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Diesel (Bulldog)

Born: April 29, 1996

For the record, Diesel did NOT drink the beer. This picture was taken on St. Patrick's Day, via peanut butter on the bottle, and sent to fellow soldiers in Iraq. We believe this picture is still posted in Baghdad.

Diesel is a very special girl. I could write a book about her...maybe I will. I found Diesel while I was in college, I was looking for a boxer at the time. I had always wanted a bulldog ( a brindle and white female to be exact!) but they were out of my price range. So I was looking at boxer litters, but they were all the cobby, stocky type and I prefer a bit more elegant. Then I heard about this bulldog litter and decided to call- they had a brd/wt female! So I went to take a look, they were only 2 weeks old, but I knew she was the one!! I put a deposit down, and didn't pay my rent so I could buy her. My roommate was not happy! Ended up moving back home shortly after I brought her home. She has been the love of my life and we have been through ups and downs together. She was very dog aggressive in her youth and spent most of her life as an "only child". She started mellowing in her older age, so we risked bringing Chewy home. Turned out she loves her boys!! But she was going senile, not mellowing!

Chewy (Boxer)

Born: August 25, 2005

I saw Chewy the day he was born. His mother was brought into the clinic where I worked because she was still have contractions, but no more puppies. I stayed with her the entire day and helped deliver the last 3 pups. I could not stop thinking about bringing a boxer puppy home!! Started giving hints to Eric. We had decided we would not get another dog until Diesel passed due to her aggression. Well, she kept hanging in there! We knew she was worse with females, so thought bringing home a male pup might work. We chose the most submissive boy and had every encounter between them organized and structured. We did not let them have full access to each other until he was 6 months old. I think we over did it a bit, but it worked. 3 years later we are still surprised and happy to see her sleeping with her boys.

Chewy is the happiest dog in the world. He loves everyone and is everyone's favorite dog. He completely melts into you and oozes love from his very core. He is very talented, one of these days I will start rally and agility with him. Not sure how he will do in a show environment. He is blind in one eye (birth defect) and tends to be startled easily. He absolutely loves lure coursing!! He is much better at it than Rio! Too bad he can't compete, I am sure he would win a BIF!!!

Apollo (Boxer) aka Polly

Born: April 30, 2006

We "rescued" Polly when he was a year old. He had torn a CCL and had surgery on his left leg by his previous owners. When he tore the right leg, his owners gave up on him. The vet called me and asked if I wanted a boxer. Of course I said YES!!! Had a consult with the surgeon and he said the tear was only partial and he wouldn't recommend surgery at this time. It took 8 months of "down time", but his leg healed just fine.

It turns out our Polly has some other issues- medical and behavioral. Previous owners told us he could not be crated. Sure enough, he chewed through the crate. Ex-pens cannot hold him back. Even though he is (was?) destructive, he has the run of the house while we are gone. After several pantry raids, we had to put a child lock on the pantry door. As long as we remember to lock it, we are ok! He is also food aggressive, our poor Diesel found this out the hard way. He has some sort of kidney issues. His bladder fills up way too quickly, and he pees all over our house. We have done many tests on him and have yet to discover the cause. However, this problem has lessened and we got rid of the carpet, so not a big deal anymore.

We did not intend to keep Apollo, we were just going to foster until his leg healed and we could place him. Then we realized his destructiveness, his urinating problem and gosh durnit, he is so cute!! So he stays. Despite his shortcomings, he really is a sweet boy, a great snuggler, great with kids, and he welcomes all new dogs/puppies into our house. We hope Diesel will teach him to be a "foster mom" if we ever have orphaned puppies or kittens again, as neither Chewy nor Rio have showed any interest in puppies.

Lexi (Boxer)

Born:

Lexi is not actually our dog, she belongs to a friend of ours and visits frequently. She and Apollo are best buds. She is a very high energy girl and wears out our boys whenever she visits. They finally figured out to "tag team" her, instead of all playing at once!