LET IT SNOW ... LET IT SNOW ... LET IT SNOW ...

When this is the sight that greets you first thing in the morning what can you do?











The hose pipe is frozen

You can't see the poop let alone pick it up

There's only one thing for it ....

HAVE FUN ............................








Blossom and Mercedez















Charlie












Dennis













Dennis and Charlie












Harry, Blossom and Charlie














Harry, Charlie and Mo













Mo and Charlie













Mo, Dennis and Harry







Well, it beats scrubbing kennels any day!

Santa does less miles ...

We left here yesterday morning, the intentions were - drive to Kent and deliver a dog to her new home, up to Essex to introduce a dog to his potential new home, back to Kent to collect a dog and through to Sussex to take her straight to her new home. 250 miles later the entire day was a complete and utter waste of diesel, time, and a Christmas shopping moment lost forever.
The first dog was delivered safe and sound, all was fine and another dog happily settled in a new home before Christmas. Then we contacted the Essex drop to inform them we'd be 45 minutes, only to be told they'd got another dog from another source that morning and they were sorry but they didn't want us to come up after all. So down to Kent to collect the next dog and a phone call to her new home to say we'd be there within an hour and a half, to be told they'd had a hospital appointment come through just after Christmas so could no longer take a dog before the new year. So leaving here intending to deliver 3 dogs saw 2 come back with us. Then this morning the call we dreaded, the dog that had been delivered safe and sound looked like it wasn't going to work out after all ....... Ho Ho Ho Hum

Christmas is on it's way - just ask a dog rescuer!

Saturday was another long day, we had already decided to go to the Bulldog of the Year show and collect 2 dogs on the way back. One of the dogs we were due to collect pulled out as thankfully they decided that they could keep him afterall, but whilst at the show a call came in from someone who needed their dog picking up as soon as possible so we decided to wait for the lunch break, as we had an item in the auction, and then head off to Staines and then round to Kent as originally planned. The morning show took longer than anticipated so by the time lunch was over and the auction was done it was gone 3pm. However, the auction items which we had donated which consisted of 5 Our Dogs and Dog World annuals dating from 1949 through to 1967 raised a fabulous £35.00 for the rescue, thank you to everyone that placed bids on those items. Some of the bulldog adverts inside are very amusing. It was very late by the time we got back here with two very bewildered bulldogs, both of which are now settled in their kennel awaiting their intake assessments. There are still a large number of bulldogs waiting for homes and with Christmas fast approaching it's only going to get worse so if you can help us in any way please do as in the words of that very well known SuperStore - every little helps ....

THE OLD MAN IS SNORING ....

Sorry, couldn't think of anything to put as a heading, but it's raining and pouring so that's the first thing that came into my head. To be honest rescue is almost at crisis point, there are now 40 dogs in the system which is the most we've ever had since I took over 8 years ago. As we do our best to work our way through them, sort the homechecks and make sure the home we've picked is the right one, today one of the owners decided that now he had the details of the new family for his dog it was a good time to tell us he'd rehomed him themselves! It's not even as if we don't keep the families informed of the progress as they get a letter to tell them we have selected a home and are just waiting on a homecheck but I guess people can't wait, with this many dogs in the system we're bound to be much much slower than we would like to be as fitting it all around a day job can prove to be frustrating at times. But we'll keep plodding along and over the course of the next few days I need to find space for 3 (maybe 4) new arrivals when all the kennels are full!
Tonight is going to be particularly difficult as we have been called out to collect a dog from an old lady who's due to move into a home on Friday. The poor lady is now senile and doesn't fully understand why we need to come and take her dog away, with the help of her family we've left it as late in the day as we can get away with and tomorrow the house will be packed up ready for her to move on Friday morning, let hope she copes ok with what is going to be a very upsetting time for her.

Oh what fun we had ....

The last few days have been a lot of fun, as you know the shed (that we are grandly calling a kitchen) was erected at the weekend and on Tuesday the washing maching and tumble dryer was installed inside it thanks to Reggie's fabulous plumbing work. First thing Wednesday morning, Sue and I were very excited at using the new facilities (yes we really are that sad) and on the second load of washing we suddendly reaslised that the kennel area was slowly flooding. A friend of ours who's trade is ground works just happened to have popped by for coffee - so that was his afternoon gone because the underground pipe that was taking the waste water decided it didn't like suddendly having to do so much work and had completely disintergrated underground! We had our own little natural spring there for a while (well if you don't count the soap suds). As it turned out the washing machine wasn't even supposed to be emptying into that drain so we now have a lovely ellaborate peice of pipe work going into the man hole - that was after driving around for 2 hours yesterday afternoon trying to find the right sized pipes as no one seemed to stock the ones Reg had used.

