i am le grande dame

shouldn't there be minions about, doing my bidding?

I don't think Sasha realizes that she has company.

Chillin'

Or trying to. We're in the middle of a record-breaking heat wave, and it's all the pugs can do but keep their eyes open.

A puglet must find comfort in any way she can.

Ergonomics be damned.

A little downtime

Cleo takes a moment to get comfortable and look cute.

The best place of all to sleep

If there is a pile of laundry (preferably recently clean), overly fluffy blanket or collection of clothes to be had, it's pretty much a guarantee that a pug will be in the middle of it. Even better is a giant pile of pillows AND fluffy blankets.

can you find the pug?

there she is! Sasha emerges from her comfortable burrow.

I do believe there is a puglet sister lying in wait. Ready to pounce and disturb the senior pug's slumber.

I don't know what Deedee is thinking here.

Poor Sasha. Only to be squashed by another over-affectionate sister.

Cleo does truly crave affection.

erp. too much.

Pug sneeze

Ah, summer. It brings long glorious days of sun to nap in, softly waving grass to peep on, and ripe tomatoes to snack on. It also apparently stirs up all those pesky allergens. Sasha's nose feels the itch.

No, really. It is just unbearable.

Not really a dignified pose for the princess pug.

And what does Sasha prefer?

Every time we return from the farmer's market, we are greeted by 3 very excited pugs. Cleo is excited to get some human attention. Deedee is excited because, well, that's just how she is. Sasha, on the other hand, is excited because she knows that we come bearing good things to eat.

As soon as the bags hit the floor, Sasha will peruse each carefully for the tastiest bits. Her fave are leafy greens -- doesn't matter what kind. This time it was kohlrabi.

There is quite a bit of ripping, shredding and general destruction of leafy produce.

Since we're on the subject of food...

I know that I've mentioned the kibble we feed Sasha and Deedee -- this stuff is great for cleaning their teeth! It forces them to actually chew through these huge coarse nuggets, cleaning their plaque in the process. They don't taste all the bad, either (yes, I have tried it), needs perhaps a wee bit more salt for my taste, but certainly would be a consideration for our nuclear bunker.

What I cannot believe I haven't mentioned til now is the kibble we feed Cleo, on the recommendation of those wonderful vets at UC Davis. Since Cleo is allergic to virtually everything, including her food, they suggested feeding her this kibble based on kangaroo and oatmeal (things she hadn't been exposed to in the past, and thus not able to have built an allergy to).

Her skin allergies melted away like the Wicked Witch of the East after we started her on this kibble. The idea was then to challenge her with other foods to see what she was allergic to, but I thought that was a TERRIBLE idea (Cleo tends to react to foods by mobilizing her intestines to spew it all out, both ways). So it became her new food. And she (and my furniture) are much happier for it.

Save a [Dog]; Ride a [Blog Hop]

I know, it's a fairly obtuse reference to the honky tonk country song 'Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy' originally by The Hit Co., and recently re-done by Big & Rich

We were alerted by Wilma to a philanthropic blog hop, sponsored by Pedigree. Basically, from Sept 16 through Sept 19 (today!), for every blog post that mentions Pedigree's Adoption Drive, Pedigree will donate a bag of their Healthy Longevity Food for Dogs to 'shelters nationwide'. (I don't know if that means they donate a bag to every shelter (no mean feat), or a single shelter of their choice, really, I don't even know the size of the promised bag.) But I figure, every little bit helps!

So, there! donate away! Click here to join the blog hop!

So many sunny spots, so little time

Pugs must have a 6th sense for sunny spots. As soon as a good one opens up, you can be sure to find a pug in it.

Nothing better than a sun-drenched spot

One of the first things the pugs do when we open the back door is to rush outside, pick a sunny spot, and bask in it. Cleo in particular likes to get her RDA of sun exposure.

The big-city cousins, who usually see more soot than sun, took to this practice immediately. Bunni spent almost the entire weekend, out in our yard.

Rikki, too.

Rikki wanted to make sure she wasn't developing tan lines.

i must keep my face in the shade so as not to get more wrinkles

It's hard to resist the puppy

Well, when you have a little puglet just sitting there, looking all cute and vulnerable, it would take a very cold-hearted person to resist just a little shnergle. Her auntie K clearly couldn't resist her charms.

Her auntie M moves in for the coup de grace.

Oh, really. Is this necessary

Putting the help to work

The weekend wasn't all just about naps, food and cocktail hour. I made sure to 'encourage' the pugs' auntie to get her butt out in the yard and do some much needed weeding. Strangely, there was little complaint from the usually opinionated auntie. I think these city folk are so starved for sun, that they think even weeding is fun.

Can you see a peek of the pug that's helping?

Well, OK, so Rikki isn't really helping as much as just passed out, hoping for a stray belly rub.

Long holiday weekend, pug-style

It's a well-known, and well-documented fact that when the 5 pug cousins get together, there's just one long continuous feeding frenzy. where pretty much a portion of anything and everything that's edible gets divvied up between the pugs. What's perhaps less known, is that the pugs' humans also like to do a fair amount of continuous noshing as well.

I will just say -- uncle Kevin and the farmer's market, and leave it at that.

We also like to follow EST rules for cocktail hour -- as Alan Jackson croons -- it's 5 o'clock somewhere.

An evil-looking but tres fruity concoction called 'alien urine sample'

The ingredients to this scary-looking drink, yes, we own a full size bottle of malibu rum, what of it.

Mustn't forget liquid nourishment made with small batch rye from NY

All that is more than enough to tucker out a pug.

City pug

The Manhattan pugs aren't used to so much glorious California sun. Bunni, although of course still outside, did spend a fair amount of time retreated into the shade. Comfy-looking pug.

where's my icey drink, beetch

Rikki has cleverly ferreted out one of Deedee and Cleo's fave chewtoys and managed to monopolize it for a good long session. Look at the size of those lips on that partially toothless pug.

i will slobber u silly

Such a good spot

Sasha and Cleo have found a very comfortable resting spot, in the form of their auntie's lungs. So soft to snuggle, cradled by loving arms.

What the.... the puppy engages in stealth face-licking attack, while her victims are unguarded and helpless.


meh. Shake it off, shake it off.

How many pugs can you get on one lap?

I would say that the average dog amateur believes in the One Dog-One Lap ratio. That is novice thinking. Anyone with half a dog knows that it is more than possible to accomodate TWO pugs on a single lap. Three pugs is a bit of a stretch, as we have demonstrated time and again with our latest acquisition of our 'oops' pug, but is still imminently possible.

Cleo, in particular, believes the 3-pug-per-lap scenario is not a problem.

Rikki, comfortably ensconced on her mama's bony knee, also agrees.

Only Bunni is not so sure. She's not even on a lap. She's sitting on her mama's foot.

Visiting cousins

The puglets had a glorious long holiday weekend, romping around with their pug cousins, who were visiting from NYC. And when I say 'romping around', I really mean quality time. As in, not really spending any time together in the same room, but getting truly and thoroughly shnergled by every human in a 60 mile radius, in good measure.

This kind of 24-7 attention was just exhausting for the oft-ignored, usually abandoned fawn cousin pugs. They required intense recuperation.

Rikki could be dead in this pic. It's hard to tell.

Bunni still holds out hope that there's more of that sausage in the fridge.

I never said that sleeping wasn't a family activity. Sasha show the young 'uns just how it's done.