Scarlette the English Bulldog adores snow and just can’t get enough of sliding on her back down the hill of her Ohio home. Her fans on social media call her the “snow potato.”
Rachel Feher said she and her family got Scarlette six years ago when she was a 12-week-old pup. There’s a story behind the name.
“We were on our way to pick her up…and we were in the car with our three children trying to think of names. We have a friend with a cat named Stanley Tucci, and we always thought that was funny. And we thought, let’s think of an actress’ name, you know, pretty actresses,” she said. “My daughter goes to Ohio State, so there’s the whole scarlet and gray thing, and my husband just happened to be wearing a scarlet and gray Ohio State T-shirt. I think my husband said, ‘What about Scarlett Johansson?’ And everybody just loved it because we love her as an actress, and it’s a double meaning because [of the school colors]. I’m like, well, there you go. It’s just perfect. But I actually changed it. I spell it with an ‘e’ at the end.”
Scarlette is also known as MooMoo because of her spots and roly-poly figure.
“It reminded me of a cow, and then she’s always just been so chunky so we just started calling her MooMoo,” said Feher.
On a Roll
Feher said Scarlette’s snow sliding happened out of the blue.
“We have a hill in our front yard where the side of the front lawn kind of slopes over to the right. She literally just one day walked out, dropped to her side, and then goes on her back and just scoots back and forth, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle and slides down the hill.”
Scarlette just can’t get enough time in the snow.
“As a Bulldog, she’s just hot, she’s like a polar bear, we always call her that, too, because she will lay flat out in it,” said Feher. “It’ll be freezing, and we’re just freezing outside and she’s just lying in the snow. She shoves her face in it, she absolutely loves it.”
Those Hard to Reach Areas
Because she’s so chunky, Scarlette can’t reach her back end. When she has an itch or irritation, she gyrates in an attempt to scratch her bum.
“If I see her doing that, I know she probably needs a wipe,” said Feher. “I get the pleasure of the butt wiping duty. She has her special wipes and everything. She can’t reach, she’s too fat.”
Feher said English Bulldogs need a lot of extra care.
“You really have to wipe their faces where the wrinkles are,” she said. “Her ears get dirty and infected quite a bit I think because they flop down, they don’t get air, so I have to keep her ears clean.”
And because of their short noses, Bulldogs can have trouble breathing.
“Because they are brachycephalic, some Bulldogs can really struggle with their breathing,” said Feher, who added that Scarlette “snores very, very loud.”
Recently, some vets have said that people should stop breeding and buying English Bulldogs.
“I personally would never breed them, just because of all that,” said Feher. “She was fixed right away, and I have no interest in that.”
Daddy’s Girl
Scarlette is smitten with her dad.
“They just have this special relationship, and she loves him to death,” said Feher. “I think a lot of it has to do with that beard. She loves to just rub her face on that beard. Of course, she’s lovable to me as well, but she’s different with each of us. I think I’m more like the one, you know I feed her, I clip her nails, I do all that kind of care. And then I think she listens to me more too. I think I’m more the authority figure to her and then he is just, you know, this is just like her lover.”
Scarlette is best buddies with her tabby sister, Bane, and the two can often be seen snuggling and grooming each other.
She’s quite the character in other ways. She’s trained to ring a bell to go outside.
“She smacks the bell on the front door with her nose to go out,” said Feher.
She also rides in a stroller because she can’t walk very far.
“You know, [Bulldogs] don’t require a lot of exercise. They can’t keep up with it, you can’t walk them too much,” said Feher. “I take her so far in the neighborhood, then I have to put her in the stroller and push her back. She just sits there like a queen.”
“People stop because they just think it’s so funny to see this big dog in a stroller,” said Feher. “She loves people, and she always will look at people like they’re supposed to come up and talk to her. She demands attention.”
