The mistress of the toe-lick

I was totally remiss in not mentioning the stellar champion of the foot-and-toe lick. Miss Cleo.

u r filthy and need to be cleaned.

All one needs to do is expose a bare foot around this pug, and it will be licked. Excessively. So much so that the husband now wears socks and slippers in order to avoid this apparently unavoidable fate. I call it a gentle massage. He calls it annoying. We all know who the true pug mama in this house is.

Deedee is a lover

I have tried, but it is almost impossible to capture on static film the ridiculous perspicacity that is -- Deedee Licking. She licks everything. From the the obvious food or toys, also her sisters (ears and eyes preferentially), to feet (human, that is, preferably mine) and faces (that would be everyone's).

Caught in the act. Sort of.

mama. i am licking air. because i can.

did u catch me?

Where IS that sleeping spot?

With age, Sasha has definitely become much less indiscriminate about where to sleep. She sleeps all the time -- on the stairs, on the sofa, on our bed, on her bed, and on *gasp* my lap. Methinks she is getting a wee bit senile in order to be tolerating the mama's shnergles.

i am grand. and not that old. do not disturb me.

One must never underrate the soft plush sofa.

this is most comfortable. i will think deeply about all my worldly contributions and then...

the one sofa, by the way, that has been thoroughly chewed upon by the Deedles.

**shnerk**

Cleo's fave thing

Other than food, Cleopatra's favorite thing in the whole wide world is to be loved. Actually, I'm pretty sure that in her world, love is first, then food. by a narrow margin.

And how is this love to be expressed? Mayhaps is it the human allowing herself to be trampled on a regular basis in her lifelong search for the perfect snuggle spot? Or being snookered into making organic, locally sourced, sustainable meals? Well if it's not feeding and clothing her, or spending ridiculous amounts of time, energy and money on her happiness and health, I guess it would be -- rubs. belly rubs, neck rubs, back rubs, but most especially, ear rubs.

Or, even better, ear rubs while snuggling with a fave sister pug.

Pug-less vacation

Is there a sadder combo of words in the English language? We do try to keep a full complement of pugs to escort us on vacations, but sadly, pugs were not allowed on our recent cruise to Alaska.

That's not to say that the trip was completely sans mammals of the non-human variety. We saw plenty of these:

look! a killer whale! seriously

and these:

the elusive humpback whale tail

Actually, there was a pug-sighting on the trip. We passed by this little guy in the park, and our entire family descended upon this unfortunate, er, LUCKY pug, cooing and oohing and snuggling and all in all making general fools of ourselves.

do you blame us. look at that face.

getting a back scratch from a stranger. is there a greater happiness for a pug?