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Anyone wondering where I've gone? No? Though so LOL .... my Outlook crashed on Tuesday night, the chap was here until 10pm trying to fix it but to no avail so I'm having to read all the mail from the server and anything that was in my outlook that wasn't dealt with is currently unobtainable so please bear with me. I'm off work next week so we agreed to wait until Monday morning for him to take the whole computer into hospital where hopefully all will be salvaged. Doesn't look like I'm going to get a week off after all - never mind, you get used to that around here ;o)

Yesterday I was descended on by the Trustees, there are now plans in place should I be hit by a meteorite at any point in the future and they all now know where everything is. A guided tour of the kennel was made all the more interesting with a bunch of snotty nosed dogs all baying for attention!! We finished with a lovely pub lunch which was very enjoyable indeed. Whilst caught up with them Dizzy was busy with the BBC! They have Adam Sandler going on their Monday night "One Show" and they want us to take 2 rescues on to surprise him, could prove to be very interesting. The face book response has been hilarious, can't believe so many people are jealous of the fact that we get to meet Adam Sandler!!! Not sure yet which dogs to take though as the most suitable one will be going home on Sunday and the one that looks most like his dog won't cope in a TV studio - better get my thinking cap on!

The van is ordered too, how exciting!!! I'm going to need a break after all this ;o)

I spent most of yesterday evening sat in the kennel with the old girl Daisy, she really wasn't coping with her kennel cough so I sat and held her head for a bit, gave her some benalyn and then she settled down. I was almost half expecting to find she'd slipped away in the night, but she's a strong old bird and was looking at me this morning with her mucky face as if to say where's my breakfast then. She's had her saliva gland redirected, the idea is that it cures dry eye, but it's an operation we really don't recommend as they tend to cry at the sight of food so always have a wet face, but take into account the amount of snot she's producing - it's coming out of her eyes poor little soul and she looks a real mess.

A very good friend of bulldog rescue's came to visit this morning, he had a little dog house for us to raffle at the picnic so I told him we'd put it up separately for the van fund, well to cut a long story short he wanted to know more and asked us how much we were short by. What happened next made me cry - the entire six grand shortfall has been made up by Mr Russell, I couldn't believe what he was saying - thank you so much Allen, we all love you so much and you have been an absolute star. The order is now placed and the van has become a reality, I just can't believe it!!! We had asked the 1000 members of the bulldog rescue facebook group to donate £6 each - sadly only 8 people did, but a big thank you goes to them too as it will certainly help with the running costs.

My last week at work before I get to take a week off, I was supposed to be at college next week studying for the first part of my SQP qualification, but the college have cancelled it - again! This is twice now so it doesn't look like it will be before the new year now before I qualify which is really annoying.

Dear little Ruby left for her new home yesterday and left her legacy in the form of kennel cough, every single dog here now has it including my own, fingers crossed for Rosie though as she's 10 and has got it quite bad. Hilda has it too but doesn't seem to have noticed.

Two weeks ago I was confinced we were losing Winnie Pooh but antibiotics for an infection in his mouth has catapulted him back into life again. It's quite amazing just how this dog keeps going, he's got to be at least 10 years old now, but I guess he's so used to fighting to survive he just keeps on keeping on.

We'd also like to introduce you to our new bulldog - I know ... I really shouldn't have any more dogs but this one is very special indeed. I will try and get some more photos of her but those that know me also know that for the past 10 years I've wanted a black bulldog - well guess what - I've got one!! Her name is Daisy and she's 3 years old and is Hilda's new bestest friend, Winnie thinks having another youngster in the mix is stupid but he's already a grumpy old man and you know that if he could talk he'd be tutting "kids of today" at them.

Lots going on in the rescue - the van fund appeal seems to be going very well and we're looking for nominations to be entered in the top 30 most deserving rescues in Britain go to: http://coldwetnose.blogspot.com/2009/05/30-most-deserving-dog-charities-in.html to leave a comment and nominate us.

What appeared to be bad news when we  found out that the money donated from the Kennel Club Adoption Drive couldn't be used to buy a vehicle after all, and put our van fund from £13,000 down to £9,000 was hit with a second blow when the van we were hoping to buy would mean that Dizzy needed a step ladder to get from his wheelchair to the drivers seat. But not to be beaten, we contacted a different car manufacturer who have promised us a 25% discount on the price of a brand new AstraVan (on the road) if we can place the order within the next few weeks so the race is on to raise a further £6,000 - CAN YOU HELP?

Thursday 6 August 2009

The kennel is surprisingly quiet, maybe it's the calm before the storm? We were due to have 5 in via a London council following the sudden illness of the owner but it appears that the people at the stray kennels that are currently looking after them have fallen too much in love with them so it looks unlikely that they'll be coming here after all - a little frustrating but if they homes are good ones then I guess it doesn't really matter that much.

Last week was still as mad as ever though, starting with the most spectacular argument with the man that cut me a spare key to the Reggie's Den store room. To put it bluntly it didn't fit, but do you think he'd listen, telling me I was thick for not being able to put the key in the key hole!!! Sue came down with me a second time to confirm that I wasn't thick and that it really did not fit the lock - to which he took the key, threw my money back at me and put the key through the grinder! Thankfully Sue was able to get a key cut local to her which worked first time - but I couldn't believe that was his idea of customer service!!

Then on Friday my little baby girl turned 21! Good Lord - I was 21 when I had her, how times have changed as she refuses to make me a grandma. We had a family meal on Friday night and we've got a big party planned for next weekend as she ran the Race for Life yesterday and did it 39 minutes!!! We were on our way to Seaford to deliver two dogs to their new home, but stopped off to welcome her across the finish line.

Then it was down to Seaford to deliver Milly and George to their new home, pop into Sue for a quick cuppa and a huge portion of Gavs wonderful home made cheesecase - into Brighton to visit Alison and her new foster who has the most horrible growth on her shoulder, where home made fresh out the oven Flap Jacks were waiting and then upto Sutton for a quick homecheck. I was glad to see my bed last night that much I can tell you!

Yesterday I had a holiday - I did a whole 2 weeks in one day at Pontins, Camber Sands. There was a very good reason for me being there; 26 years ago whilst on holiday with my family I met a girl called Debbie. We were the only 2 mod girls on the entire site and at 15 years old thought we were the dogs knees, despite only spending a week together we did stay in touch and we are god mothers to each others eldest daughters. Realising it was the Camber Sands Scooter rally we had this hair brained idea to go back to Camber and relive the week we spent there, bearing in mind we've only seen each other 3 times in 26 years it could have all gone very wrong.

I can honestly say that place hasn't seen a lick of paint in the past 26 years and even the chalets (now known as Apartments LOL) look like they have the same carpets in them. She travelled up from Bristol Friday afternoon and stayed here (both of us in the same bed much to my son's amusement) Friday night (sat in the garden drinking wine for most of it) and then early Saturday morning we set out for Camber. What an absolute scream we had, playing the arcades, sat in the sun outside the bar, lazing around in front of the chalet watching the scooters and we even had a go on the zip wire (that was supposed to be for the kids and we're sure some perv videoed it on his phone) - but what a great day we had. Do you think we've changed much in 26 years :o)

1983	2009

I've had a really nice, but exhausting weekend with early starts on both Saturday and Sunday, thanks goes out to Peter, Beverly and Sue for keeping the kennel going whilst I was away. Saturday was our Annual meeting in Leicester, our AGM in the morning and AVM in the afternoon. It's always nice to meet the volunteers and thank them personally for the support and help they give to us. Some really great ideas put forward as usual and in turn the smooth running of rescue can only improve.

Sunday morning I was off to Hertfordshire to the Bulldog Club Inc seminar where someone stupidly though I was an expert and put me on the panel. I must say I had a lovely day and was made to feel very welcome by the committee members. I hope that those that attended enjoyed their day and that they learnt something about the breed from Bill Lambert from the Kennel Club, Christ Thomas - author of Bulldogs Today and Press Officer for the Bulldog Breed Council, Pat Perkins - President of the London Bulldog Society, myself representing rescue and Vicky Collins-Natrass - author of Bulldog Breeding for Beginners and Co-ordinator of the health committee.

Whilst I was gone my garden was being cleared, Rob Hook who has adopted many bulldogs from us over the years agreed to find my garden in amongst the overgrown grass and great job he's done too!! I wasn't allowed to look at it Saturday night so Sunday night was a bit like an episode of Ground Force! With work and rescue becoming increasingly busy it's been hard for me to keep up with the gardending which is a shame because it's something I love doing, but with Robs help we may be able to keep it looking nice after all.

Thanks too to everyone that has entered the calendar competition, it looked like I may have to pull the whole thing last week as there were only 8 entrance, but a quick appeal has brough in almost 40 photos so watch the web site - voting starts 6th July

Yesterday really was the longest day! I was up at 4am to watch the sun rise on a local hill, sadly the clouds had other ideas but it was nice sat alone welcoming in the day from above the local ruins and at one point I was joined by a young deer who made me jump and I think I made him jump even more - did you know deer's bark? well it sounded like a bark LOL. I must admit once I was satisfied the sun had risen somewhere behind the clouds I did go home and go back to bed, but my daughter wanted to take me to the garden centre for my birthday and as it turned out the day became a birthday celebration as the balloon ride my husband had bought me became a reality with a phone call in the morning to say the weather was good enough to go up.

If you ever get the chance to go up in a balloon take it - wow the feeling is amazing, the views are even more amazing and the fun of landing somewhere where the retrieve crew can't find you is hilarious. As we landed the sun was just setting, we packed up the balloon and waiting for the retrieve crew to come and get us and then off to the nearest pub for a pint and a chat about the flight. I've put some photos on facebook and here I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I enjoyed being up there.

What seems to be becoming tradition in this house I'm off to the vets again today for the 3rd day running, this time with our own Hilda who has a very sore eye. I've done all I can do and nothing seems to make it any better so I've got to admit defeat and take her in LOL. Yesterday poor Mr long nails (see below) had to have minor surgery for a broken tooth, very nerve racking as he is 13 but he sailed through it and feels much better now his mouth is as new and as improved as his feet (even if he won't walk on them).

Yesterday was my birthday but no day off, with trips to the vets and Sue not being to come in as one of her Pugs is really poorly - I did tell her revenge will be sweet on her birthday LOL. Today is Rosies birthday - the only one left from our first litter 10 years ago today, where does the time go???

There were two 13 year olds brought in on Saturday (separate to each other), one as you can see is now all spruced up and feeling much better (even though he won't walk on his new feet) and the other was really poorly. Sadly my first job this morning was to take him to the vet who confirmed he was in the late stages of congestive heart failure and sadly we helped him on his way at 9.30 this morning. Not a great way to start a new week but it was definitely the right thing to do, he was passing pure blood, his estimated weight was 21kg - he weight in at 27kg, his colour was very pale and his tongue was blue and his temp was too low. Apart from fluid around his abdomen he also had fluid retention in his legs and almost definitely in his chest, run free little man, I'm glad I got to meet you.

On a lighter note, as the Queens birthday honours list are announced we giggle again at the man who told me several years ago that I didn't do rescue because I cared about bulldogs and that I only did it because I wanted an OBE - every year we joke that I still haven't got one LOL, especially after the weekend I've had.

Meet my Sunday project. This beautiful old man is 13 years old and the most placid laid back chap I've ever met

All now spruced up, clipped and bathed he feels much better now and will be looking for a home very soon.

Our dear retarded George has really put us through it this morning. We've finished the pain killers and the antibiotics and although his face had gone down he was still very obviously in pain - so how get an aggressive dog to the vet - well in a crate on a trolley, poor man had to be muzzled which thankfully was easier than we had thought it would be. So at the vet, a huge dose of sedative was supposed to knock him out! 15 minutes later he's still looking around the room, so a dose of Ketamin (which stings so that was a job in itself), sleeping? out of the crate on his cushion and onto the table where he decides to lift his head and look around the room, no one can believe he's still not asleep, but he's drowsy enough to anesthetise and tube. We've been sure all week that he'd broken his upper and lower left canines but it's not that at all, he's got the most rotten of teeth at the back and we all know how painful that can be as it gets in your ear and everywhere. So I've left him finally asleep having the tooth out. He'll come home pretty much straight away as I've told the vet to put him back in his crate to recover and then as soon as he's awake we'll come and get him. I wonder if the tooth fairy comes out to naughty bulldogs?

I knew there was a lot to get done on Friday before we could travel up to Bulldog Day in Newark but you know me - last minute Lil LOL. First of all we had to take Daisy to her new home, stopped off for something to eat and it was 8o'clock before I'd even started loading up the car. Managed to get most of it done, but decided on an early start to finish off the rest on Saturday morning, half way through the mobile goes off - "we can't keep Daisy she's pee'd on the floor", knowing full well we were away for the weekend they didn't even want to keep her there whilst we were away so poor Sue, who thankfully only lives a mile from where we'd taken her, rushed round and got her - she'd come into season, which they knew was imminent, but never mind she happily went home with Sue and will stay there until her season is over and then we'll try again for her.

So by lunch time we were heading our way up to Newark, a quick detour by the showground to check out the venue, which if I may say was just fantastic, good choice Vicky - and then round to our Travel Lodge for a sleep - I can't remember the last time I had a sleep in the afternoon, it was fabulous! and then off to meet Vicky and John for some dinner, a few drinks and a nice long chat before heading back to the Travel Lodge for more sleep (I could get used to this holiday lark)! We took Maggie with us (who had to pay £20 to stay in our room!!) and she thought it was really strange as she didn't eat the whole time we were away.

9am Sunday morning, we're at the venue which resembled a huge aircraft hanger and turned out to be absolutely perfect because it poured with rain the entire day, even Thundered and Lightening at one point which Maggie decided to single handily see off on behalf of all the bulldogs present - she's such a brave girl, although I will take this opportunity to apologise again to the people I asked to hold her whilst I compared the Rescue Parade - I admit - I forgot! It's wasn't until Dizzy asked where Maggie was that I remember these poor people were still holding her!!! No one seemed to mind but I felt terrible! Lots of great people were there with lots of wonderful bulldogs and despite the torrential rain lots of money was raised, I'll let you know the final figure as soon as I know.

