Good Bloggie!

There is a tiny town/commune in France named…are you ready for this? Bully-les-Mines

Ah yes, can’t you see them mining sparkling, new French Bulldogs from the mountains; ready to be set free so they can begin zooming around, happily snorting?

Hum, wonder what other perfectly Bully cities and towns exist?

How about just plain Bully, France? Or perhaps you’d rather live in Bullyard, Queensland, Australia? Maybe Bulldog, New South Wales, Australia sounds like a nice address (They must really like Bullies there because they have another town named Bulli.)

Let’s expand this a bit more. What about Frenchie? A search finds several roads blessed with Frenchie in its name:

• Frenchie Draw, Lysite, WY
• Frenchie Lane, Lillington, NC
• Frenchie Place, MT
• Frenchie Burton Road, Eutaw, AL
• Frenchie Road, Crescent Valley, NV

Okay, let’s get really silly and look for towns and streets with Snort. Can you believe it? They exist!

• Snortin Ridge Road, OH
• Snortin Ridge Farm Lake, OH

Wow! Let’s really test the geographic nomenclature and see if Death Yodel exists.

Searching, searching…Bzzsstt!  Nope. No one has named a town, city, or street Death Yodel…yet.

That cute spot, right in the middle of your pied Frenchie’s forehead? It actually has a name. It’s called the “Haggerty Spot” or “Angel’s Kiss” depending who you talk to. Every single Pied we’ve ever had, or bred, has has this spot in some variation. In fact, this spot is one reason we ended up with our first Frenchie, Lucy. (More on that later.)

A happy Lucy.

The spot gets its name, not from the Frenchie world, but by way of a Boston Terrier breeder from the early 1900s.

According to the Boston Terrier Club of America:

One of the old founding lines of Bostons way back in the early 1900′s was owned by the Haggertys. Many of their Bostons were born with the dot on the top of their heads, and the marking became associated with the line. Hence, when you see it, it is ofter referred to as a “Haggerty dot,” “spot,” or a “Haggerty star.” Most lines can be traced to Haggerty stock ‘way back, and the dot pops out once in awhile in just about any of the present kennels. Vincent Perry, a very honoured international all-breed judge, and highly respected Boston breeder who wrote “The Boston Terrier,” a book that went to at least 5 editions, called it “the kiss of God” and considered it the icing on the cake as far as perfect markings were considered.

Other references to the phrase claims the spot brings good luck and is considered the finishing touch for a Boston Terrier.

Boston Terriers are a breed unique to the United States. They were developed in the Boston area, mainly by the coachmen, stablehands, and employees of the affluent society crowd. These breeders started with a mix of English Bulldog and white English Terrier (a breed which doesn’t exist today), and they would “borrow” purebred dogs from their employers to add to the developing line. It has been heavily insinuated that a French Bulldog or two (or three or four or more!) may have contributed to the developing Boston Terrier breed. Both these breeds were in the midst of their initial development in the late 1800s and it would not be surprising if this did happened. As most Frenchie or Boston Terrier owners know, their dogs are often mistaken for the other breed. For those not familiar with both breeds, the easiest way to tell the difference is by the ears. Bostons have pointed, or prick, ears. Frenchies have those famous rounded, bat-ears.

Cocoa, Lucy's daughter, displays her inherited "Angel's Kiss"

So how did the spot bring us our Lucy? First, we had a Boston Terrier with a prominent Haggerty Spot. We planned to eventually add a Frenchie, and after he’d been with us awhile, we started our search for a French Bulldog, both for him and ourselves.

While talking to one Frenchie breeder on the phone, she began describing the girl she had available. As soon as the breeder said her girl had a spot in the middle of her forehead, we knew we had to check her out. We, and our Boston, hopped into the car early on a Saturday morning and drove four hours to see if this girl was for us. Naturally, it was love at first sight and Lucy was a passenger for the four-hour trip home.

Sadly, Lucy is no longer with us, she passed last year, but it’ll be interesting to see if her “Lucky Spot” legacy continues past her pied kids and into any future pied grandkids or great-grandkids. It would be just like her to gently remind us – I’m still with you. If the spot does continue to appear, perhaps we’ll start calling it our “Forget-me-not Lucy Spot.”

