A Video for Our Boy

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I created a short video for our baby boy we lost in August. I can quite honestly say that, in all the time I’ve been breeding, this loss hit me the hardest.

I sometimes think that people assume that breeders don’t get attached to their puppies. I suppose some might not, but the ones I know are all passionately, emotionally involved with their puppies from the moment they are born. I’ve not known a single breeder who didn’t mourn the loss of even the smallest puppy. I also know breeders – many breeders – who have kept the puppies that by all rights should probably not have been allowed to live. Maybe part of the price for being a good breeder is facing up to the pain involved in making these wonderful creatures such large parts of our lives.

It has taken me since August to be able to look at any of the images I have of our boy.

On Blip –
http://blip.tv/file/512618/

Or on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g-Qu70-eTU

Or embedded after the cut.

Norman went to his new home yesterday. After meeting Beverly, I have every confidence that he is about to become a very well loved and adored member of her family. Beverly also gave me a disk of photos of her lovely boy, Tiger, who she lost to illness not long ago. I’ll be preparing a memorial to him in the coming week.

In the meantime, here as some photos of Norman and his sister Penelope, with a few random shots of Delilah.

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Bunny Puppies at One Month, and Tessa Turns 13

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Sorry for the delay in getting this post up, but last week was busy, and this week looks to be just as crazy. There are lots of photo update links, and a video at the end of the post after the cut.

Snuggling PuppiesBunny’s babies turned one month on Friday, and they continue to be one of the most mellow French Bulldog litters I’ve ever experienced. They’re finally getting vocal – the little brindle boy in particular – and they’re starting to have those adorable Frenchie puppy mouth wars we all love to watch. Bunny is still being an exceptional mom, and really enjoys rolling around and playing with them.

Bunny has also learned to roll Izzy – which is what we’ve been calling the little white girl – over with her paw when she gets stuck on her back. That little girl can eat! I swear, she’s as wide as she is long. She’s also no longer white – a nickel sized spot of color has appeared between her ears, with an even tinier one on her butt. This is similar to how color showed up on her great great Grandmother Lola – a tiny stain we first assumed was poop – hence Lola’s puppy nickname of “Poop Stain”. In Izzy’s case, we’ll say it resembles pale tea.

You can see photos of the little darlings on Flickr –
http://flickr.com/photos/frenchbulldogs/sets/72157603307580113/

Happy Birthday, Dear Tessa!

Tessa Turns 13Tessa turned thirteen years old last week, and we celebrated with a liver flavored pupcake – and a long nap in front of the fireplace, curled up in her favorite blue blanket. That’s Tessa’s favorite way to celebrate just about anything, these days.

Other than some weakness in her rear and eyes that are growing cloudy, Tessa is in remarkably great shape. She’s lost most of the coloring that made her look so fierce in her youth, but her looks are otherwise intact, and she is just as lovely to me today as she was as a puppy. She still runs, play fights with her daughter and grandchildren, insists on owning all of the toys, and enjoys a good chew bone (even if she has to gum it, for the most part).

I still remember carrying her tucked inside of my coat as we smuggled her into a movie theater. She was just barely seven weeks old, and she’s been going everyplace with me ever since. She’s still my beautiful baby girl, and I hope she’ll be with me for thirteen more years, at the very, very least.

Tessa’s birthday photos –
http://flickr.com/photos/frenchbulldogs/sets/72157603307891385/

Frenchies in Winter

It’s a winter wonderland up here in frosty northwestern Ontario, and Delilah had fun playing in her first snowfall. She’s a bold little monkey, staying outside long after the other dogs are ready to call it quits and head for the nice warm house.

Lots of DeeDee photos here –
http://flickr.com/photos/frenchbulldogs/sets/72157603303472324/

Don’t forget, there’s a Bunny babies video after the cut, or you can view it full sized here – http://blip.tv/file/506743 Read more →

French Bulldogs = Restaurants (trust me on this)

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Friends ask me all the time if I miss living in Toronto. Like most things in life, my answers are somewhat ambiguous.

I don’t miss paying as much for a one bedroom apartment with no yard or parking as I now pay for a 4 bedroom house with a pool on six acres. I don’t miss having to drive 15 minutes just to get to a park where I can let the dogs run safely off leash. I so don’t miss the traffic, or the parking tickets. I don’t miss the endless block looping you do when trying to find a parking spot in the Beaches on a Saturday morning. I don’t miss the Gardiner Expressway. I don’t miss aggressive panhandlers.

But the restaurants… oh, how I miss the restaurants. Not necessarily the fancier, upscale restaurants either – we have our share of those within driving distance of me now, including the world famous Eigensinn Farm, and the less famous but still fun Ted’s Diner . No, what I miss are the ethnic foods. Read more →

Photo Theft, Idiocy and a Bunny Puppy Update

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I run a website called French Bulldog Photos – http://www.frenchbulldogphotos.com

It’s pretty self explanatory – it’s a website filled with nothing but photos of Frenchies. Users register, and create albums for their dogs. Most people are good about it, just using the site to post pictures of their pets, but every once in a while someone tries to use it to post dogs for sale (probably because we have the highest google hit placement for ‘French Bulldog photos’). I clean the gallery out once every few weeks – get rid of blatant ads, or galleries that have sat empty for more than a few weeks. Every so often, I get slack and forget to check it for a month or so, but luckily for me my users keep a pretty close eye on what’s going on in there, and contact me if they see anything inappropriate posted.

More after the cut. Read more →

More Stupidity in the Congo Trial

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Of all the incredibly inane statements to come out of the Congo trial in NJ, this one just about takes the cake – Princeton Township Animal Warden Mark Johnson not only insinuated that the Guy James inflicted the wounds on his dogs himself, but he also testified that James’ dogs were ‘bred to be vicious’.

His proof for this?

They’re fed a raw diet.

How can anyone, in this day and age, be employed as a dog warden and still be such a nitwit? It would funny, if it wasn’t for the fact that Johnson’s testimony played a large part in Congo’s being labeled a ‘vicious dog’, and thus sentenced to death.

Johnson’s over all attitude is one of hostility, towards Congo, the other dogs and the family who owns them.

“Animal Warden Johnson has even said he believes the family may have intentionally wounded one of the pups to make it look in worse shape than it was.

“Miraculously, there was a scar on one of the puppies heads, but when I examined them immediately after the attack, it wasn’t there,” he said.

Johnson also doesn’t buy James’ claim that his dogs were bred for obedience.

“He fed them raw meat and dead rabbits,” he said. “That puts aggression in a dog.”

Full story here:

http://tinyurl.com/2ak9np

Carol