Happy Birthday Bruno!

Bruno turns three years old today. Blow out a candle for him, even if he does have a touch of the cannibalism.

And if I wasn't so gosh darned sick, I'd make him a special cake like my sister did for her dog's birthday.  Bruno will have to settle for ham.

Hey Chuck, Is Your Tongue Always Like That?

Some Things Should Just Never Be Done

I'm a big fan of Etsy. So big, in fact, that I have my own little shop. I try to support homemade crafters by buying homemade whenever possible. I am also a big fan of pugs. The dogs are just too cute. (As evidenced by this fun link sent to me by A.) However, in a recent Etsy search, I found some things that should never have been created.

I know no pug that would allow this hat to be kept on long enough to have this picture taken. I'm sure it's been Photoshopped. Or the dog was drugged.

I think this would be more scary than cute. Kinda like clowns.


Omy. I don't even know what to say.

Roll Out the Red Carpet

And the winner is...Chris! For her prize, she is presented with this beautiful award.

Let's all congratulate her. Chris, feel free to download this fancy award and frame it for your home (or just post it on your blog). And if you're ever in my neck of the woods (which is basically your old neck of the woods), let me know. There will be a plate of cookies waiting for you.

Thanks to everyone for playing. You're all funny in your own funny ways.

Fill in the Blank

Whoever can give me the funniest quote for Bruno for this funniest of pictures will win a prize! You have until next Tuesday morning (11/13/07). Good luck! (If you need to see exactly what Bruno is doing, just click on the picture to enlarge it.)

P.S. This photo was NOT staged.

My Two Peas in a Pod

Although I am the older sister, at times I do get to copy my younger sister. Such is the case today. She recently posted about her own "two peas in a pod," so I thought I'd share mine. Go 'Skins! (Ha. As if I really care.)

Pugs Just Want to Have Fun

After having Bruno for four months, we were at last able to take him to the "Rockville Pug Meet-Up." What is the Rockville Pug Meet-Up, you ask? It's a chance for pug owners in our area to get our pugs together. C and I have known about this monthly ever since adopting Bruno, but due to schedule conflicts, we hadn't been able to attend one yet. Until Saturday.

And Saturday's event lived up to our greatest expectations. At the busiest, we think there were 35-40 pugs. Just think of it. 35-40 little smashed-nosed dogs snorting and running and sniffing each others' butts. It was awesome. Simply awesome.


Now for a fun pug party quiz! See how many pugs you can find in each picture. They get harder as they go.

Pug Quiz #1:

Click here to find the answer.

Pug Quiz #2:

Click here to find the answer.

Pug Quiz #3:

Click here to find the answer.

Man's Best Friend

Bruno loves C far more than he loves me. I'm fine with this...really, I am. My sister believes it's because Bruno is a boy and boy dogs seem to love human males more than they love human females. Whatever the reason, I know this to be true with Bruno. When C was recently out-of-town for work for three days, Bruno was depressed the entire time. He would position himself so that he was facing the front door, just in case.

And the other night when C had a late night due to a work trip to Hershey Park (his life is hard), Bruno sat in our shoes (which are directly in front of the front door) waiting for C. I'm not sure if this love is cute or pathetic.

Everyone Loves Pugs

Having had a pug already (sniff sniff, R.I.P. Thor), I already know this fact: Everyone loves pugs. Want proof? Yesterday, C and I are in the car with Bruno in the backseat. We have the windows rolled half-way down so that Bruno can put his little pug head out the window. We pull up to a red light, and a car pulls up next to us. Obviously laughing at Bruno, the driver rolls down his window and says, "Beautiful dog. Can I have him?" I honestly think that if we had said "Yes," he would have taken him right there, right in the middle of Georgia Avenue.

These kinds of things happen wherever we go. We have started taking Bruno to our local dog park. We've been there maybe five times and already, people know Bruno. They don't know us or our names, but they sure know Bruno. And they know The Tongue.