Our hearts go out to John Travolta and to his family on the loss of their son Jett earlier this week. At the age of two, Jett contracted Kawasaki Disease after the family had their home carpets cleaned. Kawasaki Disease was a possible cause of lifelong seizures for Jett and his far too early demise. We wish the family well and hope the the media will let them heal in peace.

We’d heard the story of Jett contracting Kawasaki’s after carpet cleaning before and was just one of the many factors which came up during our research of whether to rid our house of carpet (or at least as much as we could). With Frenchies traipsing across our carpet (and all the other Frenchie-type things Frenchies are notorious for doing) we did a lot of carpet cleaning. Even to the point of buying our own cleaning machine. The up side of owning a carpet cleaner, is that we could/can pick and choose what chemicals (or not) to use when cleaning. The downside is, carpet is a host to mold, fungus, and other allergens, no matter how often you clean, or what with. And the fact that if there is a link to carpet cleaning and illness in humans, how far of a leap do you have to make to realize there could be a similar link to animals and carpet cleaning chemicals?

So with this, and with the hope for an easier to keep clean, better environment for us and our Crew, out went the bulk of the carpet and some old wooden parquet flooring, and in came slabs of porcelain. It’s been over a year now. We have seen an improvement in our allergy issues and in our Frenchies’. Not a complete cure, as living in Central Texas comes with a plethora of local allergies no amount of floor cleaning can remove, but a noticeable improvement. And with the addition of a chemical-free steam cleaner, we feel our cleaning chemical exposure has drop significantly.

For more on this topic, here is a link to an article with many good resources and suggestions for alternatives to carpeting:
Carpet Politics and Alternatives

And for more pet-related info to carpet cleaning, check the Itchmo Forums. Use the search term “Carpet Cleaning.”

If you have carpet, and can’t remove it, keep pets and children off freshly shampooed carpet for at least four hours. According to many sources, this is the critical time to avoid exposure to cleaning chemicals and when they can cause the most damage.

So while we and our crew can give a thumbs up to a tile floor, there is one part of our household that can’t: our dinnerware. It misses the softer carpeting and parquet floor. Maybe it’s time to move to stainless steel plates and bowls for humans?!

Was recently asked this by a shoe designer who has a whole line of Betty Boop inspired shoes. (More about her fun and sassy shoes later.)

Betty Boop was created back in the 1930s when Frenchies often had longer tails and rose ears weren’t uncommon. The bat ear had only been specified by the French Bulldog Club of America about 30 years earlier. It took other countries awhile to jump on the bat ear wagon.

Is it possible that Pudgy (or Pudge) is a brindle pied, rose-eared Frenchie? Take a look at Betty and Pudgy in the images below. (These images don’t show it, but Pudgy has a big spot on his back.)

Certainly gets you wondering where Max Fleischer’s inspiration for Pudgy came from. Short nose? Check. Cobby body? Check. Short coat, extremely cute and lovable looking? Check and check!

For more on Betty Boop, Visit her official site (where most of the images above originate), her Wikipedia entry, and a very dedicated fan’s site.

And the legal fine print: Betty Boop, Bimbo, Pudgy, and Koko are owned by, copyrighted by, and licensed trade marks of KING FEATURES SYNDICATE Inc. and FLEISCHER STUDIOS, Inc. All images of Betty Boop, Bimbo, Pudgy, and Koko are copyrighted by King Features Syndicate

Now what about those shoes? Convinced Pudgy IS a Frenchie and you’d like to have him decorating your tooties? Well today is your lucky day. There is a New York designer with a WHOLE line of Betty Boop shoes and they even look comfy as well as make a statement. The company brand name is Milkshake.

Here’s the line featuring Betty Boop and Pugdy:
Thought Bubble Collection

And a line called Bloom. Have to say, that color scheme is somewhat Ebullient!

Best of luck to Milkshake on the new shoe line and what a great question.

Yves Saint Laurent ‘s passing happened a couple of months ago, but recently found this in-depth blog entry by Pet Sugar about his constant French Bulldog companion(s) named Moujik.

Hidden in the entry is a link to a short article about famous people in history and their association with Frenchies. Look below the big photo of Moujik for the words in blue “once saying”. Click these to read/download the PDF.

Link to blog entry:
Pet Sugar

Is anyone really surprised that one of the most influential fashion designers of the past century insisted on a French Bulldog as a pet? And pied Frenchie at that!