RAM is an acronym for Rob and Mara (Rob Fender and Mara Perez).  Rob's name appears first, only because the acronym sounds better as RAM instead of MAR.  Truth is, the herd is really owned by Mara and Rob is just a consultant and helper in all the endeavors of everything that happens with the herd.  The herd is housed on Mara's property and pretty much all the maintenance of the facility is controlled by Mara.  Rob helps periodically and will make certain purchases of equipment, supplies, and of course buy stock to improve the line from time to time.  Rob also helps sort the herd trying to only keep the best of the best.  The most important fringe benefit for Rob, is the ability to take the rabbits to regional and national shows.  Way back when, in the early years of developing the herd, Rob would try to go to as many local shows as possible, mostly to learn the aspects of the judging table and try and figure out direction for the future breeding program.  In recent times, Rob pretty much only attends the West Coast Classic in Reno, Nevada and the ARBA Convention, wherever it is in the US.  Now that Rob is retired from being a Professor of Architecture (his profession) and he is going to try and add the Cal National Spring show to his endeavors... usually somewhere in the Mid-West. 

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The original herd originated at Rob's facility and was built over a period of 8 years, starting in 2005, when he purchased the Champion Meat Pen from the Del Mar Fair, in San Diego California.  In 2006, Rob purchased 21 Californians at the Ft, Worth ARBA Convention, seven trios (two Does and one Buck) from National renowned Californian breeders, .  All of these rabbits (all 21) were bought site unseen, without photos, just relying on the reputation of the breeders that the rabbits were bought from.  That was a big mistake, because it started the whole breeding program on the wrong foot.  Most of the rabbits purchased, sent to Ft. Worth, then transported back to California, were long in the shoulders, not very deep, and in general very poor specimens to be the foundation stock for the beginning of a breeding program.  I do have to say, That Wayne Coffee and All Roland were pretty honest in delivering the better stock... but even those are a far reach from what we have built today.     Some of these breeders included Wayne Coffee (Illinois) Darrell and Diane Howe (Michigan, Al Roland (Virginia), Karen Corda (California), Kyle Cunningham (Indiana), Circle J Rabbitry (Unknown).   See the Family tree diagram on the next page.