Oh You Bad Little Bunny!

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Bunny is apparently getting bored with motherhood. I can almost see her thinking “Y’know, I have a career to get back to, and things to do. I can’t just sit around in this whelping box all day, looking after these chubby little muffinheads”.

In an attempt to alleviate her boredom, Bunny has gotten herself a new hobby – interior decorating.

In less than 24 hours, Bunny has….

  • pulled the clock radio off the table, unplugged it from the wall, and eaten the cord
  • eaten a package of sunflower seeds (I should mention here that the package was on top of the three shelf bookshelf, meaning she had to jump from the bed to the bookshelf to get them. I guess she really needed a snack)
  • unplugged the lamp from the wall and eaten the cord
  • unplugged the baby monitor base, detached the charger from it, and ate the cord – but only after pulling the monitor and charger into the whelping box
  • unplugged the (thankfully turned off) heating pad, pulled it into the whelping box, and ate the cord

Looking this list over, it seems her new hobby is actually home electronics. She’s lucky she hasn’t fried herself yet. I spent this afternoon spraying down every necessary cord and piece of electronics in the room with a double dose of Bitter Apple spray. Tonight, I added a liberal coating of Frank’s Hot Sauce.

Hopefully that will work – either that, or she’ll just see it as a challenge.

I should also point out that Bunny hasn’t done this because she’s chew toy deprived – her room is stocked with three kinds of nylabones, a selection of water bottles, and a peanut butter and dog cookie stuffed Kong that I prepare fresh every day. Apparently, those didn’t pose enough of a challenge in logistics for her, as opposed to carefully removing an entire lamp from a table top.

I think I’m finally starting to understand how the owners of sporting breeds feel…

Puppy Updates – and a website update, too

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Well, I finally feel like I can stay out of bed for three hours without falling over, so it’s time for a Bunny puppies update.

As I mentioned before, this litter has been gloriously, wonderfully stress free. After an initial 48 hours spent studiously ignoring her puppies, Bunny clued in to what motherhood is all about, and hasn’t let up since.

There have been a few annoying moments (her tendency to bury herself and the kids under the blankets in the whelping box, for one), but over all she’s done so much more than I could ever hope for from a first time mom.

The pups themselves have been a striking change from the troubles I faced in Sailor’s last litter. Consider their weight development, for starters. At age one week, Delilah and her little brother weighed 15 ounces and 13.1 ounces respectively.

Bunny’s pups, on the other hand, weighed in at –

Brindle Boy – 1 lb 1.1 ounces

White Boy – 1 lb 1.1 ounces

White Girl – 1 lb 1.8 ounces

That’s a huge difference in weight, for such tiny puppies. It helps, of course, that Bunny has tons of milk. It also helps that no one is struggling to breathe. I wish I could have said the same for the last litter.

Besides weight, these pups just feel the way that healthy puppies should. That’s something that every breeder learns – how healthy puppies should feel ‘in the hand’. There’s a sense of dense, packed puppy flesh, firm and rounded and warm to the touch. They should feel heavy for their compact size, and their skin might have chubby rolls, but it should also ‘fit’ the pups. I can’t really put it into words, but anyone out there who’s ever had a litter will probably know what I mean.

Loads of new photos over on Flickr, and I’ll try to shoot some video tonight. My favorite from this set is pictured above.

Website Overhaul

French Bulldog Z – http://www.frenchbulldogz.org – has just undergone a complete site re-design and overhaul.

I’ve added tons of new sections, updated the sections on purchasing a Frenchie, Frenchie adoption and health concerns, and I’ve changed the links area to make all links require pre approval. Please visit us and take a look – I welcome your feedback and bug reports.

Most importantly, if you have an old link to frenchbulldogz.COM on your website, please please update it to our new url –

http://www.frenchbulldogz.org

So many homes, so few puppies…

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With every litter, Barb and I face the same dilemma – how do you decide who gets a puppy?

Of course, the basics apply first and foremost – references, a commitment to ongoing care, a certain amount of pre existing knowledge about Frenchies (potential owners who’ve done their homework impress me), a willingness to come in person to pick their puppy up, a sense of excitement about the idea of a new puppy.