ROLE OF HONOUR:

Shed - thanks to Peter and Beverly
Plumbing/electrics - thanks to Reg
Washing Machine - puchased from the Heart Foundation charity shop, Fareham
Tumble Dryer - thanks to the Heart Foundation charity shop, Fareham
Emergency drain works - thanks to Mark
Oh what fun .......................

I'm still here!

Yes I'm still alive, thank you to all those that actually took the time to ask LOL. Thanks also to all the people that helped out last week in the kennels whilst I was otherwise buried under paperwork, it's so nice to know theres people there when needed!
The weekend was spent putting up the new laundry shed that Peter and Beverly have donated, there's a second hand washing machine and tumble dryer on it's way so the bedding crisis is now officially over!

Knock on ...

My extended time off has obviously had a huge knock on effect with just about everything, customers complaining they've had to wait so long for the orders and almost 30 bulldogs looking for new homes!! I don't think we've ever ever had so many in the system at any one time. I've got help in the kennel every day this week, so I can get a really good run on the office stuff. Lets hope that life has nothing left to throw at me because I don't think "my dog died" is an acceptable reason for not sending the VAT return in on time!!!!!

WHITE FEATHERS

The one thing this week has taught me is that no matter what happens in my life, I can never get away from Bulldog Rescue. With everything we've gone through and the struggle we've had at work to even begin to catch up, the number of people who constantly call needing their dogs rehomed increases with each passing day. Sometimes I just want time for me and this week I realised that could never happen - and then this morning the worst possible news, the legend that was Winnie Pooh had died. Like I wasn't beating myself up enough .... I'd been out already this morning to pick up the Reggie's Den delivery but it was so early that instead of going to the kitchen, I went back to the bedroom and layed on the bed watching TV for a further half an hour, if I'd not done that Winnie would not have died on his own. It looked like he'd had a fit of somekind, and the most ironic thing is that he only ever had one fit in his life - 5th November 2001! today is 5th November 2009. When Winnie arrived here he was thin and unable to walk, the vet diagnosed him with hemi vertabrae and gave him about 6 months, insisting that he'd never walk, we proved him wrong on both counts, as he got stronger he got up on his back legs but it was at least a year before he ventured into the house, coming as far as the back door but refusing to cross the threshold. then one day he came into the kitchen and from that day on he realised the joys of being a house dog far outweighed those of being a kennel dog. He continued to get fatter, more unfit and grouchier as he got older, and none of us could understand just how this dog kept on going - but he did until this morning when time finally caught up with him and that initial 6 month diagnoses became almost 9 years.

So I'm sat there, having buried the 2nd dog in 7 days thinking I really can't be doing with other peoples problems when there's a call from the RSPCA, a dog we had rehomed 2 years ago had turned up with them during a seizure of 4 dogs yesterday. The Inspector said that the owner had gone down hill very quickly as she'd only been out to her a month before, but after her car had given up the woman no longer went out and after a month of the neighbours having not seen her they called in the RSPCA who found 4 very imaciated dogs (one of which has had to be put to sleep), several dead budgies and an dear old woman who's apparently been sectioned. It makes you realise just how quickly things can change and if you know any elderly people with animals make sure you watch them closely as Lilly is now back here weighing a mear 13kg. This is one of the major reasons why we keep the microchips in our name, because if it had been in the owners name this dog would have gone into the RSPCA system and we'd be none the wiser. To be honest I was grateful for the call out as it meant I didn't have to speak to anyone, but surely that's the end of this run of bad luck ..... isn't it?

If anyone would like to make a donation to rescue in Winnie's memory we'd be very grateful. For many years he was the public face of rescue (until the Harrods incident) and he lived a very long and happy life I'm sure. And the reason why this blog is called "white feathers"? So many people tell me they find white feathers after they've lost their bulldog, the morning Rosie died I spotted one outside my bedroom window, that should have given me a clue as to what was about to happen but we were so busy running around after Katie's accident that it didn't register until afterwards. Whilst burying Winnie I turned to see a white feather in the willow tree in our little graveyard at the bottom of the garden (which is now host to 13 bulldogs aged between 2 days and 13 years). That white feather is actually very comforting and some beleive it's a final goodbye.

