Granny Annie, here. Gosh, where to start? . . . . . I am, without a doubt, one of the biggest animal lovers you will ever meet. My animals are my "children" and I love them all dearly. My whole life, I have always had a few at a time, but about 15 years ago I moved out to the country and the numbers grew, mostly farm animals.
At one point, I found myself without any dogs (the last one had just aged out) and I needed one for protection, but I prefer to have two dogs together to keep each other company when I am busy or not at home. Two different people ended up giving me a dog.... one was a full grown female Boxer, the other was a male Boxer puppy. I decided that I would read up and study more about Boxers and raise a few litters. (Later on, I ended up with one more female, also) My goal was to (and still is) provide the average person that loves Boxers and wants them for pets, but isn't interested in the high dollar show dogs, an affordable, but quality dog they can love and enjoy.
My Boxers aren't papered, but they are full-blood. One had papers, but they were lost in the transfers (I am her 4th owner!), and the other one's parents had papers. Long before I ever let them breed, I made sure they had the best quality food and were in the best of health. I raise them as though they were quality show dogs. People marvel at the quality of my puppies.
Things went well for awhile. Word got out as to what quality dogs I had and their affordability, and I had far more calls for puppies than I had puppies... I had a long waiting list (I won't over breed my dogs).
Then . . . . . . as everyone knows . . . . . . . our economy took a nosedive.
A little less than a year ago, I had one puppy left from a litter. He was suppose to have been the first one to go and I held him for the woman because I knew her. But before she picked him up, she learned that he still had a tail. She had a fit about it and refused to take him. By that time, he was getting too big for anyone else to want him, too. Everyone wants cute, little tiny puppies. You know, the ones that aren't really ready to leave their mommas. Add into the mix, he was white with a slightly longer than average nose and everyone thought he was a Pit Bull and didn't want him. So.... I still have him. You guessed it. That was Bubba. And he has made the most wonderful dog! I am so glad he stayed!!!! :)
Then my other dog had her first litter. Amazingly, the white ones sold first! Because of our extreme heat this summer, I left them on their mother a little longer and didn't sell them until they were about 8 weeks old (they weren't eating solid foods too well in that extreme heat). It was the very best for the puppies. But, you guessed it.... people didn't care about that. They wanted a tiny, cute, little puppy, so that made them much harder to sell. That, combined with the fallen economy, and there were very few calls in answer to my ads.
As time went on, the puppies were getting older and even harder to sell, no matter how low I dropped my price. People came to look at them, but they wanted a tiny puppy. I was willing to 'give' them to the perfect home, but that wasn't working, either. (I am very strict about my puppies going to not only a good home, but the best home for each puppy's personality. And I never send a puppy to an unfenced yard where they will live on a chain or run loose). Just in the short life of these little darlin's, feed prices kept shooting (yep, that record drought) and people's finances (including mine) kept dropping. So next, a flood of "free" dogs hit the newspaper, many full-blood and some with papers. These dogs had ALL of their shots (only annual boosters needed) and many were also already trained, so that knocked out even more people.
So, you are getting the picture now, I was looking at a possible 3 more dogs. Now, lets add a little more into the mix. One of those had met up with an accidental injury when she was only a few days old. She pulled through and is healing up very nicely. She is also the absolute most intelligent of the bunch, the most gentle with me and the other critters, and the most alert to 'intruder,.' but she has an occasional slight 'twitch' that now only shows when she is tired, so no one wanted her. The second of the three... she antagonized a cat one too many times, it got her eye, it got infected, and, although it is steadily healing and looking much, much better, no one wants her and I would not let her go, anyway, until she is fully healed, which, once again, makes her too old for anyone to want. But she is so gentle and loving... and an excellent hunter! Then the third one... she is the absolute pick of the litter, couldn't be marked better, and very strong and sturdy, yet a little on the aggressive side... an excellent guard dog! All I heard about her was... she is too big.... she has a tail (I don't chop off tails) ..... she has an under bite (She's a Boxer!) ..... and every other excuse you could imagine. So the truth of the matter is... our economy has fallen so badly that no one can afford a large dog any more.
So, I now have 7 Boxers that I am VERY attached to and love very much.... plus a Miniature Schnauzer that I rescued from being taken out into the woods and put down with a bullet. Then there is a good handful of cats, but we won't get into that right now. SO .... I am FINISHED raising Boxers! And I hope and pray like everything that I can come up with the funds to get all of them (dogs and cats) "fixed" before any unexpected accidents happen. I plan to keep them apart during their 'cycle' time, but determined males are sometimes impossible to keep away from those females. So my goal is to just get them ALL fixed just as soon as I can.
Along with much of the rest of this country, my own finances have drastically fallen and hit near bottom. I am working day and night trying to remedy that, but who knows where it will go. Feeding and caring for this many critters, with little income myself, has become an enormous challenge, but I love my 'family' of critters and I could never dump them off, send them to the pound, put them down, or anything of the like. I love them far too much!!! They have also turned out to be very valuable to me, as you will eventually read in this blog (protection, companionship, health alert, etc). I will also be sharing with you my economical (but healthy) ways of feeding and caring for so many critters.
I have several purposes that I plan for this blog to serve, but one purpose stands out above all the others. My biggest purpose is to educate everyone that thinks they want a Boxer, with the knowledge of what a Boxer is all about. Boxers are a highly intelligent and very unique dog, with very unique needs. It pains me to see so many people taking a Boxer home, only to later "get rid of it" because it was simply doing all of its 'Boxer' things. Many people read descriptions about Boxers, but they still don't fully grasp what a Boxer is really all about. My hope is that by letting my Boxers write this blog, people will get a much better understanding of the unique personality of a Boxer, BEFORE they take one home, only to learn that they really didn't want one after all. Boxers STRONGLY attach and bond to their owners, and to separate them is devastating to the dog. Boxers are absolutely WONDERFUL dogs!!!! I absolutely adore mine! But they aren't for everyone. Please, do your research and CAREFULLY choose your family's dog according to your family's unique needs.
