's worth another trip to the museum. Husband agrees and has suggested he takes that day off as a four day weekend and we can make a trip of it.
That said, the Science Museum of Minnesota currently has an exhibit about gaming. The kids (and my husband) are very excited to check it out. Enough that we've decided to pull kids out of school for a day and go down to visit the museum as a family. The exhibit leaves Sunday so we only have this week to go and see it. I left a message with the school to see if we could somehow make it a school / educational credit instead of a parent-excused absence since it's to the Science Museum. I haven't heard back yet.