Then all packed up again and back in the car for the 4 hour drive back, only to find that George, our brain damaged wonder pup had damaged his canine tooth whilst in the kennel and decided that screaming in pain was the best option to alert us to his predicament. He's on antibiotics and pain killers for the next few days in the hope the damage isn't too bad because getting him to a vet will be a major operation due to his hatred of .... well ... everyone!

Back to work this morning which involved counting up the takings and putting the stock away but a great weekend was had all round and a big thank you goes to Annamay, daughter of Ian the Bulldog Barber who made me a lovely bulldog embroidery in a frame, I love it - thank you

Its 20 to 2 in the afternoon and I've only just come into the office, two new arrivals so far this morning and I very sadly had to put an oldie to sleep after she'd collapsed in the night. Looking at my desk I have no idea where to start, thankfully the phone is quiet because the sun is shining and everyone has better things to do that think about rehoming their dogs!

Sue and I did a canine first aid course yesterday, it was a lot of fun, we can now bandage legs, ears and tails and know how to give CPR and mouth to nose resuscitation, although I must admit their resusci-dog did look like it was beyond help!! What was really spooky was that the vet nurse doing the course was the nurse that delivered my first ever litter! She now teaches vet nurses and it was lovely to see her again - small world ay?

Shame about this weather though, it's far too hot and with a full kennel, keeping an eye on them is heat is time consuming but  I'll take this opportunity to remind everyone that this heat can kill so take 5 minutes to read pages 79 to 81 of the Bulldog Bible and just refresh yourself as to what you have to do or go to http://www.bulldogrescue.co.uk/SUMMER_INFO.htm

The first ever bulldog day UP NORTH took place yesterday, sadly it was far too far for us to go to Hartlepool, but I understand that those that did go had a fabulous day and lots of money was raised for the rescue - thank you everyone that attended and to Michelle and David Stonehouse who organised the day.

Friday morning when checking through the books I found in the bank statement a new direct debit that had been started up to the RAC - bearing in mind rescue don't yet have a van it seemed a bit odd, so I phoned the bank to query it, to be told that another new direct debit had also been set up to Swinton insurance. Both were immediately cancelled and I spent the rest of the afternoon on the phone to the RAC trying to convince them that we had not authorised it and who ever had set it up had not only defrauded them, but had stolen from the rescue. Data protection didn't allow them to tell us who it was which infuriated me as all Data Protection did was protect a thief, but a quick call to Swinton must have been to a new telephonist because he stupidly gave me a name!!!. Then to the police to report the theft - but get this .... they can't do anything about it because we get our money back so technically have not been stolen from. I am livid, someone has taken the bank info from the web site and set up RAC roadside cover and their house insurance using Bulldog Rescue's money - and there is bugger all we can do about it. Apart from the fact that neither company have checked to see if the details given are correct, the fact that we cannot prosecute the thief is just down right stupid, I feel a letter to Watch Dog coming on!

So we'd better stop rabbiting on and get on with some real work!!! Enjoy the sun and don't let your bulldog get too hot!!!!!!!!!!!

Sue, our weekly kennel help, finally faced her fear of the dentist and went yesterday, although she had to have the treatment done under a sedative so she's about as much use to us today as a chocolate teapot LOL. Seriously, well done Sue, I know how scared you were about that. But as I'm without help around here until Friday I've just decided that I'm going to take the day out of the office, spend the morning in the kennel and then I'm off to have my hair done - my roots are about 3 inches long so I guess no one will have a problem with me sorting it out at last.

My AMTRA training manual arrived yesterday so I'll take that to the hairdressers and read through some more of it while I'm there. It's actually a very scary looking book but it has all I need to learn for both the Base Unit and the Companion Animal unit and then after that I'll have 6 days at college and 3 days of exams so it better all go to plan because it's cost a bloody fortune to even attempt to qualify, but if all goes as hoped, at the end of it I will be a C-SQP which will allow me to dispense and prescribe prescription medicines classified as POM-VPS for companion animals. AMTRA are the Animal Medicines Training Regulation Authority and from what I've seen of the manual so far it's going to be bloody hard work so wish me luck!

Today would have been Reggie's 11th birthday so I thought I'd share with you his finest moment. This TV ad was done in June 1999, actually filmed the day our first litter was born. It only aired for a few months and for reasons known only to the TV company has never been aired since. He did a bit of TV work including Stupid Punts where he had to eat sausages which was hilliarious because he couldn't pick them up and needless to say he lost (If you ever see a repeat don't bet on the bulldog LOL). We lost him towards the end of last year and I'm sure Hilda is his reincarnation LOL

Enjoy my "Lousy Mut", we miss him so much

We had a great day yesterday, the weather was perfect bulldog weather, sunny, not hot and a little bit of drizzly rain. About 40 people showed up to walk their dogs on the common but despite having invited the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky news not a single TV camera was present to witness the dogs rolling in the sand, chasing each other through the heather and walking through the common. We attracted lots of attention from the public though and our collecting bucket yealed £72.00, much of it in notes which was very generous and big thank you goes out to everyone that supported us.

Woke this morning though to find the washing machine plug had burnt out and was all melted together, gosh are we lucky or what, I should have put washing on last night before I went to bed but was so tired from the day's activitities that I didn't bother - how lucky are we! but also the shower went off half way though Jason's shower and the water pressure has dropped to the point that Sue is cleaning kennels with buckets because the hose pipe is not producing enough water!!!

Anyway, photos of the walk are on the face book page at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=166039700525&ref=mf 

and here's a few of my faviourites.

If you don't yet know about the Bulldog Rescue walk on bank holiday Monday, you'd better check out http://www.bulldogrescue.co.uk/walkies.htm. The weather looks like it's going to be OK and there seems to be a lot of interest, lets hope there's enough room for all the bulldogs LOL. I have emailed the BBC news and Sky news asking them to come and see some happy healthy bulldogs enjoying a walk in the woods - I wonder if they'll show??? and we'll have some educational material there as well as a collecting bucket for the general public who are bound to ask questions about this unhealthy freak of a dog breed.

Oh and if you've ever wondered if bulldogs get on the furniture .......

Enjoy LOL

It's been an interesting few days. We were contacted at the end of last week by the RSPCA in Birmingham to say that they had 3 bulldogs that had been taken from a house looking to be rehomed. Now whatever you think of the RSPCA this might well make up your mind, 2 of the bulldog were healthy, these dogs will be rehomed by them (we don't even know where they are), one, however, after having surgery for entropian was found to have dry eye - this (believe it or not) deemed her as unrehomeable and was to be put to sleep as the dry eye is a life long condition and they won't rehome anything that needs ongoing treatment! You'll be pleased to hear that our volunteer Georgia collected her yesterday morning and she is now safe and sound in the care of Bulldog Rescue. As to the other two, well they can sell those for a good sum of money and we won't ever find out if they are OK, but the other one is safe and for that I guess we have to be thankful.

We were also contacted by the Coventry dog warden who had a stray come in to their council kennels. Coventry council are one of the best and ALWAYS ask us to come and get any bulldog that finds it's way to them. I was in Birmingham yesterday for the Breed Council meeting so came home via Coventry. What surprised me more than anything else when I picked her up is that she can't be any older than 10 months, is scared of absolutely everything that moves and is the sweetest most adorable thing I've every met (and I've met a few bulldogs over the years). She was found in the local park and isn't claimed as yet but still has another 4 days to do on her 7 days so there's still hope. Now called Nelly (cos she was smelly when she came in) we are sure that once she's found her confidence she's going to make a fabulous bulldog for someone!

The breed council meeting went smoother than expected and I gave our year end report which seemed to be accepted OK. It was a very long day though, a full 12 hour round trip which I'm paying for this morning LOL

The full report will be posted on the web site in due course, but FYI here's a summary of what we did between 1 April 2008 and 31st March 2009

I hate Bank Holidays, they really mess up the routine, I'm still doing work from last Friday, I think all bank holidays should be banned LOL - that's not what I was saying before Easter when I was really looking forward to 4 days off, even though in the end it didn't really work out that way.

Thanks to everyone that contacted us about taking bulldogs on after my last Blog entry, but they've been sorted now. We do try and match the dog to the home, so sadly if you were a suitable home we would have contacted you, but hopefully we will be in touch very soon anyway. Diz has been really busy rehoming and there's several now out of offer. I'll be glad when we're caught up again though, I hate being out of kilter, things tend to build up around me LOL

Call it the credit crunch or just call it bad luck, but it's getting harder and harder to find homes for these dogs. Dizzy has just made almost 30 phone calls in an effort to find a home for a 1 year old and a 2 year old - every single call has either got one, wanted a French bulldog (that's becoming such a problem) or just don't ever answer their bleeding phones. I think he's on the verge of throwing the phone out of the window. To cap it all we've had 2 failed rehomes just over this weekend alone - that never used to happen! With it being a bank holiday weekend I was really looking forward to a few days off, but already we've driven almost 200 miles for rescue and it's only Saturday! I've spent today catching up on the work I should have done yesterday, thank goodness for Peter and Beverly who yet again have been abandoned to do ALL the kennel work on their own, without them and Sue I think I really would be struggling now to cope with the constant comings and goings as it feels like we are taking 2 steps forward and 1 step backwards at the moment. We really ought to put out an appeal for funds too, the bank balance is the lowest it's been since I took over, more people are gifting in sick dogs because they can't afford to keep them anymore and no one is out there to take them on for exactly the same reasons, with the number of people registering to adopt falling it could start to look pretty bleak if things don't start to pick up soon. I know we are not the only charity affected, but I think we will see a large rise in dogs rehomed at the end of the coming year simply because of the number of dogs coming through because their owners have lost their house or can't afford them any more.

Today marks the end of another year in Bulldog Rescue, bringing me to 8 years in this job - where does the time go? Over 900 dogs have passed through since I took over in April 2001 and many of those stay in touch and regularly send me photos which is just fabulous. It's chaos here right now, the drive way is being done which means Dizzy is now trapped in the house, think of all the fun I could have with that LOL. Funnily enough the dogs in the kennel don't seem to be taking too much notice, I think the phumatic drill and construction size dumper truck are more than they're prepared to take on, bless them.

Sadly, our kennel help and good friends Peter and Beverly lost their beautiful Bella yesterday. They brought her with them on Sunday whilst they did the kennel and she was struggling, bless her. I sat with her most of the afternoon holding her head so she could breathe, but it didn't look promising. So sorry they had to go through this with a little dog that's not been with them for long, but her "past" life wasn't that special so I know she had the best time with them in her short life which I'm sure she's very grateful for. Thinking of you both and Michelle and David who lost their little Dusty on Saturday following what is assumed to be some kind of seizure in the night on Thursday. Run free girls

The Kennel Club's question and answers session held last night at the Copthorne Effingham Park Hotel was heavily attended by bulldog people probably to the annoyance of everyone else that attended LOL. On the panel were Ronnie Irvin (Chairman) Rosemary Smart (Chief Executive), Bill Hardaway, Catherine Simms, Bill Lambert (Accredited Breeder Scheme) and Carolyn Kisco (secretary). The meeting began with a presentation about the Kennel Club given by Carolyn followed by Bill Lambert speaking about the Accredited Breeder Scheme, he actually gave a very good argument as to why breeders should join up to this scheme and said that many of the original concerns breeders had with it had been dealt with and that if they could get the majority of breeders to join up it would help fight the corner of pedigree dogs far more efficiently. The Q&A regarding the ABS that followed was very interesting. Followed by a debate regarding breeding on back to back seasons and puppy farming. In fact a point raised during the puppy farming debate by the KC was that rescues had created the problem of puppy farming because their vetting procedures were too strict. I disputed this, I would never place a dog in a non vetted home and said that if more breeders were stricter we wouldn't have the stray problems we have. But apparently one of the big rehoming centres had told the KC that they'd rather rehome 200 dogs and have 50 fail then rehome 100 dogs and have 5 fail! I guess this is an area we will have to agree to disagree on because I've seen the affect repeated rehomes can have on an individual dogs behaviour. I guess I can see that if people can't get through the vetting of a rescue they will go to a back yard breeder which brought me back to my point that it's too easy to get a dog in the first place, which they also didn't agree with. The meeting then moved on to how badly the KC had dealt with the press, although Carolyn (who is apparently their head of PR which no one seemed to know) did point out that much of the information they had given to the press in argument to the recent issues had not been used by the media, which comes as no surprise.

Then the meeting moved onto the Bulldog, with so many bulldoggers present this one grumbled on for quite a while. The panel said that yesterdays meeting with the Breed Council sub committee that had discussed the proposed changes to the breed standard had been a positive one and that they were impressed with the delegates we had sent and that the discussion had been helpful.  I raised the question regarding the fact that members of the public were being verbally attacked in the street for simply owning a bulldog as a direct result of the resent media frenzy. The KC actually turned this around on us and said that it wasn't so much the newspaper articles that had created the back lash but the fact that so many local breeders had rushed to be interviewed by their local TV and radio stations or had given statements to their local papers insisting they had a bulldog and that it was perfectly healthy which in hindsight probably didn't help, but the KCs media handling also didn't help. There is now a press officer in place for the Breed Council in the form of Chris Thomas to hopefully prevent this happening again, but as we all know the same old tired articles are dragged out every year, many of which are not even relevant to today's bulldog.

Things then moved on to the Crufts protestors, Bill Lambert said he'd gone out to meet them on the Sunday and was surprised that none of them could hold a decent argument. Regulars to the blog will know that I've been caught up with a facebook "conversation" with them and it's pretty obvious that they're just fuelled by propaganda - I did put my hand up to say so but by now the panel had stopped making eye contact with me LOL

The rest of the meeting saw questions put forward regarding Open Shows, the Young Kennel Club, Judging, Breed Clubs and single CCs, The Good Citizens classes at Crufts, clarification of the docked breeds rule and announcements. In all it was an informative meeting, well run and very friendly.

