Last week was National Dog Day, and I couldn't be more excited to tell about the life of a bulldog! We have an English Bulldog named Diesel who is 5 and a half years old and with a standout personality. My mom had always wanted an English Bulldog, but my dad was not one to let animals inside of our house. Eventually, my dad raised his arms in defeat as we started on the great adventure of finding our bulldog.
Being from the Midwest, bulldogs are not very popular around our areas. Mainly a lot of people have labs, border collies, and many other outdoor breeds. We have always had black labs, and they truly are a great farm dog. We just got another black lab a few months ago named Herman, and if anyone has seen or read "Garfield" well Diesel is Garfield and Herman is Odie. That is the kind of relationship they have! But, today I am going to tell you more about Diesel.
We started our search online looking at different shelters and breeders, but we were coming up short. Then, we stumbled upon an English bulldog breeder in the Panhandle of Nebraska and we started the process of getting our puppy. April (the breeder) gave us a quick run down of bulldog 101 and I am so glad that she did.
They can't go outside for long periods of time when it is over 80 degrees because they can't breathe too well and they can die from heat exhaustion very easily. So, taking your bulldog on a walk is probably not the best idea. They are a dog that is probably the definition of lazy, which we definitely found out right away!
So after our bulldog 101 lessons, we picked out our puppy! A few weeks later the mom went in to have her C-section and gave birth to her puppies. However, the vet that did the procedure had never done a C-section on a bulldog and ended up giving the mother too much anesthesia. So, all of the puppies ended up getting very sick.
The one puppy that we had picked out passed away a few days later.. We were very heart-broken by this and we didn't know what to do at this point. However, April called us to say that she had one male puppy left and that he was still up for grabs. That is how we got Diesel.
A few weeks later we drove for 7 hours from eastern Nebraska to the Panhandle to pick up Diesel. Weighing in at only 6 pounds when we picked him up, my dad thought we had bought a rat! Diesel took a little longer than his siblings to get over his sickness, so, he was a bit smaller. We left April's house and our adventure with Diesel began!
The first few weeks, we always had to search everywhere for Diesel because he was so small! He was a very playful puppy and always loved to sit in anyone's lap. However, he was and still is a very "nasty" dog. When I mean nasty, I mean that he loves his plush toys almost too much, and that is all I am going to say about that :)
Many people with bulldogs have sometimes had health complications with their dogs, especially when it comes to breathing and allergy issues just to name a few. We were very lucky with Diesel as he has had no issues health wise, and trust me when I say that he is not starving as he loves table scraps!
Now that Diesel has gotten older, he has settled down a bit and he knows that he is alpha dog of the house. He has his own recliner chair by the couch that he is able to jump in and out of as he pleases to get his 9-hour nap during the day. He needs to sleep at least 20 hours in a day is what it seems like! He occasionally will get out of his chair in order to lay on the floor by the A/C, and then he will get back in his chair. Rough life, am I right?
If anyone comes to the door and rings the bell, he immediately goes into alarm mode and runs to the door to "scare" whoever might be there. However, when you have a 55lb bulldog come barking at you with a not so scary bark it is kind of hard not to laugh!
With all of his quirky and hilarious moments, my favorite is how he reacts when everyone is home. You can tell on his face that he is happy when all four of us are home, because he knows that we are his people. I could not imagine daily life without Diesel, and all of the moments that he brings to our daily lives.
Even though he cannot speak, I can feel his presence whenever I am in the house. Whether he follows me to the kitchen, or, I am doing homework at the desk while he is snoring VERY LOUDLY. Diesel has become a huge piece of our family, and I couldn't imagine it any other way:)