De Ja Vue ...

Reading last weeks blog it feels like things are no further forward. In fact they are well and truly behind like you would not believe. We were actually making some progress catching up with the back log and then Wednesday night my daughter decided to crash her car - and crash it good and proper she did too. No one knows how she walked away from this, but there is one very lucky Midhurst deer out there who by standing in the middle of the road caused Katie to swerve, spin, hit a tree and roll the car several times (the deer is fine by the way - so many people have asked about it LOL). It was quite early on Wednesday evening but I still felt really ill with a UTI so had literally just gone to bed when Katie's friend who was behind her in her own car rang Jason with the message "Katie's crashed her car, it's bad, get your mum here now". The message I got was "Katie's crashed can you go and pick her up" so to arrived with all the blue lights going and to find her car on it's side was the biggest shock of my life and something no mother should have to see. I can only be grateful that she came out of it with hardly a scratch by crawling through the back window but she said there was a moment of shear panic before she realised the back window was smashed when she couldn't get out! The sight of me running around the crash scene in my PJs sure gave the Fire Crew a giggle though if nothing else.

The next day was spent rushing around getting the insurance sorted and removing belongings from the car when all of a sudden, with no warning whatsoever Rosie, our 10 year old bitch (and only one left from our first litter) just sat down and died - as quick as that which threw an already shaken up family into complete shock. So I'm sure you can understand that nothings been done around here for well over a week now and for that I can only apologise and promise everyone both with the rescue and with the Mail Order company that we are doing our best, although right now it feels like it's never going to get better and every phone call and email brings another complaint. But I am on anti biotics now and fighting fit (whatever that is LOL)

Weekend whirlwind

2 new arrivals on Saturday, oh what fun it was driving an unlined van full of dog crates down an unmade seafront road LOL, especially as I missed the house and had to go back down the road again, it was like sitting in a popcorn machine! Sunday was breed rescue meeting day in Birmingham, this was going to be an interesting meeting without a chairman, but Malc Presland very kindly stood in to fill the void and an excellent job he did as well. I did raise the subject of the van and the backlash we've received which seemed to be met with total disgust. I don't know who said it, but it was by all accounts a comment made after the van was seen at the Junior Bulldog Club show last week. The breed council were invited to see it and they did seem to consider it a necessary item of equipment which was a great relief.
Then it was back via Kent - Birmingham to Kent is not as easy as you'd think, the sat nav sent me just about everywhere except the motorway I wanted so it was hours before I reached Dartford and if you see a bulldog rescue van on Road Wars - yes it was me going the wrong way up a one way street - I've never been so embarrassed as you can't be conspicuous with the phone number splashed down the side of the vehicle !!! Our new arrivals all seemed to be nicely settled and I am aware that the rehoming page is a little out of date, that's my job for tomorrow, but for now there's a huge pile of orders to get through, oh the joys of a Monday morning!

Doesn't matter how hard you try ...

There are always rumours flying around about what Dizzy and I are supposed to get up to, but by all accounts the new van has ruffled a few feathers with people in the breed who think we've spent the money meant for the dogs on the van! Those that know the story are perfectly aware that this money was given to us in grants and could only be spent on a vehicle but I wish these people would talk to me instead of huddling in corners gossipping about what supposedly goes on here. I'm sure if they lived this life for just one day they'd realise how difficult it can be and if they begrudge us the equipment to do the job properly (when they all have signwritten vans of their own) then maybe they're not worth a second thought.

Monday is here again ...

Despite the coughing and the spluttering we had a really good weekend. Went to the Junior Champ show on Saturday with the stall. The Junior always make us feel so welcome and it's such a nice show with a good atmosphere too. The day's judge, Alison Gunson, donated a lovely huge bulldog statue to auction which was great, until Glen informed me that I had to auction it. Needless to say I failed dismally and Glen had to take over but the bidding got very exciting between two breeders and the eventual winning bid was an amazing £350.00!!!
Sunday was a homecheck for sweet little George, well what can I say about his new home except it has 6 bedrooms and his neighbours will be Louise and Jamie Rednapp and their bulldogs! Arriving in my boots and baseball cap I did feel very underdressed for the occassion but the family are fantastic and George is going to love it there!