You can see videos of the first hour of this meeting on You Tube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jboav0oZJBE&feature=PlayList&p=3E7B5D9EE4A64D05&index=0&playnext=1

Another new arrival yesterday in the shape of a beautiful little lady called Double, well I say little, she weighed in at 30kg so a diet may be in order LOL. As they almost always do she's slotted straight into the routine and is proving to be a real sweetheart. I drove out yesterday to collect her, on route I had to meet someone on the A3 and whilst I was waiting in the car park on the common I saw a line of German Shepherd Rescue vans so I went over and introduced myself. There were GSDs everywhere, it was fantastic. Apparently they were a Surrey based set up (http://www.biggsd.com/) and all the local rehomes and those that are waiting for a new home meet up each weekend and all go for a walk, together. They were certainly attracting lots of attention. Then on to pick up Double and back home for tea. I decided that I'd watch Saturday nights Casualty on i-player but half way in a frantic call from a lady in Kent - 2 kids had just turned up on her doorstep with a bulldog they'd found at the end of her road, knowing she had bulldogs they wondered if it was hers, it wasn't but the kids weren't able to take it so she called us. Sadly strays have to follow a strict routine by law but getting hold of the Dog Warden at that time on a Sunday night was easier said than done. Thankfully she was able to settle him down in her garage (her bulldog hates other dogs) and the Dog Warden has this morning agreed that he can stay with her and come to us once his 7 days are up but obviously if you know of anyone that's lost a young male bulldog in the Ramsgate area please be sure you contact us as soon as possible.

****STOP PRESS**** The Ramsgate Stray has been claimed ****STOP PRESS**** The Ramsgate Stray has been claimed ****STOP PRESS**** The Ramsgate Stray has been claimed ****STOP PRESS****

Careful guys it's Friday the 13th whoooooooooooooooo. Seriously I quite like Friday the 13ths, adds a little bit of danger to an otherwise mundane existence. Speaking of mundane existences, the conversation with the Crufts protestors has become quite interesting (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=122709575601&ref=mf) each to their own and all that, but the animal rights scene is a warning to what happens when you believe the propaganda because they really don't understand what would happen if they got their way. I guess we're still lucky enough to live in a country that promotes free speech (just) so it's best not to take them too seriously - bless their little cotton socks.

It's been a busy week so far this week. Home checking Tuesday and Wednesday night plus we rehomed our 900th bulldog since starting the rescue last night which incidentally was the old stray found in Littlehampton, how fabulous that he's found a sofa and a boyfriend in the form of a Scottie dog called Romeo (well his new daddies are gay). A new arrival yesterday too (one out one in) plus one goes Friday, one goes Saturday and another due in on Sunday. It's a bit like musical kennels around here at the moment, but we have such a great team of kennel help now in the form of Bev, Pete and Sue that it all runs really smoothly.

Tania accepting a cheque from Paul Reynolds of the Blackpool and Fylde bulldog club - Crufts 2009 alongside Hayley Seal and Pauline Reynolds who organised the calendar. Vicky Collins-Natrass, from the Blackpool and Rescue's chairman alongside 8 of the 12 guys featured (didn't recognised them with their clothes on did you?)

Although I hadn't planned to go to Crufts, I'm glad I did. The Blackpool and Fylde bulldog club rang me in the week to say they wanted to present me with a cheque for the sale of the nude calendars and they had asked the dog paper photographers to attend. So off I went at 4.30 Friday morning on my own for the 3 hour drive to Birmingham NEC.  They presented Bulldog Rescue with a cheque for a little over £1,200 in the bulldog ring alongside many of the men that took part on the calendar (fully clothed I hasten to add). Although as normal this morning has been a frantic game of catch up as Fridays are a busy day in the office so I've had to get all that done before I can move onto Monday's work. I spent a lovely morning at the show and I'm pleased to say that despite the fact that the judge (Arthur Rowe) was having to judge old breed standard type dogs to the new interim standard he did very well and sent Iceglint I'm Harry through to the utility group (results here: http://crufts.fossedata.co.uk/Breed.asp?ShowYear=2009&GroupID=UTI&ScheduleID=84)  Watching the group judging on the Crufts Live TV web site it was great to see that he was the first dog pulled out for the cut, sadly he didn't get sent through to best in show but to be in the last 8 was a real achievement and I'm guess there were a few politics behind the decision not to send the bulldog through. To be honest the coverage was much better than the BBC have ever been able to achieve and I think the Kennel Club should continue this type of coverage, even if another TV channel take up the rights to televise the highlights. It's a shame that the judge couldn't have refused to place any of the dogs like some people suggested claiming that none of them fitted the new standard in protest. Speaking of protests, the so called animal rights activists that had shouted very loudly about disrupting the proceedings were no where to be seen. I know there was a demo planned for the Sunday but have heard nothing about how it went, if it went at all. I did post a comment on their Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=122709575601&ref=mf) which so far no one has responded to and they haven't really given any space to their success/failure of the demo itself. I was expecting to see photos and a thank you on there this morning and maybe a little report on how awful dog breeders are. The Times however did give space to now infamous Jemima Harrison to spiel off her biased crap which you can read (should you so wish) at http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5864228.ece .

Oh, and you'll be pleased to hear that the stray that needed the assessment from last week is an absolute sweetheart - phew! and the other has now gone to his new home Although there's another stray here now, if you know of anyone that's lost a 10ish year old in the Littlehampton area be sure to tell them he's here!

Bloody rescue LOL, we were all set to go to the Bulldog Club Inc show today but had to cancel our plans as we had another dog coming in. It was worth it though, the dog in question is an absolute sweetheart, I can't see her hanging around for long LOL. We had 2 new arrivals yesterday too, so the morning has been spent on the intakes. One has a home to go to already but has arrived with raging diarreah so we'll clear that up and then he can go, the other is a stray who's come down from the Coventry dog warden and will need a full assessment as he seems a little defensive at the moment - keep your fingers crossed for him.

Keep an eye on the news, the proverbial is about to hit the fan again. The RSPCA have just published an independent report (http://www.dogmagazine.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/pedigree-dogs-report-full.pdf) in which it claims to want to save the pedigree dog, in the same report it actually states that some breeds should actually be banned. You will note that on page 14, bulldog rescue has been quoted with regard to tight or inverted tails. This information was lifted from the website (without permission from the Bulldog Rescue and Rehoming Trust) but is ironic in itself in that this was the one thing that the emergency meeting held at the end of December ADDED to the proposed breed standard changes in an effort to irradiate our breed of bad, tight, infected and painful tails! In any case note the use of the words "in extreme cases".

The Kennel Club have issued their own statement which you can read at http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/item/2282/23/5/3 but what I find interesting is that this so called independent report is nothing more than information lifted from other sources and in no way appears to be an actual survey. The Kennel Club have stressed that they have no intention of banning any breeds but I find it disturbing that an organisation such as the RSPCA is moving away from it's role to rescue and rehome abandoned animals and is dipping it's toe in the sea of Animal Rights, you only need to look at America to see the damage that PETA are doing over there and as someone who's history lies in animal rights even I find this whole situation very disturbing indeed. It's also worth remembering that many of the RSPCA centres are financially independent of the main charity, so much of the money donated to them is actually spent on campaigns such as this and NOT spent on the dogs that need it. The only way to ensure your money goes to helping the dogs is to give to your local centre and not to the Head Office at Horsham.

It's also worth remembering that hardly any of the RSPCA centres will allow breed rescues to take pure bred dogs, this is because they can demand a much higher adoption fee on pedigree dogs. Our Chairman, who is also on the Breed Council Health committee and the sub committee set up to deal with this most recent issue tried hard yesterday to obtain figures from the RSPCA with regard to dogs that go through their centres, whereas she was able to find figures published by the Dogs Trust regarding animals rehomed, put to sleep etc etc, there is no such report in the public domain for the RSPCA, this begs the question - why?

Today is Imbolc, it's supposed to be the day when Winter starts to loosen it's grip on the earth but as I look out the window I see about 2 inches of snow!!

Sorry it's been a while since I updated the blog, quite a bit has happened to be fair, the breed council meeting held last weekend showed that all of the clubs wanted to push for the 19 proposed changes voted for and agreed at the emergency meeting just after Christmas. Many of them hadn't been able to sort a meeting in time but had all agreed at Committee level, if you are a member of a club and want to comment on this then you should be able to attend your clubs next AGM when no doubt it will be on the agenda. A sub committee has been formed as well as a press officer to try and keep the media attention positive.

The other bit of good news (which you may have noticed on my facebook photo) is that we have a new addition, after 5 years of my husband trying to convince me that we really needed another bitch puppy, I finally caved it and welcomed Hilda to my home. To be fair she is adorable but really is the devil in a dog suit LOL, she's not sure what to make of this snow though, she's far too young to have such cold feet. Hilda is 13 weeks old now and was bred by my good friend Vicky (Kezia), you may see us in the ring if she continues to look as stunning as she does now - we'll see LOL

Monday 19 January 2009

 

As the debate rumbles on, lets dispel a few myths that the newspapers and the TV stations have whipped up

 

BULLDOGS CANNOT BREATHE

The oldest myth in the world, face it - if they couldn't breathe they'd die and as the oldest recognised breed in the world I think we've done OK to survive over 100 years if the dog wasn't capable of drawing breath.

 

BULLDOGS CANNOT RUN

Well maybe not as far as some other breeds, but each breed is chosen for lifestyle and if we wanted a dog that needed 2 hours of exercise each day we wouldn't have chosen the bulldog!

 

BULLDOGS CANNOT GIVE BIRTH NATURALLY

To be fair, they can and given the opportunity most of them probably would. Sadly it has become fashionable to opt for a c-section simply because that is what has been taught down the years in this breed. I know that many breeders now give their bitch every opportunity to whelp naturally and am sure that in the future many more will.

 

BULLDOGS NEED C-SECTIONS BECAUSE THE PUPS HAVE SUCH BIG HEADS

That old chestnut - the bulldog puppy is not born with a big head.

 

CHANGING THE BREED STANDARD WILL MEAN BULLDOGS ARE HEALTHIER

Well the breed standard already says "Dogs showing signs of respiratory distress highly undesirable" and the majority of bulldogs suffer no problems - they used to yes, but to totally ignore the hard work that dedicated breeders have done to eliminate this problem is so stupid and shows that it's the same old tired articles that get pulled out year in and year out despite the fact that most of it no longer applies to today's bulldog. Besides those that truly breed for the wrong reasons will never read a breed standard let alone attempt to breed to it. So many people just want to breed with their pet because they think it's the right thing to do, bringing in tighter legislation government level is the answer not punishing the people that are already doing all they can to change things.

 

LOSING THE WRINKLES WILL HELP THE DOG BREATHE BETTER

Wrinkles only pose a problem if the owner doesn't look after them, I see far more problems due to human neglect than I do because of how a dog is bred. Besides, the bulldog shouldn't be excessively wrinkled, that's another media started myth.

 

THE KENNEL CLUB SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS YEARS AGO

Do what? this is nothing more than a knee jerk reaction to a mis-informed, badly edited, biased documentary. They've got to be seen to be doing something, although this really isn't the right way of going about it.

I think you'd have to be living on a desert island to miss what's currently going on with the Kennel Club and their proposed changes to our breed standard and I'm sure you have your own idea as to if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Despite the emergency meeting called by the breed council at the end of December where many of us went through each point the KC wanted to change and gave yes or no reasons as to why that particular change should or should not be accepted, their interim standard has been approved. In fact we accepted the vast majority of the changes and those we didn't accept had extremely good reasons for not being accepted, we even added one of our own with respect to the tail, that doesn't seem to have been noted, despite the fact that this was raised by experienced bulldog people who see day in and day out what health issues this breed may or may not have because we live with these dogs, not because someone thinks the wording is wrong. The Times yesterday ran a line drawing of what the so called "new improved" bulldog would look like and sadly it looks nothing like what we have today, to the point that to even begin to breed something that looks likes this would take upto 30 years, probably having to breed with pet quality dogs just to get the longer legs and longer snout that would pretty much turn him into a boxer cross.

I was out all day yesterday so had to refuse several requests to be interviewed for various TV stations, but I know that many were available and did very good jobs at explaining why this whole knee jerk reaction to the BBCs Pedigree Dog's exposed is going to do more harm than good. If I wanted a boxer cross stafford, I'd buy a boxer cross stafford - instead I want a bulldog, one of the oldest breeds in the world, with the oldest breed club in the entire world. As many of our breed clubs celebrate their centenary's over the next few years it seems ironic that we have managed to survive over 100 years of breeding bulldogs that live upto 12/13 years old on a standard that served us well for the most part. Hands off our bulldog seems to be the general opinion here - lets hope we're listened to.

I heard a radio interview yesterday where the editor of the K9 magazine stated that the general public had "accepted" a breed that was too stocky, unable to breath or exercise. I am appalled that this opinion could still even exist when today's bulldog is probably the healthiest we've ever had. In rescue we really do see the unhealthy specimens but I am still shocked if I hear a bad breather because they really are that few and far between.

And why oh why does the media insist that c-sections are necessary because bulldog pups have big heads, I am so sick of explaining that one that I'm not even gong to bother but needless to say pups are not born with big heads and this is NOT the reason why some bulldog bitches need c-sections.

There is a breed council meeting on the 25th January that Bulldog Rescue will be attending. We speak for the pet people, so if you are not a member of any of the member breed clubs and want us to represent your views, please feel free to contact me by email with any sensible points you wish us to raise on your behalf.

No one likes being ill, but this is now starting to take the p**s, It's been over a week since I started to feel ill and it just will not go away. It's starting to affect both my home and work life and I can't even begin to tell you what chaos it's causing in rescue. If you've applied to the rescue during the course of this new year you should now have had a confirmation as I sat and did those yesterday but there's an awful lot still to get caught up on - so much for 2009 being kinder ay!?

Well the cold became flu and we all went down with it. Katie is now back at work, Jason and I were both knocked out for 2 days and now Dizzy has it as well. I don't feel ill today but feel very weak and don't seem to be able to do an awful lot at once, thank goodness for the new laptop, I can sit here in my sick bed and thanks to "gotomypc.com" can work as if I'm as my desk (except its a long way to the printer LOL). If I can regain my strength over the course of the weekend, I think I'll be back to normal, but Diz is finding it difficult having to lay in bed - he hates it.

