Tuesday 27 September 2011

Ha Ha - that'll teach me

Start talking about putting the heat lamps on and we have a mini heatwave! It's the end of September and the temperature is rising by the day. No doubt they'll be banging on about global warming before long - but face it what was the disappearance of the ice age if it wasn't Global Warming??? A change in temperature is nothing new is it - never satisfied - that just about sums us British up in a nut shell.
The new web site has been in operation for over a week now, I think the majority of glitches are now ironed out and I can start adding the missing pages, I'd really like to know what you think of the new format so please feel free to leave a comment below. I appreciate that not everyone is happy with each area having their own waiting list, but I would like to hear your thoughts on the overall site.
The Bulldog Breed Council Health Committee are running two polls right now that they'd like your help with, one is for breeders and the occurrence of water pups and the other is for pet owners, if you feel you can help out please click on one (or both) of the links below


The spot light is never far from this breed so the more facts we can gather to throw back at the breed bashers the better in my opinion.

Saturday 24 September 2011

That's the Summer Done

The Autumn Equinox has passed and the nights will now start to draw in. Despite the brilliant sunshine that's shining outside today I know it's only a matter of time before Christmas is upon us and the chaos it brings with it, especially here at the kennel. I love Autumn, the colours and the cold wind on your face make it even more snug indoors on the sofa with the bulldogs, soon the heating will be switched on and the sure sign that Winter is here is switched on with it. Here's hoping that not too many bulldogs spend the Winter tied up outside in the snow and that we can find as many of them as possible before the ice sets in again.
This Summer has been quite an enjoyable one, we've had some lovely dogs through the kennel and the rescue service has coped pretty well the demand we find ourselves in when the kids go back to school at the end of the long holiday, although it is sad when suddenly there's an influx of dogs who's only crime is that the kids are not around to walk him any more. The Picnic has been and gone with a record breaking £4,000 raised which taking into account our vet bill appears to have doubled will be very welcome indeed. Thank you to everyone that came along again this year, I know I say it every year but I think this one was the biggest and bestest yet!
You'll notice if you are a regular to our web site that's it's gone "all posh" as one of our face book buddies put it, every area now has it's own waiting list, this is much easier for us and to be honest much fairer on the many many people that are waiting to adopt a bulldog, but it's causing a bit of confusion as it's slightly more difficult to apply for a dog and impossible if the dog isn't in your area. I'm afraid that due to much abuse of the old system we've been left with very little choice but to transfer it to a "sign in" system and if I have to give one simple bit of advice here its "write your password down!!" I don't have access to it so if you forget it you'll have to change it on line, I'm afraid I can't tell you what it is. Apart from a few teething problems trying work out how it all works it's seems to be running quite smoothly, but remember if you applied on our old system we do need to get your contact info into the new one so just drop me an email and I'll let you know how to get transferred, it'll take only a few minutes and once you've done it you'll be able to apply again for any of the dogs in your area that you like the look of.
Regulars to our face book page may have witness the furore that kicked off recently when we were infiltrated by some of the "alternative" bulldog crowd. I think if nothing else they managed to show themselves for what they really are and it was a shame that some of our members felt they had to leave because of the pure vileness that some of them were spouting. All is fixed now, we have increased the number of administrators to 3 as they knew how to block me so I couldn't remove them from the members list. I'm pretty sure they're all gone and a change to the settings means they can't get back on as easily as they did before, which is a shame because I never wanted that group to be tightly policed as it was meant to be a friendly place that anyone could join, but sadly, once again, a few idiots have meant we've had to tighten the security which is a shame for those who genuinely want to join and now have to wait approval from an admin before they can join in the conversation.
So having just seen Geeza off to his new home (yes I know - how did we manage that!? - look out Oxford is all I can add to that) I'm going for a well deserved cuppa and a bit of a sit down.

Wednesday 7 September 2011

ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

I was just looking at the last blog entry - yes I know it was way back in July - and it's sad but we lost Gretal (the white chicken in the video) to one of the local Buzzards, in the early hours of a Thursday morning, poor Gretal was just in the wrong place at the wrong time and although I suppose I don't really blame the buzzard, I am trying to understand that it's nature and her babies have to eat, I'm not ashamed to say there's a small part of me that wishes it was someone else's chicken. Needless to say poor Hansel was beside herself but doesn't seem to agree that Gretal 2 looks exactly the same, there's also a third bird who Katie has called Cruella


So much has happened, Annie and her boyfriend Matt (or should I say fiance, bearing in mind he proposed to her on day 4) did her 4 day walk across the Downs for Bulldog Rescue and raised over £700!!! And of course the annual Bulldog Picnic which took place on Saturday, raising a staggering (and record breaking) £4,000



Edward made a guest appearance and boy what a difference a few months make, we are now on the road to a new home and we are all hoping (except Annie) that he will be leaving the kennel very soon as he was an absolute super star and surprisingly increadibly famous!


What a manic few weeks the picnic is though, the week before I can't do any of the routine rescue work, so all the rehoming, new listings, applications and banking goes by the wayside whilst I spend the week making sure everything is where it should be and all the lose ends are tied up. Then of course the week after is all the catching up and tail chasing that's inevitable when the day to day stuff is a week behind. The hardest part of the day itself is all the lugging about, but once it's all set up it's pretty much handed over to everyone else to run and enjoy and at this point I really do just sit back and enjoy the show, it is such an amazing event that just gets bigger and bigger every year, and it astounds me the number of really healthy pet bulldogs that cope brilliantly with the crowds, the weather and the shear number of other bulldogs. Ever year we have a local vet on call and qualified canine first aiders on site - we have never needed the vet, I can only recall three dogs in 14 picnics that needs cooling or treating for stress, such a shame the likes of Jemima Puddleduck couldn't be there to give her something positive to write about the breed for a change. In fact the unhealthy one is me! As a CFS sufferer it really knocks me for six and today (Wednesday) the entire picnic has really hit me like a brick! CFS is one of those things that is still debated amongst the medical profession as to if it's real, for those that suffer this, ME or PVFS as it is sometimes called, will tell you it is very real and there are many out there that suffer much worse that I do. I'm not convinced that Rescue isn't the reason I've got it in the first place, as although I do recall suffering bouts of extreme exhaustion from as far back as my college days, the relentless effort required to run the charity as well as the business, home and family caused what I guess was "burn out", but I won't give in to it and have learnt the art of "pacing" over the years and the art of ignoring telephones or having a laydown and refusing to talk to anyone if I reach the point where it's necessary. It doesn't always go down very well, especially with the person who really needs to talk to me to see if her on line application she did this morning has come through OK, but hey ho!


So as we begin to get life back on track in the week the kids starts to go back to school, we begin preparations for the deluge of Bulldogs that will soon be requiring their new homes .... so keep an eye on the web site, if you have been unlucky so far with your applications then keep trying - sooner or later the right dog will be there and it will become apparent why you weren't successful on the ones you applied for so far when that perfect little squishy face lands on your doorstep.