Week-late Pug Club, part 2

I love big dogs! I'm just sayin'; they're awesome. Especially huskies!


I hung out with some of my brachycephalic and/or wrinkly brethren:



And I explored the ravine with Big Brother:



Now, the water saga is kinda interesting with me. I started out not liking it, but then I kinda started to warm up to it. I even jump in the shower now with Dad whenever he's trying to take one. He doesn't really let me stay, but I'm not afraid anymore of the "white coffin", as I used to call it.

So, today I even plucked up the courage to cross the stream! Just one problem: now I'm stuck on the other side:


Drat. I eventually found a better place to cross back, but Big Brother and I got SO dirty!


I was pretty wiped after that, but a fun time was had by all.

Wordless Wednesday

This is Sadie-- can you tell why Dad could never get any pictures?

Back from vacation!

I'm back! Sorry, my weekend hiatus" turned into a "weeklong hiatus". Dad took a while getting the pictures off of the camera, and then he found that some were deleted... it was fun.

But I've still got some great ones! We left on Friday and piled in the car, ready for hours of fun. Mom and Dad were pawesome and got the back seat all fancified for us. It was like a personal castle, all just for Big Brother and me!


We took turns sitting in the front seat with either Mom or Dad, whoever was not driving. I didn't like that at first. In fact, on the way up I had several "accidents" in the back seat. Oops. But there were plenty of rawhides and toys and such to keep us busy. Snoufer liked the window-- not so much me.


On Friday night we stayed in a hotel in Topeka, KS, after stopping at a late-night Wendy's for food. The guy at the drive-up had a Cockney accent-- seriously! And was REALLY rude. Mom and Dad were also rude for not giving Snoufer or I any of their food. All we got was the normal stuff. The hotel was pretty cool, though-- pet-friendly and lots of room to run around in!




Snoufer stole my stick and hid under the bed. Meanie.


When we got there, I had the time of my life playing with Mom and Dad's friend's bigdog-- SADIE!


She is a Katrina orphan that Dad's friend adopted when they were rooming together (before Mom and Dad got married). Sadie remembered Dad, alright! She wagged her tail like crazy-- not even Snoufer gets that nuts! Speaking of which, Dad says that's all the pics he has of Sadie, since she is such a hyper dog, he couldn't even get her to sit still for one picture. Trust me, he's not lying. She gave Snoufer and I both a run for our money-- all 48 pounds of her! She's a lab-something mix, but I think there's a little bit of pit bull or something like that in her, because she has small ears and a VERY muscular body. Anyway, she's a cutie!

Oh, and just to prove I wasn't there to only have fun all the time--


See? We did some work as well! Dad wants me to put in here that if anyone is reading this who plays Fantasy Football and looks closely at the draft board, don't worry-- our league is different than most people's, in that we start two quarterbacks and give them LOTS of points, so that's why they always go first.

Speaking of which, one of the guys on my team did pretty well last night! Woohoo! Go Brandon Jacobs! Go PugNation!

After the draft, everyone was pooped, so we crashed at my human grandpa's house. That was pawesome to see him as well! I wowed him with my super-cuteness.


Then came the big, long ride home for 14 road hours straight through from Illinois to Colorado. Strangely enough, I didn't have one single accident the whole way. Maybe this had something to do with it...



LOTS of sleeping on the way back. Except for when Mom got pulled over by police in Kansas for speeding-- TWICE. And she has never gotten pulled over before, at all! Thankfully, she only got one ticket, but Snoufer and I made sure that we barked like crazy at the cops when they came up to Mom's window. We sensed she was in distress-- what else could we do?!

What a week! I had a great time. Now, I will leave you with what I think is just the cutest picture ever taken by anyone, ever.


See? What'd I tell you?

Oh. My. Gosh.

Wowsie! I have had a very trying past week or so, so I first of all apologize to everyone for disappearing off the face of the earth!

Here's what happened.

Sunday July 27th: Mom and Dad took me to the Renaissance Festival in Larkspur for a jam-packed day of fun and food! I will put up pictures and a full description when Mom gets back. Speaking of which...

Tuesday July 29th: Mom left for Michigan to stay with her family at their cottage on Upper Silver Lake. And she is going to be gone for two weeks! She comes back Sunday August 10. I am very very sad. When she left, I sat at the door and whined under my breath for a good 30 minutes. Also, on the first day after she left, I tore up a pair of Dad's shoes while he was at work. I NEVER DO THAT! I was just so upset, I had to gnaw something. So now, I have to stay in the crate during the day. Which means I can't get to the computer. Which means nothing happens for a while on my blog.

There have been a couple of side effects of Mom leaving. First off, she took the camera with her, so there will be no more pictures until she gets back. Sorry everyone! Secondly, I have to keep Dad company a lot when he gets back from work because... well, that's my job. Besides, he's really bummed that Mom is gone. He told me that they've been married just long enough to get used to each other being there, and yet not long enough to get sick of each other. So, he's really kinda been out of it the past week. Finally, I've missed her too, so I've picked up some bad habits. In addition to chewing up Dad's shoes, I started to go to the bathroom in the house more and also have started to climb up on the dining room table and grab stuff that's up there. That's not all bad, though: I got an asiago cheese bagel out of it two days ago!