The funeral went better than expected and there were so many people there, it was nice to see so many wanted to remember him. All I have to do now is get over this blasted cold and life might just begin to get back to some sort of normality. Diz has left to collect a dog which will put us back at full up so I'd better get organised before he's back.

Catching up is proving harder than anticipated, so bear with me if you're still waiting on anything. It's Johns funeral today so I'll be out of the office all afternoon, I'm speaking and have a terrible cold so fingers crossed my voice holds!

Happy New Year everyone, isn't it lovely to be back to normal? Today's going to be quite hectic getting all caught up at work, especially as Friday didn't go to plan but I feel quite refreshed. The holiday was interesting, thankfully there were no new arrivals over the time I had taken off but did go to the meeting in Leicester at the end of December with regard to the preposterous changes the kennel club want to make to our standard. Bulldog Rescue is a member of the breed council so it only seemed right that we should have our say. About 40 people attended and between us we did manage to put together an alternative to offer the kennel club which the breed council will now submit so fingers crossed things don't turn out so bad.

As it turned out, Christmas was nice and quiet and I actually got to take a whole week out of the office, Sue came up several times over the holiday so I even got a bit of a break from kennel duties too. I came back in the office yesterday in the hope that I could start catching up on stuff but my computer kept overheating and shutting down so I ended up having a good tidy up instead. Thankfully it all seems to be working fine now so I've just managed to update the web site and sort out a few important bits and bobs. I'm back at work proper on Monday so I'm preparing myself for the deluge that is the catch up after taking any time off, but it was worth it. Having said that though, I'm glad that everything is finally back to normal, as much as I loved my break, I'll be even happier when normal service is resumed.

Last day at work yipeeee!!!! So far we've only had to deal with one emergency, but there are a couple of rather urgent house calls that need making in the new year, but for now I'm going to look forward to my lie in tomorrow and will try and get some more housework done. Why do things never stay clean and tidy? My youngest son is 19 tomorrow - where does the time go, it only seems like yesterday that I was trying to keep the fact that I'd gone into labour from my mum because I still had Christmas shopping to do.

Oh and Maggie says thanks to Tess for her Christmas present ... kennel cough ... just what she always wanted LOL

As we go into emergency cover only I can finally see an end to this terrible year. My brother in law finally passed away in the early hours of this morning and I've also had to just put one of the foster dogs to sleep who'd gone into airway collapse over the course of the last few days. These last few months have been so difficult, it really is about time things started to look up.

You may have noticed that the BBC have pulled out of the Crufts coverage (http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/item/2187/23/5/3 / http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7779686.stm, insisting that they will only show it if several breeds, including the bulldog, are removed from the competition. Apart from the fact that the BBC Crufts coverage was absolute shite anyway the bullying tactics they are attempting isn't something that should be tolerated in my opinion and losing the coverage to another station would probably benefit Crufts in the long run with a much less biased coverage of what is technically a dog show - not obedience or flyball. In a knee jerk reaction to the public reaction to the BBC program "Pedigree Dogs Exposed" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7569064.stm) the KC have put forward several proposed changes to ours (and most of the other) breed standards which are not only ridiculous, but brings us ever closer to the ratification of the European Convention for the Protection of Pet Animals which would in affect create a "EuroDog" with all breeds looking pretty much the same. As you can imagine the world of Pedigree dogs has reacted in a horrified manner to the proposals and the big worry is that by doing something simply to be seen to be doing something would in the long run cause more problems than it solves.

Of course the only way this public reaction can be combated would be by tighter legislation on dog breeding, stamp out the back yard breeders, make it harder to buy a dog in the first place (see our debate on dog licensing: http://www.bulldogrescue.co.uk/doglicencepoll.htm) and to educate the public who has believed everything the BBC has fed them. The word "Inbreeding" for example is grossly misunderstood by the public, take a look at any pedigree and it's easy to see why, but with a little education explaining that Line Breeding is not Inbreeding and that the breeders affix is simply a kennel identification and doesn't necessarily mean that all the dogs with that particular affix are related would go a long way.

Education is of course the way to go, explaining the role of the dedicated dog breeder and how to tell them apart from those that are simply in it to make money and mate their bitch to the dog down the road simply because there'll be a litter of pups to sell at the end of it. Sadly, there will be some that think the dog breeder doth protest too much and insist that everything that Auntie Beeb has told them is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but if this is allowed to rumble on the damage that could be done to our National Breed could become irreversible.

You can debate this topic on our Face Book page at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=17231394966 and we'd be happy to see what you think.

I went to see my brother in law in hospital tonight, I knew I shouldn't have gone again, he's so delirious now it was really upsetting to see. He knew who I was (at least he told the nurse he did) but what else he is aware of I don't know. So upsetting to see a grown man reduced to this. He's not eating and he being fed intravenously but he's now literally wasting away - what kind of society allows a human being to starve to death? Lets hope the end is sooner rather than later.

Our tame wee robin is getting ever so brave. He came in the house again earlier in the week and Sue who does the kennels on Tuesdays and Thursdays said he was in with one of the dogs sharing the breakfast - I'm starting to think this is Reggie as all he ever wanted to do was get in the kennel - not because he wanted to live in one but because it wasn't his and if he got in he would always nick the food! Welcome home Reggie.

I've just decided I'm going to have the weekend off, there's so much housework to do that I really need to concentrate on that and give myself a bit of a break. I wonder if it'll work out that way!

Up in the kennel we have a very tame robin that comes down when you're cleaning the pens, yesterday morning when I was in the office by myself I suddenly realised he was in the office with me! No one saw him come in the house and Jason and I had to try and coax him back out without hurting him. He's been around for quite a while, but over the last few weeks he's become very friendly and will even go in the kennels with the dogs, but to see him sat on top of the filing cabinet yesterday was one hell of a shock!

We've managed to light 192 candles for Billy and Bertie, only 6 to go before we have a candle lit for every day of Billy's life.

Death is all around me and it's starting to become a very upsetting time for us here, what started with my friend committing suicide then went through the loss of my Reggie, Bertie then Billy and now my brother in law who is only 43 has had a stroke and only has weeks to live. He suffered a brain tumour back in the late 80s which was successfully removed but came back last year. It's now bleeding and as my sister said, the only comfort we can take is that he's not afraid of dying because he has no idea he is.

Billy and Bertie already have over 100 candles lit in protest the business known as Puppy Farming! I have also today forwarded their page to over 15 different anti puppy farm campaigns in the UK in the hope that we can reach a wider circle of like minded people. If you haven't yet lit a candle please do so at www.bulldogrescue.co.uk/billyandbertie.htm - the practice of back yard breeding has to be stopped.

I can hardly bring myself to write this, but at 7.30 last night Billy was peacefully laid to rest. in  my arms and today will be buried with his brother. To be fair they were both doomed from the start and to understand why I called time I need to explain a little bit about how demodex works. The mite is controlled by the immune system so both dogs (and probably every dog in that litter) had a compromised immunity, so what started as signs of demodex as very young pups (8 weeks old) was already a sign that they were not the strongest of pups. The initial treatment for the demodex worked - all the mites were killed at the end of the 2 month treatment. That took them to around 4 and half months old. The secondary skin infection, which is what we've been battling with, was so severe that the levels of antibiotics needed to try and combat it put an additional strain on an already struggling immune system. They came here at 5 months old with no live mites but incredibly infected skin, but it really shouldn't have come as a surprise when we found live mites on Monday night because it's the immune system that controls them and no matter what we had done with regards to treating the skin infection, the immune system was weaker than ever and simply couldn't keep the mites under control. We tried a neck spot treatment on Wednesday night and his lethargy yesterday was put down to that, but by last night the blood blisters that had come up on his face on Wednesday had taken over his face and touching them made him scream in pain, it also became apparent that wherever you touched him on his body blood rushed to the surface, and if you squeezed it would burst through the skin. So I called the vet who confirmed he was 24 hours away from septicaemia which is what took his brother. The decision was made to call it, the hardest thing I've ever had to do and a decision that even this morning I'm battling with. Thank you to everyone that helped with both Billy and Bertie's treatment but the vet confirmed that the vicious circle would have continued, as fast as we were clearing the infection on one part of the body, it would come back on another part that we had already cleared, just going round and round in circles on a poor pup that was getting sicker and sicker - forgive me Billy

Please light a candle for the boys: http://www.bulldogrescue.co.uk/billyandbertie.htm

Still battling with Billy, we found live mites on him last night which is disastrous. The skin is too sore to risk an Aludex dip but there's a treatment available that's not yet licensed for use with Demodex but is supposed to help so we'll give that a try. My daughter Katie and I have both come out in rashes very similar to Billy!! The vet has assured me that Demodex isn't contagious and feels it's a reaction to the shaved fur - we'll see, Katie has a doctors appointment this afternoon. Don't anyone ever tell us we're not dedicated to this cause LOL

You can keep up to date with Billy at www.bulldogrescue.co.uk/billyandbertie.htm and if you can spare anything towards the ever spiralling vet fees it would be very much appreciated.

I'm currently eagerly awaiting the arrival of a new voluntary part time kennel maid. I wonder if she'll cope with the place we fondly call Bedlam. Billy, meanwhile, has eaten his breakfast and is back on the sofa fast asleep, that was after he showed the vet how well his bowels work!!!

We also dropped Rocko off to have a growth removed from his eye rim, Rocko loves to sing so the nurses will probably have the full chorus of whatever it is Rocko is singing today, I did advice that the pre-med was probably best given sooner rather than later.

The new kennel is going up as we speak, oh what a mess there is everywhere but it'll be worth it. Billy had a good night, cuddling up to a soft toy that we hoped would take his mind off the fact that his brother wasn't there. He's not impressed with his Skinhead style haircut or the bright red fleece he's been forced to where - his look certainly lets you know that we've totally ruined his street cred but I'm pulling out all the stops for this one, there is no way I'm going to let him go too.

Bear with me though everyone, there's too much going on here right now and only little ole me to keep it all ticking over so I'm not always in the office right now, I'm sure there'll be complaints about that but I can't be everywhere LOL - is it possible to clone people?

Don't ever tell me rescue is glamorous, after a 300 mile round trip and 8 hours sat in the car we now have 3 new residence who are wondering what on earth just happened. We could have really done with the van today (we have been granted money towards a vehicle from the PetPlan charitable trust but can't claim it until March) as all 3 were separate pick ups so all had to be travelled back separately - it is possible to get 3 crates in an Astra Estate - we just proved it LOL (and a wheelchair!). They're now all settled down for the night and we'll book them in properly tomorrow - one has a growth on his eye that needs looking at by the vet and one has a really tight tail that will need closer examination tomorrow and possible amputation.

The boys are due their bath too, so there's no lay in for us tomorrow - you can keep up to date with their progress at www.bulldogrescue.co.uk/billyandbertie.htm . Apart from the fact that they are filthy as everything sticks to the cream their faces seem to be completely healed. They are very scabby where the wounds are healing and their feet look sore still but we'll do another skin scrape in the morning and fingers crossed the increased dose of anti biotics is doing the trick.

Here's to a peaceful night.

Meet Bertie and Billy, the latest victims of the Credit Crunch. To be fair their problems stem from being Puppy Farm bred as in hindsight the owner feels they came home with signs of Demodex - a condition that has gotten progressively worse over the last few months, but who's breeder has literally disappeared off the face of the earth. There are no Kennel Club registration papers, just someone obviously out to make a fast buck as they paid almost full price to purchase them. These adorable boys are only 5 months old - their owner had to chose between paying the mortgage and continuing with the treatment, thankfully she decided that signing them over to us was in the boys best interests. Despite the obvious discomfort they must be in they are typical happy, mischievous puppies. Billy (on the right) has almost no fur on his body at all, Bertie (on the left) has the sorest nose wrinkle I've ever seen. I recently invested in a microscope which today paid for itself. I found demodex mites but they are dead which shows the treatment done so far has worked, that means that we can concentrate on getting the skin better and saved us the cost of the microscope in vets fees by doing the skin scrape "in house", we can also monitor mite activity ourselves saving repeated visits to the vets. They were very gracious as we cleaned out their ears and picked away the muck that had built in in the folds, a Sporal D bath and lots and lots of anti septic cream is the treatment for the next 7 days along with anti biotics. We can then assess fur growth and do another skin scrape before deciding which direction to take things. We will of course keep you posted.

Please don't apply to adopt these boys yet, they have a way to go before we even think about finding them new homes.

Reggie: Nobozz Nice Man At Shaloney: 12 May 1998 - 22 October 2008 aged 10½

If you had told me at the weekend that yesterday I'd be saying good buy to my ReggieDawg I'd would never have believed you. But at 6 o'clock last night he was peacefully put to sleep on the sofa at home. Over the last few weeks he's had a few "off days", not eating, not moving about much, terrifying us into thinking he was really ill and then the next day he'd be back to his old self - always on the wrong side of the door, barking to go into the pen, sneaking into the kennel because it wasn't his, driving everyone mad with a squeaky toy. He didn't eat Saturday, nor Sunday. Monday night he was sick and by Tuesday lunch time was so lifeless it really wasn't Reggie. We went to the vet Tuesday night, taking Reggie to the vet was something we only did in extreme emergencies, he hated vets and would become a ferocious lion the second he realised he was going to be examined. We needed blood, we muzzled him but the first leg we tried had no vein, he was growling and making as much of an effort as his strength would allow to fight us, there was still some of that Reggie personality there on Tuesday. By Wednesday morning he looked old and thin, he was really sick. The vets wanted to run an ECG but wanted me to stay because of his "vet phobia". We didn't need the EGC in the end, he was so bloated with fluid by this time which was confirmed by an ultra sound - which he laid perfectly still for - very out of character. We carried him to the xray room 3 times and back without a sign of a struggle from him which was very out of character, Reggie had given up. The xrays confirmed fluid in his abdomen and chest. The vet wanted to draw some fluid, he'd never allow that - this was the most needle phobic dog in the world, he didn't even have boosters because you simply couldn't do it without being seriously bitten, he just laid there and let them put a needle into his stomach and draw out the fluid, I knew then that this was the end. It wasn't blood but was blood stained and in it were cancer cells - somewhere there was a tumour, but we don't know where. The vet said we could open him up and see but it would only tell us what we already knew and at 10½ and the fact that he was allowing us to do things to him that would normally require a sedation or a mild anaesthetic meant he was so ill he probably wouldn't survive it. In my job I am often called upon to put dogs to sleep so we don't allow any of ours to be done at the surgery, instead we ask the vet to come to the house. An appointment was made at 6pm and I brought Reggie home and broke the awful news to the family.

