And they call it puppy love...

During the early part of November 2004, my wife and I made regular (almost weekly) trips to the local puppy store to peruse and play with the puppies. This particular puppy store has a very relaxed policy regarding playing with the puppies. You, yourself are allowed to pull any puppy out of it's cage and play with it in one of the play pens, as long as one of the pens was available. Brilliant. For weeks we would just go and play with whatever cute puppies they had at the time. Then one fateful day, they happened to have an English Bulldog puppy and that was the beginning...of the end. I had always loved the look of the English Bulldog, but never really considered one as a personal pet. That is, until we saw this puppy...

English Bulldog puppies have to be one of the cutest things on the face of God's green earth. They're covered in wrinkles & rolls and are the most adorable things ever. I almost instantly fell in love with the breed. This puppy in particular was an 8 week old female with a nice, white color. She was cute, a bit timid, and was wheezing from having a bit of a cold. I was in love. Unfortunately, I would never buy a puppy from a puppy store like that. The source of the puppies is always suspect, they charge WAY too much, and I would much prefer to buy from a reputable breeder specific to a paticular breed.

Over the next few days I researched the traits of the English Bulldog breed. They're known to be calm and lazy with a very mild temperment. Some of what I read suggested that they require very little exercise. My wife and I were living in a 1 bedroom apartment at the time and it seemed like the English Bulldog would make the ideal apartment dog. Perfect. It was a match made in heaven...or so we thought. And so began the search for a dog of our own...