To cope with Mom being gone, Dad has alternately snuggled with Snoufer and I and watched a movie or worked like crazy. Mom left him a to-do list of stuff, so he's been busy with that, but he's also taken us out to places. Speaking of which:

Saturday August 2: We had Pug Club at the dog park! It was BLAZING hot-- the day before set a record for Colorado Springs (99 degrees!)-- so we didn't stay long, but I had lots of fun meeting new pug friends! There was a big stocky fawn named Roscoe who liked to chase tennis balls; I can run faster than him, so I beat him usually. There was a skinny fawn named Romeo who might even put me to shame for how energetic he is! There was also a black female named Gina who was there... but no Veronica. *sigh* Maybe I'll see her again someday. And then there were 4 puppies as well! One was only 12 weeks old-- she crawled right into Dad's lap. I could tell he melted then; maybe I can use this as leverage to get a female pug in the house. Dad's got a soft spot for the ladies, and we are one of the VERY few families with only one pug in the house. You know what they say about us: you can't buy just one! The others were about 18-20 weeks old. I had fun with one of them-- finally, someone I can play with who is smaller than me! I slept for the rest of the day after that.

Sunday August 3: Dad took us to a place called Nosh here in Colorado Springs that has a Puppy Pool Party on Sundays. It's this outdoor bistro with a fenced-in area next to a downtown park that dogs can roam around in and meet/greet while the humans eat. Don't worry: they provide doggie treats for us, and kiddie pools to splash in (No, I still am not a fan of water-- I didn't get in), and they give you a bandanna afterwards! I've decided I like big dogs. I hung out with a Weimeraner and a Rottweiler a lot that day.

Backtracking a bit...

Thursday July 31st: I got my last shot. I am officially set! Now comes the big decision. Dad and Mom like the way I look so much they want to find a lady Beagle and, as they put it, "make Puggles." I'm not sure what that means exactly, but I think I'm starting to get it. I've been feeling wierd lately-- increased energy, awkward body, deeper bark, increased protective instinct... And I find that I like big furry toys. A LOT. Anyway, Mom and Dad are having a bit of a moral dilemma, because they have been told by several friends and Petsmart people not to find me a lady, because there are a lot of dogs who get put to sleep due to overpopulation. Complicating the issue, I have a baby tooth that just won't fall out, so now I'll have to get it extracted, which means anesthesia and big bucks if it's not already part of another procedure. I'm a little nervous as to what kind of procedure they would do that would put me to sleep (temporarily), but I trust my parents to do what's best. If only they knew what that was... So that's adding to Dad's stress level a lot. He would certainly like help from all the Pugverse if they want to give it!

So as you can see, it's been both a busy and an emotionally full past week or so! Now I have to get back to my Morale and Welfare job, so I will sign off and give written updates as they happen!

Dog Park Super-fun!

Yesterday, Dad took Snoufer and me to the dog park! I take back all the bad things I said about him and Mom.

It was a beautiful day, so Dad decided to get himself and us out of the house. Unfortunately, Mom was not feeling well (Dad has been sick for the past two months; it finally got passed to her), so she stayed in. The sky was gorgeous!


There was no one in the small dog area, so Dad took us to the big dog part. I'm very glad he did-- there was so much new stuff to explore!

The best part were the small ravines and the creek bed-- lots of shade there! Dad says it was called Bear Creek. I didn't see any bears, but I saw several dogs big enough to be bears.



In addition to these guys, there was a whole family of Airedale Terriers-- if you look closely, you can see him trying to hide behind a bush. The big dogs loved the water. Good for them, I say. Snoufer and I have had too many baths to love water. We stayed on the shore.

But we spent a good bit of time exploring the shaded areas further downstream.



Once we got tired of exploring the ravines and gullies, we moved out into the trees, where Snoufer and I made some more big dog friends.




Dad has a thing for Huskies; he's wierd like that. Big dogs are so... big. How would they fit on a lap? Anyway, Snoufer isn't so sure about him, as you can tell.

Then, Snoufer and I branched out and explored the open spaces of the dog park. Which was interesting, because it was pretty toasty that day. We liked being out in the open, running around, but we liked the shade a whole lot more:




It wasn't too bad, though: Dad brought a couple of cold water bottles along and a travel dish, and filled it up several times for us. As you can see, Snoufer wouldn't share at first.




After all that, I was pooped:



So we headed home, but on the way ran into a few more Westies!



One of them even jumped in the creek-- apparently, he likes the water (wierdo...)


That was it for me: I was hot, so was Snoufer, and Dad had to get back home. So, we climbed in the car and drove back. When we first got in, Snoufer tried to take the "cold spot"-- underneath the dashboard where the air conditioning blows right on your back.


Dad thought it was cute, but he made Snoufer sit on the seat and put me there, since I'm a pug and needed cooling off more. No complaints here!

When we got home, we crashed hard. What a fun day it was! That's it for now, but I'll leave you with pictures of the beautiful Colorado scenery, so you can get jealous at what I get to look at every day!