Happy to see the grandpappys

Vienna is probably the pugs' favorite place in the world to be. Lots of love and attention from the big pieces of food. Constant adoration. Continuous petting. The girls responded to all the love and attention with lots of love of their own.

Tippling pugs

We all already knew the pugs had unusual and far-reaching tastes in food, but who could have anticipated how much the pugs loved to drink? Alcohol. Daddy made sure both girls' thirst was adequately quenched.

Traveling pugs

The girls flew back with us to the East Coast for Thanksgiving. In preparation for their long flight, we made sure to get them evacuated, to get them hydrated, and ... to give them drugs. Last time Cleo was untouched by the amount of sedative we gave her, and so I doubled the amount on the way out.

Clearly, she was unfazed. I woke up from a sound nap in the middle of the flight to look down and see Naked Escaped Pug on the floor, looking up and patiently waiting for me to make room for her on my lap. So on the way back, we QUADRUPLED her dose.

Again. Totally unaffected.

Pugs = Cats?

I'm fairly certain that pugs have some genetic feline element. Every once in a while, we catch
one of the girls in an undeniably cat-like pose.

Sasha's montage

I think Sasha deserves a little photo-op, too. This is the face I see the most, the post-nap smushed pug face.

Naps are always preceded by this look. Why, Miss Sasha, what big teeth you have.

The next is also a popular look for the girly girl. Always something tasty in the air for this pug.

And, how could I leave out the classic Sasha Excited Look. The -- did. u. say. treat. -- look.

Bath time!

I woke up a couple of mornings ago to find myself surrounded by pug. Dave had left early for work, and put the pugs on the bed to sleep until I woke up. I woke up, all right. To Very Stinky Pug. The reek coming from Cleo's face was noxious, and I couldn't even make myself get close enough to Sasha's head for a morning kiss. So, into the tub they went.

Sasha gets so riled when Cleo is getting her bath. I think it's because Cleo is getting attention. So, when Cleo finally made it out of the tub, she got attacked. In the process, I think Sasha re-injured her leg. By the time I was done towelling Cleo off, I found that Sasha had helped herself to the bed. She looked at me like -- i'm hurt. i deserve to be on the bed.

Cleo thought so too, I guess.

Pugs are funny

Why is it that dogs consistently do the same things -- scratch and sniff. Sasha will vigorously scratch and scratch and scratch, and then, all of the sudden, she'll look at the scratching paw like she's never seen it before and has no idea how it got there. and then sniff it. suspiciously. as if it's not ATTACHED TO HER.

Cleo wants some luuuuuuving

Sometimes Cleo can be remarkably pushy about getting affection. The other night I was sitting on the floor and Cleo was on the sofa. She 'asked' to be on my lap by placing a preliminary paw on my shoulder, and climbing into my lap.




She couldn't decide where she would be more comfortable -- on the floor with me, or on the sofa with Dave. She bounced back and forth. Each time, she would 'ask' to be on my lap with a gentle nudge of her paw. This got a little tiresome for me. When I tried to ignore her tho, she took her paw and just shoved me.

Sasha's care package

Sasha has an auntie and uncle in NYC who love her. She got an express mail package the other day with -- TREATS!

The girls knew instantly the little box contained something for them. Something edible. Sasha began to investigate.

Cleo dispensed with the feeble opening technique and decided to just get into it.

Clever girls figured out that if they slammed the box enough with their paws, the box would go flying, the top would fall off, and -- JACKPOT.

This is what the poor little box looked like after the pugs were done with it.

Sasha really enjoyed her little pug candy treat. She started licking the floor for crumbs.

Sasha feels good enough to wrestle again

Sasha is well on the road to recovery from her elbow injury. She now welcomes all opportunities to wrestle with the upstart pug.

She got really into it. Lots of -- awr rowr ARR!

Usually Sasha wins. Not this time, tho. I guess she's not quite back up to snuff.

Wiped out pugs

After their shenanigans at the vet, and after marking all of Golden Gate Park as their territory, the pugs were exhausted. So, intead of having two whiny, exploring pugs in the car with me, I had the pleasure of complete pug silence. Sasha must have been really wiped. I caught her resting her heavy head on Cleo's arm.

They slept like that, the whole way home. Little girls.

Beautiful day at Golden Gate Park

On the way back from the vet's yesterday, I drove thru Golden Gate Park. It was such a beautiful day, sunny and clear. I couldn't resist a short pit stop to let the girls romp around.

