Ingrates, Contests, T Shirts for a Cause & New Vids

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We had  nice visit this morning from frequent blog commenter and soon-to-be new mommy of Rumble. Jennifer and her son Nigel came out for a visit, and quickly fell for Rumble’s ‘look how cute I am’ trick, which I like to refer to as a the ‘total puppy fake out’.

Rumble batted his little eyelashes, gazed soulfully at Jennifer, and mentally told her lies about how we treat him when she’s not around.

“I’m so sweet — I would never grab the side of Thor’s face and try to drag him across the playpen. It’s all a horrible slander perpetuated by that evil woman who tried to drown me in the sink. Please rescue me from here as soon as possible”.

Little ingrates, I tell you. They meet their new parents, and they don’t even give you a backwards glance. Sigh.

Don’t forget that entries for the Crustiest Nose contest close tomorrow. If your dog’s nose looks like it’s been dipped in fast drying cement, send us a photo! You could win some of the awesome Nose Butter prize packs that the Blissful Dog is giving away.

We’ve got more contests coming up, including one for some really great training videos, and another for a new, supposedly stain and stank proof pet bed. We’ll see how it holds up to a house full of evil little French Bulldogs… (but the one you’ll be winning will be nice and clean and un-peed on. Probably).

Author and French Bulldog owner Augusten Burroughs has teamed up with Graphic Artist (and fellow Frenchie owner!) James Anthony to produce an adorable new t shirt.

The shirt features Burroughs’ Frenchies Cow and Bentley, and is a clean, modern, fresh design. Best of all, 100% of the proceeds go to Animal related charities.

We’re hoping they’ll kick a few bucks to the French Bulldog Village — hint hint. We could surely use the funds – or rather, the Frenchies could.

Go check out the shirts and pick one up – they’re a bargain at $25 plus $5 shipping.

Two new videos for you to check out — Puppy Playpen Frenzy, with a poignant little song expressing how I feel about the prospect of the kids going home in less than (!!) a month, and another one featuring Nuttin’ But Butters!

Tula likes to smack the pups in the head with her paw (nicely, mind you), and when she showed up and started doing it to Butters, Butters proceeded to tell her to knock if off and hit the road. You tell her, Butters!

A short blog about a new TV show featuring Frenchies is coming up for tomorrow, and then this weekend I’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving with family. Yes, Americans, we celebrate Thanksgiving a month early, and minus the shopping frenzy. Later on, I’ll explain “Boxing Day” to you.

Bath Day

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The puppies aren’t speaking to me at the moment, as I had the temerity to decide that they were a pile of stinky heads, and desperately in need of a bath. This relatively simple activity was made more complicated by the fact that they all seemed to have calcified pablum deposits encrusted on their little chins. They weren’t thrilled by the part where I had to almost chip off to get rid of it. Maybe now they won’t do any more face plants in their dinner bowl.

After toweling them off, we placed them into a pile of beds into which we’d tucked warming pads and hot water bottles. They, being the stubborn little bulldogs that they are, promptly marched across the pen to the one bed that wasn’t full of warmth, and placed themselves into a pile. The only smart dog in the bunch was Thor, who stretched luxuriously in the middle of his heated bed. Ms. Jellie Bean Parfait, like the true budding Diva she is, wandered back and forth from one location to the other, torn between the warmth of the bed with the heating pads, and the thought she might be missing on something over in the puppy pile up. It’s hard to be a Diva, and this fact made her vewwy sad 🙁

Hopefully they’ll forgive me in a day or two – I might have to bribe them with hoofies to help them all get over the trauma.

Photos below, or on Flickr.

Heart Time, and Samson Wins!

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Dexter and Heart

Poor Heart — I think she’s been over shadowed by the Nellkins lately. Fear not, she’s been getting lots of attention, and loads of playtime.

Last night, Sean let her play on the floor with the other dogs for a while, where she discovered two new loves: Hoofies and Dexter.

Sean managed to get some photos of Heart playing with Dexter, doing the typical puppy play bow/hide under stuff/bark/repeat sequence. He also shot a small film of her really, really enjoying a Hoofie. Man, those things are so disgusting – they stink up your house with a fine mist of glue funk – but boy, do the dogs ever love them.

Speaking of cute puppies, congratulations to Samson from San Francisco. This adorable, ice cube loving French Bulldog was crowned “Cutest Dog” in Nick at Nite’s First Annual Worldwide Fido Awards. The awards ceremony was broadcast live on Nickelodeon, and apparently Samson and his mom made the trip all the way from San Francisco to accept their award! Make sure to check out the video that nabbed Samson top prize – it’s awfully cute (award winningly so!).

All the new Heart photos are here, on Flickr, or view the slide show. The video is below.


Tula Takes Over

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Heart - sleeping French Bulldog puppy

Last night, at about 12:30, I heard a strange ‘skritching’ sound coming from the spare bedroom across the hall. Like most dog people, the most quiet of noises, if it’s out of place, can wake from an almost dead sleep, and this noise was most definitely out of place.

::scritchy scritchy scritch::

pause…

::scritchy scritchy scritchy scritch::

pause…

::scritchy scritchy scritchy scritch scritch scritch::

Fine, time to go and check it out. I discovered Tula, sleeping in the whelping box, and Heart on the floor, scritching the edge of the pool in an attempt to get back inside. Big enough to get out of the pool, small enough to be stuck outside once she did. I set a temporary barricade up around the pool, popped Heart inside with her mommy, and headed back to bed. In the morning, I discovered Heart once again toddling around on the floor of the room, within ‘trouble’ range of electrical cords, carpeting and other not puppy safe hazards.

It’s official — she’ll go live in the ex pen with the other kids, including over night.

As a compromise, I’m alternating Tula and Penelope in the whelping room with the kids. I don’t want to just take Heart away from her mommy – they love each other! Penelope, on the other hand, dashed into the dog room and out into the yard without a backward glance. Freedom!

Tula nosed around the ex pen, sniffed noses with Heart across the doorway, and decided to pop inside for a visit. In a few moments, a light bulb went off inside her head. “These are puppies — other puppies!”. What do we do with puppies? Why, we clean them and nurse them and play with them and organize them into tidy piles, of course, which she promptly proceeded to do.

Within fifteen minutes, Tula had each of the Nellkins sniffed, washed, and tucked safely into her side for feeding. Heart slept through the entire procedure – hey, she gets mommy time all the time. The Nellkins, on the other hand, are completely enamored with Tula. A mommy who licks us! A mommy who plays with us! A mommy who wants us to eat! Who knew such a thing existed? It was like a scene out of that TV Show, “Wife Swap”. Penelope would be the slacker mom, tossing Heart a box of Kraft Dinner and telling her to go to the store and pick up some smokes after she’s done cooking it.

Speaking of Nell, when it was swap back time she mooched back into the room, high stepped around the pups with an expression that said “Get ’em off me”, and finished off the rest of their food before high tailing it out of the pen.

Maybe I’ll just leave Tula in there with them all from now on, and let Penelope get back to her career.

Photos on Flickr — http://www.flickr.com/photos/frenchbulldogs/sets/72157607787521200/

The video from yesterday (it seems to be displaying oddly in the previous entry):

A Whole New World

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Heart and the Nellkins are having fun exploring their new home. The ex pen is divided into three areas – sleeping, playing/eating and elimination. It’s amazing how quickly the figure out which is which, and other than the occasional pee, they’ve been shockingly good at keeping their bed area clean.

They’re also enjoying solid food – right now, they’re eating puppy kibble softened with goat milk. Next week, we’ll work on introducing them to Honest Kitchen.