Tears and Joy

The weekend was a series of tears and joy, helping a young family with the horror of buying a bulldog on line only to find that he had a nasty streak that resulted in the husband having to be taken to hospital by ambulance was eased a little when I invited them to bring the children for a visit to help them see that not all bulldogs were like that. The result was that little Daisy who'd only been in rescue less than a week and was struggling dreadfully with the surroundings of the kennel made such an impression on them that they were back the next morning to take her home. I can't tell you how wonderful it was to see her interacting with the children and there's no doubt they've helped each other through what could have been a terrible point in all their lives.
The worst part though of the entire weekend was an incident in the woods when one of the rescues decided that the border terrier coming towards him was fair game, the poor dog walker lost her footing in the mud and the result was carnage. Thankfully the little dog is fine and the owners, despite being understandably shocked, have been marvelous. Being neighbours I was able to visit the little dog today and despite his grand old age of 13 is recovering well and milking the extra attention for everything it's worth.
Then on Sunday I had a paw print added to the new tattoo for Maggie, losing Maggie has been one of the hardest deaths I've had to deal with in a very long time and by marking her alongside the other 10 paw prints on the tattoo was very therapeutic. Rest in Peace my sweet baby, I hope we made your awful life a little more bearable in your final years.

WANNA BE ON THE TELLY?

With all the bad publicity surrounding bulldogs (pedigree dogs, vets, dog owners) etc recently it should be a refreshing change to have this years Bulldog Picnic featured as part of Sky1's forthcoming programme "Dogumentary". The fancy dress competition will be the focus, so make sure you dress to impress!
Yesterday saw our new kennel maid start at the kennels in Midhurst, she insists we havn't frightened her off with all those wrinkly faces, so here's to a long and happy relationship with Annie and we welcome you on board.

15 Years .....

It was 15 years ago today that I moved into this house. It was damp, abandoned (had been empty for over a year) and over grown, but there was something about it. We couldn't afford it, despite the fact that the price had been very much reduced due to the fact that it had been empty for so long, but somehow we found the money to buy it. The gas board came out to service the heating and slapped condemned stickers on everything and left. There was a gas leak under the entire house by all accounts, they muttered something about it not being their job, turned the gas off at the mains and drove off!

Both Dizzy and I had not long been separated from our previous marriages, he had one cantankerous old bulldog called Bessie who hated children and I had two children aged 5 and 6!

Over the years this house has proved to be perfect for everything we've ever needed to do, as what started out as just needing room for a home office and storage for stock for the record business, became room for show dogs and litters, became room for rescue kennels, became room for stock storage for Reggie's Den and it all just seemed to fit into place perfectly.

We've done very little to the soul of the building and when the medium came out on my birthday she said that there was a lady attached to this house who approved of the fact that we'd not changed much. Apparently she acknowledged the fact that we'd built kennels and approved of the rescue, saying she liked the energy the dogs bought to the place.

Maggie's grave was bulldog number 14 in the little grave yard at the bottom of the garden, 11 of which have been our own pets and 3 rescues, of course there beach pebbles remember all the others.

15 years ago by life changed, I found Diz again, I left my marriage behind me, moved out of the horrible rented rabbit hutch my kids and I had been forced to live in and moved into the house that I plan to stay in for the rest of my life (and beyond). Today is a very special day and it also means there's only 10 years left on the mortgage!

The countdown to the Picnic has begun

There's less than a month until the infamous Bulldog Picnic holds it's 13th Event!! We've extended it this year for the first time and tried to make it a little more educational. We've got Sue from Sue's Animal Magic giving a grooming demo and she'll be able to tell you how to deal with those cute wrinkles and troublesome ears. Steve Batten - a behaviourist who often gives advice for Bulldog Rescue will also be giving a talk on some of the breeds more common behaviour issues and answering questions on specific problems. Tania is also making herself available for a while to advise on specific problems that you may need advice on so make sure you arrive nice and early to make the most of the additional events that are taking place.
For the first time too, we've been given additional parking space, regular visitors will be aware that the parking has become troublesome over the past few years so the local football club have given us permission to use the football field. This is the gate to the left right on the roundabout as you come off the main road.
The Picnic opens at 12 noon and continues through to 5pm and as usual we will have a fancy dress parade and the rescue parade. Be aware that Sky 1 will be filming the fancy dress as they are currently following Joanne Good (who has again agreed to judge the competition) and Anna Webb around some of the UKs more unusual doggy events for a "dogumentary" so make sure you bring the best fancy dress outfit - part of the programme will feature putting voices to the dogs so it should make very interesting viewing!!
For a complete guide to what's happening when, directions, weather and lists of places to stay go to the Picnic web site at www.bulldogrescue.co.uk/Picnic.htm
As you know at each years picnic we give someone in the breed an award for outstanding contribution to Bulldog Welfare. This is your last chance to nominate someone as the trustees will decide at the end of next week who gets it
Go to http://www.bulldogrescue.co.uk/award.htm to nominate
See you there!!!!

