The Ones You Let Go 💫

Legacy….. RIP Rolls Royce.. his son Boom Boom and Grandson Bronco <3

There is something nobody really tells you about doing this for a long time.

You can't keep them all.

We say it all the time as breeders.

But after enough years, those words start to mean something different.

I see things in puppies at birth.

And then I watch.

I wait to see if I fall more in love with them… or out of love with them.

I watch their attitude. Their movement. The way they carry themselves. The way they interact with the world around them.

And believe it or not, I watch for the swagger they're born with.

Chest out. Head held high.

That little King of the Jungle attitude.

That buffalo standing on top of the hill like he already knows exactly who he is. 🦬

Sometimes you can see it before they can even walk straight.

Those are the ones that get me.

And then comes the hard part.

You have to choose.

You keep some.

You let some go.

You trust your eye, your experience and everything the dogs before them have taught you.

And sometimes, years later, you look at one of the ones you let go and think…

Damn.

Maybe I should've kept that one.

Not because of a title.

Not because of what they're worth.

Not because of a color or pattern.

Just because that dog became something special.

I think that's actually where OFFICIAL STOCK came from for us.

There were certain puppies that simply hurt too much to let go.

The ones carrying the TYPE.

The substance.

The bone.

The head.

The movement.

The attitude.

That unmistakable presence we had spent generations chasing.

Those became Official Stock.

Not necessarily the fanciest color.

Not necessarily the puppy everybody else noticed first.

Actually, sometimes I wish Chris and I could think that way. 😂

Pick the color. Pick the pattern. Make the pretty litter.

Live the BULLY LIFESTYLE.

Hell… we wanna live it too. The effortless sales and cute puppy paychecks.. 😂

But then one of those puppies comes walking across the yard built like a damn buffalo, chest out like he owns the place…

…and there goes the plan.

Because having that badass, irreplaceable Dogge at the end of your leash hits different.

I've always looked at it a little like old trucks.

Give me the old International Scout.

Big. Solid. Built for something.

It can be plain white with a little rust showing through.

I'll take that over a candy-painted Geo Metro any damn day. 😂

Because eventually the paint stops impressing you.

It's the machine underneath it that you have to live with.

But here's the part I've been thinking about lately…

Maybe some of the ones we let go were mistakes.

Or maybe they were blessings in disguise.

Because when you do this long enough, you realize that not everything great you create is supposed to stay behind your fence.

Some of those dogs leave and become the dog that changes somebody else's program.

They produce something beautiful.

They become somebody else's foundation.

They put another breeder on the map.

Their blood travels into pedigrees, kennels, families and sometimes countries you never could have imagined when you were sitting on the floor looking at them as newborn puppies.

Sometimes your name travels with them.

Sometimes it doesn't.

And that's okay.

Because the real bulldoggers know.

They recognize the head.

The body.

The substance.

The movement.

The attitude.

That unmistakable swagger.

Pedigrees have long memories.

Maybe part of building something bigger than yourself is being willing to let pieces of it go.

That's harder for me now.

Especially after losing Rolls Royce.

Losing him did something to me.

I knew losing him would hurt.

What I wasn't prepared for was how desperately it would make me want to reach backwards and gather up pieces of our life.

His children.

His grandchildren.

The old dogs.

The bloodlines.

The faces that remind me of dogs that aren't standing here anymore.

Suddenly I don't just see dogs.

I see time.

I see young Chris and Gina.

Old yards.

Old kennels.

Long drives.

Dog shows.

Arguments.

Mistakes.

Wins.

Losses.

Breedings we waited years for.

And thousands of completely ordinary days that I had no idea I'd someday miss.

That's the strange thing about being a breeder.

You spend your life creating something you love…

and then you spend your life letting pieces of it go.

Some we kept.

Some we lost.

Some we chose to let go.

Some went out into the world and helped somebody else build their dream — and sometimes, years later, those roads find their way back to each other.

Maybe that's not something to regret.

Maybe that's the whole point.

Because after enough years, you realize…

we weren't just letting puppies go.

We were scattering pieces of our life's work all over the world.

Some of those pieces came back to us generations later.

Some never did.

Some are still out there becoming part of stories we'll probably never even know about.

And maybe that isn't loss at all.

Maybe that's legacy. 💫🦬

— Gina

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Chris + Gina | THE BULL SOURCE 🔮🧬🖤