2.52: It was like this when I got here

He loves chewing up sticks. I spend half my life cleaning the little bits off the deck. I can’t complain though, sticks are free – the deck and outside furniture isn’t [and both fell victim to Petey and Stella's jaws!].

3.52: Almost perfect

He may not be a well bred Amstaff [if he's an Amstaff at all] and his recall is fair at best, but we love him and wouldn’t swap him in a million years.

4.52: Hanging with his homie

Chopper and Bruno have quite the bromance happening. Poor Angel’s been dumped!

A head tilt

And a tongue poke

Badger has now gone to his new home. Good luck little man!

Our Facebook page has been a bit quiet lately and we’ve been hovering around 1990 likers for what feels like forever. I’ve been planning a giveaway for when we reach 2000, but I can’t wait any more! When we reached 1000 we gave away a collar and lead to someone drawn at random, but this time we’re doing things differently. Since we’re big fans of rescue and rescuers we’re giving back as well as giving away.

How to enter
1. Post a photo of a dog in rescue in Australia here.
Please include a link to their adoption page. A background story is optional.

2. Share the link on your wall and ask all your friends to vote for your nominated dog.

3. The dog with the most votes and the person who posted the photo will both win a voucher for a collar worth up to $150 plus postage within Australia.

Fineprint

1. Competition opens 12:00pm EDT 27/1/12 and finishes 12:00pm EDT 3/2/12.

2. Competition is open to Australian residents only.

3. Only one entry and one vote per person.

4. The dog must be in care, awaiting adoption and under legal ownership with an Australian rescue group at the time of submission. It cannot be in a pound environment.

5. You must have permission or legal right to submit the photograph. We reserve the right to seek copyright owner validation prior to awarding the prize.

6. You do not have to be the rescuer but we’d rather you had some sort of affiliation or connection with the dog in question.

7. Prize voucher is valid for six months.

8. The winner is the image with the most votes at 12:00pm EDT 3/2/12. Judges decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

9. Prize is not redeemable for cash.

Please feel free to share this on any forums or Facebook groups that you’re in.

In other unrelated news… the website isn’t working properly for some people using the latest version of Firefox on a Mac. We’re in the process of getting that fixed. If you experience issues in the meantime please use Safari instead.

The day prior to his glamour shoot we brought him to the dog park to burn off some steam before meeting Darren’s other dogs. He had an absolute blast there. Here’s some footage of him playing with Willow the Husky > http://youtu.be/yV4jowaSxMM

I got this shot of Marley running with Whiskey the Staffy [who belongs to Darren from Fetching Dogs]. He said that it looks like they’re on invisible motorbikes. They’re not invisible any more though! haha Nice Photoshoppery Darren!

Marley is available for adoption through Fetching Dogs in Sydney > http://www.fetching-dogs.com/2011/12/marley.html

Kiwi is available for adoption through Fetching Dogs in Sydney. Her PetRescue profile is here.

Since I’ve done ten facts about all my other dogs I thought it was about time I did Bruno.

1. Bruno is foster #4 and foster failure #3
Technically I kind of knew he was never going anywhere, but I had to tell Dave he was a foster until he fell in love with him too. I broke the news to him in Ireland after several tequilas but I did promise that if he didn’t fit into the pack I wouldn’t insist on keeping him. Luckily he fitted in way better than I ever could have imagined.

2. Bruno’s a lover not a fighter
If you were walking your dog towards us in the street you’d be forgiven for thinking that Bruno is another one of those dogs. But the screaming and lunging isn’t aggression, he just REALLY wants to play with every dog he meets. We’ve had him about six months now and I think he’s improving, slowly but surely – the screaming has turned into a whimper and the lunging is more like a happy dance!

3. Bruno’s another contender for the army
Angel may have perfected the commando roll, but Bruno’s an expert at the commando crawl! Until I stop thinking it’s cute and funny I don’t think we’ll ever be able to compete in an obedience trial – he adds a crawl to all his drop stays.

4. Bruno’s part rabbit
He LOVES carrots. He’ll stalk me if I’m eating one and will persist until I give him a piece. It’s a pain in the ass because then I have to give the other three a piece too [in the name of equality] but they only half eat theirs and leave a right mess for me to clean up!

5. Bruno had an owner
I found out a couple of months after we rescued Bruno [and his sister Juno] from the pound that their owner knew they were there. He was on holidays and his friend was supposed to collect them but no one ever came. I know that Renbury Farm would have made numerous attempts to reunite them so I don’t feel bad. Obviously he didn’t love them, so they’re both in a better place now. His loss.

6. Bruno doesn’t need expensive toys
The most high value toy for him is a sock. He knows not to steal them though, cause he’s a good boy… mostly!

7. Rude boy
Poor Bruno loves nothing more than to play, but the vast majority of dogs he’s met have taken an instant dislike to him. We think he wasn’t socialised as a pup because his doggy manners are terrible. His greeting is to run straight at them and jump in their face while trying to play biteyface! He really is an acquired taste. Luckily my dogs like him and he has a few buddies that don’t mind playing rough, so he does get to go on dates occasionally.

8. Bruno the redecorator
We don’t know what the hell he gets up to when we go out and leave him in his dog run, but when we get home it looks like a freak tornado has passed through there! The first day that he was given a paddling pool he kindly pulled his blanket out of the kennel and put it in the pool and then dragged his trampoline bed over and put the back legs of it in the water too. I wish we had surveillance cameras down there. I bet Bruno TV would be quite a hit!

9. Bruno’s a model dontchaknow?
Only a matter of weeks out of the pound and his stage Mom [me!] had already lined him up a gig as the cover star of Urban Animal Magazine. He was so good at his shoot, working the camera like a pro. I knew then that I’d picked a keeper for sure!

10. Bruno the clown
There are so many things to love about Bruno, but the main one is the fact that he makes us laugh allllll the time. He’s comedy gold! One of my favourite things that he does, because I know he does it purely to make me laugh, is his squishy crate face. If he’s put in his crate in the back of the car and we stand around talking before driving off, he’ll stick his face up against the bars with a deadpan expression and then slide down so he’s got a pig nose and his teeth are showing. It’s too funny!

This is the first photo of my 52 weeks of Bruno project. I never finished Chopper’s 52 weeks and he’s the good model, so time will tell if this projects suffers the same fate!

They’re available in the following sizes:

1024×768
1280×1024
1280×800
1440×900
1680×1050
1920×1200

Click on the appropriate link above to begin the download.

If you prefer your calendars to be of the hang on the wall variety you can still buy one from my RedBubble store.

People love free stuff, don’t forget to share these with your friends. Happy New Year, see you in 2012!

Check out the Bull Breeds in Need Facebook page if you want to see Bruno’s Christmas wish.

I know we have three other dogs, but it’s hard enough getting one blocky headed dog to sit still with a hat on – all four would be hell!

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Sniper dog.

As a little treat for being so good [or should I say massively sad and distracted], he got to have a rumble with Bruno afterwards!

Petey has his own Facebook page now if you’d like to follow his life in his new home > www.facebook.com/PeteyTheWonderDog