Velveteen Lop History

Velveteen Lops are not of the story book rabbit that bears the same name, but a miniature English Lop with a Rex coat of fur, which is an American creation first conceived by Virginia Menden, of California. During the 1980s, Virginia Menden began mating Mini Rex to English Lops. Although putting a rex coat of fur on a breed is not a difficult task for any rabbit fancier to achieve, putting those long ears and good mandolin type is. In 1994, Virginia gave up on the project and passed the breed presentation rights to a Paul Lewis of New Mexico. Lewis was to present the Velveteen Lops for the first time in 1998 at the Portland, Oregon ARBA convention, but was unable to do so. Paul Lewis passed the presentation rights to Mary Crawford of Texas, who did present the breed in Louisville, Kentucky at the 1999 ARBA Convention. Mary’s next two presentations were not successful, and presentation rights went to another Texan by the name of David Kabela. David has managed to secure one accepted showing in each group: broken pattern and solid.

            Velveteen Lops are bred in all the patterns and colors of the English Lop breed. Weights have been set at 5 to 6.5 pounds (2.26 or 2.94 kg) for both bucks and does. Ears under 14 inches in length are to disqualify the rabbit, but one cannot expect to obtain the remarkable ear length of the English Lops. The Velveteen Lop has quite a following forming in the United States, and has also begun to make its way into other countries.

Cited from Bob D. Whitman’s Book “Domestic Rabbits & Their Histories: Breeds of the World” page 250

 

The nest two showings for David were fails for both broken and solids. Mary Crawford then had the COD again. She had failed her 2nd try at the 2nd showing. The COD then went to Lorrie Stillo of Ohio. She passed the first showing, failed the 1st try at second showing and then failed again at the 2nd try at the 2nd showing. The current COD is held by Megan Matthys (Chairman), Kathy Rairden and Lauren Bonnet. There is also a back up COD pulled on the Velveteen Lops by Paul Matthys.

 

This breed is making its own story, a story of never giving up and that dreams can come true when you work hard as a team.