What’s with Frenchies and viral videos?

French Bulldog giving kitty a bath

Sign of the impending apocalypse

I  don’t know what’s been going on lately, but it seems like every other viral video on the web features a ridiculously cute French Bulldog doing something adorable. If it’s not a roly poly puppy, it’s a puppy attacking a door jamb. Today, it’s a French Bulldog giving a cat a bath.

Personally, I suspect a plot – one I’ve been suspicious of for an awfully long time. First, Frenchies creep into the American consciousness via a series of adorable movie roles. Then come the celebrity owners, and now, the grassroots viral video movement. It’s all part of a larger movement – the French Bulldog revolution is at hand.

Shortly, we will all wake up to a world where our French Bulldog overlords rule our every movement, demanding snacks, treats and snuggles as the whim strikes them, and forcing us to purchase over priced toys and accessories for their pleasure.

Oh, wait. That’s all happened already. Looks like we’re screwed.

In the meantime, enjoy this video of a Frenchie overlord cute wittle Fwenchie tasting its prey kissing a kitty.

Remembering Old Dogs

Tessa, a senior French Bulldog

Tessa - always on my mind

Every once in a while, I have woken up convinced I felt the weight of Tessa’s head resting on my ankle. For fifteen years, that’s where she slept – at the end of the bed, under the covers, her head resting on my foot or on my ankle. Later in life, she grew restless, tossing and turning and frequently waking me up in the process. I would wake up, and I would rub her head with my foot, and she’s sigh and settle down and go back to sleep.

Every once in a while, I wake up stroking a phantom with the side of my foot, and for those first few seconds, before I’m fully awake, I am sure I have felt her there, rubbing against me for confirmation that everything is OK, and that she can sleep.

I have always loved Jimmy Stewart. I am old enough to remember seeing him on the Johnny Carson show (which means I am old enough to remember Johnny Carson), and I can recall seeing him recite some of his poetry. I don’t remember seeing him recite this one, however.

I wish I did.

Animal Shipping Mishaps in the News

Guess the puppy

Guess who got really lucky?

Two years ago, just before Christmas, my friend Paula answered the phone to an inquiry about one of her Abyssinian Kittens. The caller was from New Jersey, and was very interested in buying a male kitten as a Christmas gift for his wife. Paula explained to him that it was far too cold to ship a kitten to New Jersey at that time of the year.

Some people, apparently, don’t get the whole ‘no flying kittens in cold weather’ connection.

From the SF Gate:

On January 22, Connecticut resident Heather Lombardi was eagerly awaiting the arrival of her new, not-so-furry family member, Snickers, an 11-week-old, 3-pound hairless kitten that she had recently purchased from a breeder in Utah. Snickers was to be shipped in the climate-controlled cargo area of a Delta airlines flight.

But what was to be a joyous reunion turned into a nightmare when Lombardi opened Snicker’s carrier and discovered that she was icy cold and couldn’t move her head or paws. The kitten died from hypothermia a short time later.

While I am sorry for Heather’s loss, I have to wonder about any breeder who would stick a 3 lb, hairless kitten into a cargo hold in Utah in the coldest month of the year. Yes, the cargo area on planes are ‘climate controlled’ – but what about the tarmac?

If you’ve flown for any length of time, you’re familiar with the sight of cargo transporters sitting waiting on the tarmac to be loaded on to planes, or sitting waiting to be brought into the terminals. Those waits have killed countless dogs and cats over the years, and are yet one more reason why I will NEVER fly one of my puppies in cargo.

When Paula tried to explain to her caller that she couldn’t ship his kitten due to the weather, he had a great solution –

“Ship it to me Fedex – those guys can get anything anywhere”.

Paula passed on his suggestion, but over in Minneapolis, one woman decided that even if Fedex couldn’t, the USPS could.

From the Star Tribune

The postal worker was stunned when the package moved by itself and fell to the floor. Then came the sounds of heavy panting.

Within minutes, she and co-workers had unwrapped a tightly sealed box and rescued a 4-month-old puppy that a Minneapolis woman tried to mail to Georgia.

“It’s just crazy,” said Minneapolis Police Sgt. Angela Dodge. The air holes the woman punched in the box were covered up with mailing tape, and the priority mail trip would have taken at least two days, she said. “It was supposed to be a birthday gift for a family member. It would have been kind of traumatizing to get a dead puppy”

The puppy, a Schnauzer/Poodle miss named “Guess” (which I suspect is short for “guess how lucky I am to be alive” or maybe “guess what some idiot put inside this postal box”) is doing just fine, and is recovering at Minneapolis Animal Control.

Since MAC is a kill shelter, let’s hope Guess’ stay there is short, and that he’s not another celebrity dog recsue who ends up falling through the cracks and being killed.

Mailed Puppy Alive & Well at Minneapolis Animal Control: MyFoxTWINCITIES.com