Fancy Foxes

In 2017, I became aware of how many colours the American Red Fox (Vulpes Vulpes Fulvus) could come in, so naturally I needed a whole pack of fancy foxes. I got my colour examples from this website.

Farfrae Wiz
Radium, also called Irradium, or Eberland white

Farfrae Dizzy
Burgundy

Farfrae Trifle
Opal

Farfrae Glib
Platinum Cross

Farfrae Snap
Red pearl fire

Farfrae Toy
Autumn Fire

Farfrae Minx
Amber pearl

Farfrae Pixie
Amber

Farfrae Fickle
Red Georgian White

Farfrae Swift
Fire Cross

Farfrae Lithe
Gold

Farfrae Velocious
Standard Silver

Farfrae Subtle
Collicot Brown

Farfrae Whimsy
Bollert's Brown

Farfrae Swank
Cross Marble

Farfrae Presto
Pearl Gold

Farfrae Sketchy
Brown Snowglow

Farfrae Hasty
Pearl Snowglow

Farfrae Imp
Leucism

Farfrae Haughty
Gold Cross

Farfrae Charlatan
Pearl

Farfrae Wink
Silver white mark

Farfrae Clandestine
Pink Cross

Farfrae Crafty
Dawn Glow

Farfrae Wanton
Silver Georgian White

Farfrae Courtesan
Platinum Marble

Gradation of Cat

A massive herd of black and white cats made up the second half of my Xmas order. I planned out the patterns of the cats to move from black to white. The patterns of some, especially the more peculiar facial markings are based on pictures of cats I found online.

Top Hat

Sea of Spots

This year I used my Xmas money to torment Mr. R, the Julip pet painter, and to make a dent in my massive pet wish list. The model horse hobby gave my interest in genetics a focus and I very easily get sucked into the world of colour variations when learning about a breed.

A few years ago I saw a super spotty Dalmatian at a show in Yorkshire and a Google search later dumped me down a polka-dotted rabbit hole. I picked a few of my favourite examples, made a few mock-ups, named them, and sat on them until the right time came to spring them on Mr. R. I decided to go with a German theme for this lot.

The Fjord Horde

A year ago, right after Lake District Live 2017, I sent Miss Laura the first order for the Fjord Horde. A year later at Lake District 2018 I picked up the last of the horde and unveiled them in the Conga class as the Fjord Rainbow.

Fjord horses are almost exclusively dun with a base colour of chestnut, bay, or black. The cream gene is also present which, when combined with dun, presents as lighter version of the standard colours - buckskin dun, palomino dun, and smoky black dun (which is visually indistinguishable from black dun).

A double dose of the cream gene + dun results in an almost completely white, blue-eyed horse - perlino dun (bay base), cremello dun (chestnut base), and smoky cream dun (black base). This colour is considered unfavourable and is very rare in the Fjord population.

The five "official" and registrable colours in the Fjord breed are called: Brunblakk (bay dun), Grå (black dun), Rødblakk (chestnut dun), Ulsblakk (buckskin dun), Gulblakk (palomino dun). Double dilutes, or Kvits, are not encouraged or recognized. The vast majority of modern Fjords are bay dun, with a scattering of chestnut and black duns and cream duns as a rarity, but in the past, the other colours were more popular and therefore more prevalent.

The Characters of Beautiful Joe

One of my favourite childhood books is the story of Beautiful Joe, which was the winner of a writing contest held by the Humane Society in 1893. It is a fictionalized account of the life of a real dog and his family, the Morrises.

The Three Ages of Malachi

For those not familiar with Siamese cats, they are born very light and darken as they age. I decided I would like portraits of my cat, Malachi, at different stages of his life showing these changes. Mr. R did an amazing job translating my ideas into latex.