How many is TOO many?

/12 Comments/in /by

Bunny's Boys

Bunny's Boys - crappy resolution still capture from my new video camera

Here’s a Frenchie Friday question – How many litters are TOO many litters?

We debate this question all the time – what’s that magic number that tips someone over from ‘reputable’ breeder to ‘not so reputable’? Is there even a magic number – or should there be?

There’s a HUGE big name kennel out west (not Frenchies), who has an average of six to eight litters per year – in a breed with fairly large litters.

Is that too many litters?

What if I then add that they feed raw, employ a full time staff of three to care for puppies and adults, have an ‘open door’ kennel policy, and a huge waiting list for available puppies?

Still not good enough?

What if I mention that they have literally DOZENS of Best in Show wins, multiple BISS wins, Westminster group and breed wins, International Champions, etc? Are they still an ‘un reputable breeder’? Or would you even call them a puppy mill?

What if, instead of six to eight litters, they had ten to twelve?

What about the small breeder who only has one to two litters, but they’re raised in a garage, barely socialized and won’t see new people until they either go to their homes or hit the show ring?

Are those two litters still too many litters, if their breeder can’t or won’t care for them properly?

Does it matter if their breeder has multiple champions and shows every weekend? Does it matter if they’ve never shown any of their dogs, and don’t even register their litters?

Can you have four litters per year if your breed only has two puppies, or is just all about that number? Can you have three litters if you didn’t breed the year before?

Personally, I care more about the way that the pups are raised than I do about numbers.

For Frenchies, I want to see pups that are home raised, with tons of exposure to people and sights and sounds. I want them to be clean, well fed, and well cared for. I want to know you’ve got homes waiting, and won’t be trying to dump un sold puppies on Kijiji when they get too old. If you’re doing all of that, I don’t have a ‘number’ – although I do think that there’s a number, beyond which, it’s almost impossible to achieve all of that, or at least to achieve it well.

Of course, all of that is just MY opinion – what I really want to know is, what’s yours?

Meet Brigid

/2 Comments/in /by

Bullmarket N Windridge Brigid of Kildare

Bullmarket N Windridge Brigid of Kildare

Meet our newest arrival – Brigid, the fawn pied twelve week old puppy.

I can’t really decide if her arrival is the best of timing, or the worst. I feel somehow guilty about enjoying a new puppy, a day after mourning Mae’s loss, but I suppose that’s all part of the cycle of life. At any rate, I’d already made plans for her arrival today, so I couldn’t see the point in delaying picking her up.

Brigid is out of old Eva Han lines, mixed with some British exports by way of Europe. She’s co owned with myself and Paula Roberts, of Windridge. Our plan was for her to live at Paula’s, but Paula’s work schedule at the moment would have left little Miss Mouse spending an awful lot of time in the crate, so here she is.

Delilah hates her, Pickle is slightly scared of her, Sailor pretty much ignores everyone, and Penelope thinks she’s fun to wrestle with. In other words, business as usual.

Just now, I carelessly left the door to Bunny’s whelping room partially open, while I was washing the floor, and Brigid happily ran in and jumped right into the whelping box, apparently thinking that maybe she’d like a drink, too. Bunny was too stunned to do much more than make a puzzled “Whhaaaaa???” face, before I snatched Brigid up and returned her to safety. I’m lucky she still has her head attached – Bunny does not take the protective part of motherhood lightly.

If the dogs think that this week’s new addition has been a shock, wait until they see what’s coming next weekend.

Mae has gone to the bridge

/15 Comments/in , /by

Ch Absolut Bullmarket Ezmerelda - Mae

Mae Mae

Ch Absolut Bullmarket Ezmerelda
July 25, 2001 – February 8, 2011

We knew Mae didn’t have a lot of time left. Her degenerative myelopathy had been accelerating in the last month or so, and her mobility was almost non existent. Just after Christmas, I wondered if we were actually there, but when I sat down next to Mae, she wrestled with me, nibbling on my finger tips and rolling over for a belly rub. You just don’t put down a dog who still has a wrestling match left in her.

This afternoon, I heard a God awful sound coming from the living room. Mae was having a seizure, and was obviously terrified. Even after it ended, she was shaky and frightened. I took her in to the vet immediately, and she seized twice in the car on the way there, once more on the table at the vet’s office.

There really wasn’t another choice to make, when death is so clearly a release from pain and fear.

I would like to believe that there is a bridge, and that Mae and all of my other dogs are there. Mae, like Tessa, will once more be running free and fast, only stopping to flop down on the ground for a nap and a head scratch.

I would like to believe that one day, we’ll get to see them all again, all of our old dogs, all the puppies we ever lose, all the rescues we’ve lost, all the animals who’ve touched our lives. If there is a heaven, and my animals aren’t waiting for me in it, then it’s not a place I could ever want to spend eternity in.

‘We don’t care about the dog’

/in /by
Mel, one of Michael Vick's Vicktims

Mel, one of Michael Vick's Vicktims

At the end of the day, haven’t we all known that this is how Michael Vick really feels about the victims of his dog fighting ring? He cares about his career, his reputation, and, above all, his paycheck – but the dogs? I will never believe he cares about the dogs, or that he feels one ounce of remorse for what he did to them.

His bodyguard’s words sum it all up – ‘We don’t care about the dog’.

This was said after Richard Hunter, a Dallas Radio personality, confronted Vick and his entourage after a ceremony during which Vick was awarded the keys to the city of Dallas. Richard Hunter and his wife adopted Mel, one of the dogs rescued from Michael Vick’s dog fighting operation. Hunter was attempting to give Vick, who has stated he “often thinks about the dogs”, a chance to put his money where his mouth is.

Hunter’s video shows the confrontation, and the aftermath. You and your ‘posse’ might not care about the dogs, Vick, but the rest of us still do, and for us, all of the keys in the world won’t change the fact that you’re a dog murdering psychopath.

Bunny’s Little Girl

/3 Comments/in , /by

Fawn Pied Newborn French Bulldog PuppyDo I even need to mention how head over heels in love I am with this little girl?

This photo shows the little girl’s ‘fawn’ side. Her hood (ie; the circle over her eye) is a biscuit color, trimmed with black around the outside edges, and with black eye rims. You can also see the distinctive black ‘freckle’ just above and to the left of the eye – a feature almost always seen on black masked fawns, and very rarely if ever on brindles.

Puzzlingly, her off side hood has NO coloration inside of it – it is almost uniformly black. I assume that this is simply because it is a smaller hood, and the outside black trim almost fills it in completely.

It’s entirely possible that by a few weeks of age, I’ll think she’s a different color altogether. For now, though, she’s a fawn pied – at least in my books.