One Blessed Bulldog

I don’t know what you did this weekend, but this bulldog had a pretty solid couple of days. In fact, if you stretch it from Friday through Monday, I got blessed, helped my fellow Bulldogs go 5-0, entertained house guests, hosted a Colts viewing party, and attended a golf outing. The only setbacks I faced were being denied access to a parade and seeing the doctor for an ear infection. Not bad for a dog, right? It’s just another weekend in the life of this mascot.

I suppose the logical place to start would be Friday when I was invited by Butler University neighbor, the Christian Theological Seminary (CTS), for their annual Blessing of the Animals service. You may have noticed that this past weekend there were these types of services going on all over the country. Reason being, the Feast Day of St. Francis occurs annually on Oct. 4th and just in case you don’t know who old St. Francis is, he was a friar known for his love of animals. Unfortunately, he’s not with us any more (he passed away just a few years ago in 1226), but his teachings as well as his love for animals and God’s creation lives on and thus the reason why we have these services today. There’s a free little history lesson for you…don’t say I never taught you anything.

Anyway, it was a good service, but my dad was real serious during it. He got real emotional and kept hugging on me, but I just wanted to go play with the other dogs that were there. My parents always tell me how blessed and fortunate of a dog I am, so I’m not sure why I needed to go get blessed some more, but I was happy to get out of the office and outside for a bit, so it was fine with me.

A photographer from The Indianapolis Star was there along with a videographer from WXNT-TV FOX 59, but I never saw if any of those images made it in print, on television or online. Fortunately Chris Varnau, the Sr. Director of Communications at CTS, took some photos of the event and I’ve included those below.


I guess the blessing must have worked because the Butler Bulldogs went on that Friday and Saturday to go 5-0 on the pitch, in the field, and behind the net. Our men’s and women’s soccer teams both took victories on Friday, as did the volleyball team and then on Saturday, our football team took down the Drake bulldogs and the volleyball team again took victory. Besides the blessing, my presence in the Butler Bowl on both Friday and Saturday might have had a little something to do with it as well. Regardless, I’m proud to be a Bulldog right now as our fall sports student athletes are doing a great job this year.

As I mentioned last week, the changing weather has allowed me to get out more and make it to more of these athletic contests. Below is a picture of me and my dad getting ready to run the football team onto the field for their big win over Drake. There’s nothing like a pleasant fall day in the Butler Bowl for some football. It’s a bulldog’s dream! The next home football game in the Bowl comes at Homecoming on Oct. 25th versus Morehead State. I hope to see you there!


On the home front, I was just as busy this past weekend. My parent’s friends, Jason and Betsy Weatherly came up from Nashville, Tenn. and brought their miniature daschund, Reese (like the peanut butter cups). You may remember some of my escapades with Reese from this past summer when I went down to her place. I really enjoyed getting to see my old friend. I wasn’t the best at sharing my toys with her, but we had a good time tearing through the house and around the yard together. I rather enjoy being an only “child,” but it is nice to have some four-legged company once in a while.


Sunday, some of my parents’ friends and colleagues came over to the house for a little Indianapolis Colts viewing party. That was a lot of fun as well…plenty of attention, table scraps, people to play with me, and lots of excitement. Not to mention, the game turned out to be fairly entertaining and successful as well.


Needless to say, on Monday I was pretty exhausted, but as they say, there’s no rest for the weary. So dad and I headed north to Carmel, Ind. for the men’s basketball Blue Team golf outing at Plum Creek Golf Club. In addition to greeting guests and welcoming the players, I also got to hang out on the golf carts, attempt to chase golf balls on the putting green and see old friends like former Bulldog standouts, Julian Betko and A.J. Graves.


As I alluded to earlier, it wasn’t all treats and toys this past weekend. As you may remember from my previous post, I was all set to appear in the annual Circle City Classic parade. My good friend and Butler colleague, Barry Rector, was kind enough to lend me his beautiful 1991 Corvette to ride in for the parade so early Saturday morning we made our way downtown to join the Butler contingent who was also set to represent BU in the parade. Unfortunately, the parade staff denied me access and forced my dad to turn the Corvette back around and take me home. Can you believe that? Their loss.


The other setback I had is the discovery of a double ear infection, so after my trek to the golf outing, I headed across Hamilton Co. and over to Woodland Animal Hospital to see Dr. Phillips who gave me some medicine to get better. I’m not too fond of the meds, but if it helps my ears from itching and keeps me from wanting to shake my head all of the time, then I suppose it’s worth it.

