In the beginning, God created friends.  That is exactly what we are.  

Our names are Theresa Mueller and Cheryl Rafoth.  

We both live in Washington State but not right next door! 

Cheryl lives on the Olympic Peninsula with a home overlooking the 

Straits of San Juan deFuca with her husband, Steve, and a menagerie of  pets.  

Her daughters are grown and living their own lives in California .  

Theresa lives on five acres in a beautiful setting in Ravensdale, 

with her husband and two darling daughters.    

We typically meet up at least once a week to go over weanlings or 

swap animals, and we email back and forth continually about the rabbitries.  

Each rabbitry holds about 75 holes although we can stretch it 

when the need arises.  Half of each rabbitry is dedicated to our beloved Holland Lops 

and half is dedicated to our challenging Lionheads.

 

In March 2001, we set out to purchase a new breed of rabbit, 

called a Lionhead, that Theresa had seen on-line.  

We were lucky to find JoAnn Statler of Minnesota  

who had some litters in the nestbox and was willing to ship.  

Our first Lionheads arrived in June 2001.  Initially we had just planned to 

have a trio to play with, but as most of you know, there is no such thing as

 “just one” with Lionheads.  So began the challenge!  

Hence, Pridelands Rabbitry had its beginnings.  

We agreed to apply for an ARBA Certificate of Development and 

that we would forge on together with whatever it took.  

Since a certificate needs to be in one name, we are using Theresa’s name.  

(She’s younger and has more fortitude!)

 

Immediately after our first trio arrived, we set out to find additional, 

unrelated stock.  Our most important piece of stock came from Sweden  

by way of a black buck named Tuborg.  He arrived with two other Lionheads 

(Barbie Girl and Esperanto) in January of 2002.  He was an older buck 

and didn’t have much length of mane left, but what he did have had incredible density.  

We had no idea initially what a huge impact he would have on our Lionhead herd.  

We used him extensively over the next year.  Once we saw how firmly he 

stamped his offspring with his best traits, he quickly became the cornerstone of our 

breeding program.  He consistently produced offspring with impressive manes,

 beautiful bone, upright stance, and firm, compact bodies. 

  Sadly, we lost Tuborg in early 2003, while we were away at a show (we assume to old age). 

  To this day he continues to be the foundation to our breeding program.  

His grandchildren and great grandchildren continue to stamp their 

offspring with his dominant genes. 

 

So just how does a co-op rabbitry work?  We share everything.  

Communication is key.  

We respect each other to the max and we seldom question each other’s desires!  

We have the same moral values and the same priorities in our lives.  

We tease, we laugh, we cry, we gripe and we learn together. 

We also make decisions over rabbitry management together.  

We keep the animals on the same feed and same schedule for 

worming and any other preventative treatments.  

We can move the animals back and forth between the two rabbitries 

with ease and really never think of specific animals as belonging to one or the other of us.  

Over the years, we have each figured out our own strengths within the  co-op 

and we rely on the other for those strengths. The bottom line is respect.  

We can argue and still laugh about it. 

  We can disagree and still respect each other.  

We can be irritated with each other and still pop back in 10 minutes like it never happened. 

We are just good friends sharing a hobby.  

We are proud of both our Holland Lop and Lionhead herds.  

We take pleasure in seeing animals we have sold, win in shows across the U.S.   

We have been a part the progression of this breed to eventual acceptance 

and we are looking forward to Lionheads being a recognized breed!

 

~Theresa & Cheryl