It’s been awhile since I posted an update.  We are settling into our new home in Southern California quite nicely.   As you can see, the girls are healthy, growing, and still the cutest things around.  Bulldogs are more popular here in California and when we take them out they get lots of attention.

Health update:  Lola is doing very well.  She hasn’t had any lung/cold issues since her bout with pneumonia at 4 months old.  She doesn’t need anything more done to her legs and hasn’t even been to the vet since her spay.  Yay!  Lucy was congested for a long time after we got her so they did an endoscopy.  She’s actually very well developed for a bulldog and didn’t require any enlarging of the esophagus or nasal work or anything.  The doctor switched to a different antibiotic — doxycyclin – and it finally cleared up her cold.  So she is very well now, too. 

Lucy is the athlete of the two.  She LOVES to walk and jump.  She can jump up on chairs and tables in the house as if she were a deft little grayhound.  She’s walked 3 miles with me and enjoys it a lot.  She’s got a short, sturdy build.  She still has a very sweet temperment and is loving and gentle with us and with strangers and other dogs.  As you can see in the photo above, she’s developing a massive underbite and her teeth show.  She’s growing into a classic white bulldog look. 

Lola is the whack job.  She’s just nutty.  She loves to mock fight, ‘attack’ your feet (still), growl and batt at your hands.  When you enter the house, even if you’ve been gone 10 minutes, you get the full fledged ticker tape parade from Lola.  She’s just beside herself with joy.  She’s quite the character.  Personality by the boatloads.  And what a great face!  (OK, I’m biased, but I think she has one of the greatest doggie faces ever.)  

I was thinking the other day that when I rather impulsively decided to get Lola, I wasn’t sure if I would regret it down the road, if I would sooner or later be more exasperated with the work required to have a dog vs finding it fun.   At this point, I can’t imagine my life without “the girls”.  Everyone in our family adores them to death.  They’ve brought so much laughter and love into our house.  (Cue the violin music.)  Seriously, they’re plain wonderful.

Here’re some pictures I’ve taken since my last post.

Things have been interesting at our house lately.  We are getting ready for a big move from Seattle to So Cal.  Doing that with puppies in the house has been… interesting.  At first the girls were very disconcerted by all the packing, boxes and contractors coming and going at all hours.  Now they barely lift their heads when strange men drag ladders through the halls.  And if they show any interest in the boxes it’s to drag things out of them as mom and dad put things in.

Needless to say, there hasn’t been a whole lot of picture taking going on.  I need to take pictures soon, though.  While Lola seems to have stabilized in her growth, and hasn’t changed much this past month, Lucy is changing every day and getting huge.  She’s a massive chow hound and has a big “beer belly”.  She doesn’t even look that small next to Lola anymore.  And when I tried some of Lola’s old clothes on her the other day, she was already too big for some of them.  Yikes!

I still contend that they are the cutest things ever. Lola has such a great face and she’s just hilarious to watch, whether she’s yawning, snoring, sticking out her tongue or hanging out watching you.  Lucy has gotten new bottom teeth that stick out even with her mouth closed.  She looks just like a little rabbit.  She’s going to be a very “traditional” looking bully for sure.  And she LOVES going on walks.  She has lots of puppy energy.

Health wise, Lola is doing well but Lucy has been congested since we got her.  Three rounds of antibiotics haven’t touched it.  Tomorrow she goes in for a special test to see if she needs to have her esophagus surgically enlarged.

They should name a wing after us at the animal clinic here.  Hopefully they won’t go bankrupt after we move.

Lola turned 7 months old on Feb 22.  Lucy turned 3 months on 2/29.  Lola’s spay went well in the end.  When we first brought her home, however, she was very sick from the anestheia and just laid on the kitchen floor shaking.  She did NOT want to be moved.  I brought down a sleeping bag and slept with her and by 3am she was up and eating.  By the next day we had a hard time keeping her from playing crazy rough with Lucy, as usual.  Her incision is already healed. 