As you can see, minus a few small speed bumps it’s been a pretty good couple of days for me. I hope that you enjoy some good fortune of your own and here’s to a hope for a little good fortune on the horizon for America after all of this economic crisis stuff I keep hearing about on the news.

As a matter of principle, I tend to refrain from discussing politics and religion. After all, I’m a bulldog, and my expertise lies in animal behavior and school spirit and not worldly things. But I already touched on religion tonight, albeit objectively, I might as well as speak to politics given that as my dad types this blog post, I’m snoring through live coverage of the presidential debate and wondering about these politicians who are vying for your vote next month.

I like to think of myself as a pretty good judge of character (a lot of dogs are) and from what little I saw of the debate tonight, I’d vote for that Tom Brokaw guy...just some free advice from your mascot.

Here's to a blessed week of your own,

Blue II

A (new) View from the Corner Office

Sorry for my long delay in posting, but I’ve been a busy bulldog over the past couple of weeks. Sure, I’ve kept my nose to the ground with the enduring search for the missing Butler Bulldog mascot costumes (more on that later), but I’ve also been helping my dad move our office.

Yep, that’s right, I’ve moved offices at Butler, but this actually isn’t my first move. We started in Jordan Hall office 11 and not too long after, we took over office 13 where we spent the majority of the last four years. But after a six year stint in the Office of Annual Giving, my pops is changing roles in the development office and that has us moving down the hall to office 16. I figure I’ll just ride his coattails wherever they take me.

The move sort of had me a little nervous and on edge at first, but once I got used to my food, water, cage, toys and dad being in one spot, I became a little more used to the new setup. Although I still get a little confused as to where I should hangout from time to time. I miss my old pals down the hall in annual giving from time to time.

The good news is that we are still in the basement of Jordan Hall so it’s all familiar surroundings. And even though we have smaller digs, we did get a corner office…even if it is in the corner of a basement. And yes, it’s a basement. Don’t let anyone tell you it’s a “garden level.” That’s such a joke.

It’s below ground level, it smells like a basement, there’s moisture like a basement and there’s those lovely insects and bugs that are often found in a basement. Therefore, it is a basement…and it even has a lovely 1980s pink décor with worn grey carpet that might be older than my father. Now you know why the development staff ventures OUT to see donors.

Anyway, after my dad gets all of his pictures up on the walls and it’s finally all put together, I’ll have him post some pictures of our new office. Until then, you can always tune in to Blue2TV and watch my live office cam. Whether or not I’m in view of the webcam is hit and miss, but if you log on at the right time, you just might see me. Click here during regular office hours to have a look: http://go.butler.edu/lifeatbutler/?pg=4724

Changing bones back to the missing mascot story…I know that I said there would be a sequel to the movie that I originally starred in, but I am not really sure what happened to that second film. We did the shoot, but the project didn’t make it out of production. Such is life in Hollywood, I guess.

There have been some developments in the case of the missing mascot costumes, but I’m not at liberty to divulge any details just yet. I’ll be sure to share the news once it is official, but right now I’ve got other pressing issues anyway.

My life as a mascot has me doing some interesting things yet this week and weekend. On Friday I’ll be heading over to see our neighbors at the Christian Theological Seminary for their annual “Blessing of the Animals” service. I like to go because we get to be outside and I get to mingle with a bunch of other animals, but other than that I don’t really quite grasp what happens at that thing. My dad seems to get something out of it and he says that it gives me a Holy blessing for another year, so I got that going for me, which is nice.

On Saturday I’ve got a busy day on the books…first I’m set to appear in the annual Circle City Classic parade with the Butler contingent and after that it’s back to campus as the 2-1 Bulldogs host our first Pioneer Football League contest of the season against the dreaded Drake Bulldogs. Of course I’ll be there to lead the team onto the field, but I’m not quite sure about my new friend Blue of the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts are away this weekend so I’m hoping he’ll be in town to lend me a hand again with the mascot duties since our new mascot costumes have yet to arrive.

Thankfully, the weather is looking good for my duties this weekend. A look to the weather forecast shows signs of plenty of “bulldog weather” for me to enjoy in the coming weeks. Fall might just be my favorite season…it’s not too hot and it’s not too cold. It’s just right for us bulldogs.

