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Heart Time, and Samson Wins!

Dexter and Heart

Poor Heart — I think she’s been over shadowed by the Nellkins lately. Fear not, she’s been getting lots of attention, and loads of playtime.

Last night, Sean let her play on the floor with the other dogs for a while, where she discovered two new loves: Hoofies and Dexter.

Sean managed to get some photos of Heart playing with Dexter, doing the typical puppy play bow/hide under stuff/bark/repeat sequence. He also shot a small film of her really, really enjoying a Hoofie. Man, those things are so disgusting – they stink up your house with a fine mist of glue funk – but boy, do the dogs ever love them.

Speaking of cute puppies, congratulations to Samson from San Francisco. This adorable, ice cube loving French Bulldog was crowned “Cutest Dog” in Nick at Nite’s First Annual Worldwide Fido Awards. The awards ceremony was broadcast live on Nickelodeon, and apparently Samson and his mom made the trip all the way from San Francisco to accept their award! Make sure to check out the video that nabbed Samson top prize – it’s awfully cute (award winningly so!).

All the new Heart photos are here, on Flickr, or view the slide show. The video is below.


Tula Takes Over

Heart - sleeping French Bulldog puppy

Last night, at about 12:30, I heard a strange ‘skritching’ sound coming from the spare bedroom across the hall. Like most dog people, the most quiet of noises, if it’s out of place, can wake from an almost dead sleep, and this noise was most definitely out of place.

::scritchy scritchy scritch::

pause…

::scritchy scritchy scritchy scritch::

pause…

::scritchy scritchy scritchy scritch scritch scritch::

Fine, time to go and check it out. I discovered Tula, sleeping in the whelping box, and Heart on the floor, scritching the edge of the pool in an attempt to get back inside. Big enough to get out of the pool, small enough to be stuck outside once she did. I set a temporary barricade up around the pool, popped Heart inside with her mommy, and headed back to bed. In the morning, I discovered Heart once again toddling around on the floor of the room, within ‘trouble’ range of electrical cords, carpeting and other not puppy safe hazards.

It’s official — she’ll go live in the ex pen with the other kids, including over night.

As a compromise, I’m alternating Tula and Penelope in the whelping room with the kids. I don’t want to just take Heart away from her mommy – they love each other! Penelope, on the other hand, dashed into the dog room and out into the yard without a backward glance. Freedom!

Tula nosed around the ex pen, sniffed noses with Heart across the doorway, and decided to pop inside for a visit. In a few moments, a light bulb went off inside her head. “These are puppies — other puppies!”. What do we do with puppies? Why, we clean them and nurse them and play with them and organize them into tidy piles, of course, which she promptly proceeded to do.

Within fifteen minutes, Tula had each of the Nellkins sniffed, washed, and tucked safely into her side for feeding. Heart slept through the entire procedure – hey, she gets mommy time all the time. The Nellkins, on the other hand, are completely enamored with Tula. A mommy who licks us! A mommy who plays with us! A mommy who wants us to eat! Who knew such a thing existed? It was like a scene out of that TV Show, “Wife Swap”. Penelope would be the slacker mom, tossing Heart a box of Kraft Dinner and telling her to go to the store and pick up some smokes after she’s done cooking it.

Speaking of Nell, when it was swap back time she mooched back into the room, high stepped around the pups with an expression that said “Get ’em off me”, and finished off the rest of their food before high tailing it out of the pen.

Maybe I’ll just leave Tula in there with them all from now on, and let Penelope get back to her career.

Photos on Flickr — http://www.flickr.com/photos/frenchbulldogs/sets/72157607787521200/

The video from yesterday (it seems to be displaying oddly in the previous entry):

A Whole New World

Heart and the Nellkins are having fun exploring their new home. The ex pen is divided into three areas – sleeping, playing/eating and elimination. It’s amazing how quickly the figure out which is which, and other than the occasional pee, they’ve been shockingly good at keeping their bed area clean.

They’re also enjoying solid food – right now, they’re eating puppy kibble softened with goat milk. Next week, we’ll work on introducing them to Honest Kitchen.

Super Delicious Happy Puppy Playtime!

General puppy goofiness abounds in this one, including the Nellkins first attempt at eating pablum, a close up of Butters looking all superstar, Jelly getting her tummy rubbed, Heart and Jelly sharing kisses, and Rumble and Pixie snuggle sleeping (as usual).

Don’t forget to enter your crusty nosed Frenchie in the contest — send your photos in today!

Let the photos commence!

Heart at one day old

Look, consider this forewarned — I have a puppy here now, and more on the way, so this blog is about to become booooring, in the way that only new and doting Mommas can manage to be boring.

Yes, that’s right – pictures.

I’m going to be posting lots and lots and lots of pictures.

In the interest of trying not to alienate all of you, I’ll likely post my favorite of the day over on the Photo Blog, and a link to the Flickr galleries here.

When it comes to videos, though, all bets are off — I am not strong enough to resist wanting to post videos of the pups doing super cute pup things (like wiggling. And sleeping.).

Anyway, photos of the little cutie, taken at one day old, are posted here.

Poor Bunny. She’s going through a serious case of crazy Mommy syndrome, which I have to take partial responsibility for. I was hauling out the weekly load of dog beds for washing, and tossed a dirty whelping pad from Tula’s room onto the top of the pile. Bunny was on it like a Bloodhound, sniffing and pawing and digging around in it frantically. You could see the wheels turning in her head “Where’s the puppy? I know there’s a puppy in here. Oh my God, she tossed the puppy into the pile of laundry!”.

Bunny then proceeded to warn all the other dogs to “GettawayfromypuppyorIkillya”. Elliott took one look at her snarling, and tossed me a look that said “Chicks, man. They’re all crazy”, before strolling away nonchalantly.

I dragged the pile of laundry into the laundry room, Bunny following along behind me making nervous little whining noises. Once there, I faced a dilemma — toss the dirty pad into the washing machine, possibly giving Bunny a breakdown, or leave it dirty for her to fuss over?

I chose dirty. I was about to wash it, then noticed Bunny was staring at me, and I couldn’t deal with the idea of her thinking “Aiiggh! She put my bebbeh in da washing machine! Must save bebbeh!”. Fine, yes, she’s probably have just wandered off to eat a television, instead, but why take a chance? So, the dirty pad sat on the floor, on top of the quilts we keep on the couch, and I figured Bunny would lose interest in it eventually, once she’d something new and expensive to eat.

Not so — instead, she found a small, orange stuffed hippo thing, and has now decided it is, in fact, her missing baby. She’s buried it in the middle of the dirty pad, and keeps digging it a deeper, safer, more secure bed — one hopefully free from the risk of being tossed into the giant swirly bathtub machine.

Bunny now refuses to come out of the laundry room, which is fine for now, but will be a bit troublesome when it’s potty or food time. On the plus side, I can probably now wash the pad without freaking her out, but no one had better touch her baby.

Think there’s any family resemblance?