What's in a name?

I've been having such fun opening the doors of the advent calendar on the Intellidogs site http://advent.intellidogs.com/ Ma maitresse has been helping me enter some of the competitions. She wants me to wear a silly hat for one of them but I'm not sure.

It's full of very interesting articles about dogs. But also some stories that make me a little bit sad. Take poor Lillie on Day 10, who so desperately needs a nice home for Christmas. Her story is particularly sad because although she is a beautiful lady, she is 12 years old and it is always so hard to find homes for older dogs.

That's because you human beans much prefer to buy puppies. And according to a programme I saw recently on your heenglish television, some of you even like to buy tiny little ones which you call teacup puppies which even I can tell are very poorly little puppies who, if they live at all, are going to cost you thousands of your heenglish pounds in special care to keep them alive.

And, those of you who read my humble little blog, will know what's coming next - that brings me onto the subject of puppy farming. There was a very interesting debate on http://advent.intellidogs.com/ about how to educate you human beans to the reality of puppy farming.

Now I'm only a leetle dog, and a French one, too, whose heenglish is not very good. But I really think you heenglish are using the wrong name for these dreadful places. Ma maitresse wrote this for me on that site: "Strange that this should pop up today as I was just going to help him (Ci) with his latest blog about the phrase 'puppy farming'. Because he has a theory that the very name is part of the problem.

Because the public know animals are born and raised on farms. They probably retain a nostalgic image of a jolly farmer’s wife in her gingham apron with a crowd of scampering puppies around her feet as she feeds the free-range chickens – in the sunshine, of course.

So to the average member of the public, the term puppy farm probably suggests an idyllic upbringing for a puppy and indeed, the very place from which one should buy a puppy.

Our American cousins are probably nearer the mark with puppy mills. After all, the phrase “dark Satanic mills” is graphically engraved into many people’s minds and probably conjures up an image which is far nearer to the truth."

That's what I believe. I don't think all the human beans who buy farmed puppies are bad people and I really believe some think they are doing the right thing in buying from a "farm".

So I think they need to be shown what puppy farms are really like. It would cost a lot of money to have adverts on your heenglish television, but that would be a quick and effective way to let people know.

Me and ma maitresse have just been back to the dog's home where I came from and brought home a little fi-fille dog called Fleur. I was a bit jealous to begin with but she is very pretty and very well behaved, only 18 months old, clean in the house and so grateful to have a new forever home.

I do hope everyone who reads my little blog will find room in their heart and their home this Christmas for a wonderful older lady like Lillie or for any one of the thousands of dogs in overcrowded refuges, just waiting for your visit.

Merci, mes amis and 'appy Christmas to you all.