We began breeding and raising Arabian Horses in 1982. We met Bullmastiffs at several horse farms that we visited and were hooked...

We purchased our first Bullmastiff as a pet in 1992. She was 1 month younger than our oldest son, Brandon. Brittany, as we named her was a true love - she had the most irrepressible good nature and never did wrong. Unfortunately she was a breeder's nightmare, she was spayed at 6 months, by which time she was already becoming crippled with severe hip and elbow dysplasia. She also had a host of other orthopedic and health problems. At 6 months of age our vet told us we would be lucky to keep her going, free of pain, until she was two - she almost made it to 4 before her elbow finally blew out from the strain of supporting what her hips could not.She had, however short her life, convinced us that we would never again be without a bully!

Brighton (Ch Nitestalker's Brighton Sassy,ROM,OFA,DNA) joined our family in February of 1995. This time we did our research and carefully checked breeders and bloodlines. We decided we liked the Blackslate/Bandog lines and have not regretted it for a second! Brighty wasn't shown until she was 16 months old but finished easily during the summer of '96 (despite the fact that I handled her and she was my first attempt at showing dogs!)

In 1996, we began looking at stud dogs for our girl and fate brought us to the Cole's and Ch Eloc's Copper Magician, OFA, DNA (better known as Stud Muffin or just Muffin). Muffin was exactly what we wanted in conformation, bloodlines and especially his wonderful temperament.

The breeding was a success and in May of '97 Brighty produced 7 healthy, red pups ( 4 girls, 3 boys). Out of the litter we kept Gardienne's Sign of the Bull and Gardienne's Charmin' Chelsea both of which were well on the way to finishing their championships by 14 months of age.

We were so pleased with the puppies produced by the breeding that in 1998 we repeated it for 4 boys and 1 girl (reds and red fawns). The puppies (thanks to the advertising provided by their older brothers and sisters) were all spoken for before they were ever whelped.

We planned to repeat this excellent cross one final time in the spring of '99 but with the loss of Muffin,her life mate, Brighty never again conceived.

So the gauntlet now falls to Brighty's "kids" Bully, Chelsea & Cricket to carry on the legacy...which they are doing with great pride!

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