All of this being equal, however, how do you choose? How do you pick which person gets to bring home a bundle of joy that you’ve spent ten to twelve weeks loving like its your own? How do you not only decide who you can trust, but who seems most ‘worthy’?

I know that might sound presumptuous – perhaps even conceited. It’s not meant to be.

Every day, I’m thankful that there are so many more good homes waiting for puppies than I will ever have puppies available. The rare nitwits aside, most people who contact me for puppies are caring, conscientious, wonderful potential homes any Frenchie would be thrilled to live in. After a time, I almost begin to feel a sense of obligation to help them find their new puppy (which is one of the reasons why we so frequently list puppies from other breeders that we know personally and trust implicitly.

I just hate having to tell people “no” – that I don’t have a puppy for them, that I chose someone else.

A Bunny puppies update – complete with video and photos – tomorrow.

Carol

Bunny Puppies on Day Four

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I love everything about puppies (except for the work, of course).

White Boy and White GirlI love watching them twitch in their sleep. I love watching them roll over, and curl themselves up like little snails. I love watching them nurse in their sleep, little mouths curving to accommodate the nipples they are dreaming of. I love watching the pigment fill in on their noses, one tiny freckle at a time. I love how they sometimes squeak in their sleep, and I love wondering what such tiny puppies could have to dream about.

I love photographing them, too. They change so rapidly at this stage of life that it can sometimes be invisible to our eyes, simply because we see them so often. Photos allow me to look back and watch their progress, charting their changes, seeing their heads and bodies develop.

Today’s new photo set is here – http://www.flickr.com/photos/frenchbulldogs/sets/72157602968873697/

Bunny with her PuppiesBunny has turned into such a wonderful mother that it’s allowed me the luxury to simply sit back and watch the pups as they grow, rather than fretting over them constantly. She went from having no interest in her puppies at all, to barely tolerating my handling them.

If I lift them out of the box, which I do several times daily to check them and to accustom them to being handled , she whines and paws at me until I’ve put them back. She then sniffs and cleans them thoroughly, and curves herself around their bodies until they can hardly be seen. Her very posture epitomizes protective motherhood. It’s become a joy to watch her as she bonds with her pups.

Today's Charming Phone Call

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People who know me frequently complain that I hardly ever answer my phone. I tell them that if they got the calls that [b]I[/b] do, they wouldn’t answer their phone either.

Today was a case in point. I’ve been getting up every two hours since Bunny’s puppies were born, so I’m operating in a constant state of groggy, sleep deprived confusion. Add to that the fact that I’ve come down with a cold, and you can’t be surprised if fielding puppy inquiries isn’t my favorite thing at the moment. Still, when the phone rang this morning with a NYC area code, I answered it, mostly because I was too out of it to remember not to.

Wrong choice. It was a whiny voiced girl who sounded like she was channeling the ghost of Paris Hilton’s worst mood. The conversation went something like this:

Her, in a tone of supreme boredom: I’m, like calling about your dogs, the ones on your internet thing?

Me: My web page?

Her: Yeah, whatever. The white ones? How much are they?

Me: Do you mean Bunny’s puppies?

Her: Yeah, the white ones. The ones on your internet thing.

Me: Are you on our mailing list?

Her, in tone that clearly implied a lot of eye rolling was taking place: Ummm, no!

Me, in tone that implies I need some coffee, soon: OK. Have you filled out an application?

Her, in tones of increasingly whiny impatience: No, like, I just want to know how much those two puppies are.

Me: Well, they’re not for sale.

Her, in tone of appalled, screechy, whiny disbelief: Well, I want those two, the ones that match. I want matching ones.

Me, in tone of ‘ok, I am too tired for this sh*t and have had enough’: Well, may I suggest that you get two that don’t match from someone else, and dye them, like a pair of shoes.

Her: Ok, what-ev-ever. Bitch.

Slam of phone.

Seriously? It’s a wonder I ever, ever answer my phone. Ever.