Must love rabbits

SPRINGTOWN — Springtown 4-H Club members Josh and Victor Wingate lit up with excitement when they talked about rabbits.

Both brothers have been rabbit show competitors, but 9-year-old Josh was the first one to test the waters. He has been showing rabbits for about a year and has enjoyed raising rabbits, especially when they are babies.

“My rabbits like to get up behind pillows and sleep,” Josh said.

Meanwhile, 8-year-old Victor seemed to be inspired by just one rabbit — Cheese Puff.

“I wanted to show rabbits because of Cheese Puff,” Victor said. “I liked him.”

Cheese Puff is a mini rex castor with an agouti coloration, meaning the fur is two-toned. With Cheese Puff, Victor won reserve champion at the Parker County Stock Show’s breeding rabbit contest earlier this year. Josh also placed first in his class at the breeding rabbit show and tied for intermediate second place in the rabbit showmanship contest, according to the show's official results.  

“He's a good rabbit at showing,” Victor said about Cheese Puff. “He's one of our best rabbits at showing.”

Technically, Cheese Puff is Josh’s rabbit, but Victor was able to show the rabbit at the Parker County Stock Show.

“I wanted to show rabbits like my brother,” Victor said.

Since both boys were responsible for the win, they split the awards. Victor kept the banner but gave the prize buckle to his brother.

When asked how Victor did at the show, Josh gave him two thumbs up.

“In showing, buckles are very hard to get,” Josh said. 

Josh is especially proud of an apron he won at a national show for tan breed rabbits. Aside from that and his buckle from the county show, Josh has garnered banners, plaques and many ribbons.

The boys have multiple rabbits that live in a storage unit outfitted with two air conditioners. They are responsible for watering and feeding them, which is done more often in the summer, as well as brushing them and clipping their nails. They don’t wash the rabbits, but they do use wipes to spot clean the rabbits’ butts and other dirty areas.

“If you don't wash off the pee, if it gets on their backs and you don't wash it off, it'll get stained, and they can't show anymore,” Josh said. “They'll just be for breeding.”

They also had to train the rabbits for the show, including practicing posing them a certain way.

Josh and Victor’s mother Lauren Wingate said the family started getting Josh involved with showing rabbits after he was diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

“We just couldn't find anything to help keep him occupied,” Wingate said. “He tests at an eighth-grade level, and he's going into fourth grade. He was failing all but two of his classes, and within a week of going to his first show, he had all his grades back up to 90s.”

She added, “He knows he's got something to work towards. If he wants to go to the show, he has to pass. If he wants to go to the show, he has to be good in school.”

Wingate showed lambs and pigs when she was young but not rabbits. Originally, she didn’t think raising rabbits would be too difficult, but she realized she had underestimated it. 

“There’s a lot of work to them, a lot more than what you’d expect getting into it especially,” Wingate said.

Of course, Wingate was proud of her boys following their performances at the county show.

“They worked hard for it,” she said. “They truly did.”