Friday, May 11, 2007

The View

Benjamin, Henry & Luna are always very interested when I make the food bowls for the week.  However, it takes me quite some time to make all the bowls so sometimes the pugs get bored.  Benjamin has come up with a good solution, though.  He perches himself on the back of the sofa.  From there he has a perfect view of all the bowls on the counter and he is perfectly comfortable.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Tug

The boys are very fierce tug players.  Neither one of them likes to lose and they are both very intense while playing.  Luna hates it when the boys play tug.  Partly because they are not paying attention to her and partly because they sound so mean.  Just listen to all that growling going on.

Monday, April 30, 2007

Here Kitty, Kitty, Kitty

The real Calico cat of the house will have nothing to do with Benjamin, so Benny has to resort to cuddling with the little cat blanket that we actually got for the cat.

Benny is quite flabbergasted by the fact that the cat doesn’t like him.  He just doesn’t understand why the cat doesn’t care for him much.

It’s no mystery to anyone else, though.  First, the cat doesn’t like it when you take her stuff.  *Ahem*, you are laying on her blanket there, Benny.  And second, the cat doesn’t really respond well to those that charge her at full speed with their tags jingling and then abruptly stopping an inch away from her face.  Her reaction to Benny doing that is the same thing that she does with any jingly toy that crosses her path.  She baps it with her paw.

The cats favorite pug - Luna.  At first I was surprised, but after I thought about it it made sense.  Luna is usually everyone’s favorite!

Friday, April 27, 2007

Sharing

Its moments like this when I can take a huge sigh of relief.  We didn’t upset the apple cart by adopting Luna and furthermore, I think the boys like having her around.  I know I sure do!  Not that I don’t know all that by now.  But it is just little things like these that remind me.

Benjamin, Henry and Luna each have very distinct personalities and it is just fantastic how well they all fit together.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Marathon Chewer

The other night we gave each of the pugs a nice bone with some creamy filling inside.  Everyone worked on their bones for about an hour and then Henry & Luna started to tire out.  Benny on the other hand was just getting started and he easily chewed for another hour.  At that point, it was time for bed.  So I picked up the bones and put them in the toy bin and took everyone out for their final potty of the night.  When we got back, Benjamin snuck off and dug his bone out of the toy box and got in an extra 5 minutes of chewing before I took the bone away from him and put it in the drawer of the nightstand where it was out of his reach.  Reluctantly, Benjamin went to sleep, knowing that he would be able to retrieve his bone in the morning.

First thing in the morning the next day, Benjamin, the happy go lucky morning person that he is, was dancing and jumping around in front of the dresser happy as could be because he knew he was now allowed to have his bone.  So I gave him his bone and he headed outside to chew it on his favorite lounge chair.  He chewed on that bone for hours.  At one point he caught Henry looking at his bone and Benny gave Henry his “Boy, don’t you even think about looking at my bone.  Just mind your business!”

Finally, after hours of chewing, Benny finally fell asleep.  He was so sleepy that he almost slept through lunch.  Good thing he has a little sister that loves to eat just as much as him.

Friday, April 20, 2007

Their Throne

Wherever there is a pile of pillows, that is where you will find Benjamin & Henry.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Who would have thought?

The boys turned 5-years-old a few weeks ago.  They are a week apart in age, so we had back-to-back birthday celebrations.  Nothing fancy, they each just got a day of their favorite things.

With the boys turning 5 it really got me thinking about when they were puppies and how they have changed, and have not changed over the years.  After 5 years there are some things that really surprise me about them.

How Benjamin surprises me:

• Benny and his puffy are still best buds.  Well, actually what I more surprised about is the fact that we have been able to keep the puffy for 5 years.  It has needed to be washed countless times,  but it is still holding up very well.
• To this day, I still can’t believe Benjamin is potty trained.  It took forever for him to learn and even once he learned I thought it was just a fluke.  It has been years since we have had an accident *knock wood* in the house and for that I am ever so thankful.
• Benny has turned into a lap dog.  When he was younger, Benjamin never cared much for sitting on your lap.  Instead he would curl up beside you and he would only sit next to you for a few moments.  But, in his older age, Benny has become a real lap dog.  Every time I turn around it seems like he is jumping up on my lap.
• Benjamin is still terrified of sewers.  The first day we brought Benny home we found out about his fear of sewers.  To this day, Benjamin will drop to the ground and claw his way from any sewer.  Beyond that he knows exactly where every sewer is in the neighborhood and he avoids them like the plaque.

How Henry surprises me:

• Henry’s hips and knee have not given us any trouble over the years, *knock wook again*.  When Henry was around a year old, we found out that he had hip dysplasia.  We were told that as long as we kept Henry at a healthy weight he should never need surgery on his hips and so far that has proven to be true.  Unfortunately, Henry did need to have surgery on his knee to fix his luxating patella problem when he was about a year old.  I have always worried that he would have ongoing issue with his hips or knee and over the last few years he has been fine.  Granted he can’t jump up as well as Benjamin & Luna, but other than that you would never know he has hip problems.
• Henry uses his smarts for evil.  When Henry was a puppy he was so eager to please and learn new things.  Now, Henry uses his smarts to con his brother out of bones and get extra treats.
• Henry is no longer a big fan of baths.  When he was a puppy he loved to get a bath.  But now, he really doesn’t liked to be bathed.  This just strikes me as odd because Henry loves to swim and he loves to play in sprinklers.

And even though Luna hasn’t been with us for quite as long, I have still been thinking about how she has changed over the last year since she has been part of the family.

How Luna surprises me:

• Luna came to us potty trained!  At first, I thought it was just a fluke that we managed to take her out before she really needed to go potty, but after a year there have been plenty of times when Luna has done her little potty dance by the door letting us know that she needs to go out.  Since she came to live with us, the girl has not had an accident in the house!  Now, that calls for an extra treat!
• Luna is closer to Henry than Benjamin.  When we first adopted Luna, I was a little nervous with how she would fit in with the boys since they were very tight.  I thought for sure that her and Ben would get along the best and I was worried because I didn’t want Henry to feel left out.  Well, it turns out I was completely wrong.  Luna hangs out with Henry more than she does with Benny.  Now don’t get me wrong, Benjamin and Luna are best of friends, but when it comes time to settle down for a nap, Luna always looks for her old pal Hank.
• Luna likes her crate.  When we first adopted Luna she was not crate trained.  Crate training her was quite hard because anytime she was in the crate she pitched a fit.  We have video tapes to prove it.  But one day she just realized that the crate was not too bad and that she actually liked it.  It was a space she could call her own.  Now she retreats to her crate every morning after breakfast to catch a few more hours of uninterrupted sleep.