Fingers Crossed for Claire

I've just left Claire at the vets, today she gets an xray and then depending on what shows up a barium and then 2 hourly xrays throughout the day. She managed to keep her prescription slop down with no problem and she's still as bright and bubbly as ever which no one can really understand. I'll keep you updated via comments so check back later.

Needed this like a hole in the head ...

I had a bit of a sore throat on Sunday at the show and Monday when I went out to collect Claire, I was full of cold but didn't feel ill. Tuesday the cold hit with a vengance and by lunch time I was back in bed feeling like shite, as the afternoon wore on it was becoming difficult to breathe but at 2am I woke up and really couldn't breathe. I had asthma in my 20s but it soon became apparent that I was having an asthma attack and ended up in A&E at 3am on a nebulizer which helped a little. Turns out I have a chest infection and spent all of yesterday in bed with an inhaler and anti biotics!! Needed that time off like a hole in the head, I am so behind with paperwork that being ill wasn't really an option! Feel much better today but need to get Claire to the vet, she's not kept anything down since she arrived so it's looking like there's an underlying reason why she's so thin. Will keep you posted - and if you are waiting for paperwork from me I am so sorry but I'm now even further behind!!
SEE COMMENTS FOR UPDATES ON CLAIRE

The Van is now called Claire

The deal was always that whoever got the first official ride in the van would be who the van was named after, so meet Claire, she was our first official pick up and subsquently the van is now named in her honour. She's a sweet wee thing who needs to put on a lot of weight!!!

She travelled perfectly in the back of the van and is enjoying the fuss and attention that's for sure. We'll keep you posted of course.

The Van's first official journey

We went to the London Bulldog Club show today, gosh it's been so long since we went to a show and it was great to catch up with everyone and see the wash of new faces that have popped up since I was last allowed out in public. It was a bit of a last minute decision to go but we sold a few calendars and some of Ian's keyrings. They asked me to judge the junior handling which was a great honour but very nerve racking too as it's been even longer since I was in the ring, Jason used to do Junior handling when he was 10 - he's almost 20 so I couldn't even draw on that experience either. From the 2 that entered it was very hard to chose, with Junior Handling you are actually judging the handler and not the dog. The winner had a huge dog (almost as big as her) but she talked to her dog throughout and reassure him with a softly spoken "stand". The runner up really impressed me when she poked her dogs tongue back in, but sadly had her dog too tight on his lead. I have no idea who the winners of the main show were though as I was far too busy eating delicious apple cake and gossiping with Gemma. Oh and I actually remembered to put Diesel in the van and not petrol but I'm not promising that will last LOL

Just a normal day ....

Hello: You have reached Bulldog Rescue.

Due to the high volume of calls we have been receiving, please listen closely to the following options and choose the one that best describes you or your situation:

Press 1 if you have a 10-year-old dog and your 15-year-old son has
suddenly become allergic and you need to find the dog a new home
right away.

Press 2 if you are moving today and need to immediately place your
150 pound, 8-year-old dog.

Press 3 if you have three dogs, had a baby and want to get rid of
your dogs because you are the only person in the world to have a
baby and dogs at the same time.

Press 4 if you just got a brand new puppy and your old dog is having
problems adjusting so you want to get rid of the old one right away.

Press 5 if your little puppy has grown up and is no longer small and
cute and you want to trade it in for a new model.

Press 6 if you want an unpaid volunteer to come to your home TODAY
and pick up the dog you no longer want.

Press 7 if you have been feeding and caring for a "stray" for the
last three years, are moving and suddenly determine it's not your
dog.

Press 8 if your dog is sick and needs a vet but you need the money
for your vacation.

Press 9 if you are elderly and want to adopt a cute puppy who is not
active and is going to outlive you.

Press 10 if your relative has died and you don't want to care for
their elderly dog because it doesn't fit your lifestyle.

Press 14 if you are calling at 6 a.m. to make sure you wake me up
before I have to go to work so you can drop a dog off on your way
to work.

Press 15 to leave us an anonymous garbled message, letting us know
you have left a dog in our yard in the middle of January, which is
in fact, better than just leaving the dog with no message.

Press 16 if you are going to get angry because we are not going to
take your dog that you have had for fifteen years, because it is
not our responsibility.

Press 17 if you are going to threaten to take your ten year old dog
to be euthanized because I won't take it.

