Things that suck: Republicans and Verizon. Things that Don't: Elves

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Imagine that you lose your dog.

Imagine that someone finds your dog, and phones you. Imagine they’ve phoned you not to return your dog, but to torture her on the phone, while you listen.

Imagine that you call Verizon, your cell phone company, and ask them to release your phone records to the police, so they can track down the monsters who are threatening to kill your dog.

Now imagine that Verizon takes twelve long, long days of stalling before they release your records, and that they charge the police $150 to do so.

Unfortunately, it’s not imagination – it’s real.

Full story here.

I guess no one told the Republicans that America is a nation of dog lovers. Bad enough that nitwit Mitt straps his family dog to the roof of their station wagon for a twelve hour highway trip – and then laughs about it. Now, Republicans in Delaware have decided that a good way to raise money would be to auction off a Labrador Retriever puppy at a fund raiser.

Who still thinks auctioning live animals is an acceptable way to raise funds?

From the Dogster Blog –

Here’s the announcement on the Delaware GOP site. It doesn’t mention the puppy but the tip came from very reputable rescuers.

If the Sussex County and Delaware Republicans want to bark in and tell us it ain’t so, I’d love to hear from them!
Christmas Gala at Baywood

…an evening you won’t want to miss

Wednesday
December 5, 2007
6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
$1,000 Sponsor
$75 per person — $150 per couple

A Festive Evening

A Spectacular Live Auction

A Silent Auction that will keep you bidding

Open bar & heavy hors d’oeuvres

Hosted by
The Sussex County Republican Committee and The Republican State Committee of Delaware

Baywood
32267 Clubhouse Way
Long Neck, Delaware 19966

Finally, also from the Dogster Blog, here’s something we definately don’t hate – ElfYourself!

http://www.elfyourself.com/

This is the absolute most awesome way to make an on line Christmas card! And speaking of which, here’s our Christmas card to all of you –

https://www.bullmarketfrogs.com/christmascard.html

Cheers!

A Video for Our Boy

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I created a short video for our baby boy we lost in August. I can quite honestly say that, in all the time I’ve been breeding, this loss hit me the hardest.

I sometimes think that people assume that breeders don’t get attached to their puppies. I suppose some might not, but the ones I know are all passionately, emotionally involved with their puppies from the moment they are born. I’ve not known a single breeder who didn’t mourn the loss of even the smallest puppy. I also know breeders – many breeders – who have kept the puppies that by all rights should probably not have been allowed to live. Maybe part of the price for being a good breeder is facing up to the pain involved in making these wonderful creatures such large parts of our lives.

It has taken me since August to be able to look at any of the images I have of our boy.

On Blip –
http://blip.tv/file/512618/

Or on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g-Qu70-eTU

Or embedded after the cut.

Norman went to his new home yesterday. After meeting Beverly, I have every confidence that he is about to become a very well loved and adored member of her family. Beverly also gave me a disk of photos of her lovely boy, Tiger, who she lost to illness not long ago. I’ll be preparing a memorial to him in the coming week.

In the meantime, here as some photos of Norman and his sister Penelope, with a few random shots of Delilah.

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Bunny Puppies at One Month, and Tessa Turns 13

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Sorry for the delay in getting this post up, but last week was busy, and this week looks to be just as crazy. There are lots of photo update links, and a video at the end of the post after the cut.

Snuggling PuppiesBunny’s babies turned one month on Friday, and they continue to be one of the most mellow French Bulldog litters I’ve ever experienced. They’re finally getting vocal – the little brindle boy in particular – and they’re starting to have those adorable Frenchie puppy mouth wars we all love to watch. Bunny is still being an exceptional mom, and really enjoys rolling around and playing with them.

Bunny has also learned to roll Izzy – which is what we’ve been calling the little white girl – over with her paw when she gets stuck on her back. That little girl can eat! I swear, she’s as wide as she is long. She’s also no longer white – a nickel sized spot of color has appeared between her ears, with an even tinier one on her butt. This is similar to how color showed up on her great great Grandmother Lola – a tiny stain we first assumed was poop – hence Lola’s puppy nickname of “Poop Stain”. In Izzy’s case, we’ll say it resembles pale tea.

You can see photos of the little darlings on Flickr –
http://flickr.com/photos/frenchbulldogs/sets/72157603307580113/

Happy Birthday, Dear Tessa!

Tessa Turns 13Tessa turned thirteen years old last week, and we celebrated with a liver flavored pupcake – and a long nap in front of the fireplace, curled up in her favorite blue blanket. That’s Tessa’s favorite way to celebrate just about anything, these days.

Other than some weakness in her rear and eyes that are growing cloudy, Tessa is in remarkably great shape. She’s lost most of the coloring that made her look so fierce in her youth, but her looks are otherwise intact, and she is just as lovely to me today as she was as a puppy. She still runs, play fights with her daughter and grandchildren, insists on owning all of the toys, and enjoys a good chew bone (even if she has to gum it, for the most part).

I still remember carrying her tucked inside of my coat as we smuggled her into a movie theater. She was just barely seven weeks old, and she’s been going everyplace with me ever since. She’s still my beautiful baby girl, and I hope she’ll be with me for thirteen more years, at the very, very least.

Tessa’s birthday photos –
http://flickr.com/photos/frenchbulldogs/sets/72157603307891385/

Frenchies in Winter

It’s a winter wonderland up here in frosty northwestern Ontario, and Delilah had fun playing in her first snowfall. She’s a bold little monkey, staying outside long after the other dogs are ready to call it quits and head for the nice warm house.

Lots of DeeDee photos here –
http://flickr.com/photos/frenchbulldogs/sets/72157603303472324/

Don’t forget, there’s a Bunny babies video after the cut, or you can view it full sized here – http://blip.tv/file/506743 Read more →

French Bulldogs = Restaurants (trust me on this)

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Friends ask me all the time if I miss living in Toronto. Like most things in life, my answers are somewhat ambiguous.

I don’t miss paying as much for a one bedroom apartment with no yard or parking as I now pay for a 4 bedroom house with a pool on six acres. I don’t miss having to drive 15 minutes just to get to a park where I can let the dogs run safely off leash. I so don’t miss the traffic, or the parking tickets. I don’t miss the endless block looping you do when trying to find a parking spot in the Beaches on a Saturday morning. I don’t miss the Gardiner Expressway. I don’t miss aggressive panhandlers.

But the restaurants… oh, how I miss the restaurants. Not necessarily the fancier, upscale restaurants either – we have our share of those within driving distance of me now, including the world famous Eigensinn Farm, and the less famous but still fun Ted’s Diner . No, what I miss are the ethnic foods. Read more →

Photo Theft, Idiocy and a Bunny Puppy Update

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I run a website called French Bulldog Photos – http://www.frenchbulldogphotos.com

It’s pretty self explanatory – it’s a website filled with nothing but photos of Frenchies. Users register, and create albums for their dogs. Most people are good about it, just using the site to post pictures of their pets, but every once in a while someone tries to use it to post dogs for sale (probably because we have the highest google hit placement for ‘French Bulldog photos’). I clean the gallery out once every few weeks – get rid of blatant ads, or galleries that have sat empty for more than a few weeks. Every so often, I get slack and forget to check it for a month or so, but luckily for me my users keep a pretty close eye on what’s going on in there, and contact me if they see anything inappropriate posted.

More after the cut. Read more →