Thursday, April 12, 2007

Tails from the Treat Jar #2

After last week’s treat jar scare, the boys and Luna were happy to find that the treat jar had been refilled and that justice had been served!

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

A Duck Man

Duck, duck, pug, duck.  When it comes to stuffed animals Benjamin, Henry & Luna prefer the ducks.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Caption This #2

Uh, oh!  It looks like Benjamin & Henry are sharing secrets.  What do you think these boys could be up to?  Can’t wait to see what captions everyone comes up with.  You can add your caption by leaving it in the comments.

Monday, April 9, 2007

Feeling Better

I am very happy to report that after a few good days of rest, Baby Benny is feeling much better!  He is not 100%, but he is darn close.  He is feeling so much better that he wants to get out and play with Henry and Luna and when he doesn’t get his way he pouts on the couch.  I tried to explain to him that it was for his own good, but he wouldn’t listen and he mentioned something about the quickest way for him to recover was to feed his herniated disc.  You know the old pug saying, feed a cold, a herniated disc and all other ailments,  starve nothing. 

Many thanks to everyone for all their well wishes!

Friday, April 6, 2007

Herniated Disc?

On Wednesday morning, Benny did a really odd thing.  I poured the Cheerios into my bowl and Benny did not get out of bed.  Now, Benny loves Cheerios and as soon as he hears the sound of Cheerios hitting my bowl he comes running.

Seeing that there were only two pugs at my feet, I asked Henry and Luna, “Where’s Benny?”  They didn’t know and really weren’t interested in where Benny was at that moment.  They just wanted some Cheerios.

I went to look for Benny and I saw that he was sitting on the edge of the bed.  He looked anxious to get off the bed, but he wouldn’t jump off of it.  So I picked him up and put him on the floor and mentioned something to him about being a silly pug.

We ate breakfast and then I took Benny out to go potty.  The walk started normally and then when we crossed the street Benjamin would not jump up on the curb.  Instead he just sat down.  Now, this is nothing like Baby Benny.  Benny jumps up and down just for fun.  The curb is no match for Benny, he can conquer that with ease.  So at this point, I was getting very worried.

Throughout the morning, I noticed that Benjamin would not jump up or down from anything.  It didn’t matter how high or low the object was, he would just sit next to it instead.  He was also very lethargic and not his typical self.  So, I called the veterinarian.  Of course, they did not have any appointments until next week, and I talked to the receptionist to see if she would deem this an emergency.  Benny still had his appetite and he had not thrown up or had any diarrhea, so neither she nor I thought this was a dire emergency.

My mind could not rest, however, so I called a friend who is a veterinarian.  She asked me a ton of questions and walked me through some things over the phone.  By the end of the conversation, we had come to the conclusion that Benny most likely had a herniated disc.  She recommended that we give him some baby aspirin and keep him very quiet.  No walks, no time in the yard, no jumping, no anything.  And if Benjamin was not feeling better by Friday (today) we needed to take him into the vet.

So that is what we did and fortunately, Benjamin is doing much better.  He isn’t 100%, but he is acting more and more like his usual self - which is making it hard to keep him quiet.

I am very relieved that Benjamin is doing better, but ever since Wednesday morning, I had been wondering how he hurt himself.  Then it hit me.  The pugs get up for breakfast every morning at 5:30am.  At that point, I have one hour left to sleep before it is time to get up.  Rather than spend that hour having them lick my face and beg me to get out of bed to feed them, I just get up and feed them and go back to bed.  It has become such a routine that I am sure I am not fully awake when I am doing it.

I do remember that on Wednesday morning before Benjamin ate that he was his normal bouncy self.  He poked his head in the refrigerator and jumped up and down for his food just like any other morning.  I also vaguely remember that when we were on our way back to bed that Benjamin missed landing on the bed on his first jump.  So I just picked him up and put him on the bed.  I think this is where he hurt himself, because he was fine before and while he was eating, but an hour later when I got up for the day, he wouldn’t leave the bed.

So, the mystery has been solved and Benjamin is well on the road to recovery.  We will still have to keep him quiet for the weekend, but I am just glad that the little guy is feeling better.

Thursday, April 5, 2007

Tails from the Treat Jar #1

Benjamin, Henry & Luna are all treat connoisseurs and since great connoisseurs need to hone their craft by frequent treat tastings, we keep a treat jar on the counter for easy treat access.  The boys and Luna’s treat jar sits right next to the cat’s treat jar and despite what Benjamin might try to tell you, only one of the containers has dog treats in it.  We weren’t sure how the treat jar would go over with Baby Benny at first.  I knew we would have to get something pretty air tight or else Benny would just sit and whine at the counter all day.  Our current treat jar seems to fit the bill because, for the most part, Benny doesn’t whine or scratch at it.  The treat jar is also a place where the pugs can express their inner feelings.  It has a little chalk area on it and Benjamin, Henry and Luna are frequently leaving us notes on it.

The other day the treat jar was undergoing a little bit of Spring Cleaning and I took a lot of the older treats out of the jar.  I hadn’t gotten around to filling back up the jar when I noticed that the pugs were up in arms.  It seems they saw the empty treat jar and assumed the worst.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Planting Mimo

When we moved to our new house 2 years ago, we thought it would be great to have a Mimosa tree in the backyard.  A Mimosa tree has very unique leaves and gets the best pink, powder-puff like blooms.  It is also a great shade tree.

So we went to different nurseries hoping to find a Mimosa tree to plant.  To our surprise, a Mimosa tree was very hard to come by and the few we did find were very expensive.  After a year and a half of searching, we walked by a Mimosa tree while walking the pugs and noticed tons of seed packets laying on the ground.  We picked up a few and thought we would try our hand at growing a Mimosa tree from a seed.

We didn’t get our hopes up, so we were more than thrilled when about two weeks after we planted the seeds, we had a little baby Mimosa tree

After the seed sprouted, we have been keeping a close eye on it and transferring it to bigger and bigger pots.  Each time we transplanted it, we crossed our fingers and hoped that we didn’t kill the little tree.  Last weekend, Mimo was ready for a new pot and we decided that instead of getting a bigger pot it was time to plant her in the backyard.  So, we picked the perfect spot for Mimo with the help of Benjamin, Henry & Luna.

They were very eager to help and pleased to have something new in the yard that they can go potty on.  Lets just hope that Mimo can hold up to her frequent waterings!