ok, enough with kittehs and sheep. It's time for...
Yes, I've gone and done it. I've brought home 2 wabbits. French angora wabbits.
It all started 5 years ago in my chemistry class. A young woman brought a bag of wool and a hand spindle to every class. While I sat scribbling notes like crazy, she sat serenely spinning and spinning and spinning. I've wanted to learn to spin ever since.
Fast forward to last September, when I spent the day at the Common Ground Fair in Unity, Maine. Made the mistake of visiting the bunny barn. There were angora bunnies galore, of all different colors. Mostly giants (albino) and German (also albino) and German-crosses with the most beautiful colors. Some English -- absolutely adorable. A local breeder sat in front of the barn and demonstrated clipping a German bunny. I bit my tongue and tied my hands and acted like a grownup and did NOT bring home a $300 show bunny! Yay me.
Then a month ago, saw an event listing -- workshop on making a hand spindle and learning to spin. I called to sign up -- it was canceled due to my being the only person to sign up.
Then I turned to you-tube and found many video demos. Googled some more -- my hand made spindle and an ounce of wool, plus written instructions, are on their way now.
While I was perusing craigslist for a sewing machine, I found myself googling angora bunnies. I read about them, and decided that once I learned to spin and if I liked it enough, I would get a French angora. Unlike the other angora breeds, they only require weekly grooming versus daily. I read sites on angora care. And I kept perusing craigslist and Uncle henry's, dreaming of maybe getting a bunny or two.
And then 2 french bunnies came up -- offered for free if you took both, including cages, leftover food, tools. Less than 2 hours away. How could I possibly resist? FREE. So I picked them up 2 days ago. The top bunny is a 5 year old black boy who used to be a "stud." The brown bunny is a 10 month old girl. Their hooman was a young mother who got them last spring, I'm guessing with the intention of breeding to start a sideline business. The males live on average 5-7 years, so I'm guessing she got him dirt cheap or free from a breeder looking to either re-home him before he died or to downsize. The female she told me was very expensive and is pedigreed. She said she'll mail me her papers -- I hadn't asked about it, so maybe she will since she offered. Anyway, stuff came up this summer and she couldn't keep up with them. She was apologetic...they're getting matts in their fur. So she's eating the loss and grateful to find a home with somebody who has the time.
I brought them home on Tuesday. I wasn't going to start grooming them until they had a chance to settle in, but I noticed some fur coming off the boy. Uh-oh...shedding time. You have to get the wool off them when they shed (every 3 months). If they ingest too much, like cats furballs, they get "wool block." But unlike cats, they can't cough and puke the balls up. So I started grooming him Tuesday evening. I've now done 3-4 hours of grooming, most on him. She'd already mostly been mostly combed out, but still had some wool "around the edges" and today I realized that what I thought was her tail was actually a mat.
Poor guy had 4 big mats in front of and just behind his front legs. And smaller mats on his butt. He was very stressed grooming, panted the first night. I gave him lots of breaks to hop around a bit. I cut the big mats out yesterday; he's gotten much more relaxed about grooming since. They were hurting him. Yes, you brush, comb and gently pull the wool out. German angoras don't shed, so get clipped. But the other breeds shed; they can be groomed or clipped. But clipped wool isn't as good for spinning.
Before I combed out most of his wool, he looked like a giant, light blue-gray cloud. He still has some wool to come out, but the vast majority is done and I got a big bag of the softest wool imaginable.
The girl is much easier to groom -- she's obviously been handled gently and well by her prior hooman. She tucks her nose into the crook of my elbow and grooms me while I groom her.
Today for the first time they each let me hold them in my lap while grooming. Before, I was crouched on the floor. It's much easier now.
Oh, yeah. I have no idea what their names are. Prior hooman didn't offer or answer. Nothing comes to me, so I'm open to ideas.
= new reply since forum marked as read
It must be very relaxing to sit and groom a warm, fluffy bunny. 
and she is more of a cinnamon color by far than brownie. Hmmm...it's working for me! 
her color made me think "Snickerdoodle"
and pick up salad greens and a papaya for them. Papaya enzymes help prevent wool block. The greens and papaya fiber also help prevent wool block.
They are on coated wire grates, but 1. because they are angoras, they have much thicker fur protecting their feet, legs and bellies than other rabbits, and 2. unfortunately they were not "litter trained" as babies. The 5 year old in particular, would not know not to pee and poop on a solid surface. Getting pee and poop stuck into their fur is far worse for them than other rabbits, and trying to remove matts with dried urine and feces would be a nightmare. It was hard enough with clean matts, painful at times for him no matter how careful I was.
For now, they stay in except when I have them out to groom them. In between short grooming sessions they hop around the room they're in and explore (one at a time). Mostly each other. I think they're in love.
In the summer, I'm going to make them "chicken tractors," ie long, narrow, bottomless, covered cages that they can be outside in during the day, with room to hop around, grasses and dandelions to nibble on, and safe from predators.
