Cleo, the snugglepug

Toys and beds and treats aside, I think that the best and greatest gift for a pug, is love and affection. Especially for our Cleo. Too much love is never enough for this puglet. Having the gramma and grampa around 24-7 was like a dream come true for her. She even accompanied them for a little getaway to the northern coast. Lucky pug had the Big Pieces of Food all to herself.

My little girl has a special bond with her grampa. You could pretty much always find her with him, usually soaking up as much body warmth and affection as possible.

i will help you read, grampa

grampa, you misspelled a word on your email

i will help u breathe, gramma

Here's my little girl, looking like a fetal pug, sleepily ensconced in her grampa's arm nook.

All the pugs wanted for Christmas...

... was apparently gobs and gobs of gifts. Which was not our intention. In an effort not to be The Craziest Pug People in the Universe (just Pretty Damn Crazy), we restrain ourselves from actually wrapping gifts with the pugs' names on them. Instead, we hang stockings! (with their names on them) ooooh, we are so not crazy!

We also try to stick to puglet gifts that are small enough to fit inside. The super-posh, gourmet treats that their auntie sent from NYC, for example. Which I did not get a chance to photograph before getting decimated by ravenous pug jaws.

Or, chew toys. Behold, Cleo decimating a stuffingless raccoon (how apropos -- no stuffing for her to extract and eat and require surgery for, and we know we all hate raccoons).

and, chew bones. Behold, Deedee noshing on her latest acquisition.

Ok, so perhaps it looks like she is actually chomping down on a puglet butt (Sasha's).

Both Cleo and Deedee enjoying their Christmas morning.

Deedee is confused. She's thinking -- where o where is my butt toy?

And what of Sasha, you ask? Well, the nearly blind and deaf pug is, have I mentioned, also almost 100% toothless. It has been YEARS since that pug has deigned to gnaw on a plebian toy. But, wait! Has the Christmas spirit finally gotten hold of the aged pug? IS SHE CHEWING A BONE???!

Yes, she is! She's either finally gone completely demented, or, Ebenezer Scrooge save us, a little bit of her pug puppy has come waddling out for the holiday. She's even relaxed enough to allow Deedee to chew. next. to. her. On their giant, new, posh bed, by the way.

yes, I am aware that the pug bed violates the 'stocking-sized' rule. do note, also, that the people gifts under the tree are as of yet, unopened, in deference to the pugs' priority status.

All this Christmas activity is exhausting for a senior pug. Sasha takes a moment.

I am the worst blogger ever

When the going gets tough, apparently I get lazy. The holidays are so filled with wonderful things -- eating, cooking, baking, entertaining -- that it's kind of like feeling like a pug on a week-long Easter egg hunt. so, I've allowed my posting to slide. Not to mention that I've had to maintain utmost vigilance in monitoring the Big Pieces Of Food treat-giving to the puglets.

Failed, again.

Who has the best spot?

It's really hard to say. I mean, Deedee is probably the original occupant of the coveted top-of-the-sofa spot, but then Cleo does have a better vantage point.

TV-watching pug

Actually, to be precise, Cleo is watching football. And when I say football, I mean that she's watching the Patriots pull in yet another victory.

Although Cleo wasn't always this brave -- whenever the 'duh-dunuh-dun-dun-DUN-dunuh-dun-dun-dun-DUNDUN' of Sunday football would play on TV, she would run and hide in our bedroom. I don't think she liked all the yelling; she thought it was directed at her. Now that she realizes that there's much snugglage and snacks to be had during TV football, she's been a permanent fixture.

Devious puglet

Look at that face. Is that the face of anything other than the world's most innocent pugletini? Rikki certainly SEEMS very comfortable here, perched on top of some hapless human.

But Rikki is not satisfied. Happiness is not hers. She decides to adjust position, meanwhile trampling my poor, old Sasha.

Nothing makes this pug happier than affection -- being cuddled by human AND pug.

My babies

It just fills and warms the heart, doesn't it? Nothing like a sleepy pug pile to complete my happiness.

Speaking of crazy pug habits...

I think these New York pugs are exposed to too much soot. They behave quite erratically. We've already witnessed Bunni's odd obsession with small items. Rikki, it appears, was not spared from eating the crazy cake.

Rikki's odd compulsion? Toys. What, you say, nothing wrong with a dog that likes her toys. No. THIS pug likes her toys, not for chewing, or chasing or even for nestling sleepily with by the fire. No way. This ridiculous puglet likes to just hold her toys, quite firmly in her mouth, while sleeping.

Needless to say, her toys are quite disgusting.

And her dental health is just atrocious.

Stop! Thief!

What is with this pug and laundry? Bunni is able to ferret out the most secret spots for storing socks, bras, panties... VERY EMBARRASSING when the pug emerges from the bedroom, right in the middle of a dinner party, with a Personal Item in her mouth.

At the grandpugparents' house, there were more delectable things to be found. Let me just preface this tale by mentioning the full-size golf net in the basement for practicing tee shots indoors.

Bunni. What is that. What do you have in your mouth.

Is that a sock-y?

Ho, no. It appears to be a custom-fit leather golf glove, thoughtlessly set aside by the club-swinging grampa.

This'll learn the careless grampa. The moral of this story is: Never cast aside what you don't want covered with pug drool.

Gives us that NOW!!

The question is -- is the grampa pushing the cookies away, or pulling it towards, the famished puglet?

Cousinly love

Deedee is a puglet of boundless puppy energy. She loves nothing more than wrestling and playing with another dog, preferably a puppy, and even better, another pug! Unfortunately, she lives in what essentially amounts to an old-age pug home, so what little interest she can evince in playtime within her senior sisters, is quickly extinguished by their dementia.

Which is why she adores her cousins. Bunni, in particular.

hold still while i subjugate u

my your neck wattle is tastee today

watch us perform the dual jugular hold of death

Another thing for which to be grateful

A sister puglet to torment.

ah.... i sneeeffff u... like a fine black-cherry bouquet of monbousquet bordeaux...

i must leeeck u incessantly until mama rescues u from my charms

wha, mama. i was doing nothing.

More action-shot Thanksgiving pics

The puglets got fully into the spirit of Thanksgiving. What better to be grateful for, other than numerous loving, comfortable laps from which to choose?

Bunni is helpless in the face of oncoming shnerglage.

em, Cleopatra. That's not really a lap. and that's definitely not lady-like.

Deedee prefers the foot-ular region rather than the lap, where she is subject to intense kissage.

Sasha is just melting.

Rikki prefers to look as patetique as possible so that someone will actually some over and create a lap for her.

It must be something in the water

As I've mentioned before, the pugs' fave spot is on top of the sofa cushions. This apparently holds true for any sofa, not just the ones in our house. Cleo spent a lot of time on the plushest seat in her gramma's living room.

Funny thing is, when we visited the fawn cousins in Manhattan, Bunni also appeared to appreciate this particular perch in her own apartment. Coincidence? Phase of the moon?