So much for her girlish figure…

Tula is waay pregnant

If I had any remaining doubt about Tula being preggers, it went out the window when I shot this photo of her. Holy cow!

Honestly, I hadn’t really noticed how huuuuge she was until I took a good look at this picture. Considering how svelte Tula normally is, this is a pretty dramatic change for a dog who’s only one month and change into her 62 day pregnancy.

Dexter sits pretty

Dexter continues to grow up – unfortunately, he’s started to sit when there’s food on offer. When it’s snacking time, all the dogs have to do a good, solid sit to get their treat – looks like he learned by imitation.

Uh oh…

That’s a no no for a dog with a (hopeful) future in the conformation show ring. Back to the drawing board – I need to train him the ‘stand’ command all over again. On the plus side, way to learn the sit command, Dexter! Now, just don’t tell Barb.

Hey, want to see some old photos of our dogs? I just uploaded almost 160 old French Bulldog photos onto Flickr – and I have about another 200 to scan. These ones aren’t organized yet – they don’t even really have proper titles, but feel free to check them out. There are some interesting shots in there – take this one, for example:

Diva, Felix and Dragon

That’s a shot of Felix, to the left, and Diva, in the center, along with their siblings.

Diva is Bunny’s mom, and Tula’s great grandmother. Felix is Elliott’s dad. So, in this photo, you have two dogs who will both appear in the pedigree of the puppies Tula is carrying. This is important, since the dogs who came before my dogs today, will influence the dogs that we produce tomorrow.

Interesting stuff, if you’re interested in that kind of stuff.

Bad, Bad Bunny

The chair that Bunny the bad French Bulldog ate

Here’s the actual chair that Bunny ate. I thought Sean had taken it out to the garbage, but turns out it was still sitting in the garage, so I thought I’d take a photo of it, just so you can see the glorious wreckage that one small, bored French Bulldog can inflict in the space of a few hours.

I should point out here that:

a) it’s almost impressive how thoroughly she destroyed it

and

b) I don’t blame anyone but myself for the fact she did it – I should have known better than to leave something so tantalizing where she could reach it (this is in spite of the fact that she also a hoof, a nylabone and a kong to choose from, none of which could rival the tastiness of this chair)

For those keeping track, the list so far of things that Bunny has eaten:

  • heating pad
  • lamp
  • small side table
  • baby monitor
  • plastic tray from a folding crate
  • 2 laundry baskets
  • numerous stuffed animals
  • wooden folding chair
  • numerous small rocks
  • the downspout off the house (thanks, Susie!)

We’re thinking of running it as  a sort of ticker on the side of the page.

A bit of this, a bit of that…

The website overhaul on BullmarketFrogs is pretty much complete. I have some fine tuning to do, and a few pages left to put content on, but other than that it’s all there. Have a look and leave me some feedback.

I’m a bit concerned about this overhaul. I re arranged the way the file folders within the site are arranged – less nested files, deleting old and un needed folders, that sort of thing. Spring cleaning for your domain, if you’d like. Google, however, has the old file addresses cached, which means it’s going to start throwing 404 errors pretty soon. Anyone know how long it takes for Google to read your updated xml site maps?

Tula has gotten her appetite back, and then some. She’s currently a ravenous beast, eating 1 1/2 times her normal food, and hungry in between meals. Her sides are swelling out, and tight as a drum. Fair to say we’re pretty sure she’s pregnant…

Penelope, on the other hand, is off her food – and this from a dog who normally yips with frustration while she waits for you to fill her food dish. She’ll eat, but only if you add extra treats to her food. Fussy little monkey.. she’s right on schedule for this kind of behaviour, boding well for her pregnancy also.

Dexter and Petal had a face to face confrontation on the front porch this morning. Dex was completely freaked out, jumping straight into the air and yelping “What the hell is THAT?” when he saw her. Petal was so not afraid of him – she glanced at him, shrugged a typical ‘dogs, what morons’ kind of shrug, and went back to washing her paws. Within a few minutes, they were play wrestling and having a grand old time.

Bunny got creative the other door, when I accidentally left a folding hardwood chair where she could get at it. Within the space of two hours, she demolished every single inch of the chair – the leather seat, the foam stuffing underneath it, the legs, the slat back, the feet – everything. It’s the most thorough destruction I’ve ever seen by a French Bulldog. My fault completely, of course, for leaving a chair where she could get it, and you almost have to admire her dedication. She doesn’t just gnaw – she annihilates. She’s one nutty Bunny, that’s for sure.

Tough Guys Dig Frenchies

Apparently, not all Football players need a big dog at their side to add to their image – some of them just a small dog that acts big.

From DallasNews.Com:

Two-minute drill, with Dallas Cowboys Wide Receiver Miles Austin, proud dog (French Bulldog) owner

Dallas Cowboys Wide Receiver Miles AustinI understand you have a cute little pooch. Tell me a little bit about your dog.

Her name is Fergie. She’s a French bulldog; looks like a Boston terrier. She’s small, weighs about 18 pounds. She’s pound-for-pound the strongest dog in the world. She’s a beast.

You talk about how tough she is. Is that trying to keep a little bit of machismo?

Yeah, but she holds her own. She’s tough. She’s got that lockjaw. You can lift up a toy and swing her around. She’s really tough.

OK, she’s tough, but do the fellas give you a hard time about this dog?

They try to. I get it worst from T.O. He tells me how he’s going to kick her all the time, but I think deep down inside, he really loves her.

What made you fall in love with a cute little puppy?

She’s got bug eyes and is cross-eyed a little bit. She’s got real big ears, and she’s just the best dog in the world.

A lot of NFL players have pit bulls, maybe to symbolize their toughness. What does this dog say about you?

She’s the friendliest dog in the world. That’s why I love her. I’m the friendliest guy in the world, so that’s why I have the friendliest dog in the world.

Well, it’s obvious Miles’ loves his dog, so we’ll forgive him the part where he falls for that old ‘locking jaw Pit Bull’ stereotype. If anybody out there has a photo of Fergie, feel free to send it over to me!

I'm behind on email…

In case you’ve written (or phoned, or telegraphed, or sent a carrier pigeon), I am waay behind on my correspondence, due to a glut of work, and the foolhardy decision to revamp my entire BullmarketFrogs.Com site before I move it to a new server.

So, bear with me. Any blog posts you see in the next week or so are stuff I wrote over the last week – I tend to write a bunch of posts all at once, and tuck them away time stamped, which comes in handy for times like these, when I barely have a moment to breathe, let alone write anything meaningful, other than “CSS, oh how I sometimes hate thee…”