Back to Work - Day One

Up bright and early this morning, did loads of housework and was busy washing the floor in the living room when it dawned on me that Maggie had made no effort to say hello, not unusual for her to stay asleep, even when I'm hoovering but she was unusually still. Imagine my shock when I realised she'd gone and I'd been in that room cleaning for at least an hour and hadn't noticed. I felt so terrible, but she was definitely dead and had been for many hours as she was rigid, but fast a sleep and so very peaceful. She will take the last available space in the graveyard and already I need another paw print adding to the tattoo. We were called out on a rescue call yesterday afternoon, but she seemed her normal self and Peter and Beverly said there was nothing unusual about her when they left here early evening. She ate fine and Hilda had been cuddled up to her on the sofa as usual this morning so there was no real need to suspect anything untoward but I can't tell you the guilt I'm feeling right now.

Maggie had appeared on TV a couple of time, once on the Channel Five news and she appeared on the One Show next to Adam Sandler, but what kicked it all off was her appearance on the Paul O'grady show. She'd arrived in rescue several months earlier having been bought out of a violent household but a policeman. He had tried to keep her but she was terribly incontinent, very frightened and incredibly over bred so he gave her up to us. She was rehomed twice, but sadly returned twice due to her lack of house training so when we were asked to take a dog on the Homeless Dog's section, she seemed the perfect choice. A home was actually found from that TV appearance, but the new owners vet insisted she had cancer and should be put to sleep, thankfully I arrived at the vets before they had chance to go through with it and snatched her back deciding that enough was enough and that we'd keep her here. That was over 3 years ago, we had her boobs removed to stop her tripping over them any more and she had a complete hysterectomy which dealt with her internal infections from being so over bred and subsequently cured her incontinence. The operation lasted over 6 hours and it was touch and go if she'd survive, but she did and despite the scar that ran the full length of her underside, she recovered perfectly. She hated walking and would pretend to limp if you tried to get her to go for a walk, but had her own spot on the end of the sofa where she refused to budge - even when the floor was layed in the living room she stayed on the sofa as the workmen carried it from one side of the room to the other as they layed the floor around her.

So back to work this morning with lots of orders to wade through, so please bear with us, thankfully the phone is being unusually kind to me, even for the first day back when I expected it to not stop ringing so thank you everyone for giving me some space to get my head round this mornings events.

Holiday - Day One

The tattoo is finished, although I'm already making plans to extend it!!! Its sore again today but that'll soon pass I'm sure.

The first day of my holiday and Dizzy and I went to the sea side, had a lovely late lunch and a little stroll along the front - interrupted by one "urgent" call from someone who's new dog had made the cats leave home, after spending most of the evening trying to sort something out as I'm fairly near them tomorrow, they informed me at 9pm they'd found a home via the previous owner - lets hope this time it's permanent but I did tell them we were here if for any reason it didn't work out.

Following tonight's episode of Panorama, I'm sure that many people across the country are horrified at the number of dogs that are put to sleep every year due to aggressive behaviour. At Battersea, the figures disclosed showed that almost as many were put to sleep last year as they actually rehomed. This is an awful side to rescue and one that none of us ever ever get used to, but it is sadly a necessary evil in so far as putting a dog that is potentially dangerous back into the public domain is not only irresponsible but could land the rescue involved in court under the dangers dog law. What a lot of people don't realise is that you are held responsible for any behaviour your dog displays, especially if you knew the dog had behaved in that way before - so putting a known biter out for rehoming is not only putting people at risk but also incredibly irresponsible of the charity. Here at Bulldog Rescue we are lucky insofar as we don't see a vast number of situations where dogs are being put down because they are dangerous, but there are a handful that come through the system where it is our only option. One of the vets on the program summed things up perfectly by saying that putting them down was not the rescues responsibility - it was the owner who had failed the dog by not taking responsibility for the dog's behaviour and in most cases turn them out as strays or gifting them in with a watered down version of events. We see approximately 5-10 cases each year where the dog is deemed too dangerous to rehome (and we don't put anything down for being dog aggressive as sadly that's often a bulldog trait), but we receive fairly high number of calls from people who's reason for rehoming is due to a bite where the dogs never come into the system. We consistently see vets who refuse to put the dog to sleep and we even get calls from the vets themselves begging us to do something to save the dog when we simply cannot take the risk, not only to the general public but to the reputation of the breed.

I've already received emails this evening asking what we can do, once again I will get on my soap box and scream two words "DOG LICENCE". As the RSPCA chap pointed out, there are tighter rules in respect of owning a television and for some reason the government are so dead against any kind of licencing system that things can only get worse (and I never thought I'd actually agree with anything an RSPCA spokesman had to say!). You can read my thoughts here with regard to the need for a licence and for compulsory microchipping which would (in most cases) identify the person that callously abandoned their dog for whatever reason and like the number plate on a car would track ownership throughout the dogs life time. Status symbol dogs, breeding for money, breeding because "it's good for the bitch to have one litter" has to stop, they interviewed one SBT "breeder" (and I use the term lightly) who openly admitted his bitch was a rescue! She'd whelped six pups in the kitchen of his tower block flat.

All I can say at this point is thank goodness we are not Staffordshire Bull Terrier rescue because right now these poor people simply cannot cope with the number of dogs being abandoned after being trained to be dog aggressive - there is no future for these poor dogs and rescues across the UK will continue to have to kill healthy dogs because society made them into monsters. Until the laws are tightened up when it comes to dog ownership nothing will ever change I'm afraid and I can only see things getting worse and worse from this point on