August 2021

The Dog Days of Summer are here...

I grew up in a dog family. My dad had beagles and basset hounds, my mom had a little toy poodle named Coco. Coco behaved more like a basset hound and not like Coco Chanel (much to my mother’s dismay).

We took in so many stray dogs we ran out of names and started calling them brown dog and yellow dog. We would work to find them homes before the term "fostering" was in vogue. Needless to say I longed for a dog as soon as I had my first apartment. A former boyfriend gave me a basset hound puppy for Christmas and I was in heaven. Later Babe the basset became known as the "step-dog" when I married my husband.

My dad, fondly referred to as "Touchdown" by his grandchildren (and the rest of the community before too long) carried on the tradition of running out of dog names. Touchdown had a rescue beagle named Lou and when Lou passed away, my dad was heartbroken. Like a madwoman I went into rescue beagle searching mode until I found Bookie the Beagle in an attempt to rescue Touchdown. TD kept calling him Lou so Bookie eventually became Lou Too. The next beagle, a female, became LouLou. I now have inherited LouLou, and she is the sweetest connection to TD in heaven.

In honor of Touchdown and my Mother, and the love of dogs they instilled in me, we are having an big sale for National Dog Day on August 26th.

We would like to introduce you to the Fur Balls of B. Viz!

LouLou, a dainty little beagle (we think) was found on the side of the highway on a rainy day just outside of Baton Rouge, LA. The wonderful saints who saved her named her Rainy, and met Touchdown and me at a Pet Smart in BR for a “Meet and Greet” (which totally confused Touchdown since he had never heard of a “Meet and Greet.”)

Now LouLou spends her days frolicking around Locustland with her best friend Lucille and jockeying for bed space at night.

Lucille is a fancy debutante purebred Brittany Spaniel from Cajun country in Lafayette, LA. (But she is very down to earth). From a superior line of bird champions, she enjoys treeing squirrels and swimming in the lake, hanging out with LouLou, and sleeping in bed on her mother’s feet. She is an excellent flushing dog but unfortunately has a disdain for feathers.

Birdie the birddog is also a Brittany Spaniel who, like her cousin Lucille, enjoys nothing more than treeing a squirrel or frolicking through fields of tall grass. After a stint in the mountains of Colorado with her mother Sarah, the two moved home to Louisiana to train under the matriarch of B. Viz Design and continue a family affair of antique textiles and spaniels.

When she's not in her position as "Official Greeter" of B. Viz Design New Orleans Atelier, Birdie can be found relaxing on the banks of Lake Bruin where she prefers lounging on a paddle board to swimming in the in the deep.

Ferrum is and always will be an English Mastiff with a simple dream: to enjoy the good things in life, like peace and quiet. This big boy found a loving home with Bess and Samuel not far from the banks of the Mighty Mississipp'.

It's in this idyllic setting, far away from the "people and their noises" where he enjoys hobbies like tidying up the house (primarily the kitchen table), gardening (digging) and defending the homestead from pesky critters (like deer). His most serious job however is to keep the cats in line. He also enjoys debating his humans about whether or not "having wild animals indoors" is a good idea.

Chupi, or Chupacabra as she's more formally known, was born to humble beginnings in a barn in Lancaster County, PA. Though she didn't realize it at the time, she was bound for life in the big city. After adopting Eliza and Robbob as her humans and moving into their tiny West Village apartment, she quickly adapted to the cosmopolitan life.

After a whirlwind few years in NYC, Chupi decided to retire to the tropics of New Orleans where she enjoys chasing balls or abnormally large sticks, sleeping on *your* pillow and wallowing in any watering (or mud) hole she can find.