Press 18 if you're going to get angry because the volunteers had the
audacity to go on vacation and leave the dogs in care of a trusted
volunteer who is not authorized to take your personal pet.

Press 19 if you want one of our PERFECTLY trained, housebroken, kid
and cat friendly purebred dogs that we have an abundance of.

Press 20 if you want us to take your dog that has a slight
aggression problem, i.e. has only bitten a few people and killed your
neighbor's cats.

Press 21 if you have already called once and been told we don't take
personal surrenders but thought you would get a different person this
time with a different answer.

Press 22 if you want us to use space that would go to a stray to
board your personal dog while you are on vacation, free of charge,
of course.

Press 23 if it is Christmas Eve or Easter morning and you want me to
deliver an eight week old puppy to your house by 6:30 am before
your kids wake up.

Press 24 if you have bought your children a duckling, chick or baby
bunny for Easter and it is now Christmas and no longer cute.

Press 25 if you want us to take your female dog who has already had
ten litters, but we can't spay her because she is pregnant again and
it is against your religion.

Press 26 if you're lying to make one of our younger volunteers feel
bad and take your personal pet off your hands.

Press 27 if your cat is biting and not using the litter box because
it is declawed, but you are not willing to accept the responsibility
that the cat's behavior is altered because of your nice furniture.

Press 28 if your two year old male dog is marking all over your house
but you just haven't gotten around to having him neutered.

Press 29 if you previously had an outdoor only dog and are calling
because she is suddenly pregnant.

Press 30 if you have done "everything" to housebreak your dog and
have had no success but you don't want to crate the dog because it
is cruel.

Press 31 if you didn't listen to the message asking for an evening
phone number and you left your work number when all volunteers are
also working and you are angry because no one called you back.

Press 32 if you need a puppy immediately and cannot wait because
today is your daughter's birthday and you forgot when she was born.

Press 33 if your dog's coat doesn't match your new furniture and you
need a different color or breed.

Press 34 if your new love doesn't like your dog and you are too
stupid to get rid of the new friend (who will dump you in the next
month anyway) instead of the dog.

Press 35 if you went through all these 'options' and didn't hear
enough. This press will connect you to the sounds of tears being
shed by one of our volunteers who is holding a discarded old dog
while the vet mercifully frees him from the grief of missing his family.

Thank you for calling

Bright Sunny Day

After yesterday's torrential rain, today looks like it's going to be nice and sunny. Was up early this morning in anticipation of the monthly Reggie's Den delivery which up until recently arrived by pallett by courier who would come straight to my door. Recently the company has been bought out and now everything arrives by lorry and this morning the driver refused to bring the lorry up the lane and instead asked me to drive out and meet him - you know there's just something not quite right about taking stuff off the back of a lorry in a layby and putting it in the boot of the car!
The van is as yet un-christened. We've decided that the name of the first dog to be officially collected in it will be the name of the van, a call out to collect a "Claire" today has been postponed until Monday so we'll see what happens over the weekend.

We have a small announcement

Funding has been sought over the last 2 years so Bulldog Rescue could have a purpose built van to operate from Midhurst. Well today it became a reality. You can view the full story at www.bulldogrescue.co.uk/van.htm and we are looking for a sponsor to cover the service agreement - but I hope you love it as much as I do ....

The Law is failing these dogs ....

At 4pm yesterday afternoon a call came in from a local police station, a drug raid on a flat not only revealed an illegal immigrant (who was deported last night) and a canabis farm but a very young and inured bulldog! If he's stolen he's certainly not on our list but the most likely senario for him being there is that he was payment for a drug deal. By the time we got called the police had tried every single dogs home in the area - all said they couldn't take him because he wasn't a stray!!!

There was no question about us taking him, in fact the volunteer that covered that area was already on her way here with a dog, so she was handed the details and sent back home to collect him. At that time we had no idea if he was male, female, pup, fully grown, friendly or what! What she found was a 8/9 month old pup with an injured front leg. He'll see the vet first thing Monday morning to work out whats wrong with him and now he's in our system the chances of him remaining in the drug world with all the awful things that happen to dogs in that fraternity are well and truly behind him but I can't tell you how angry I am that there was NO ONE there to help him. No wonder people dump their dogs if the only way any dog can make it into an all breed shelter is as a stray.

We'll keep you posted on his progress, needless to say he now happily settled in his foster home and a forever home is already waiting for him!

