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Friday Zen – Crying Frenchie Puppy

Crying French Bulldog puppy sounds like kitten

Is it just me, or does this little guy sound JUST like a kitten meowing? I believe we have a strong contender here for the Gold Medalist winner, in Frenchie Death Yodel, Junior Edition competition.

Happy Birfday, Chunk Muffin!

Heart of Gold is two weeks old – Happy Birfday, silly little chunky muffin!

Here’s the whole photoset, on Flickr.

Tula Has a Heart of Gold

Tula went into full labor last night — about four days early. We took the pups this morning — two of them, one brindle girl, one pied girl. The rest was fluid – a LOT of fluid. My 19 lb girl weighed 26.3 at the vet’s office this morning, and opening her up was like Niagara Falls. I kept asking the vet “Where’s the rest of the puppies? Are you SURE you checked both horns?”.

The bad news — one of the pups did not make it. We never got a heart beat, in spite of her being full sized. The one who didn’t make it wasn’t even in a horn — she was in the body of the uterus. The other pup, the double hooded pied girl, is lovely and thankfully doing well.  She has a tiny, perfectly formed, symmetrical heart shaped brindle marking right above her butt. It looks like a stick on tattoo.

So, she is now Bullmarket Absolut Heart of Gold. No call name, until she’s been here a week or so and is doing fine…

As of right now, she’s vigorous, screamy, and eating like a little piglet — just what I want to see in a puppy. So far, so good.

Sean buried her sister under our cedars this afternoon, with the puppy we lost one year ago this week.

Here’s a short video of the baby, taken just a few hours after she was born. Lots of snorking, snuffling noises in this one (hey, they don’t do much at this age).

Delilah goes missing, Grandma looks smug… and fighting the good fight against BSL

OK,  before you look at the silly picture, everyone needs to read these blog posts –

  1. Luisa’s post on “How to create a dog that will bite somebody” is pure genius, and frighteningly accurate. Best part (worst part?) – Her photos of a ‘killer pit bull’, incarcerated in Texas for killing a child. It is to weep, honestly it is.
  2. If you’re not already despairing enough, go and read this post, on the caveat blog, about why the fight against breed specific legislation is everyone’s fight – from spaniel owners to Golden owners to cat owners. Do something about it, today – before it’s too late.Consider this – French Bulldogs? Those cute little dogs that look so silly here on my site, and in your lap? They’re on the banned list in a lot of cities already, and the ‘about to be banned list’ in even more, including the province of Ontario. Still think this isn’t your fight?

OK, here’s the picture. Click for full(er) sized.

French Bulldog Gargoyle en Paree…

Delilah is French for "Devil Dog"

It’s quite possible that Delilah wins the ‘weirdest French Bulldog ever‘ award, or at least the award for ‘weirdest French Bulldog ever owned or known by me‘ award.

First of all, she still will not come all the way down the stairs. This is not because she’s incapable of it (unlike Dexter, who’s so large in the head that walking downhill causes him to tumble in a slinky-like fashion).

Our stair routine goes something like this –

The stairs from our basement are open at about the half way mark. Delilah, who has no issues going up the stairs, will only come down as far as the opening on the stairs. She lurks there, popping her head over the edge to see what we’re doing. My computer sits right beneath this opening, and I often look up and see her peeking over the side, checking to see if I’ve decided to spontaneously bake her some dog cookies. If she’s in the mood, she will sometimes leap into my arms from this point when I walk over to see her. Usually, though, she waits until I try to approach her, then bolts back to the top of the stairs. It’s like she thinks I have cooties or something. Once she’s sure I’m safely far away from the stairs, she’ll come back down again, for a second look.

Here’s a video of her playing the stair game with me –

If this isn’t enough, there’s the fact that of all the dogs, she’s the only one of our dogs who just will not come when she is called, thus leaving me to play a little game I like to call “Come and get the nice cookie so Mommy can tackle you like a sausage shaped football, you infuriating little beast”. Actually, the term ‘like to call’ is more of a misnomer for ‘am forced to screech every time she gets outside the fence’. Luckily for me, she’s completely food motivated, and would sell her dark little brindle soul for a dried up crumb of milkbone, so I’ll be working on the ‘come!’ command diligently over the next while.

Oh, and I should explain about chairs. Delilah doesn’t sit on them, like normal dogs – she scales the back of them, like some sort of mutant goat. I admit that she’s my ‘go to’ lap dog for chair sitting, but she doesn’t take being left behind very well if I have to get up for any reason. In fact, she barks with a sort of affronted indignation that’s almost as funny as it is alarming. Here’s a short clip of her Majesty expressing her opinion on the topic of my getting up and leaving her.

I’ve threatened to send her to Chicago to live with Hope and Dax, but I like them too much to inflict this kind of punishment on them.