Reggie came home at 6 weeks old in the Summer of 1998, he was going to be my show dog and the foundation stud for the Shaloney line - neither happened, he developed growth related issues at 5 months old that lasted right through until he was 18 months old, taking a limping dog in the ring isn't something you do so we did obedience instead. Reggie had an obedience certificate that he gained in 1999 but we joke that all he did was follow a piece of food around for 10 weeks. We called him our "indestructible" dog - he ate and survived a whole plain chocolate orange complete with wrapper, he'd terrorise toads to the point that he looked like father Christmas and the poor toad needed a vet. He had "indestructible bone" surgically removed, he lost his left eye after years of repeated surgeries for entropian, but he bounced back every single time and never calmed down! At least the cancer took him quickly, it was obvious that he wasn't going to bounce back from this one. He was our 4th bulldog and the 2nd one we had bought as puppy, he was a pain in the arse but we put up with him for 10 long years.

He was named after a record we had released on the Detour label that we own, Reggie by the band The Clique was released in 1992 but the lyrics were appropriate: "Reggie Was a Nice Man, Everybody Loved Him, Always Did the Right Thing, Joyful to the Brim. His clothes were kind of funny, he never had no money, but happy times he'll bring you, Never Grim."

Sadly the rest of the song played out for Reggie, every year he's scare us because he always ate the fallen apples, he'd get the most terrible tummy ache and dioreah but he'd still eat and play us up without a problem. To be honest that's what we thought was wrong with him this time, he's too old to cope with the fermenting apple in his belly and he's drunk! Sadly that wasn't the case: "No one knew him better than me, Reggie had a problem no one else could see, I tried to warn him but he just kept on, now it's over and Reggie's gone".

Thanks to my dear friend Carrie who came up and sat with me whilst we waited for the vet, in the last hour we gave him a bowl of custard and a squeaky toy, we'd had to ban squeaky toys because he drove us mad but he managed to have a good chomp on it for about a minute and then was worn out. It's buried with him along with 2 apples off the tree to keep him going on his journey.

Run free little man

We have a fabulous day at the Junior Bulldog Club Champ Show on Saturday, we took the stall and raised almost £200 for the rescue. The Junior Bulldog Club are one of the few clubs that always make us feel welcome, even allowing us to eat from the committee's table (although I did wonder where the hell Glyn was taking me when he grabbed my hand and whisked me away). The atmosphere was nice too, it's been so long since I've been to a dog show that I really enjoyed the day out.

What an incredibly busy weekend it's been for rescue. All 3 of the dogs that were put out on offer on Wednesday were accepted and 2 of the homechecks were done over the weekend by Vicky and Val & Malcolm, I'm doing the other one tomorrow night so that was a successful afternoons rehoming. Saturday we went to visit a dog locally who was being - shall we say - a little bit naughty, you know the kind that pretends to be aggressive because it keeps them their sofa - well she was a perfect example of a dog that had trained her owners very well indeed - one look in her eyes showed that she didn't mean a bloody bar of it LOL. I enjoyed my morning with them as she was an absolute baby doll of a bulldog and hopefully the advice I was able to give will mean she can go on to lead a good life with the family that so obviously love her to bits. Then straight back here to prepare Sid for a visit from his potential new mummy, Sid has quite possibly been my faviourite one here recently so it was really really sad to see him leave, but as usual, a wag of the tail and a side ways glance that just said "Thank you for having me - bye" was all I got by way of a thank you. Then out to the kennels for the weekly scrub out, as there is only one in the indoor kennels now I took the opportunity to give them a really good hose down. I'd had enough by now so we went to the cinema and hid away for a few hours - the only place you HAVE to turn your phone off - bliss LOL.

Sunday we went to the Isle of Wight - haven't been for a while so it was nice and the weather was amazing, even though it meant I missed the London Bulldog Society show which I love going to. We only had to do a homecheck which didn't take too long so on the way back to the ferry we stopped and had a roast dinner from one of the caverys and sat outside in the glorious sunshine. Peter and Beverly were still hard at it when we got back so there wasn't too much to do around the kennels when we came home so it was an earlier night - very gratefully received it was too. The sad news in the week that one of the dogs we rehomed a couple of years ago had been tragically killed by a speeding bus has played on my mind, the poor thing survived the accident but was too badly injured to save so had to be put to sleep - the owner is beside herself as I'm sure you can imagine. They are fighting a legal battle with the bus company now as the driver was speeding and there was no chance to do anything to prevent the accident from happening. Tragic tragic accident that will prove difficult for everyone involved to get over I'm sure.

Wednesday 8 October 2008

 

A day in the life . . . . Of the Bulldog Rescue co-ordinator

 

 

The day usually starts by coming straight into the office to check the answer phone messages, go through the emails, pick up the days orders for the business and collecting any on line applications for rescue. Once all that is printed and filed which usually takes about half an hour I join my husband in the kitchen for a cup of tea and to feed our own dogs. I usually take this opportunity to tidy the living room and put any washing in that needs doing and then it’s out to the kennel for the days hosing down, feeding the dogs in residence, doing any special work that needs doing with any individual dog and generally tidying up around the kennel area. There’s one here on assessment at the moment so a 10 minute training session is slotted in here to see if his behaviour has improved, I’ve got everything crossed for this lad, he’s so affectionate but has got one hell of a temper, I can feel a heart break here. I've only got 6 dogs in foster care here at the moment, two of them are on long term foster whilst the owner moves house, 1 is on treatment, 1 is on assessment, 1 is an older girl and the other is a young wipper snapper, they all need some one to one time, but the time I can give them is never enough as there's always so much to do.

 

Then it’s back to the office. It’s about 10.30 by now and the phones are usually already ringing so Diz usually has a few messages for me already to call people back. Plus the post is here, and as usual the pile for Rescue far outweighs the pile for work. This morning’s mail has brought 2 more dogs to add to the list for rehoming bringing the total number of dogs now listed to 27.

 

My first job is to process the orders for work, that is after all what pays the mortgage but there’s a list of things waiting for me already to sort out for rescue including 3 priority rehomes and a stray pup that needs chasing up to see if the dog warden will let us take him once he’s completed his 7 days. After speaking to the dog warden it’s looking unlikely that we can have him which is a shame as it should be what’s best for the dog not who picks up the adoption fee but it is something that is very common in this day and age, but we will see – there’s always a chance. We’ve been trying to trace this little mans owner or breeder since Sunday but so far there’s no joy, he seems to have just fell from the sky as he was found in a cat carrier by the side of the road early Sunday morning.

 

In amongst the orders this morning were another 6 books sold which made me realise that there’s only 50 books left! I need to crack on with the additions for the 2^nd edition as there’s a few things I’ve realised are missing and a few typo’s that need to be corrected. Typical me has left it to the last minute again!!

 

Just had a call from someone with an Olde tyme bulldog, you know there is no official rescue system for these dogs, the number we usually give is the guy that created the original cross, but I’m not sure how helpful he is to the people we send in his direction – rescue doesn’t seem to be priority to those that breed these dogs which is a shame because they’re quick enough to take the money from people who think they’ve bought a bulldog.

 

I’m also trying to secure some temporary foster care for 2 bulldogs who’s owner has got to go into hospital, arrangements are being made via another rescue so there’s lots of emails flying back and forth but it looks like our Croydon volunteers are going to be able to help, I’m just waiting to hear back with some contact info.

 

 

There’s an hour to go until lunch time so I’ll start this rehoming. Usually around this time of the day I’ll be either rehoming, sorting out the web site, sending out adoption packs, making sure the rehoming list is up to date, sorting out dogs that need collecting or moving, arranging home checks or doing the accounts for the rescue. There’ll always be something to do and I’m usually behind on all of it LOL.

 

There’s several dogs that need to be sorted out urgently so that’s my job for today . . . .

 

Rehoming a dog involves several levels and it’s always so frustrating when you’ve gone through the procedure and then find that the people no longer want a bulldog. First of all we have to see what kind of home the dog needs: weather he can go into a home with other dogs, where there’s cats, with children, into a family that are out part of the day or if the dog needs to go to a family that have breed experience, we then look at the people waiting in the area the dog is, that could be either in one of our foster homes or in his own home still and see if we can find a family that ticks all the boxes.

 

Once a home is selected we then check out the validity of the address and the web site we use for this also allows us to view an areal photo of the house and garden, we can tell a lot from this photo.

 

Once I am satisfied that the details given on the application are valid, I then draw up a profile for the dog to send the family we have selected. Sometimes this family has applied for that specific dog via the web site and sometimes we have selected them from the waiting list but the process is exactly the same. The current owner is also informed that their dog has been offered to someone and that the family have 7 days to reply. Once the profile has been sent and the owner informed of what is happening the dog is then marked as “on offer” and is filed in the “homes pending” file.  It can take upto an hour to get just one dog out on offer so you can see how time consuming this aspect of rescue actually is and if the dog is refused it is a total waste of time.

 

The offer is open for 7 days and is deliberately done in writing, we’ve learned in the past that what you tell someone on the phone is often disputed once they have the dog with them, so putting it in writing ensures that we have a record of every stage of the rehoming. Once the dog has been accepted, the nearest volunteer will be asked to complete a home check and make sure the home is suitable for the dog we have selected for them and that they have read the profile of the dog and that they understand it. The owner is informed that a home check is being undertaken and should they pass is then given the contact details of the new home. We’ve realised over the years that this last stage has to be done at the current owners own pace and therefore make the arrangements for the new family to meet their dog themselves.

 

 

I’ve just been caught on the phone to a poor lady who wanted to rehome her bulldog because he was biting them. I hate these calls, even though bulldogs that bite are incredibly rare, it’s a behaviour that prevents them from being rehomed. We have to go through several aspects of the behaviour to firstly see if we can identify why the dog is behaving in such a way in the hope that we can help the family work with it, but more often or not it’s a personality the dog has developed or has inherited. Sadly, these calls are increasing, there were 2 yesterday, and is a direct result of the poorly bred litters that have been bred over the last 2 years when more people came into the breed thinking bulldog breeding was a get rich quick scheme. The majority of these so called breeders have long gone and it’s up to us to clear up behind them. Sadly the majority of these dogs will need to be put to sleep – not the reason why I took on this job and these calls leave me feeling drained and miserable, but it’s taken me up to lunch time, so I’ll grab something to eat and check on the dogs in kennel. I’ve also got a dog coat on the go that I make to sell, I’ll get that finished over lunch so it can go out in today’s post – there are 2 more to make so no time to waste and it’ll take my mind off the sad phone call I’ve just had to take, plus I’ve still got 2 more dogs to get out on offer.

 

The coat took a little longer to complete than expected as my dad decided to ring right in the middle of my lunch break and ask me again, how to copy and paste, for the 40^th time I had to talk him through, right click – select all – right click – copy – to the echo of “oh no I left clicked – hang on” – there should a law for over 70s having computers.

 

Back from lunch to the good news that one of the dogs waiting to move in Manchester has successfully gone into his new home, our local volunteer and trustee Graham Sherlock successfully oversaw the move this morning.

 

So, back to the grindstone – there’s still 2 more dogs on priority rehoming to get sorted out now.

 

 

It’s almost 4pm and all three dogs are now out on offer, although 3 out of 27 isn’t really a good ratio. The rescue phone goes off now but that’s not the end of the day, it’s now time to start the post run, the orders that were processed this morning are now back with me as parcels so they need to be addressed and stamped ready to be posted, plus there’s the envelopes to address and stamp for both the dogs that have been put out on offer this afternoon and the paperwork for a couple of enquiries that came into today for dogs that need to be rehomed. There also a couple of application packs that need sending out too.

 

Once all the addresses are printed they need to be stuck on the correct parcels and then it’s time to take the post to the post office, we take it direct to the sorting office already sacked up as it’s all franked and ready to go which is easier than queuing at the Post Office. I usually finish in the office at about 5pm and then go out to the kennel again to check on those out there before I take the post to the sorting office. I usually take the post at about 5.30pm and when I get back my dinner is usually ready and waiting as my husband does all the cooking – he’s much better at it than I am.

 

After dinner it’s time to do some housework and wash the dishes, that usually takes me through to about 7.30 – 8pm, just in time to catch the soaps – the only time I’ll sit down all day. I’ve got some writing to do as well for a project that’s got to be finished by December so before I start the next coat I’ll get some of that done.

 

It’s now about 8.45pm, time to feed and bed down the dogs in the kennel. This is a good time to spend some quality time with some of them as it’s quiet. We’ve got an old girl in at the moment who enjoys her bedtime cuddle.  Then it’s bed time for me, yes I know it’s early but once I’m in that bed I know I’m finished for the day (although there’s always the chance the mobile will ring for an emergency at any time and taking into account a dog moved this morning that’s quite a possibility), I’ll watch TV through to 10pm and then I’m dead to the world until the morning – when the whole process starts over again.

I've got a few gripes about vets that I need to get off my chest. How come all of a sudden the veterinary "industry" cares more about being paid than they do about the animal that needs their help? This week we've helped pay for emergency surgery on a dog who's vet refused to do it until the owner could prove she could pay - she couldn't - so we did - the alternative would have been the dog having to come in to rescue and the surgery being done anyway but also a distraught owner who didn't want to give up her dog plus the additional costs of finding him a new home. And then today an owner who's vet refused to give her the full course of anti biotics because she couldn't afford to pay for them. There was a time when your vet would help your pet first and worry about how he was going to be paid afterwards, suddenly payment method is the first question. Maybe someone can help me out here but when did the priorities change? There's 100s, if not 1000s of people like me out there who don't drive around in posh convertibles, don't live in massive 5 bed houses but will drop whatever they are doing to go to the aid of a rescue because it needs help - for free! and I thought that was why vets became vets - because they wanted to help, not because they need the money. Rant over.