Speaking of which, the ninth annual Bulldog Beauty Contest seems to be shaping up nicely. We’ve got about 35 bulldogs registered with just three weeks to go, which is more than where we were three weeks out last year when we had our record turnout of more than 60 dogs.

Eagle Pack Pet Foods, Inc. and City Dogs Grocery have been helping round up pries for our participants and I think we’ve got another great event in the works. If the weather cooperates, then the ninth year might be our best year yet!

Well, I think that’s about all I’ve got to chat about at the moment. I’ll make sure my dad doesn’t wait around another two weeks before he posts for me again!

From a new office down the way,

Blue II

A New Week and the Search Continues

After a busy weekend (which I will get to later) I came back to work refreshed and ready to find those missing Butler Bulldog mascot costumes this week. I was so fired up, that I shredded my red dragon in an attempt to send a message of intimidation to whom ever took these costumes. Here are a couple of pics of the aftermath…

As you can see, I mean business. Substitute the guilty for the red dragon and you get the message that I’m trying to send.

Tomorrow I’ll go from intimidation tactics to more video shooting as I work to make a sequel to my first film from last week, which has over 5,000 hits and counting as of this evening. In this new film I’ll cover the increased reward for the safe return of the mascots as well as follow up on the tips, leads and rumors that have been swirling about campus as to the whereabouts of our beloved costumes. It should be fun and I think you’ll again enjoy the finished product.

Speaking of fun, that’s exactly what I had on Saturday. It all started early in the morning at Hinkle Fieldhouse for the Lugar Run where I did a couple of TV hits on the local CBS affiliate, WISH-TV channel 8. Below are a couple shots from that…



Of course, I am a bulldog, therefore, I do not run, so as I sent the runners and walkers on their way, I got rested up for the OBS Gridiron Brunch and our football season home opener against the Grizzles of Franklin College.

Unfortunately we took it on the chin against Franklin to go 1-1 on the season, so that hurt, but there was some good that came out of the game and that was the Indianapolis Colts’ mascot Blue was there to fill in for our two-legged guy-in-suit bulldog mascot.

You may remember in one of my first blog posts I suggested that this town wasn’t big enough for two “Blues.” I stand corrected. Not only is Indianapolis fit for a pair of “Blues,” but the Butler Bowl can handle it as well.

I was just upset because I came along first and then the Colts created their mascot and gave him the same name. Oh well, it’s all water under the bridge, or as I like to say, water splashed out of the wading pool, at this point.

So my new ally Blue from the Colts came to campus on Saturday to fill in for our missing mascot and lend me a hoof in entertaining the crowd. He also helped me run the team out on the field which was cool. Below is a shot of Blue and I on the sideline.


If that’s not all, Blue and the Colts also ponied-up (pun intended) $1,000 to donate to Riley Hospital for Children should our missing mascot costumes be returned. Classy. Thanks Blue!

After all of that, I took a quick afternoon knap and then headed out to Zionsville, Ind. for a little family gathering with the Kaltenmark side. That pretty much lead to more sleeping (pictured with my mom below).


Then following that, my parents decided to make a late night trek over to visit some friends of my parents where we watched even more college football. I slept some more and enjoyed snacking on a football as you can see below.

All of that made for a very long day so I pretty much slept on Sunday while my parents attended the MotoGP. And that takes me to today where the search for the missing mascots resumed. I also threw up some new videos on BlueTube. Visit www.youtube.com/butlerblue2 to check those out.

There are quite a few videos of a couple new friends (Addison and Xander) that I made last week. I ran into a couple of nine to 10 week old English Bulldog puppies last week, one owned by a Butler student and another owned by Butler alumni. They both are participating in the ninth annual Bulldog Beauty Contest on Oct. 25th.

And speaking of the beauty contest, I’ll conclude with a quick progress report. Again, things seem to be shaping up nicely as we now have 25 dogs registered. Remember, last year we had a record 60 dogs and thanks to my vet, Dr. Kurt Phillips of Woodland Animal Hospital in Carmel, Ind., his staff has sent invitations to 117 bulldog owners who own a total of 254 bulldogs! Dr. Phillips knows bulldogs!

I’m optimistic that with an outreach like that, we can have record turnout again this year. Remember, just email blue2@butler.edu to sign up.

Blue II

One Busy Week to the Next

A lot of people have said to me (as if I could talk back) that life would slow down for me now that basketball season is over. Ha! If only.

Basketball season may have ended, but I am just as busy as ever. Just check out some of my most recent posts and you can see that things have yet to slow, and they probably won't until graduation ceremonies in early May.