See Comments for update

Compulsory microchipping on the agenda

Compulsory microchipping on the agenda

As you may have seen in the dog papers, it may well be that microchipping becomes compulsory. Personally I feel that this is long overdue and although it wouldn't completely deal with the stray problem (not all chip info is up to date) it would certainly help!!!
What do you think? Should all pups be chipped before they are sold, should it become compulsory.
My vote is an overwhelming yes - what's yours?

The Kennel Club and the Bulldog Breed Standard

Quote from Dog World / 24th September 2009

Dog World - 39 new standards: "The KC is urging breed clubs to unite with them ‘in order to safeguard the health of pedigree dogs’.
“We would be very sad if any breed was to walk away from the KC,” said spokesman Caroline Kisko. “We believe that by working together we can all best achieve our joint aim of improving the long-term health and welfare of dogs.
“However, in the face of resistance to changes that we believe are in the breed’s best interest, we will not be swayed and will be forced to allow those breed clubs to walk away."

The emergency meeting is tomorrow, so if you have anything to say about this, say so now! To be honest, my personal feeling is that the KC want us to walk away so they can dis-associate themselves with the public opinion of the unhealthy bulldog. To not take into account any of the points raised with them at the meeting the sub committee attended and to then make the comment "we beleive that by working together we can all best acheive our joint aim ...." when they are clearly NOT working with the Bulldog Breed Council; to say "we will not be swayed and will be forced to allow those breed clubs to walk away" to me says that is what they've wanted from the start. Face it, whenever the Mail, or the BBC or anyone who has an axe to grind with pedigree dogs it's always the bulldog that comes under fire so it makes sense that they wish to distance themselves from it. However, although there is still the breed standard that is owned by the Bulldog Club incorporated that would be easy to revert back to, from a rescue point of view, having no KC registration to check back on to ensure that what we are rehoming is infact a pure bred bulldog could make our life very difficult in the future. We will see the outcome from the meeting tomorrow - but we will see.

For update see comments

And the 1000th Bulldog is ..........

Our Dogs article 2 October 2009 / Dog World article 8 October 2009

It kept changing all over the weekend, in the running were Buster, Nelly, Dutchess, Floydd and Sampson - Buster did move but came back because (get this) he had a tail!!!! but that's another story for another time as several hundred miles later, a sleepless night and me controlling my temper (almost) his new family decided that they couldn't love him based on what he looks like.

Nelly and Dutchess both moved, Sampson was due to move and Floydd was on his way to Brighton. Any of these dogs were worthy of the prize but Floydd did it and his new daddies have a certificate to prove it LOL. The local paper want to run a story on it which will be good publicity for the rescue and dear old Floydd who was hours from being put to sleep when we found him notched up another day in Bulldog Rescue's history.

You can read Floydds Story here

Over the past 1000 bulldogs, there's been many highs and many lows, people always ask me how I can part with them, but it's a very mixed emotion - you're glad for the dog who's got a new family to love him, but there is always a part of you that will miss them. Keep everything crossed for Floydd, it would appear he's been moved about an awful lot over the years, let this be his last move! Thanks to Syd and Kev for giving him that chance

Floydd

If you get a moment, pop along to our rehoming page and take a look at the wonderful Floydd, if this chap could talk he'd have a very very sad tale to tell I'm sure. Picked up as a stray in Wales he found him self in council kennels and a council policy that stated that all unclaimed strays were to be put to sleep after 9 days, we found out about him on day 9!!! Our fabulous volunteer Georgia drove all the way from Birmingham to Wales to get him (Despite being heavily pregnant), kept him over night and met me the next day at Oxford. The first thing we noticed was that he drank like a fish, this went on for 2 days, having to fill the water bowl up every 5 minutes or so, he drank so much in one go that it just came back up again. I'm thinking there's a kidney issue here which is why he's been abandoned, so off to the vet we went for blood tests, nothing. Urine test - nothing, but then after a few days his excessive drinking settled down which leads us to the conclusion that he was simply deprived of water wherever he was before and it's taken him almost a week to realise that there is water down for him all the time and that he doesn't have to drink the lot in case there's none there in a minute. The other thing that really upset me was on the second night I didn't get out to shut the kennel doors until after dark - he went beserk, throwing himself at the walls in panic, yet if you close him in whilst it's still light he's fine, shut in a shed maybe??? He did make us laugh though when he got annoyed with Sue when she was cleaning out his kennel, after she'd taken everything out of the hut so she could mop it out he actually took everything back in again an item at a time, toys, blankets - everything carefully placed back where it should be. I'd love to know what he's been through, or maybe I wouldn't, but someone somewhere is going to get a beautiful sweet old gent and boy does he deserve it!