Mabon blessings everyone, it's official - there isn't gonna be a Summer LOL. Today is the Autumn Equinox, the first day of Autumn, the garden looks untouched and overgrown as it was simply impossible to keep it tidy in amongst all the dogs that were here and the never ending rain. My big plans for a veggie garden got washed away (or eaten by the slugs), maybe it's best to let the grass grow back over it and accept that it ain't gonna happen LOL. Mother nature will move in soon and take out much of the stuff that I never got around to clearing and then I guess we have to tidy it best I can ready for the Winter. Lets hope next Summer proves to be a little more pleasant!

Yesterday was a very difficult day to get through. It started with the phone call from Vicky that we all have dreaded, dear old Sam had reached the end of his life. Those of you that attend Bulldog Day in Lincoln will remember Sam, the old boy that came in to be rehomed and stayed on Vicky's sofa until 11am yesterday morning when his pain had reached a point where we all felt it best to let him go to the bridge. Then later that evening a shock call to say that a dear friend of ours had taken his own life, Bill had 2 bulldogs - Jasper and Sasha and a wife who had no idea anything was wrong with their lives. I sat with her last night as she tried to make sense of what her husband had done, lets hope Bill and Sam have met up as I can't imagine Bill without his beloved dogs. Needless to say I'm feeling pretty numb this morning wondering if yesterday really happened.

Our 11th Annual Bulldog Picnic was a total wash out weather wise, we've never had weather like that in the 11 picnics we've done so far, but you know the bulldog spirit spreads to the owners too, there's 85 badges left out of 350 which means there were 265 paying guests at this year event despite the fact that the heavens opened and didn't stop for the entire afternoon. You guys are just fantastic!!!! The rescue parade was done in an absolute downpour and no one seemed to mind. We've raised over £2,000 again which is on target as we usually expect to raise between 2 and 3 thousand and with the awful weather we didn't think we've come close. I'll get a full write up and photos on the Picnic page as soon as I get chance.

The Swarovski Crystal collar alone raised over £500. The winner is on the Picnic page modelling her very expensive collar, Chloe has recently had surgery for pyometra - a life threatening condition that she almost didn't survive so was a very worthy winner. The annual award to the person we felt had given an outstanding contribution to bulldog welfare went to Peter Petchy and Beverley Savage - regulars to this blog will know exactly why they won it and you can read more about them on the Award Page.

Apart from the fact that I am shattered, I had a lovely day and would like to thank everyone for coming along and making the day such a great success.

We received a strange request in the week. The Badger Rescue in Cornwall found themselves with more Badgers than they had food bowls. Sorting through the huge pile of bowls in the kennel I realised that we actually had several smaller bowls that were too small for adult bulldogs so managed to parcel some of them up to send to the Badgers. It was nice to think that there's a little injured badger somewhere eating from a bulldog's bowl. I've got a bit of a soft spot for Badgers LOL

Rosie was very quiet yesterday, but today it's like it never happened. The vet thinks that maybe she had a mild stroke or an irregular heart beat that caused her to faint. We'll watch her closely from now on though.

The first wave of pre ordered books will have hit the public this morning. I'm waiting with baited breath for the feedback, oh goodness I hope people like it after all that!

Keep your fingers crossed for our Rosie, she collapsed this morning, but we were half way to Dover taking two dogs to their new homes so couldn't do anything. From the M25 I got the vet to send the ambulance for her and got my friend in Bognor to come over as Jason was beside himself with panic. She hurt her leg when she fell and they kept her in for observations but she got so stressed that we picked her up when we got back from Dover and brought her home. Her breathing is very laboured and we've just gone back to the vet for a mild sedative to help her sleep as she's having trouble laying down. Her symptoms suggest that her airway is collapsing and I've been here before with Amber so I've got everything crossed that we're wrong. Rosie is 9, she is the only surviving pup from my first litter so she's very special to us but she's Jason's dog and his best friend.

We took Henry(etta) to his new family - a day I never thought I'd see. He's gone to a fabulous couple who already own an incontinent St Bernard. Their beautiful stone farm cottage is perfect for him and they absolutely loved him, do you know he didn't even look back at me when I left - how's that for gratitude LOL. I know he's going to be so happy with them as they cope wonderfully with Chloe the St Bernard who was absolutely adorable. I was tempted to bring her home with me as a straight swap but I think finding space for a small horse would have been difficult LOL

There's been an elderly couple on our list for over a year who have waited very patiently for another bulldog but with very few dogs coming up in the Dover area they've been unsuccessful, but we had the perfect dog for them here in the kennel so we took him along too and left him with a very happy 96 year old and her 81 year old toy boy husband. They lived on the hillside looking right out over the sea at Dover, you couldn't have asked for a better view.

I've just finished writing 400 invites for the bulldog picnic, lets hope this is the biggest one ever, it will celebrate 30 years of an official bulldog rescue and we have plans to raffle off a very special birthday present at the event. There's loads of paperwork to do too so I'd better get on with it.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Well I've just cleared some of the backlog, all the dogs are now booked in (25 in total), all the adoption packs are now up to date (that includes yours Shelly) and all the application forms that were stuck in the computer from when it had to be reloaded before I went on holiday have now been printed off (almost 80 in total) now all I have to do is match the right dog to the right application form and Bob's yer uncle, but that's a job that can wait until next week now, I'm pooped!

Peter and Beverly have done all the kennel work today, I'm not really sure what I'd do without them now as they really make a difference around here and free me up to get on with other things.

Well the week off was lovely but the back log is still being cleared so if you have sent in any paperwork and haven't heard back don't worry, I should be back on top of things by the end of the week.

Yesterday was sad, we finally called time on Harvey. He'd reach a point where he was staying in his bed for up to 48 hours at a time, and was now starting to cry out in pain from his leg. We had the report back from the specialist vet that looked at his xrays last week and he could see nothing wrong with his joints which led us to believe that the problem was neurological, but as my vet said, we have to listen to the dog and if he's giving off signs that he's suffering we just have to accept that we'll never find out what's wrong. He left his body very peacefully and I take comfort in the fact that wherever he is now he can run. I worked out that he's been here for 10 months and during that time we've spent an awful lot of money trying to find out what's wrong with his leg. Sadly, we never solved the mystery but he's at peace now.

It looks like I might have to have Henry xrayed too, I found a deep dip at the base of his spine yesterday - he's getting so big and I'd not noticed this before. I read somewhere that it could be an indication of spina bifida which would explain the bowell and bladder issues. Will keep you posted.

Well I go into my holiday with dogs crammed into every possible available space, another one has come in this morning so there's now 9 dogs crammed into 6 kennels !!!! Dizzy actually asked me last night if we were being punished for wanting a break. I know that I really need this break, everything in the house is such a mess and I actually don't care which is very unlike me. Dizzy's mum is going to look after one of them whilst we're away so that will make it slightly easier for Peter and Beverly.

Harvey was back at the vets this morning, we got one of the other vets to look at him and he's as baffled as we are. He's now taking aspirin but that hasn't really had any effect either, it doesn't seem to make any difference if he's on pain killers or not. We're going to send his xrays to a specialist vet and see if there's something there we've missed, we may still have to put him down but we're going to do our very best to make sure it doesn't happen. If I had one wish it would be that someone took him on with this mysterious limp and just let him see out his days on a comfy sofa somewhere. He was made to work so hard this morning that he cried as he was walking back to the car, what ever it is is very painful for him, but we just can't find out what it is and pain killer don't work which is very very strange. He's fatter than ever though and weighed in at 32kg (he weight 29 in April). Will keep you posted and if I don't speak to you before I go behave yourselves!!!!

This heat is stifling, I'm probably one of the few people in this country that actually hates this hot weather, it makes me irritable, hot and bothered and worried about the dogs, especially the ones in the kennel who either don't get enough time outside or have to be watched closely to make sure they don't sun bathe for too long. Remember the heat rules at http://www.bulldogrescue.co.uk/SUMMER_INFO.htm if you are finding it hard to keep your bulldog out of the sun. It's not been helped by the fact that I've been feeling like shite this last few days thanks to my son who gave me his chesty cough, of course if I wasn't back on the fags it probably wouldn't be as bad but my usual coping methods weren't working (that's my excuse so we'll leave it at that, I've had enough lectures from my family LOL). Sleeping has become impossible, I'm either too darn hot or coughing so hard I wake myself up and I already suffer with chronic fatigue so this really hasn't helped. But only 2 days to go before I finally get a holiday, I can't wait but I know it won't be a complete break as I obviously have to be on call for those that have emergencies or just can't wait for me to be back in the office before they have to rehome their dog. I hope the week is kind to me though as we're already struggling for space here and many of the volunteers are also away or have fosters already. We're actually going away over the weekend, that's not happened since we used to do the Isle of Wight Scooter Rally in the 90s, we're going down to Cornwall and then back up through Gloucester and I am really looking forward to it, I know it's only one night but boy it's going to be heaven to be able to get up in the morning and not have to start the endless round of dog feeding LOL.

The book sales have gone over 50 presold copies, I'm a bit taken aback to be honest but am very exciting at it coming out in a few weeks time.

What a weekend, for the first time in I don't know how long I ran out of room in the kennel, not helped by the fact that two of the dogs here that had been kennelled together had a serious fight in the night on Friday so I had to find an extra space so they could be kept separate - not easy! Two have gone to new homes this morning which has made life a little easier but I'm still full to capacity. The first week of the Summer Holidays are always crazy but the actual holidays themselves are usually reasonably quiet so lets hope it settles down soon. The good news is for those that remember we had a visit from the Jean Sainsbury Animal Welfare Trust back in May well I heard from them in the week and would you believe we've been awarded £4,000 !!! Half of that is going to be spent on two new kennels here and the rest will go into the funds to pay for the ever spiralling vet bills.

Peter and Beverly came up today and despite the heat and the shear number of dogs here did a fantastic job in the kennels as usual which freed me up to start counting the calendar votes, we had over 1000 votes and the results are now published at www.bulldogrescue.co.uk/competition2008.htm for those that want to know who won.

On a funny note someone actually came up to me last night and asked me if I was the person they'd seen on the telly LOL - fame at last J

Thats it, the book is finally finished, I put it on the web site last night to pre-sell thinking that it would take a while to take off and I've had almost 40 presale orders in less than 24 hours. Even though I was still adding stuff I'd missed to it right up until this morning, it has now gone to the printers - so that's it - 2 years of work completed into 100 pages. Oh goodness I hope those that have bought it actually like it after all that.

Bl**dy computers! This one went down AGAIN and trying to get everything back up and running has been a nightmare, so far the printer won't connect and the accounts can't find the data so that's basically everything I need at work - in the few hours I've been trying to sort this out we've had 4 calls for dogs that have to come in urgently which now means I have more dogs coming in than I've got space for - one bloke just told us that he is going on holiday TONIGHT! Dizzy has gone to collect him, plus there's 2 waiting in Essex for collection and one in Wiltshire - but none of them are straight forward rehomes which makes space a real issue. We collected a fabulous little girl last night and in all the chaos this morning I've not had chance to even say hello to her properly let alone assess her for rehoming. I know people like the rehomes done quickly but you'd think that with this being the last thing they do for their dog they'd give us the time to do it properly? My one and only annual week off is soon, at this rate it won't happen!

Henry(etta) cocked his leg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How cool is that????????????? Poor thing wondered what on earth he'd done as I started jumping about shouting good boy. He's been off the anti biotics for a few days now and sadly he is starting to look sore again but we'll take things a day at a time although it will be heartbreaking if we have to deem the surgery a failure.

Things couldn't be more hectic if I wanted them to be, there's so much to do and just no time to do it all. The accounts software at work has decided to throw a tantrum so I can't do any work unless I use Dizzy's machine which is a pain in the backside as other people's desks are never laid out right are they. 

We collected a new dog yesterday, Winston was left at a vets to be put to sleep following an alleged child bite, the vet nurses felt there was more to it so have asked us to take him in for an assessment. So far he's a waggy tailed sweetheart but it'll be a while before we can assess him as he needs chance to feel safe here before we start pushing the boundaries with him. I'm missing Stanley but I know he's better off where he is and I bet he's enjoying every second of it.

We finally saw Stanley go to his new home over the weekend, Peter and Beverly who walk the dogs in the kennel for us have taken him home with them and I know that he's gone to the best home he could ever wish for! So that just leaves me with the 2 having treatment Henry(etta) has improved and we are now at the end of the anti biotics so we'll see what happens now the medication has stopped. Harvey on the other hand has been totally unresponsive to the pain killers, my vet is on holiday this week so it's going to be another week before we can make a decision on him - keep your fingers crossed !!!

Whilst they were here, Peter and Beverly gave the kennels a quick coat of fence paint, they look brand new again - those two really are saints you know.

We lost Cassius this afternoon, his xray showed haemorrhaging in his lungs and a tumour in his chest cavity, we decided not to bring him round from his anaesthetic and I drove over to him so he had a friendly face with him as he crossed over. What a very sad outcome for a very young and happy dog who I'm sure had no idea how ill he was. Run free little man.

The blood test results came back on Cassius and his blood count has improved slightly, there's nothing obvious in the bloods so it's been agreed that we will xray him tomorrow and see what they find. There's a very high chance he won't survive the anaesthetic but we have to try something for him. Poor Henry(etta) had to go to the vets today too, his surgery wound has become infected due to the fact that he's basically peeing through an open wound, he's on anti biotics for the next 10 days and obviously we've had to remove him from the rehoming list, but we have to see what it's like at the end of the anti biotic course as it could be a recurring problem with quite serious consequences. So many dog's have serious problems at the moment that it's very sad here in rescue.

