BLASCO'S KAY BELLA OF A&B (PEDIGREE)
IDCR# IDC1281F; NKC# NKC14-900468339
HEIGHT AT WITHERS: 25"
WEIGHT: 85 LBS.

Bella was a runt. The word, "runt," should never be applied to sickly puppies. Part of what defines a runt is that it is not sickly, but small and not clearly showing the parent's genetics. Bella's mom, Kira of A&B is a beast of a dog next to Bella - a massive, a-typical masculine female far superior to the larger percentage of males you'll see at shows. Likewise, Bella's father - if you know your American Bulldog lore, is the infamous Peterbuilt of A&B and a beast of epic proportions not resembling Bella at all. Bella is a runt with a dramatically prestigeous pedigree - just exactly what we wanted. Runts tend to throw the grandparent's genetics into their puppies. Bella has only produced 100+ pound dogs at 85 pounds herself.

When we got Bella, she was 11-months old, pictured here the first day home. She was mildly unsocialized accounting for the downward turned tail, but certainly not neglected in any way, just not used to strangers. The tail rose within 48-hours as she acclimated. Bella's eyes leaked a bit as you see here until she was about 14-months and her head grew and face tightened up. Her eyes no longer leak. We bought Bella from Absolute American Bulldogs A&B in Homestead, Florida. Absolute breeds one of the last remaining lines of true working Johnson dogs, they have a solid operation, excellent dogs, a boat load of knowledge and we can highly recommend them to anyone seeking pure Johnson American Bulldogs.

Bella is a true Johnson girl. Her pedigree is packed tight with such names as, CH Rebel Rouser 33, JDJ's Machine Butis 73, Johnson's Rebel Rouser 28, Johnsons famous Rebel Rouser and Johnson's Red Machine, Crimson's Elrod, 2x CH Braveheart's Stash, IWPA'S Gold Medalist MGK's She's a Doozy, Blackwell's Rolex, Peeler's Apache and Peeler's Chief and a host of other world famous American Bulldogs, a true 6th generation PLUS Johnson girl, offering all the best John D. Johnson ever accomplished in her blood.

Here, Bella with newborn puppies. She is an excellent mother, needing help with nothing - though she gets plenty!

Bella with puppies. Bella is 25" at the withers, 85 pounds, and bears much bigger dogs exclusively.

This is Bella just one week after delivering 13-puppies. She's full of milk, but other than that she's already tightening up, she's healthy, happy and spry. Just after this shot was taken, she spent more than an hour at play with the other big dogs, acting like a puppy herself.

Many breeders see emaceated nursing mothers, the nutrients literally sucked out of them, some even with their fur falling out and showing other signs of poor nutrition. This can happen and it's not a sign of a bad breeder or anything, puppies do take a lot out of a female. However, that's certainly far from the case for our Bella.

Bella is just turned nine in these next two shots. She's had multiple litters, and has only ever provided 100+ pound dogs from her own 85 pound frame. At this age, a number of litters to her credit, breeding females often become loose jointed, sloppy and suffer a significant loss of life vigor. Health problems are common, and older girls, especially breeders, often spend the last years of their lives on pain medication. Not the case for Bella, often seen at a full run, and playing rough games with the younger dogs. Bella has no tumors, hip issues, eye issues or any health issues whatsoever.

Bella is in the house more often than the other dogs - she's earned it. I feel bad when I see breeders with dogs who have provided so much to their porograms, just allow a dog to languish in a little kennel once they're done breeding and working the dog. Shoot guys, demostrate some of the same loyalty to the dog that the dog has to you and your family.

Of course, all Blasco dogs do live at least a few weeks of every 30-60 day period on the yard, rain, snow or blistering heat, cause that's what's good for them, to maintain muscle, and optimum cardiovascular and respiratory health. We have big yards, room to run, and friends to play with. All primary Blasco yards are carefully maintained, natural woodland terrain, with unlevel ground, trees, rocks, grasses, flowers, downed limbs and other points of interest to dogs.

In this and the next shot, Bella is nearly 10-years old now.

Take a look at the beautiful Bella in profile, in her usual naturally stacked position. Bella remains a very healthy and robust Johnson American Bulldog female, with excellent structure, still wrapped in hard, thick muscle. You don't see many American Bulldogs looking this good at Bella's age, especially not having whelped numerous litters, and lived a "school of hard knocks" rough and tumble country bulldog lifestyle. With so many American Bulldogs these days suffering from a diversity of health problems, we take a great deal of comfort in the contribution Bella has made to our bloodlines, assuring the future of Blasco dogs.

Here is that strong and hopeful future, side-by-side with the waning, but still glowing flame of past glory: Bella beside her grandson Nacho.

I wish Doc would have still been here, in the frame with his son Nacho, and his mom Bella. Nacho is a truly fantastic son of Doc, casting his dad's and grand mother Bella's genes into generations of Blasco Family Bulldogs© to come, but my Doc dog would have been in this picture too, if there weren't wild roses growing over his grave as I write.