Frida English Bulldog Decatur, IL

Hello world, meet Frida! Frida had a rough start to life, and came to IEBR when she was almost six months old. She is now a happy and healthy one year old!

Frida was born with spina bifida, a congenital defect of the spinal cord. As a result, she has some weakness in her hind limbs and is a fully incontinent diaper girl. She doesn’t let this hold her back, though! Frida has gained so much strength and balance since she’s been in foster care that you would never know from looking at her that she has any mobility issues. She loves to go on walks around the block and is always game for a shoulder rub or back scratches. In fact, she’ll just crawl right into your lap to make it easier for you to administer those massages! Frida also has the very endearing habit of getting right up to her foster parents’ faces and gently nibbling their noses. Her affection just melts your heart, but her 54lb body perched on your lap can be a lot; she will need someone to remind her of her size around small people or those who prefer less physical contact.

Frida’s ideal living situation would be a home with a dog-friendly sofa, not a ton of stairs and access to a fenced yard for play. Frida’s regular physical maintenance includes all of the normal bulldog stuff like cleaning face wrinkles and ears, administering eye ointment for her dry eye, and moisturizing her cute little nose as needed. In addition, Frida requires diaper changes every 4-5 hours during the day. Frida needs help expressing her bowels during diaper changes, which may sound intimidating but is actually pretty quick and easy, and it means she rarely has a poopy diaper. Like all diaper dogs, she requires daily diaper-free "naked time” to allow her skin to breathe and air out. Currently she is crated with no diaper overnight and any time her foster parents need to be away from home longer than 4-5 hours. Her crate needs to be cleaned daily and her bedding laundered. Frida loves to have a warm bath and will park herself next to the tub at the slightest hint of a bath time.

Frida lived happily with a senior bulldog foster brother for several months and would probably enjoy having a calm fur sibling in her world. She developed aggression toward her female litter mate at 8-10 months old, which is not at all unusual for litter mates who remain together. They're playmates again now but Frida still gets grumpy with her sister at times. Frida has enjoyed the company of her two labrador foster cousins when they visit and has met other dogs while on leash walks without incident. Her foster family thinks Frida would do best with more submissive or non-confrontational canine companions.

All people are great as far as Frida is concerned, and she earns fans everywhere she goes! This gorgeous little nugget will make her forever family swoon -- and laugh a LOT. One additional consideration is that Frida's vets have strongly recommended that any future surgeries be performed at a facility with board-certified anesthesiologists. She had a scary response the first time she was put under, and both her regular vet and the specialists she's seen feel that she's safest with a team of board-certified anesthesiologists.

If you are interested in Frida please visit our website: www.ilenglishbulldogrescue.org, and read through our adoption criteria to see if you meet our requirements. If you do, please fill out an application to adopt.