He was the only one to make it out of his litter. They came out hungry and seemingly healthy, but mom didn't have much milk and they started dropping one by one. It was heartbreaking. Our vet finally decided that Cali's milk must be toxic so at the tender age of about 5 days I started feeding him totally by hand, first tubing, then bottle and finally with a tiny little spoon. He was with me virtually 24 hours a day for quite a while, although he did have an English Cocker Spaniel male for a surrogate father as well. Anyhow he grew up to be one of the nicest, most gentle Bouvs I have ever owned.

He always did love puppies and small furry things, so when we brought home a new cocker pup, he took over the mothering duties, in this case as I recall, the pup had just eaten and Chooch was in charge of face and ear cleaning, in the interest of hygiene not to mention the possibility of finding a tasty morsel lodged there in the process. Despite the expression on the cocker's face in the photo, she loved Chooch too and followed him around constantly. She went on to become Ch. Birchwyn's Sweet Zephyr which was a very inappropriate name because she was more like a cyclone than a soft breeze.

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