Raising rabbits is labor of love

QUINCY, Ill. — One summer when she was around 11 years old, Kayla Obert of rural Quincy walked into the rabbit barn at the Adams County Fair and immediately fell in love with the furry critters.

“I just kind of came in here and got hooked,” she recalled. “I said, `I’ve got to have me some.”’

Obert eventually convinced her parents to buy her three rabbits that she could raise on her own and show at the fair as a 4-H project. “It took a lot of begging,” she said.

Today, 8½ years later, Obert is still raising and showing rabbits at the Adams County Fair, which opened Thursday and continues through Wednesday at the fairgrounds near Mendon.

However, her hobby has grown exponentially.

This year Obert brought 53 rabbits to the fair. She showed them in Saturday’s open rabbit competition, which was no small undertaking for this 20-year-old college student.

Not only did Obert have to uncage, haul and present each of the 53 rabbits to the judges, but she also had to spend time feeding, grooming and watering the long-earned animals throughout the weekend.

As far as Obert was concerned, it was a labor of love.

“It’s a hobby that’s fun and interesting,” she said. “You constantly have to learn and change with the breed.”

The breed she specializes in is the “mini lop” — the smaller classification of the lop breed.

What distinguishes a mini lop from other rabbits, Obert said, is their bodily features.

“They have the floppier ears,” she said. “And then, actually, when you look at their face, the best way to describe it is they look like they literally ran into a wall. And then they have those small, little, compact bodies.”

As a pre-teen girl, Obert was enamored by the mini lops because they are so soft and cuddly.

“The mini lops are pretty much the best rabbit that’s suitable for little kids because they don’t care how they’re handled,” she said. “You can pat them like they’re little dogs. You can carry them like little babies. They just lay there. They just don’t care.”

Obert got hooked on rabbits because “each one has its own little personality,” she said.

“It’s fun to figure them out and then name them based off their personality. I’ve got Cinder. I’ve got Sue. I’ve got Bashful. I’ve got Thunder. I’ve got Jasper, Jasmine, Jim...”

Obert said rabbits in general have had a rough time in recent weeks because of the intense heat.

“With it being as hot as it is, you have to constantly make sure they have water,” she said. “And a lot of them have really cut back on eating. Some actually won’t eat because it’s so hot.”

Obert said she formerly showed cows and goats — along with rabbits — as part of her 4-H fair activities. However, since she got out of 4-H last year, she gave up showing cows and goats.

But she has no intention of giving up on rabbits.

Obert said she enjoys the challenge of preparing rabbits for competition.

“Pretty much you train them how to pose right. And then you have to make sure their hair condition is correct to the standards,” she said.

When asked if the laid-back animals respond well to training, Obert said: “Some kind of do and some kind of don’t. Some are like, `OK, whatever.’ And then others are like, `It’s not going to happen.”’

For a while now Obert has been raising rabbits for sale to others who plan to show them in competitions.

“A lot of 4-H kids will come to me and ask for a helping hand with their rabbits,” she said.

She admits it’s difficult at times to sell a favorite rabbit she raised herself.

“A lot of times it’s hard to part with them,” she said. “When I sell them, I just hope that they go to a good home. When I find out they don’t, it’s kind of heartbreaking.”

Obert attends Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Mo., where she is majoring in criminal law. She wants to go to law school and become an attorney. But even if she achieves that goal, she still plans to keep raising and showing rabbits.

After 8½ years, she can’t imagine being without them.