How did we end up with DDB?

In the 33 years (geez, that is way more than a quarter of a century) that Dave and I have been together, we have always shared our lives with a BIG DOG, and interestingly enough each of those dogs belonged to the working group of AKC dog breeds, all of them were spectacular companions in their own right, each of them made our lives better for sharing it with them, and none of them will ever be forgotten.

• Frasier (Boxer)

• Galahad (Rottie)

• Boone (Neapolitan Mastiff)

• Percy (Bullmastiff)

After we lost Percy to a brain tumor, just before his sixth birthday, Dave and I swore we’d never have another big dog.

Either Percy’s illness and eventual death was so much more traumatic than the others before him, or as we grow older, we are just less equipped to handle the terrible sadness of losing a best friend.  Either way, we decided that we had endured enough heartache, and just weren’t going to put ourselves through that again.  NO MORE BIG DOGS!  That decision was made in January 2008, the very day we had to lay Percy to rest.

January 2009 rolled around before we knew it and the house had really not been the same since Percy left us.  I, more so than Dave, was really finding it difficult to be without a BIG DOG.  There is just something calming and very reassuring about the companionship of a gentle giant.  In my mind, all was not right in the world unless a working dog of some sort was present and accounted for in the Bullistik home, and I wasn’t going to be happy until another big dog joined the rank and file.

As luck would have it, a friend that had purchased a Bullistik Frenchie from us, was herself a Dogue De Bordeaux breeder.  I found myself on her website quite a bit after we lost Percy.  The truth is that when I was in search of a working dog prior to getting Percy, the French Mastiff was high on my list of possibilities, but they were not AKC recognized at the time, and it did not appear that much health testing was being done within the breed or that the breed was consistent at all, so at that time I had ruled them out in favor of the Bullmastiff.

But, I had not stopped keeping tabs on the breed. Eight years had lapsed since I had x’d them off my list of possibilities and in that time, the breed had attained their AKC recognition, DDB breeders seemed to be more cognizant of their responsibility to the breed so health testing was becoming more commonplace, and the breed seemed to be headed in the right direction, slowly but surely.

So, I contacted Blue Diamond Bordeaux, and was placed on her waiting list for pick male from an upcoming litter.  On May 21, 2009,

the litter between AKC Ch. Emberez Endeavor x AKC Ch. Yiannos Jewel was born, and within days, I knew which boy was mine.

In July, Dave made the long drive to Denver, Colorado to pick up ‘Crusader’ aka Blue Diamond Crusader at Bullistik and when that gorgeous little man joined the Bullistik crew, he restored the order and balance that had been missing, and the rest of our journey with this breed will unfold in our home and on these pages as time moves forward.

Seriously folks: look at this face………completely and utterly captivating and irrisistable!

It is now 2018, and we lost our wonderful Crusader from a deadly blood cancer that could not be cured.

BUT, Crusader, in the 6 years that we shared with him, managed to irrevocably sell us on the Dogue De Bordeaux breed.   Although his short life was every bit as devastating as Percy’s for us, his positive spirit, unbeatable temperament, and fearless loyalty made it impossible for us to ever consider any other protector for our family than a Dogue De Bordeaux.

So, Bullistik is now guarded faithfully by our dual Security Force, the Brothers BIG!