Taking Bruno on our daily walks has also proved to be an experience. We once had a girl ask if she could take a picture of Bruno with her camera phone. Of course we obliged. Dang paparazzi.

Being a dog owner is funny. I remember hiking in the Wasatch (or anywhere really) and everyone you saw on the trails suddenly became your friends. This happened especially if you were hiking early or late in the season, or if you were on a remote, lesser-known trail. But it was fairly common to stop and start chatting with your fellow hiker about gear or the destination. Dog owning is the same thing. Owning a dog puts you into a "dog owners subculture." We have lived in our apartment for over two years and never spoken to a gentleman who lives on the first floor, nor did he ever talk to us. But then we got Bruno and suddenly we know Diamond and Diamond's Human. We say hi. We talk dog-talk. We're friends. We understand each other.

A Completely Random, Theme-less Post

I really have nothing to post, so I thought I'd share our latest family picture.

After Bruno's neutering, he developed an infection at the wound site. We thought we were doing a good job keeping an eye on him so as to not let him lick the incision site. But alas, we were not. The consequence is the familiar Elizabethan collar. But he looks dashing in red, don't you think?!

And if you think he's adorable, please vote for him here! We really want that $100! To vote, click on the link. Once the site opens, click on the link underneath the yellow text box. Note: Bruno is at the bottom, #28.

Is it a Dog or a Baby?

I am really enjoying having Bruno around. He truly is proving himself to be a great little dog. But I feel like I have an 18-month-old child instead of an 18-month-old pug.

First, we don't fully trust him to not make accidents in the house (mainly because he did this a couple of times and was about to do it a couple of other times), so we have to watch him constantly. This constant watching means C and I can't both leave the room at the same time. We can't go to the bathroom at the same time. We can't go into the spare bedroom at the same time. When we're in the kitchen at the same time, we feel like someone still has to keep an eye on him. And this constant watching is tiring.

Second, I'm worrying about him constantly. Last Thursday was the FHE-themed enrichment. C was asked to run the child care, so we were both out of the house. Away from the pug. On our first full day with him. I was totally distraught. The enrichment went long, and we didn't get home until nearly 9:00 p.m. I was sick the whole time. Was he alright? Did he think we abandoned him? Was he learning to resent us? Was he hungry or thirsty? Did he need to be let out to go to the bathroom? I will never say that my sister (or any new mom for that matter) is freaking out unnecessarily. I am learning that it's natural. I fully expect to do the same thing when it happens to me.

Third, I'm learning that it's much harder for the two of us to get out of the house together. To do so, we have to barricade the kitchen and confine him to the 8'x10' area. As he already spends our entire workday confined in this area, I am loathe to do it to him after we have come home from work. So now, I will go grocery shopping...alone. C will run to him parents' house...alone. And going for ice cream on a date is going to seem very exciting.

Fourth, I'm taking tons of pictures.

It's a Boy...Pug!

Well, we did it. Last night we added Bruno to our family, and already we're in love. He's a one-and-a-half year old pug. He's already house-trained (and so far no accidents!). He follows us around the house and loves playing with his toys. But, of course, the funniest thing about this little guy is his tongue. Yes, it is always sticking out of his mouth, even when he's not panting. It adds to his funny pug character (as well as adding to the general slobbery-ness of our house).

Already there have been adjustments to our household. First, I can already smell "dog" in the apartment. I am pretty sure this is due to all the dog food we inherited from his previous owner, but we'll have to figure out something there and include frequent vacuuming. Second, I spent a restless night worrying about the little guy! Was he alright in the kitchen? Would he realize he could sleep in his crate? Was he feeling abandoned? Third, C and I had an early morning so that we could get him out and walked before we left for work. This might turn out to be a good thing, however, as we might actually speak to each other in the morning, thus replacing the usual grunts.

