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I am delighted to report that the BCA site is now one of Microsoft's "Hand Picked Sites." If you go to http://home.microsoft.com and click on their "Best of the Web" link, then on "Lifestyles & Hobbies," then on "Pets" and finally on "Dogs" you will see that the Bulldog Club of America site is at the top of their list (as of June 15) and is one of only two four-star dog web sites.

Mention of the name Microsoft always elicits strong opinions but, love them or hate them, you have to admit they have good taste in dogs!

As promised in the last issue of the BULLDOGGER, one of the most ambitious tasks that was planned for the BCA web site has come to fruition -- the digitized images of the portraits in the Gallery of Nationals Winners are available via the World Wide Web. You can now access these images from the comfort of your own home (or office, when the boss is not looking). Before I tell you how to see the images, indulge me while I relate some of the details of the process of creating this site.

The portraits in the Gallery were photographed by Mike and Sandy Reid of Hawaii at the 1996 Nationals in Ontario, California. The photographs were subsequently digitized into electronic images. These are quite large, both in terms of the storage space that they occupy on a computer disk as well as in the sense that they would overfill most computer monitors when displayed at full size. In order that they are easy to display and, more importantly, don't take too long to download over the Internet, the original digitized images were processed further. In preparing them for distribution on the web, I produced two versions of each, one 60% of original size and the other 30%. In addition, I digitally "compressed" the resultant images rather aggressively to make them occupy even less space. This last reduction in size brings with it a reduction in image quality, but the quality of the results is still good.

The image processing steps were quite successful. Each original image occupies about three quarters of a megabyte, about the same amount of storage required for 200 double-spaced typewritten pages. After processing, the two smaller versions of each image use roughly twelve and fifty times less storage space than the originals. They are now reasonably quick to load, even over a relatively slow modem line. The time it will take you to view each will vary with a number of factors but, if the Internet is not too busy and you are running a fairly fast modem, it will take a few seconds or so to load each small image and five or ten seconds for the larger version.

I decided to organize the access to the images based around the text of the most recent explanatory handout that describes the Gallery, putting in a link from the section describing each winner to the small and large images of the portrait of that particular dog. Thus, you can read about each BOB or BOS and then click on the link to see its picture. I also made a page that presents all of the small images. This takes a while to load but, in my opinion, it is worth the wait. After it has loaded, if you click on any of the images, you will see the larger version of the image; click on the dog's name and the text describing it will be displayed.

So, how do you get there? Go to the BCA site at http://thebca.org and click on the link called "Gallery of Nationals Winners." Two final comments: First, if anyone wants copies of any of the very large original images, I would be happy to e-mail them to you. Send me a message telling me which ones you want and I will send them back to you. Second, the images are up to date only through the 1995 Nationals so Ch. Milcoat's Titus and Ch. Brumar's The Divine Ms M are the last two portraits on the site. Hopefully the photography and digitization of the portraits will continue in the future.

The electronic breeder referal feature continues to be very popular feature of the BCA site. Susan Rodenski tells me that she receives ten or more electronic messages requesting breeder information per day.

The Calendar of Specialties is also getting lots of visits. A reminder that we have the luxury of including lots of information about upcoming shows on the web site so if your club is hosting a show and would like to see more information posted about it, send it to me. Details on registration, hotels, directions to the show, hospitalities, etc. can all be easily included so e-mail or surface mail any additional information you would like to see listed to me and I will post it on the Calendar page.

Remember the BCA site's address, it is: http://thebca.org

I've also noticed however, that this subject is not something we B-O-E's (Breeders - Owners - Exhibitors) often talk about, or if we do, it's in low tones and slight smiles with deflected eyes. Like those THEY have us believing this research.

Well, I don't. And I go again to our bulldog listserv conversations to support this. Our cannine companions make us laugh as we watch them reason through their problems, usually to get what they want and sometimes to make us feel better. Their reasoning abilities show forth as humor, and also intelligence as we watch their deductive reasoning powers.

There's a bulldog known as Otis who shows his smarts by wedging himself between the couch and the person, waiting for his person to move, so he can grab the whole spot for himself. As soon as his person moves, viola! He's asleep and pretending he can no longer hear you. Dead giveaway is the lifting of one eyelid. Briefly.

One very smart girl named Pooh walked into her family room with the thought in mind that she'd get up on the couch for a snooze. Much to her disgust she discovered that every square inch of it was currently occupied by one of her kids. She went up to each one of them and poked them with her nose. They all responded by squeezing their eyes shut even tighter. Pooh signed and walked into the middle of the room. All of a sudden she cocked her head in the manner she did when she'd thought of something clever. As she was watched by her humans, she slowly walked out of the family room and went to the front door. Once there she started her "someone is at the door" bark. All of a sudden four heads popped up on the couch, each one let out a "woof" and flew to the front door to greet whomever was there. All the while Pooh was strolling back to the family room and proceeded to get up on the couch. She got her spot.

Reasoning skills? Intelligence? I think so. Creation of humor? I know so. What joy in our lives!

One listserv contributor talked of the loneliness and depression she was suffering when circumstances had caused isolation from family and most of her friends. Her story continues. "One night after a particular trying day I c limbed into bed and just broke down and bawled by head off. Funny, my best friend in the world couldn't stand to see me so upset so she did the best thing she could do to bring me happiness. The bed gradually became full of all her toys. She was bringing me all the things that made her happy in an attempt to take my blues away. It worked. .. She is truly a gift...."

I rest my case.

*Thanks Greg, Beth and Valerie