Lola’s new thing is sticking out her tongue.  She will have it out for hours.  It’s pretty funny looking.  Lucy is fearless.  She loves to egg Lola on, steal things and run away, and in general induce her to play as rough as possible, even though she’s half Lola’s size (though she won’t be for long, she’s growing like mad).   It’s funny, because as rough-and-tumble as she is with Lola she’s very sweet and docile with us. 

Here’s a gallery of more pictures from this past month.  CLICK HERE.

I was playing around with wide-angle lenses for my photo class.  After about an hour with Lola holding a big lense about an inch from her nose, and getting it licked repeatedly, and cleaning it off, I got this picture.  I didn’t notice the sign in the door when I took it, but I kind of like the irony!

I’m taking a couple of internet photography classes, so recently I did a photo session with “the girls”.  They are now definitely “the girls”.  Even though Lucy has been with us less than three weeks, we feel like a family.  Lola and Lucy are regular pack mates.  They sleep together, eat side by side and play, well, the way pack mates do, even if that means sometimes a bit rougher than we would like.  Hey, they’re bulldogs! 

Lola has her “coming of age” surgery in a few days.  I try to think of it as a rite of passage like, say, tattooing in Africa.  That’s to keep from feeling guilty about essentially giving her a hysterectomy at 6 months old.  But it is a necessary thing.  Even if we really wanted to breed bulldogs, and we don’t especially, her leg issues mean she’s not a good candidate for it.   That’s OK.  She’ll live longer if she never gives birth.  She really is a beautiful bulldog — and getting quite large.  And Lucy, well, she’s still little bitty and super cute.

More pics:

Lola turned 6 months on 1/22.  Hey, that’s like 5 years old to you and me!  She’s grown a lot in the past month and looks very healthy and strong.  She’s a real beauty!  She’s also mellowed alot over the past few weeks becoming more stately and ‘dignified’. 

Here’s a ‘best of’ gallery of pictures from this past month.  There are a few of her new sister Lucy, too.  

It’s been an exciting few days.  We picked up Lucy from air cargo on Friday night.  It had been a long day with a 3+ hour layover in Atlanta and Lucy was shaken and, well, stinky!  She was so tiny (MUCH smaller than Lola had been when we got her) and so quiet.   Iby the new pup and can’t focus on anything else when Lucy is in the room.  But the size difference, and Lola’s  was a little worried she was sick.  But after a few hours she perked up considerably (as you can tell from the ‘jack rabbit’ pictures in the gallery). 

Lucy is a very different beast from Lola.  She’s meek and mellow and loves to be held endlessly.  She has a puppy’s natural tendancy to nibble, but nothing like Lola’s craziness.  She seems very passive and loving.  But she’s no scaredy cat or trembly animal who’s afraid of everything.  She’s not afraid of Lola (despite some very aggressive growls on Lola’s part).  Even though we have Lucy in a pen, she tries her hardest to play with Lola.  And let her outside and, man, you’ve never seen such a fast puppy.  She LOVES to run and dodge.  With her small size and coloring she looks just like a bunny. 

What does Lola think?  Lola is such an assertive, abundant girl, she doesn’t realize the power of her own enthusiasm.  She initially growled and snarled at Lucy, but that seems to be over now.  Today they played together through the mesh of Lucy’s pen and Lola seemed to realize that Lucy is going to be entertaining and not just, well, lunch.  We’ll keep it a “meshed in” relationship for a while — let Lola calm down a bit. 

It’s going to be interesting! 

Here’s a gallery of pictures from Lucy’s first 24 hours in Seattle.

We will very shortly take possession of this beautiful baby girl.  Back to sleepless nights and mysteriously appearing puddles! 