Today has been difficult, Harvey was back at the vets this morning, his limp is worse than ever and the worse his limp gets the less exercise he can manage so the fatter he gets and the fatter he gets, the worse his limp gets. He's now on a different pain killer but if this one doesn't work either there's not much more we can do for him. On top of that a dog that was only rehomed last week has been diagnosed with a serious blood disorder today - most likely triggered by some sort of cancer; we've got to make a decision on him tomorrow so that's 2 more possible put to sleeps, I'm not sure how much more of this my heart can take.

On a spooky note, I saw a bulldog ghost this morning - honestly, don't laugh I did. I was just coming away from the kennels after cleaning them out when I saw a red dog walk along the back of the yard by the fence, thinking I'd forgotten to put one of them back in their pen, I turned round to nothing! Thinking I was going mad I suddenly realised that one of the dogs in the kennel was in his pen staring at the exact spot I'd seen the movement. I just said "you saw that too didn't you"! Not sure who it would be though, so many have passed through here and so many are now at rainbow bridge, but I feel it was male and hopefully just popped back to check on me, unless of course he's never really left, we've had a few die of natural causes whilst in rescue care, maybe he doesn't realise he's gone?

One of the dogs here failed her temperament assessment over the weekend, she was such a borderline case that it breaks my heart to have to put her to sleep, but with the media as it is we can't take the risk on these dogs anymore. It was so difficult, even the nurse commented that she'd never seen me that upset at a put to sleep before. I think it didn't help matters that I'd had to do one only last week too, one of the dogs that started life as a stray came back from his new home after 6 months because he was displaying some serious aggression issues towards his new family. These are probably the worst ones as whoever turned that dog out on the streets new what he was capable of, not only putting the general public at risk, but also everyone involved in his care, rescue and rehoming - not to mention the family that took him. It got me thinking - we really ought to have some sort of licence system back so I've started a little campaign (www.bulldogrescue.co.uk/doglicencepoll.htm) to see if it's worth trying to lobby the government on this issue. The idea I have in mind would have prevented this situation from ever happening as it would be impossible to abandon any dog.

Talking of abandoned dogs, we've got the cutest little pup here at the moment, the only problem is he's doubly incontinent!! Found in the cupboard of an abandoned house in Kent, he was sat in so much mess that he's had to have surgery to remove his genitals - poor little boy dog is now, to all intense and purposes, a girl dog - the worlds first transsexual bulldog? He's only young, no older than 6 months and thankfully is totally undamaged physiologically by his ordeal. He's going to be hard work for someone that's for sure.

It was my birthday at the beginning of this week, 21 again (I wish - well actually no I don't think I do, life was far too complicated at 21). I was 41 but spent the entire day in bed ill with some sort of gastric bug, I feel a bit better now but it's still not completely gone - The Indian meal we had tonight probably didn't help matters though

What a fabulous weekend, if not a really really long one!!!! We left here Saturday morning just after 7am to make our annual pilgrimage to Leicester, we hold our AGM and AVM (Annual Volunteers Meeting) in Leicester just off the M1 as obviously we have volunteers all over the UK and this is a nice central point for everyone to get to. I always love meeting the volunteers, we really couldn't operate with out them! Apart from a cock up with the lunches the day went really well and another successful meeting occurred with lots of great ideas being bounced around. Then it was back to Vicky's house (rescue's chairman) in Lincoln for a beautiful Chinese takeaway, fantastic company and a very comfortable sofa to spend the night on. Then up again early the next morning for the drive down to Nottingham for the 2nd annual Bulldog Day UK. This is Vicky's baby and is a great success. A nice educational day for everyone that has a bulldog, wants a bulldog or just loves bulldogs and gives those that can't make it down South to the picnic a chance to get out and meet us all. Dizzy and I manned 2 stalls, I also did the microchipping and the rescue parade which was fabulous (as usual) I love the rescue parade. We packed up at 4 and made our way back down South although thanks to the awful traffic on the M1 we didn't actually arrive back here until after 10pm.

The Kennel was left in the very capable hands of Beverly and Peter and I must admit on arriving home last night there was absolutely nothing to do in the kennel which as really really appreciated - I also seem to have acquired 6 new garden chairs LOL!!!! Even the house was tidy thanks to Jason who had apparently put a ban on anyone moving so it stayed tidy for when we got home.

Maggie came with us and was a great ambassador for Bulldog Rescue, although she was so tired by the end of the Sunday. She was very very pleased to see her own sofa and puffed herself out running around the living room, I wonder if she was telling the others what a great time she'd had - or if she was just glad to be home was actually telling them that she thought she'd never see them again?

Can't wait for the picnic now! Thanks to everyone that came and made the day such a success and a special thanks to Vicky for her hard work and her hospitality, Leicester sure is a lot closer to Nottingham than Midhurst is !!!!!

Our PayPal got hacked into yesterday, I'd been off sick most of the afternoon and came in here last night to find that we'd opened, resolved and closed a dispute over goods I had supposedly not received. Realising that the rescue PayPal account didn't ever buy anything (It's purely to receive donations) I checked the account - $200 has been taken out by someone in China!! It's now been logged as fraudulent and the lovely man I spoke to last night at PayPal said that the money would be returned but that the guy had tried to be clever by opening a dispute to make it look like a genuine sale. Thankfully PayPal noticed the account had been accessed by a third party, but they closed it down so anyone that tried to make a donation last night would have received an error screen - it's been resolved now so you can try again (thanks)

I had a nice bank holiday weekend and managed to have a complete break which made a very pleasant change. The weather was beautiful on Saturday and I spent the whole day in the garden which is always my favourite place to be. I spent Sunday with the dogs and on Monday I had a TV crew turn up to interview me which was a lot of fun. Sadly the rain was absolutely chucking it down so we couldn't film outside which was a real shame, but you can see the result which was aired on Channel Five's news here. I spent the rest of day stuck inside because of the weather but got a good chunk of the book read through. It's at it's first draft stage so hopefully it'll be out soon, but I'm trying to work out what needs tweaking and what needs adding.

We had a very special visitor today. The charity "The Jean Sainsbury Animal Welfare Trust" came to visit to see if we qualify for some money from them. The lady was really nice and actually had a bulldog of her own years ago. She really enjoyed her visit but now it's up to the Trustees who meet in July as to weather we get any money or not - keep your fingers crossed!!!!

Jason and I did the sponsored walk yesterday for the local vets. They don one every year and this year and last year the money raised is for ourselves and the local Cat rescue charity. It was actually a very pleasant walk and even though I've lived in Midhurst all my life, and now life on Midhurst common, we walked on parts of the common that I didn't even know existed!!!! The vets reckon that the total amount to be shared between the Cats and the Bulldogs is over £1000, Jason and I raised about £250.00 so it should be a decent amount coming our way.

It's Reggie's birthday today, he's 10 years old. We bought Reggie home as a 6 week old pup and had such high hopes for him as a show dog. He's been a pain in the butt for the entire time he's lived here, but I must admit he's now starting to look his age. Bless him

A sad day in rescue today, we checked the kennel at lunch time, the weather was getting quite hot and you know how Bulldogs love to sunbathe, sadly we found one of the epileptic inmates fitting, we managed to bring him out of the fit, clean him off, calm him down and cool him down and laid him in front of the fan to sleep it off. We took it in turns to do 10-15 minute obs, he was sleeping peacefully at 3pm but sadly my daughter found he'd died at 10 past. A very very sad day for all of us. His previous owner has been informed which I'm sure was the saddest news he's heard on a long time. We've all been a bit bewildered ourselves today, it's never easy to lose one and you know that each fit could be the last on an epileptic dog, but it's still never easy. The only solace I can take is that he died peacefully, he was fast asleep and I guess as with many of these dogs his heart just couldn't cope with the strain.

Run free little man.

It's been so long since I had time to write anything here, do you know I've even had people email me and ask why the blog hasn't been updated, I can't believe that any of you actually care what goes on in my sorry little life LOL. We've had quite a few dogs in and out since I last wrote, the cutest pair had to be the bulldog that came with his Pug companion. I must admit the pug was the funniest little dog I've ever seen, and was so fat he resembled a seal pup. The pair were totally devoted to each other though and we were able to find a home that already had a bulldog and a pug so they're in good company.

This week has been unusually busy, we had a rescue job pretty much every day, and a couple of them needed vet visits. Sadly we did have to put one to sleep this week after it bit pretty much everyone that went near him, that job never gets any easier but we certainly can't place these dogs, it's too dangerous. Harvey had x-rays as we just cannot clear this blasted limp, he puts hardly any weight on that leg at all and yet the x-rays showed that there's nothing wrong with him, so strange but at least we now know that he's not ever going to stop limping which is sad. Churchill had his hematoma drained, well, what could be drained, it had already started to congeal so we did what we could and then gave his ears a good clear out, oh how he loved that. And we had 3 new arrivals during the week which in total clocked up over 600 miles in 4 days!!!! Who says rescue is glamorous? To Berkshire on Thursday to pick up 2, To Essex on Saturday to take Bobby to his new home and to WALES on Sunday - boy that's a long way but our local volunteer is away so we drew the short straw. The house was half way up a mountain, there's certainly no doubt that it's a beautiful country and the dog is gorgeous, he's going to make someone a perfect pet, shame we couldn't keep him in Wales really but there is hardly any cover in that area. If you live there WE NEED YOU!!! The funny bit was as I came out of the house with the dog, Dizzy is sat in the car petting the horse who has his head through the passenger window. He briefly came and said hi to me and then went back to the car for more petting from Diz!!

Every now and again you have a day that reminds you exactly why you do rescue. It's so easy to get bogged down with the paperwork and the constant stream of people who need to get rid of their dog because they've had a baby that it can start to seem a little "what's the point". But yesterday we drove a 400 mile round trip that made me realise just why I'm here. It wasn't that I missed the Bulldog Club Incorporated Champ show, which I love going to, or that I had to be up at the crack of dawn, it was because there were two happy bulldogs at the end of it all. We drove firstly to Northampton to collect a lovely little girl called Bella, she'd been left with the local PDSA with demodex just over a month ago, they'd completed her treatment and despite the fact that all the nurses loved her dearly, it was time for her to find a home, and for once they allowed the rescue to collect her. She is the sweetest wee girl you could ever wish to meet. In the back of the car was Ruby, finally away to her new home. A lovely couple in Nuneaton who have had several dogs from us before including one that suffered seizures, they asked if they could take on the fabulous Ruby so to make it as easy on her as possible we combined the trip with the Northants run. With Ruby being in the crate, Bella got to ride the first few miles with us on the back seat, she spread herself out so much, and she's a tiny wee girl, no bigger than Maggie. Whilst I was in settling Ruby down in her new home she curled up on the front seat with Dizzy and enjoyed the sunshine that came through the window. She didn't half give me a dirty look when she had to go in the crate for the journey home, but we all know how much of a role health and safety play with the insurance companies - well that's what I told her any way. Leaving Ruby was easier than I thought it would be, I've had her with me for so long and hasn't had a single seizure since being on her meds, and she so needs a proper home again. She was very bewildered, but I've heard this morning that she's had a good night and everyone loves her which is just what she needs. Bella is adorable and I think she's caught the eye of the dog walkers !!

The doggy poorly pooh's seem to be passing, Stanley's were "perfectly formed" this morning - the first morning the hose pipe wasn't frozen too - typical!!!!! There's just 2 of my dogs still with it but we've created a disinfected area that dogs that are still poorly are banned from so hopefully it will stop in it's tracks. It seems to last 3 days and makes the dogs quieter than normal but doesn't really knock them out too much. Rosie is in her second day and George in his third and hopefully last day, although I didn't mind him getting me up in the middle of the night last night as it meant I was able to catch the lunar eclipse which was great, especially with such a clear sky.

I think we're back to normal but still have over 25 dogs in the system which is proving to be hard to stay on top of, many of my own dogs and a couple of the rescues have got tummy upsets, not sure where that came from but it seems to be working through them slowly, Reggie and Winnie have both had it, Stanley's got it at the moment and Ruby is unusually quiet (although there's a chance it's the start of a seizure). Let hope it leaves as quickly as it arrived, with a frozen hose pipe clearing it is not the easiest of tasks!

Things looks like they are slowly settling down, there's still loads to do at work, including a VAT return which is already 5 days late but the info I need is in the lost data so until that's re-entered Her Majesty will have to wait! I heard today that Max is going home, his owners have moved into their new house which is only a few miles up the road so hopefully I'll be able to stay in touch, he's such a sweet old boy and you'd never believe he's 13, he's been here on a long term foster since before Christmas so I'll be sad to see him leave. At least we managed to get the rescue accounts filed on time (just). Having lost our treasurer at the end of last year it was looking pretty dicey at one point but it looks like we have found a replacement who stepped in and saved us just in the knick of time.

I wouldn't go so far as to say last week was the worst week of my life, but I bet it runs a close second. I had so much go wrong last week that for the first time in 7 years I had to step away from the rescue and acknowledge the fact that I simply couldn't give it any time whatsoever. This has had a knock on effect as I'm sure you can image, dogs not being rehomed, phones not being answered, the complaints started quite early in the week, but the personal problems we were having meant that I had to prioritise and as the rescue is voluntary and doesn't pay the bills ...... it had to go on the back burner for a week. It would appear that all is OK though now and I can start to rebuild the damage. I would like to apologise to everyone that needed me and couldn't reach me, to everyone that has a dog in the system (I have written to many of you explaining what has happened). This isn't my job, it's something I do in my spare time because I love bulldogs and as I've gone the last 7 years without a holiday I guess the rescue owed me some time off.

I thought a new year was supposed to be a new start, in fact I think it's just a fresh list of things that can go wrong. It started with minor things, you know the sort of things that happen that just niggle you, what I'd probably call a hiccup. Mum gave me some money for Christmas which I thought I'd spend it on some home improvements and have the last of the windows replaced. To do so I had to have a radiator moved and sure enough a week later I realised the blasted thing had been leaking, not really a problem and the plumber sorted that out, but moving a radiator is not cheap. Then Dizzy's computer crashed, again it was an inconvenience as the workings of the business are in my computer so I merrily went on my way reconciling the year end bank statements confident that being one machine down wasn't too much of a problem to the businesses. But I spoke too soon, the day Dizzy's new machine was up and running mine crashed, except this time it took out the main software for the business, all the reconciling I'd done and cut me out of the Payroll software (Jason was not a happy chappy when I told he he wasn't being paid).

