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.

Hiking with friends

We had friends over this weekend, and we took them to the same trail area again with the girls. It was a cooler day so there was less panting, wheezing and complaining in general. They're becoming robust outdoor pugs.

Sasha was feeling so good she would linger at really interesting smelling spots until we were well out of sight. Dave had to go back and retrieve her multiple times until I threatened her with the leash (no! not the leash). We finally turned around when we came to a pretty steep grade. Although Cleo nimbly climbed up to the top, Sasha just sat down and looked at me, super-harumph . She forgave me in the car. I think she was too sleepy to stay mad.



It's impossible to know what Cleo was thinking here.



And Cleo was pretty sleepy afterwards, too. Sleepy enough to snuggle with someone other than us.

Pug-a-phernalia

At our last Pug Sunday in SF, we met a guy who designs adorable pug-themed items. We fell in love with one of his prints that looks pretty much like Cleo -- crooked teeth, lopsided ears, googly eyes, and all.

We wasted no time in getting onto the website (http://www.cafepress.com/rainbowpugs) and ordering us up some pug items. As soon as it arrived in the mail, I had the girls model some of the products for a prolonged photo shoot.

Look at how horrified they look. They were so mad at me after this, they wouldn't even look at me.

Cleo's photo-op

Poor Cleopatra isn't getting her share of media time.

This is the face I see the most often. Her 'pleasepickmeuppickmeuppickmeupPLEEEEEEEZ' look.

And there's the sleepy look. This is probably what she looks like 99.999999% of the day, but I'm just not there to witness it.

Then, there's the Classic Cleo look. The one that Dave likes to imitate when he wants to cheer me up or give me a free giggle.

An apple a day

I think the reason that Cleo's breath is so less stinky than Sasha's is because Cleo still actively chews like a puppy. Sasha gave up on chew toys a while ago, and I don't think I need to remind everyone of the Dental Horror that she subsequently went thru -- my toothless pug. We can't even get Sasha a little bit interested in a chew toy anymore. Cleo, on the other hand, loves her nylon Greenie.

It's plastic so there's no danger of her swallowing it, getting a bowel obstruction and dying (or worse, incurring thousands of dollars in vet bills). It's supposedly melon flavor. Whatever it is, Cleo loves it.

This is what we have to do to poor Sasha. She pretty much hates it.

Exhausted pug

Sasha was so tired after our long walk, she let me take all sorts of pics.

Curious Sasha

On our walk this past weekend, we decided to try hiking with the pugs off leash. Cleo behaved beautifully -- trotting obediently behind us the whole time. Sasha, on the other hand, would get wildly distracted by some fascinating smell on the side of the path, get wholly absorbed, and lag behind. Each time she felt the need to peep and mark her territory.

When she finally looked up, we could actually see the look of panic -- they're gone. they've left me. i'm all alone. But, by the end of the walk, Sasha was pretty confident there wasn't going to be any abandonment, and began to be more independent. As in, more runty. Cleo also clued in, and you could tell she was torn between hanging with the rebel Sasha or being a good heeling pug.

Look at the indecision in that one raised paw.

Saturday hike

We took the pugs for a nice long walk on Saturday morning. There's a mess of trails literally up the street we were alerted to by a fellow pug owner in the neighborhood, and they're all dog friendly. Sashacleo had the best time.


Cleo was just delighted to be outside, as usual.

We had to make a few pit stops for thirsty pugs. We knew that when the loud pug panting turned into wheezing, we should stop and hydrate.

Sasha was convinced we were hiding more than water in our pack.