One part of me thinks I’m insane.  Lola was just reaching the point where she’s getting a lot easier.  She’s pretty much house broken, sleeps through the night and was done with the vet/medical stuff.  But we wanted a second bulldog and I guess this is as good a time as any.  Our living room has been reconfigured to be “puppy central” for the past few months so we might as well get it all done while we’re set up for it.

Logic aside, I’m just plain excited to get our new little girl.  We’ve loved Lola to death.  We’re hooked on bulldogs!  Lucy will be arriving this FRIDAY.  Yikes!  I’ll post pics as soon as she’s here.  You know me — she’ll have an entire portfolio before she’s been here 24 hours.

What will Lola think?  If she manages not to eat Lucy in the first few weeks, I hope they’ll be fast friends.  Lola could use a playmate.

Lola “and friends” are back from the epic journey to San Deigo for Christmas.   I had to share my favorite picture from the holidays.  Beauty and the Beast!  Lola has got a particularly cute Quasimoto thing going on in this picture which pairs nicely with the Disney-esque beauty of our daughter, doncha think?  Look at that studied pose – what a natural!

The 2.5 day drive each way went OK.  Lola mostly slept in the car but was pretty pent-up and hyper in the hotels at night.  She was a doll at the relative’s homes — shockingly sweet and calm.   I think it made her happy being around a ton of people because she was a lot less manic and bitey than she can get at home.  Apparently that is a state brought on by sheer boredom.  Can’t blame her there.  Without the chance to walk/run to get out her energy, it’s tough to keep a puppy occupied.

Her leg is doing very well post-op.  The incision was competely healed within one week.  Oh, the power of youth!  She’s walking on it fairly well already and is otherwise robust and hearty as you please.   At Christmas she was our “Tiny Tim” with her tendency to sit on her butt and scoot around or walk with a limp.  Kinda pathetic and adorable at the same time.  I think it helped her win over even the least dog-loving member of my family.  Looking vulnerable has it’s perks!

It won’t be long before the limp is gone entirely.  I already have to keep her from running or going up and down the stairs, because her body is ready to do it even though the doc says she needs 8 weeks before doing anything strenuous.  So all’s well that ends well.

Lola sends her best bulldog thoughts & wishes.  Happy 2008!

It’s been an eventful month since my last post.  Besides putting on about a gazillion pounds (she’s now over 30 pounds of devine doggieness), sleeping 14 hours a day , eating everything in sight and being her usual charming self, we had medical crisis #2.  She was pretty much recovered from the pnemonia after a week.  But then we started noticing her limping and favoring her back left leg.  It progressed to the point where she tried to hold it up on walks and didn’t want to stand up from a seated position, but would use her front paws to scoot along.  This is not a good thing.

We took her to our vet who said “patellar luxation” and recommended a surgeon.  The surgeon said “patellar luxation” and scheduled surgery.  This is a condition in which a dog’s kneecap doesn’t stay in position but can slip out to the side.  If this happens a lot, it can make the dog lame.  And in such a young pup, there’s a danger of her bones not growing right if she doesn’t use the leg properly.  It’s a common dog ailment and not particular to bulldogs.  Oh, the things we learn as dog owners.

I hestitated to post about this because I don’t want to contribute to the “bulldogs have constant health problems” point of view.  Other people with pups from Lola’s line haven’t seen this issue.  I think her rapid growth contributed to it.  But, then again, she’s just plain special — we knew that.  Find me a more loving, wonderful, funny, solidly-built tank of a dog and I’ll buy you a Starbucks.   I wouldn’t trade her for anything.  

Lola had the surgery and is recovering very well.  Soon she will be as nimble as a baby deer.  Well, maybe not a baby deer.  Anyway, we’re done with the doctors for a good long while now — I hope!  On to Yuletide fun.  For Christmas, Lola gets a 2 day car trip down to San Diego to meet her extended family.  They will no doubt think we’re completely bonkers.  But I secretly bet she’ll make a convert or two while we’re there.

Here’s the five months photo album.  Enjoy!