All you wanted to know about Uga VIII

With the pomp and circumstance befitting royal succession, Uga VIII, the newest prince in a line of bulldogs that stretches back to 1956, will take his place as monarch of the Bulldog Nation on Saturday afternoon.

Uga VIII -- his registered name is Big Bad Bruce -- is the great-great-great-great-great-grandson of the original Uga and will ascend to the throne in a "collaring" ceremony before kickoff at the University of Georgia's homecoming game against Vanderbilt.

During that ceremony University President Michael Adams, athletic director Greg McGarity and Uga's owners, the Seiler family of Savannah, will stride onto the field as the public address system booms with the the story of Uga's lineage.

They will remove the traditional collar from Russ, a stand-in called into duty last year when Uga VII died unexpectedly of heart failure. Then they will transfer it to the heir apparent. Both dogs, in their matching red jerseys, will then enjoy the remainder of the game, retiring occasionally to their air conditioned doghouse.

Uga VII  had the shortest tenure of any in the line of Ugas, having served less than two full seasons when he passed away in November, 2009. During that month, there was for the first time in years no Uga at a Georgia home football game. Then Russ, VII's half-brother, stepped into the breach, in time to witness Georgia's 30-24 victory over Georgia Tech.

Because of VII's untimely death, no successor had been ready. Since then, Savannah attorney Frank W. "Sonny" Seiler has kept his eye on four different all-white English bulldog puppies, studying them for posture, size and nobility. All are descendants of the main line, but bred with different mothers.

Seiler is famously closed-mouth about the maternal line of the Ugas.

"He grew up with some friends of ours and that's all I will say," said Seiler recently. "It's worked for 53 years and I'm not going to change it now."

The newest Uga is named after Dr. Bruce Hollett, a large animal veterinarian, and member of the UGA veterinary school faculty, who has long offered medical services to the sometimes-fragile line of dogs.

"Every dog we’ve had looks at this man adoringly," said Swann Seiler, the eldest of four Seiler children and a manager at Georgia Power.

The new dog grew up with marching band music piped into his kennel, said Swann's brother Charles Seiler, an insurance  bonding agent with Wells Fargo, who has been handling the dogs on the field since he was 15 years old. The newest Uga has been living with Charles Seiler and has the run of the house, though he must share it with a calico named Miss Kitty.

As a handler, Charles Seiler's responsibilities are to keep the dog from being stepped on along the crowded sidelines and to monitor his response to the heat, studying the colors of their tongue and jowls.

"Pink is good, blue is bad," he said.

English bulldogs are bred to have very short noses, which restricts their breathing space and makes them susceptible to the late-summer Georgia weather. Like the other dogs, Uga VIII  underwent surgery to open up his breathing passages.

"If they haven't had a palate section, they snore," said Sonny Seiler. They also sit on bags of ice during the games.

Uga VIII is the grandson of Uga VI, but not the son of Uga VII, said Seiler, offering no more details. The dog is 11 months old and weighs 55 pounds, close to the maximum 60 pounds that would serve as his ideal size. Swann Seiler said she thinks VIII looks like V and VI.

"He has the bigger shoulders, he has the VI- and V-like face to me," she said. "He's very different from VII."