It's been such a long time since they've seen such a wide expanse of grass. They shot out of the car and started tearing around like crazed animals. Very interested in all the new smells, too.

Our little outing was pretty inspiring to the bladder, apparently.

Trip to the vet

Sasha was scheduled for her annual eye appointment today. I had to take a day off because of course her optho vet has only limited hours, right in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week. I had to bring Cleo along. I attempted to leave her at home, but then such wailing and gnashing of teeth ensued that I was afraid Animal Control would be called on me, so spoiled Cleo came along for the ride.

Sasha, being the more mature and placid pug, was very well-behaved at the vet's. Cleo... she was convinced that all the people coming into the room examining Sasha must actually be giving her really tasty treats. She was frantic to share. So I gave them both a little cabbage. Cleo thought that was pretty tasty.

Cleo was so excited to get a treat that she rewarded me by putting out the biggest, stinkiest poop on the vet's floor. Lots of wailing and gnashing of teeth ensued, this time by me. Cleo was pretty darn proud of herself.

Laundry day

The pugs like it when we do laundry. I don't know if it's because it's still warm, or if they sense that it's extra fluffy and fresh. Sasha likes to roll around in it and rub her eye boogies in it. Thus, negating the point of Laundry Day.

I retaliated by draping her in all of the blankets, like a straitjacket.

Birthday Sasha

Today is Sasha's 8th birthday! Such an exciting day! She decided it was occasion to dress up in her sparkly beads. Cleo thought she would dress up, too.

I thought to celebrate with a Birthday Treat. Since Miss Birthday Porky is trying to lose weight, she got nonfat organic strawberries... stuffed with glucosamine chondroitin. And, of course, lots of love and kisses from her mommy. Cleo treated Sasha to a kiss, too.

Cleo loves her Sasha

Cleo was pretty thrown off when she was left home alone without Sasha, when the fat pug was at the vet's. When Dave left the house, Cleo let out an indignant -- uf! -- as he walked out the door.

When I came home, Cleo ran past me after a cursory lick, to run outside to look for Sasha. She was pretty thrilled when Sasha came back home.

Sasha is not as young as Cleo would like to think

I picked up Sasha from the ortho vet last night after work. He had taken more Xrays of both her elbows, and determined that she did not have a fracture. She does, however, have bad arthritis. He said between moderate and severe. Poor little aging pug. He thinks she may have injured her already damaged joint. Little girl has been walking around on athritic joints. No wonder she stops dead stop in the middle of some of our walks.

He said that the best thing for her is to lose weight. She weighed in at 18 lbs 6 oz!!! Porky Pug! I suspect that Dave is slipping them more food than necessary. I felt like such the bad pug mommy at the vet's. How dare I allow my defenseless animal to get fat.

Ortho vets must make bank

This morning I dropped Sasha at the ortho vet's, uh, palace. His 'office' is so nice I could move in, and it would still be above my station. His preliminary impression from looking at her films was that she has degnerative disease but no fracture. He wanted to keep her that day to take some more films. Poor arthritic and wildly expensive pug.


His place was nice. Spacious office with wood trim, it's the only vet's office I've been in that doesn't reek like scared animal and antiseptic. He also has digital radiography for Xrays and CAT scans -- I mean, some human radiology groups can't afford that.

Like I said, amazingly costly pug.

Gimpy Pug

Poor Sasha. Two nights ago she started limping when I took the girls for a walk. By the time we came home, she had shaken it off and resumed being her normal puggy self. Yesterday morning, tho, Dave went downstairs and was greeted by -- Gimpy Sasha, holding her right front paw in the air, hobbling around on 3 legs! alarm! alarm!



I took her to the vet after work, which was traumatic. Sasha associates bad memories with the place. She started wildly shaking as soon as I walked in the door, and because I was holding her in my arms, it looked like I was having seizures. Poor scared pug. Poor misrepresented mommy. The vet took some Xrays and referred me to an orthopedic vet, because she thought there may be a fracture of her little pug arm. Fracture??!! poor unlucky pug.

Halloween

We don't get any trick-or-treating children to our new house. I kind of miss the whole routine, so I went out and bought a big Costco bag of candy (just in case), and I dressed up the pugs. And took them for a nice, long walk through town. The girls got a lot of attention, and a few outright guffaws.

The laughs were demoralizing for Sasha.

Cleo got into the spirit of the holiday and put on her freaky glowing scary eyeballs.

She was scaring all the children, so then she tried to be innocent and look away.