Sunday, as we were sitting drinking our cup of tea my daughter reversed her car into the gate post and took the whole lot over, in a way it was a good thing that the gatepost did go over as it saved damaging her car too much, but poor Katie was hysterical - so add another £150 to the cost of 2 new computers and a radiator. Her luck was just as bad as stepping into her salon yesterday morning she stepped into 3 inches of water, a pipe had come away from the basins over the weekend and flooded the entire place, her boss wasn't happy but at least the bad luck has shifted to someone else LOL.

So taking into account that there are almost 30 dogs in the system and I'm without a computer I hope my luck changes soon as we're now getting complaints - plus I've got returns to file with Companies house, Inland revenue and the Charity Commission before the end of next week too so it's getting a bit scary now!!!!!

The new windows were done yesterday though and I am thrilled with them,but now it's time to start saving for all the other expenses that have risen up around them and Southern Water informed me this morning that they've not been taking out the Direct Debit for the Water rates!!!!

Maggie went for a blood test yesterday to see if she was still anaemic and she's not. The vets were amazed at how well she was. She's not really putting on any weight but we think that she's still putting food into energy as she's had such a long recovery but hopefully now she'll start to put on some weight. Unlike the Winnie Pooh who also went to the vet yesterday, it's the first time he's left the house in 5 years so it was all a bit traumatic for him. He's having trouble eating and there's a red warty lump come up on his mouth, I thought it looked quite tumoury but the vet thinks it's probably nothing sinister so some cream to apply twice a day and see what it does so finger crossed.

Happy new year to you all, it's been a reasonably quiet Christmas this year in Rescue. This is the first year in the 7 years we've been running rescue that we didn't find ourselves on the M1 on Christmas Eve or the M25 on New Years Eve, that's been a tradition up until now, but now I've opened the mail that had accumulated over the holiday period there's 3 new dogs to list for rehoming so it was obviously too good to last. I just need to get properly caught up at work (it still surprises me how much work builds up when you're not at work) and then I can start bringing the rescue up to date so if you're waiting for me to get back to you, please bear with me a little longer.

Maggie and Ruby had good Christmases, Ruby hasn't fitted again and the results of her blood test show that she's on the right level of phenobarb so she can be listed for rehoming now

Maggie has bounced back like it never happened, that dog is so strong it's unbelievable, she had no idea what to do with the toy she got for Christmas though which was sad. I took the last of her stitches out over the weekend and she just lay on her back waving her paw in the air as if to say, carry on tickling my tummy, she's as proud of her scar as she was her boobs, maybe I should bring Paul O'Grady up to date on what's happened to her since she appeared on his show, especially now it looks like she's definitely going to stay.

So I hope you all have a fabulous 2008 and that the year is good to you.

At last the last day of chaos LOL at 5pm I can switch off the phones and have a holiday - yeah yeah - we'll see. There's 6 rescues spending Christmas here with me so it's not a real holiday but just not having the phones going all the time will be a nice break.

I've got Maggie and Ruby here still. Both girls went to the vets yesterday and Maggie had most of her stitches out, although there’s an area near the bottom that hasn’t closed properly so those stitches are still in. Both had blood taken, Maggie’s blood count is still very anemic but much better than it was when she first had the surgery done, it’s the same as she was pre-op so normal for her but not brilliant. She’s on some horse medication to improve the blood count so it’s working.

Ruby has had some blood taken too although the results aren’t back yet. It’s worth noting for those with an epileptic dog that the manufacturers of Epiphen put a voucher for a free blood test in every batch of Epiphen sent to the vet surgeries. We used this voucher for Ruby yesterday and all it requires is for the owner to agree that the results can be used in their research, what a great idea and many vets do not realize the voucher is in the box so mention it next time you go for a routine blood test with your epileptic dog.

OK, so how much as this cost so far…………

£1407.28!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This includes £184.00 for the emergency treatment Ruby had when she was rushed in fitting and £435.00 for Maggie’s hysterectomy and mastectomy (they gave us a 20% discount on that one which was kind of them bearing in mind it was a 5 hour op!!!). The rest is aftercare and blood tests, which includes several overnight stays with nursing care

So far we have raised …………..

£450.00 ….. So come on guys, another £1000 to go ;o)

Thanks to everyone that has supported these 2 girls through their hard time, Ruby will be looking for a new home in the new year,  Maggie is going to stay with me.

As we go into what we call "Emergency Cover Only" this is probably the most frantic week of the year, loads of loose ends to tie up and making sure that all those dogs that should move have moved as this is the last opportunity for them to be settled into a new home before Christmas. We don't take any new waiting list enquiries now and we can't take anything new on the rehoming service as our efforts need to be put into those that classify as an emergency during this week and then over Christmas I get my 2nd week off this year which I must say I am really looking forward to.

Maggie is HOME!! I was so excited to see her but must admit to feeling a little sad when the vet nurse pouted and said "we don't want Maggie Bulldog to go". She is still incredibly pale but what a fantastic job they have done at Woodlands Vet centre, I can't think of any other vet that could have successfully brought a bulldog through 5 hours of surgery, I don't think they even thought they'd do it. But she's the same old Maggie (just no longer saggy). She looks so different though.

Ruby is almost totally recovered and based on the fact that she hated the crate indoors she's back out in the kennel which I think she was quite relieved about, we certainly are as her cry sounded like a strangled cat - visitors were starting to wonder what on earth we had tucked in the crate I think. If it wasn't for Winnie Pooh's hatred of her she could have stayed in, but the armchair is reserved for Maggie who is now very comfortable and back where she belongs.

Well both girls had a quiet weekend and Ruby has come home this morning but she's a totally different dog. She's still very wobbly on her back legs and has a very vacant look on her face but she's improved and has now been started on medication, she's resting in the living room at the moment even though her kennel is ready for her to go back to, I just can't bring myself to put her out there yet, maybe later in the week once she starts being naughty again - I can't wait for her to be naughty again!!

Maggie looks fabulous, no one at the vets can believe she's come through this so well. I did go into see her this morning, but she wouldn't come out of her pen, there's heat pads under her bedding where her temperature dropped so much after the long surgery so she obviously knows where she's better off. She's alert and lively but very very anaemic so she's not totally out of the woods yet.

Just took Maggie in for her spay and tummy tuck, Ruby is perkier but can’t use her legs at the moment. They think it’s due to the excessive muscle usage during the seizures so we’ll have to wait and see. I did tell them she was usually really destructive so when they find the bedding ripped to pieces they know she’s better.

Maggie gave me such a hateful look for walking away.

We’d better do some fund raising to pay for all this now as Maggie will be there overnight and it looks like Ruby is going to need a second night too.

UPDATE: Maggie's surgery was a success but it lasted almost 5 hours! That's a hell of a long time for any dog, let  alone a bulldog to be under aesthetic. Once in they found that the uterus was actually fused to her colon so it became a complicated operation at that point. But they are pleased with what they done and the mastectomy went well even if she now has a scar that looks like she's had an autopsy!! They did find a couple of lumps that may be ovarian cysts or could be something a little more sinister so they've been sent off for analysis.

Ruby is still very wobbly on her legs, they got her to stand by supporting her under her belly with a towel but she crosses her back legs over so there is now a slight chance she's sustained some brain damage. We need to wait though for the drugs to wear off before we can be sure as she's had so much diazepam and Phenobarb in the last 48 hours that she's not really herself at the moment anyway. I must admit when I saw her this morning she had a vacant look on her face and she didn't seem to know who I was.

UPDATE: The vets called to say Maggie had managed to burst her stitches and in doing so popped a blood vessel, so she's had to go under again to have it tied off again. I've got to ring in the morning, I can't see me getting any sleep tonight.

And help pay for Maggie & Ruby's vet bill

This morning was one of the most stressful mornings I've had in a long time. We've got an epileptic girl in the kennel at the moment called Ruby, we know she's had 2 fits but hadn't started her on any medication due to her age and the serious side affects of long term use of the drugs. She was a bit quiet yesterday but the wind was so strong it was howling so I put it down to that as there's a couple of them that are cowering from this awful weather. This morning when I went out to let them out and give them their breakfast Ruby was fitting. I rush into her which was hard enough as she was in front of the her kennel pen door so I had to force it open to get in, just as she went into another fit. In the space of the half an hour that I sat with her she'd had 2 fits but she's was so covered in pooh that I'm guessing she's been fitting for most of the night!!!!!!!! The vet confirmed it was almost definitely a couple of hours minimum. I bundled her up and carried her (somehow) into the kitchen, lay her on the floor where she went into yet another fit - it really is the scariest thing I've ever seen. So from there to the car to the vet where I arrived covered in pooh with a dog covered in pooh babbling something about a dog in the back of my car that's fitting. They were brilliant, the vet came out of the operating theatre to treat her and one of the nurses helped me carry her in, We got to jump the queue - sorry waiting room - but it was urgent -  diazapam up her bum and injected into her vein, she's now on a drip. Keep your fingers crossed for her. Please

UPDATED: Ruby's had no more fits since she went in this morning but is exhausted so is staying in over night. Maggie is due in the vets tomorrow to be spayed and to have her tummy tuck so I'll check on her then and hopefully bring her home.

Well Maggie's "internal" examination has shown that the infection is definitely coming from the uterus so we have no option but to spay her and see what happens. She's booked in on Friday for a hysterectomy and of course a tummy tuck. Poor baby will loose her boobs completely but there is so much excess skin that they're just going to literally lop the lot off and sew it closed. It's going to be a very long and expensive surgery so we need lots of positive thought sent her way.

Just when I thought I was getting on top of Maggie's UTI it comes back so she's been to the vet this morning to see if we can pin point the cause. She's going in first thing Monday morning for a camera up her "you know what" to see if the infection is in her uterus and we have also talked about the possibility of a tummy tuck. We would spay her at the same time but as she already leaks urine in her sleep we're going to wait for the results of the swabs on Monday before deciding what to do. So it looks like Maggie gets to stay a little bit longer.

A day out means a day of catching up and today was no exception. Elvis (now called Ellis) went to his new home today too, he was so excited to see his new family he made a bit of a fool of himself but they didn't seem to mind his embarrassing behaviour. He's not had his eye surgery done yet but he's gone with enough drops to keep his eye in a reasonable condition whilst he settles in, we'll then pay to have the eye sorted out properly. His new mummy and daddy have had dogs from us before and are a lovely couple who always give every dog they adopt from us 100% so I know that dear Elvis/Ellis will have a fantastic home with them. Almost every dog I offered out last week has been accepted so my first job Monday morning will be getting all the home checks sorted out, at least it's going to make some space for Christmas!!!!

I went to my first dog show this year today, in fact it was the same show last year when I last got out the glad rags and enjoyed a day out. The Bulldog of the Year show is always a nice day out with some fabulous dogs in the running for the Bulldog of the Year title. This years winner was actually a nice surprise and was won by a beautiful dog. Sadly there were some people at the show who were obviously using the event for their own scrupulous means but it was nice to see some new faces around the ring as well as some very good old friends who I haven't seen for a very long time. The free wine was very well appreciated as my friends will confirm but thank you to the Incorporated for yet another very enjoyable day.

I managed to get almost every dog in the system either out on offer or listed on the web site over the weekend, I felt quite pleased with myself until I got the post this morning and found paperwork for another 3 dogs to list. Sadly 2 of the offers have come back already as no's, why do people join the waiting list if they don't really want a dog? It makes life so much more difficult - the same as those who get dogs and don't tell me or those that don't even bother replying when they are offered a dog. I don't think they realise just how much goes into the rehoming process. But anyway, today has been so busy I've hardly had chance to think about it. Mondays are always mad in the office with orders that have piled up at work over the weekend and obviously as they pay the mortgage they've got to be done first. Role on 4 o'clock when I can stop answering the phone - it hasn't stopped today yet.

Beverly and Peter came by today, and offered to take Alfie back with them to undergo his treatment with them. Skin problems heal so much quicker in a home and there's a chance they'll keep him too. His skin is bad but we've been so limited as to what we could do for him because of his kennel cough. He does seem to be almost through that so it was time to bite the bullet and shave off the fur on the most infected areas. He was such a good boy and left here wearing a t-shirt saying "Very Important Dawg". They took him straight to the vet who confirmed he had demodex so the series of dips can now begin and he'll be as good as new in no time at all. He's such a cute boy with a tail just never stops wagging.

I've managed to get some more of the book done too, we're now up to Chapter 10 but it's painfully slow going as I only really get the odd Saturday/Sunday afternoon or the occasional evening to work on it. It'll be worth it though as it covers all the questions I'm asked on a daily basis.

Remembrance Sunday, a day when all of us, no matter who our God is should take a moment to remember those that gave their lives and their hearts in times of War. Remember them, may their spirits have found peace.

The kennel dogs were treated to some lovely cooked liver in their breakfasts this morning, left yesterday by Peter and Bev who came down from London to walk the dogs and give a couple of them a bath. It looked like pooh but the dogs absolutely adored it, especially Alfie who didn't know if he should eat it or wag his tail at the lovely (his thoughts not mine) aroma. There's a mountain of rescue work sat here waiting for me to get on with so I'd better get started on it.

Rescue is so busy at the moment, it's been difficult for me to keep on top of all the work. The dogs I have here with me have either caught the kennel cough that Duke brought with him from the South Wales dog pound or are either being assessed or waiting for surgery so none of them can be moved on in any hurry making it difficult to help the new enquiries, especially if they're not able to keep their dog with them. Maggie is still here, we finished the last batch of anti biotics but she became infected again so is now on a another course. She is such a sweet heart, letting her go is going to be so difficult.

The VAT return at work was filed late and I was in such a panic about getting that in on time that everything else has just piled up around me. Role on the weekend when I can try and shift some of these piles, fingers crossed we don't get called out. Someone is coming to walk to the dogs on Saturday, they came earlier in the week and the dogs really enjoyed it, it's nice for them to have a break from me LOL