.... Floydd get's his new home and becomes the 1000th bulldog

Children's Farms

Although completely non bulldog related, this has been bugging me over the course of the week, and now they are looking at reviewing these places and even talking about banning under 5s from petting farm animals, I can't help but wonder if this has been brought on by ourselves? I have the same theory about MSRA and other super bugs in hospitals. When I was a child, my mum cleaned the house with furniture polish and ajax, if I had chocolate or ice cream round my chops she washed my face with the dishcloth from the sink or she spat on a tissue. A sharp intake of breath had more suction than the hoover and the only thing that every saw bleach was the toilet bowl. We were exposed to germs on a daily basis, we sat in the dog bed, ate dirt from the garden and no one ever had a super bug because we all had decent immune systems. These days everything is disinfected, no one has carpets but clinically clean laminate flooring, our children are exposed to no germs whatsoever and the result is that no one has a decent immune system any more. I'm sure that these superbugs were around in hospitals long before they became headlines, but we had good immune systems so they never affected anyone. Bulldogs are coming into rescue with the excuse "I'm pregnant so obviously the dog has to go", I used to crawl around the floor with our family dog.
Kids raised on farms always had the best immune systems, now you send a kid to a farm for a fun day out and he gets sick, parents scream "close the farms they are unhealthy!", the government begin reviewing the "safety" of petting farms.
And while I'm on my soap box - 2000 people A DAY visited the farm in Godstone - 5o something are sick over the course of a month and I bet every single one of those children lives in a home where there isn't a single germ to be seen!

Breed Standard Debate

An emergency meeting has been called for the end of this month by the Breed Council to discuss if the new standard should be accepted or not. Although we (Bulldog Rescue) don't get a vote, we will be in attendance so would like to know what readers of this blog feel about the farce that was supposed to be a "discussion" between the KC and the Breed Council regarding the changes

Kennel Club

It is almost a year since the original programme was shown on TV that ignited the furious debate regarding the proposed changes to our breed standard, and despite the many many meetings held between both by the delegates of the breed council and the representives of the breed council and the KC pointing out which of the proposed changes were acceptable and which weren't, a letter received by the Kennel Club to all existing breed club secretaries arrived dated 3rd September stating that ALL proposed changes would go ahead regardless.
I'm sure that every single person that was involved in the discussions feel as if they've been kicked in the head, especially as the sub committee that was responsible for liasing with the Kennel Club had been given the impression that they were actually being listened to. At no time did anyone just throw their hands in the air and scream "leave my breed standard alone", instead sensible discussion was instigated and every effort was made to work with the KC on, what is essentially, changes to our very long standing history. There isn't another Breed Council meeting until October so I won't hear anything first hand until I attend that meeting, but I'm sure there is a flurry of activity already going on within the sub committee.
Press releases are published as they occur on the Bulldog Breed Council Web site

Please tell me what you think

Facebook Buddies

Isn't Facebook a wonderful thing. What started out almost as a joke when I found the number plate BR59 BDR was available on the DVLA web site and thought how great it would look on the new van, became a reality when my facebook buddies all clubbed together and allowed us to purchase it as a present to me for rehoming 1000 bulldogs. As I said, I should have asked for something useful ....

1000 Bulldogs!

I've spent the entire day going through all the dogs in the system and listing all those that are available (www.bulldogrescue.co.uk/homes_needed.htm) and realised that we are only 7 dogs away from our 1000 dog in the system since Dizzy and I took over in 2001. We will mark it in some way (not sure how yet as the dog could be anywhere in the country) but it's quite an amazing number of dogs through don't you think?

See who became the 1000th bulldog through rescue Here

An apology ....

.... to everyone that is waiting for me to confirm their application form, sort out their homecheck or call them back. It is just manic here, never again will I take a week off work the week before the picnic. As you probably know, the rescue is run along side the family business and the work that has accumulated over the past 2 weeks is simply mind blowing. Bear with me, I am getting a little rescue work done each day in amongst the mile high pile of orders that I need to process. Spare a thought for poor Jason too, as he's the poor soul that has to get all these orders parcelled up and mailed out so again, if you are waiting on a Reggie's Den order - the same reason applies if it's not arrived yet.