We're still working on the training though. We want Bruno to be a good dog, one who doesn't scare visitors, make anyone uncomfortable, and is generally well-behaved. We want him to realize that we are the bosses. Hopefully this will all come with consistency and time. But now that we have him, I wonder what's the point in having kids?!

Still Searching...

C and I are still on the hunt for that perfect pug. Well, any pug, really. Everyday we watch the Post's classifieds, craigslist in about four cities, and newspapers as far away as Philly and Richmond. We are looking for an older pug (older than one year) because we don't have the time to devote to housetraining a puppy. We are going to see two dogs this week, and I can't wait.

This past weekend we drove to North Carolina to see some friends. On the way down, we read a book that covered all aspects of dogs: training, feeding, health care, and more. It certainly helped calm me down and reassure me that we might actually be able to be parents to a pug. The book is awesome. It points out so many things that I had never thought about and so many things I have previously done wrong. In fact, I think many of the things learned from this book can be applied to raising children. Here's a sample:

• I am the boss (along with C, of course). The book tells us that we must show the dog that we are the alpha animals in the house. This is not cruel, and in fact, it is actually in the dog's nature to show deference to a more powerful being. And for kids? While I like the idea of being friends with my kids, I think it's more important to be the boss. The friend part can wait until much, much later.
• Dogs love schedules. They thrive on knowing what is going to happen and when. And as far as I understand it, so do children. This is a good thing as I am about the most schedule-oriented person I know.
• Dogs want praise more than anything. Current housetraining theory says that instead of punishing dogs for their wrongs, owners should give praise when they do something right. This should be obviously transferable to children. They will remember for much longer the one thing for which you chastise as compared to the 20 things for which you praise.

Given all this new-found information, maybe I won't need a book on parenting. Honestly, how much more to it could there be?! (To all parents: this is a joke, albeit a bad one. Please don't comment with a whole bunch of things that I'll have to learn before having kids. I do, in fact, realize this. And don't worry; I'll be doing far more research on raising kids than I did on raising pugs.)

R.I.P Sponge Bob Squiggle Pug Pants

Yesterday I saw a pug listed on our local shelter's website. He was in foster care, waiting to be adopted. After getting the "okay" from C, I emailed the sweet thing's foster mom. Unfortunately, he had already been adopted. We were heartbroken. I already planned where I would put his food and water bowls. I already looked forward to walking him in the morning before work. I already wanted to see his happy little face and wagging tail as I walked into the apartment after work. But it wasn't to be. Sigh.

Being teased by this foster pug has really gotten us thinking: should we get one anyway? It doesn't have to be the little one from the shelter; we could buy one like regular people do. I had concerns about having a dog in an apartment where no one was home during the day. But after doing a lot of online research yesterday, I found that pugs do quite well as apartment dogs. They are completely happy to sleep most of the day and really only need to be walked once a day (of course, they'd need to be taken out more than this, but that's a given). Definitely sounds like Thor.

So should we do this??? I'll post the picture of one of the available pugs just to sway the vote.

My New Second-Favorite Dog

Everyone knows I loves pugs. LOVE pugs. They're just the funniest dogs ever. Plus, they are quite hysterical looking. (Please don't say, "They're so ugly they're cute!" I hate that line. It's just not possible to be cute and ugly at the same time. You can say they're cute. You can say they're ugly. Just don't say they're both.) However, the other day, C and I went to a dog store because we were bored. Well, they had this mixed breed there that I had never seen: the puggle, a mix between pug and beagle. It was so freaking adorable. I looked them up on the internet and found some flattering pictures of them and some not-so-flattering pictures (the first dog pictured, for example).

Some day when we aren't living in the Grand Pre Ghetto; some day when we actually have a house with a garage; some day when we have an actual yard, we will have a dog. C is fine with this, and even fine with the fact that this dog will most likely be a pug named Ted. However, if we ever decide to add another dog to our family, I am going to seriously look into the puggle variety. C has already named the puggle "sponge bob puggle pants" or "puggle bob square pants" or something close to this. I love it.