Please Help Ella – a Frenchie Rescue Emergencey

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Imagine that you are a French Bulldog puppy. One day, you are taken away from your brothers and sisters, and from your mother, and you go to live with a new family. If you had been a lucky French Bulldog, you would now have a safe, loving home for life, with people who care for you, feed you and protect you.

You, however, are not one of the lucky ones. You are, instead, Ella – a small, cream French Bulldog who ended up with an owner who found you annoying instead of charming, a burden instead of a blessing. A few times, your owner offered to give you away to people, only to change her mind. She apparently thought that maybe she could breed you, someday, and maybe ‘get some of her money back’. Eventually, your owner contacted rescue, telling them that she was moving, and that you, Ella, were in the way, so could they please take you? She was in quite a rush to get rid of you, Ella, and then at the very last minute, she changed her mind. We’re so sorry that we couldn’t get to you then, to help you, because things got much worse for you after that.

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In Memory of Dark Lola – Pinetree’s Absolut Lolita

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Barb and I first met when she bought a little stripey brindle bitch from me named “Rosey”, aka Bullmarket A&A Stripe Ts. Rosey was Tessa’s half sister, and, just like her sister, was a complete and utter charmer with people (although not always with other dogs).

Rosey had a few litters, one of which was sired by Ch. Pinetree’s Baileys Kahlua and Cream. This litter produced a lovely little dark brindle bitch, call named Lola, registered name Pinetree’s Absolut Lolita. Lola lived with Barb, and I nicknamed her “Dark” Lola, to differentiate her from our ‘other’ Lola (who is perhaps better known as The Dread Pirate Lola, official mascot of Talk Like a Pirate Day).

Things can get confusing when you have a few dogs, and some of them share the same name, but I always felt slightly guilty about Lola’s nickname, because there was nothing at all dark about her, other than her coat. She had a sweet, sunny nature and loved everyone equally, whether people or dogs. Lola had a litter of her own, producing  Absolut Amron Vol De Nuit, better known as Connie Lovece’s GiGi.

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How far will you go for cheaper vet care?

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Recently, there’s been a long discussion thread on one of my show dog lists about the wide variance of prices for veterinary care throughout Southern Ontario. Accusations of veterinary ‘price gouging’ were alleged at a few clinics, while others defended their clinic’s standard of care, even if their costs were slightly higher.

This raises an interesting question for us as breeders. When everything is equal, how far will you go for cheaper veterinary care?

 

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Pierre in Korea is Looking for a Home

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We all know that homeless French Bulldogs are becoming unfortunately common in the United States and Canada. In Europe, as well, homeless French Bulldogs in  need are skyrocketing. It had never occurred to me that the same might be true in a place like South Korea, but an email I received this morning changed all of that. It was from Corrie Gillet, a volunteer at the Korean Animal Protection Society, a group located in Daegu, South Korea.

Corrie was writing on behalf of Pierre (or “Prince Pierre”, as she calls him), a homeless Korean French Bulldog with a heartbreaking story.

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Thrifty ways to cool off dogs

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Pickle says “Who needs cool coats? Just give me the sprinkler”.

It was another scorching weekend here, and my dogs, in typical slug-like Frenchie fashion, did as little as possible. There was a lot of time spent lying on the ground, panting, and there was much general whining along the lines of “We’re hootttttt. And borrrrrred. Give us something to do, or we’re going to chew on your house”.

Happy to oblige, if only to shut them up, I went looking for some cheap, low budget, hot weather snacks and activities for my spoiled little monsters.

 

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