The 12th Annual Bulldog Picnic

Well, what can I say? I think this was the biggest and the best bulldog picnic ever. I had such a great time and everything went so smoothly. We have no idea how many people turned up but we had 300 entry badges done and they'd gone by the end of the first hour so we guess somewhere between 400 and 500 people. If I had one complaint it would be that people turn up an hour early and then leave an hour early, it would make much more sense to turn up on time and leave on time as that way you don't miss out on the draws at the end of the day and the auction, which this year we did live from the stage inside the hall and it was brilliant fun, a big thank you to my little helper who very professionally held up each item for the audience to see.
During the course of this week, photos will go up at www.bulldogrescue.co.uk/Picnic.htm but I can tell you that the day took £2334.65 so we are looking at a good £2,000 clear profit which is just brilliant.
We did a fancy dress for the first time this year which seemed to go down really well, the winner was Max and Ella who made a fabulous bride and groom, Joanne Good the actress that judge the competition said it was really difficult to choose the best one and I certainly didn't envy her in the slightest as all the cosumes were just brilliant! Oh and the Mail Newspaper came along too and took lots of photos and did lots of interviews, the photographer had his bulldog with him so fingers crossed it comes across OK. I'll keep you posted as to when it's published.
So all that's left for me to say is THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone that came, helped and raised such a fabulous amount of money for the rescue.

Healing wishes needed

As some of you may know, we are currently looking after a dog for a dear old friend of Bulldog Rescue whilst he has heart surgery. It's been a while since we heard anything and we were starting to get a bit worried, but heard yesterday that despite coming through the surgery without any problems, he has now picked up an infection and 3 days before he was due to come home was readmitted with what has been described as a serious infection. He's going to miss the picnic which is really sad as he's been to almost every single one so far, and I know that he is really missing his dog Blossom so we thought that maybe it would help him recover if we all sent him a little get well card.
WING COMMANDER GEOFFREY SHORE, ROYAL SUSSEX HOSPITAL, BAY 4, WARD 7 (MILLENIUM WING), BRIGHTON, BN2 5BE
I'll keep you posted on his progress

Hit the ground running

Well with it being a bank holiday, I think I've had enough time off for one year so I'm in the office today catching up on messages, sorting through the dogs that need new homes and updating the web site. Tomorrow is back to work proper and there's a pile of work sitting on my desk waiting for me to sort through - but that's tomorrows problem LOL. Of course next Saturday is the Picnic! I'm nowhere near ready, but to be honest I never am and most Picnics are arranged on the day before so it looks like this years will be no different. But I hope you can make it, the weather is looking promising for the 05 September, the weather channel still says Partly Cloudy with Highs of 18°C which would be absolutely perfect, I guess they have to get it right one year????

So what do you make of this new blog thingy then, there is the option to comment so let us know - See you Saturday .....

The Holiday is Almost Over

As my week off comes to a close, I don't actually feel like I had any time off at all, but I did spend an entire day in my PJs dong the house work and I must admit that was the best day of all as I never get to spend all day in my PJs and I never get time to really do the house work properly. But I have spent an awful lot of time sorting out rescue issues and sadly many of the situations that needed me were urgent - 3 of which were serious cases of aggression!!! It really disheartens me, I do this to help but the litters bred for money at the peek of the price boom in this breed are all hitting 2 years old, the true scale of how badly they were bred begins to show through, mainly with serious behaviour problems. I will never turn my back on this breed but plead the breeders out there to be so careful who you let your stud dog go to, I don't mind clearing up after you but please show us the same respect. I am also aware that some people have got very frustrated at the fact that they couldn't reach us this week, but to be honest we only ask for one week out a year and without it, it would be very easy to start resenting the job I love so much so a few days out of it helps all of us in the long run.

On a brighter note, you may have seen the hillarious outcome of our appearance on the BBCs One Show, if not you can see the clip here: http://www.bulldogrescue.co.uk/ontv.htm. Click on the photo of Dutchess and Maggie to read some of the comments on Mr Sargeants rudeness

OUR BLOG HAS MOVED

But you can catch up on all the old posts by clicking here:
http://www.bulldogrescue.co.uk/blog.htm