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Welcome Home, Caleb!

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Caleb and Pickle, Cream and Brindle French Bulldog puppies

Caleb and Pickle

I lost most of this weekend to a killer migraine, but even that wasn’t enough to stop me from bringing home Bon yesterday. My second pick puppy out of Butters and Versace, Bon has fitted in since he got here like he’s lived here his entire life.

The only problem? His name didn’t seem to fit him.

We tried a few out over the weekend (Winston was too Bulldoggy, Gavin made him cry, Atticus made Sean roll his eyes, Gaelen was too.. something or other), and finally settled on Caleb. From the Hebrew, Caleb means

“like, as” and Lev, meaning “heart,” making the meaning “like the heart.”  Because the name in Hebrew is spelled with the same consonants as the word for “dog,” the name is commonly thought to mean dog.”

Another interpretation is ‘faithful and dog like heart’, which fits a stoic little guy like Caleb to perfection. Like his father, Caleb is calm and relaxed about most situations. Meeting all of the strange (and sometimes less than enthusiastic) dogs in our house was a breeze for him – he played with Pickle, tried to nurse on Mae, and quickly learned to stay away from his cranky Great Grandma, Sailor. He slept through the entire night, only waking up at about 4 am when he finally realized he was all by himself. He got over it fairly quickly, and didn’t wake up again until 8 am this morning.

He and Pickle have become fast friends, a fact for which I’m grateful – Pickle needs a pal she can play with. Delilah is less than thrilled, even though he technically is her brother. She feels this house already has far too many dogs in it, and that one more (and a boy, at that) is a really bad idea. We’ve told her she has to get used to it, but that she’s still our Princess Pudding Pants.

Caleb is sleeping on my feet as I type this, and I couldn’t be happier with him. He’s been a nice end to a crappy weekend.

By the way, we’ve decided that Caleb’s brother, Hammy, will be made available to a pet home. He’s still the most adorable, smiley faced Frenchie you’ve ever seen, but he’s a tad light in bone. Our loss, some lucky family’s gain!

Here’s Hammy, being adorable –

Hammy the French Bulldog Puppy

And here’s a whole set of his photos. For more info, you can email me.

Photos of Caleb after the cut, or on Flickr

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Butters’ Babies & the Big Boy

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Three French Bulldog puppies

L to R - Lyra, Bon, Hammy

It’s funny how much more I notice the differences in the development in Butters’ litter, who I see once a week or so, compared to a litter that’s always underfoot.

With my own litters, I sometimes need to see and compare the photos that I take to really get a true feeling for how much they change over time. With Butters’ kids, the differences can sometimes be so striking as to leave me almost taken aback.

Last week, for example, the Big Boy (who Paula is calling Bonhomme) seemed to have lost his big, plush head. This week, it’s back, and with a vengeance. I now realize that he is going to be a slow maturing boy, growing into his headpiece over time, and likely looking his best at around two years or even older.

This doesn’t surprise me, when I think about it – his half sister Delilah did the exact same thing, losing her plush puppy head at about the same age, then slowly getting it back over time, until today, at three, her head is her best feature once again. I actually prefer these slower to mature head types – it means that they won’t end up with the huge, overdone ropes of wrinkles that we sometimes see in Frenchies, and which I find sort of coarse looking.

His sister is another type altogether – like her mother, she is what she is, meaning she likely won’t change in any significant ways between now and six months, other than to become more of what she is today. Leah is the same – Leah at a year is a just a bigger, more mature looking version of Leah at six weeks and six months. No curve balls or surprises in her development, which is always nice, but which usually comes in my girls, more so than in my boys.

Hammy, on the other hand, remains his adorable, grinning self – lighter in bone than his brother, and definitely not as ‘correct’, structurally, but still with a sort of unidentifiable ‘adorable’ factor that some puppies just have. Alvin had it, too. I can’t even put my finger on it, but it’s a combination of sweetness of expression and a permanently formed grin on their little faces that leaves them looking like the happiest puppies who’ve ever lived.

I can’t wait to see what I think of them next week, when they turn seven weeks old.

Photos after the cut, along with an awfully cute video.

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Butters’ Babies Weekend Update

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Butters' French Bulldog puppies

Hammy, Lyra and their slothful Brother, Big Boy

I went for a visit with the Butters’ babies, and discovered Lyra (aka Princess Screamy Pants) and her brother Hammy hanging half way out of their wading pool, ready to make a break for freedom. Their brother, who I’m politely referring to as “Big Boy”, instead of as the more accurate “Fatty Pants”, was content to lie on his back, all four feet in the air, contemplating life and waiting for someone to feed him. He is also the puppy you might remember from last week’s video, where he was happily hanging upside down in Sarah’s arms. Slothful, yes – but also handsome!

Lyra is also growing into quite the beauty, with her one fawn hood giving her the look of a rakish pirate eye patch. She’s still got quite the mouth on her, as you’ll notice in the photos. A momentary deviation of attention away from her and onto either of her brothers brought on a screaming fit that reminds you that Frenchies aren’t known for their lyrical voices. It’s a good thing she’s pretty, because a career in musical theatre is not in the cards for her.

Mr Hamster dance continues to become the cute cartoon character he seems to be predestined to end up as. He’s still the color of a creamsicle, and he stills grins his big mouth grin almost all of the time. He’s going through a bit of the fuglies at the moment, but handsome is as handsome does, and in time he will likely grow back into a good looking boy. At the moment, he’s more of a paper bag style prince, so it’s a good thing he’s so amazingly lovable!

Photos after the cut, or on Flickr.

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Itty Bitty Butters’ Babies Cuteness Factor Update

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Smiley happy creamsicle French Bulldog puppy

Smiley happy puppy dreams

I went for a visit with the Butters’ babies yesterday. Needless to say, they are all adorable, but it’s amazing how different the color is on one of the puppies in particular – he’s a pale creamy orange. Not tan, not cream – orange.

His sister is going to be a fawn pied (white, basically, with teeny tiny fawn spots which will develop later on), his brother is a sort of dark cream with darker ears and a mask (a color some people call ‘American Fawn’), but the little guy is the color of a *creamsicle*. He’s a sort of pale, tangerine orange, with a big white blaze up his head, and a dark mask.

Best of all? He’s a smiley puppy, one of those puppies who looks like he’s *grinning* all of the time. Alvin was a smiley puppy, and we all know how cute he was. Creamsicle boy’s adorable factor is pretty much off the scale. Oh, and Paula has been calling him ‘Hammy’, which is short for Hammy Hamster, which is a dig on the fact that, next to his beefy big brother, he looks like a tiny little baby hamster. That’s ok, kid. With looks like yours, who needs size?

The rest of the photos are after the cut, or over on Flickr

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Itty Bitty Butters Babies

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Butters loves her baby French Bulldog puppies

Butters loves her babies.

I have some footage of Butters’ entire c-section, shot in full on, gory detail, partly as an educational video, and partly as a scare tactic style ‘are you really, really sure you want to breed your dog?’ cautionary tale video.

Instead of sharing that right off the bat, I thought I’d start instead with my favorite thing of all – photos of teeny tiny baby puppies. I love them when they’re this age, because they have two modes – sleeping and passed out cold. Both make for nice, stationary photo objects, unlike Paula’s two week old Bullmastiff puppies, who are like eleven whirling, sucking dervishes. The film footage of those guys is awesome, and should be up by Friday.

In the meantime, if you get really, really close to screen, you should be able to scratch your monitor and get a whiff of puppy breath.

All the pix after the cut, or on Flickr.

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