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It’s been a long time between posts, but there are mitigating circumstances – namely, a trip to Michigan to pick up Mz. Bunny, her sidekick Paris and the ever so lovely Divine. I also managed to squeeze in some work, a job change and a fevered bout of book reading.

First though, let’s address the truly important issues – Ellen DeGeneres and her absolutely mesmerizing on air break down. Has Ellen finally lost all of her marbles? Quite possibly. Do I feel sorry for her, in all her sobbing, sad sack glory? Not at all, and I’m not going to jump on that ‘Oooh, those mean old rescue groups’ band wagon, either.

Ellen adopted a dog, and that dog came with a contract, and that contract spelled out what she could and could not do with the dog once she had it. I’m willing to bet that Ellen signs lots and lots of contracts, on an almost daily basis, and employs lots and lots of people to make sure that the eensy weensy details of said contracts are spelled out in full to her. Tough cookies that Ellen either didn’t read, or didn’t understand this contract – or that, quite possibly, she just assumed that super-celeb stardom meant that such minute details could not possibly apply to her.

It’s not like this is the first time she’s dumped a dog that didn’t work out, either. She adopted a dog from an LA producer, only to toss it off to one of her staff a few months later.

“Kerri Randles told Page Six that she gave DeGeneres a male mutt named Stormy two years ago, only to find out less than two months later that Ellen had given him to a member of her staff.”

So, yeah. My sympathy for Ellen is limited – and, lest you assume I’m one of those meanies who just enjoys picking on poor Ellen, bear in mind that this is the same woman who purchased a French Bulldog puppy from a pet store, as a gift. The dog, which she named Pig, is featured on her line of greeting cards. Funny thing is, no one is even sure if Ellen still has Pig – rumor has it that he didn’t work out, either.

In 2006, Degeneres and de Rossi were photographed buying an adorable white French bulldog. Earlier this year, the couple was spotted walking a playful white puppy. And, in 2003, there was Oakland, a cute border collie Degeneres adopted after seeing the dog on TV in San Francisco. However, it remains unclear if Ellen still has any of those dogs.

I suppose that I take all of this so seriously because I have a take back clause of my own in our sales contract. It’s simple, really – if you buy a dog from us, you can’t EVER get rid of it, for any reason, or in any way, without first notifying us and obtaining our permission to do so. We have it there because I want to always, always know where the dogs I’ve bred are, and that they are doing well. Simply put, I’m responsible for them, for life – and I take that responsibility seriously.

I once found out that a dog I’d placed in a ‘puppy back owed’ type scenario had been placed in rescue. I imagine you can guess how furious, how worried and how mortified I was. I phoned the woman who’d adopted my girl, and (initially quite irately) explained that this dog should never have been placed through rescue, and that the person who had given her up had no right to do so. The adopter was stunned, and apologetic, and it was a short phone call before I realized that she really was a good home, and my dog was in a better place than where she had been initially. That didn’t mitigate my anger, but it did mitigate my fear. It also made me tighten up my contract even more, and put a good lawyer on retainer – a lawyer I’m more than willing to use, if a repeat of that scenario ever happens in the future.

All of this is to say that yes, I can relate to a rescue group insisting on their contract being adhered to, and I can relate to expecting adopters or purchasers to uphold their end of the bargain we all enter into when we place living creatures into new homes. It’s about responsibility, and adhering to our word.

In Delilah related news, Sean has been teaching her some bad new habits – namely, barking on cue. This one is going to come back to bite him in the proverbial butt, trust me. There’s a video at the end of the post, of her in action, with him egging her on. Daddies and their little girls – what can you do?

I have three more looooong posts to come in the next few days – one I’ve been agonizing over, about the ethics of breeding for the show ring. Let’s hope my reputation can survive that one.

Delilah video after the cut Read more →