Speaking of some of my recent posts, I wanted to post some pictures related to those posts. Here are a couple of pictures of my distant relative, Pete, and I playing last weekend...

And here's a shot from the Rotary Club meeting that I attended...

Okay, I think that brings us up to where I left off... i.e. Thursday.

On Thursday, I changed up the toy rotation and went with the "bulldog" after chewing through the "rooster," as previously seen in the videos I posted. For your viewing pleasure, here is me giving the business to my stuffed bulldog.

That's pretty much what I did on Thursday before going to the year-end party for the Dawg Pound. My friend and Butler student, Hannah Muehlbauer, picked me up and took me over. I had a good time hanging out with the crew and begging for food.

On Friday I had yet another Early Registration appearance for the Office of Admission. This is a great way to end the week...mingling with future Butler Bulldogs, begging for a piece of their breakfast muffins, and taking pictures with families...all of this while my dad hangs out in the back eating muffings and sipping green tea. Must be nice!

I spent the rest of my Friday sleeping, running around the office, shredding toys and enjoying the nice weather outside.

This weekend I mainly rested and prepared for the up and coming week which again is loaded with an appearance or activity each day. I think I've got something at the library, a Relay for Life event, and SGA gig and a couple of other things. It should be fun, and of course, I'll update you along the way.

Finally, one of my HRC buddies and Butler student, Jessica Kline, is in the running to be an Indianapolis Colts cheerleader for the 2008-09 season. She initially auditioned with 400 girls and she's now made it down to the 90 finalists. The auditions will continue for the next two weeks where they will continue to make cuts down to 30-40 girls.

To keep moving on to make the squad, she needs your vote! You can vote for Jessica K. here: http://www.colts.com/sub.cfm?page=cheer_profiles

Good luck Jessica!

Blue II

Enough Room in this Town for Two Blue's?

I hate to bring up the Indianapolis Colts given that they probably don't need any more grief after their playoff loss to San Diego, but since they are all over the news right now, it's relevant, I suppose.

Now make no mistake, when I'm not fulfilling my Butler duties, I support Indy's other sports and teams, sans other universities and colleges, and I've been known to support the Colts. I enjoy watching their games at home with my parents. I have a Colts leash and collar that I wore to a Butler game prior to their AFC championship game last year. And, Tony Dungy and Bill Polian even paid a visit to Hinkle Fieldhouse last year. So they're cool in my book.


My only beef with the Colts are those play-off losses and that darned mascot, BLUE! (pictured right) Really, I've got no problem with BLUE, he's got nothing on me. In fact, (kids, if you're reading this, cover your eyes) it's just some guy in a blue Puff the Magic Dragon-looking suit. I'm the real deal...born with my suit. That's real fur, baby!

But it's that whole name thing that gets me. Afterall, the Colts' BLUE didn't come around until 2006! My predessor, Butler Blue I first came on the scene in 2000 and I arrived in 2004. It's a fake horse and their logo is a horeshoe, name him "Lucky" or something.

Colt's BLUE Info: http://www.colts.com/sub.cfm?page=community_dynamic&id=142

Oh well, it's not BLUE's fault. He probably didn't name himself, and I know I didn't name myself either. When Blue I was donated to the university by Frank and Jeane King of Kong King Kennel, Lizton, Ind., the university held a naming contest to come up with a name for the school's first "official" bulldog mascot.

The names most often submitted were "Blue," "Hinkle," "B.U." prn. "Boo," "Hampton," and "Victory." Over 350 submissions were made and "Butler Blue" was the top choice and announced at the Feb. 3, 2001 men's home basketball game.

Officially, Kristi Crofts Lowell, class of 1994 was credited with the winning name submission.

Thus, I'm Butler Blue II and someday, I'm sure we'll have Butler Blue III and so on. As Paul Harvey would say, "and now you know the rest of the story."

So, do I wish the Colts' front office would have been a little more original? Sure, but I can live with it. In fact, I think there's plenty of room in this town for two "Blues." Actually, we're elite company, that Colts' BLUE and I.

So BLUE, sorry about that loss yesterday. Enjoy your off-season on the farm with a warm stable and plenty of hay... and be ready for a prosperous 2008 in your new stadium and help bring another world championship back to OUR beloved city!

I'm Blue II.....................(wait for it)..............................(wait for it)......................................GOOD DAY!