When I sit on the lounge chair this is the view I have. I always have to sit with my knees up to my chest because the pugs never miss an opportunity to sit on the lounge chair with someone. Most of the time, Henry wiggles his way in there too, but not until my hand has fallen off from petting him. Henry likes to sit on the ground right next to my chair. From there, he knows that my hand can reach him perfectly and that I have plenty of time to pet him. He enjoys it so much and feels so relaxed he has to fight falling asleep which makes him look like this.
It’s not officially summer yet, but as far as the pugs are concerned summer is here in full force. It’s been so hot that Henry has been begging for ice cubes again whenever I take a sip of water and if it gets any hotter we might have to consider getting some blocks of ice for the pugs to lick. Walks are pretty much restricted to early morning hours before work, which I always have a very hard time working in, or to the evenings at dusk or on really hot days after it is dark. The pugs don’t seem to mind the change in their walk schedule as much as they mind the mixup in their sunning time. Henry loves to lay in the yard and bask in the sun and Luna and Benny love to lay on the lounge chairs around the pool. All three of them have found that it is just too hot for that!
I have been on door patrol a lot lately because the pugs haven’t fully accepted that it is summer. The pugs go out, sit outside for not even a minute and then they come back in. They cool off in the air conditioned house and then they want to go back out again. Its like they haven’t yet come to terms with the fact that they need to find their old favorite indoor sleeping spots from last summer.
We could also use some rain. There has been rain all around us, but it just keeps missing us. Yesterday, it thundered and looked like it was going to pour down rain any minute, but we never got more than a sprinkle. Luna might have to put back on her rain coat
I have been on a quest to get a good video of the pugs playing to share with you and until now, I haven’t really been able to capture anything good. Most of the times when the pugs are playing I don’t have the Flip handy and by the time I go get it I end up with 3 pugs just staring up at me.
But, the other night I was able to get a little video of the pugs playing around the pool. Benjamin & Henry love to chase each other around the pool. Luna, as you will notice in the video, isn’t too fond of circling the pool. Since she doesn’t see too well, she tends to hang back while the boys are chasing each other near the gigantic puddle in the yard. You will see her in the video a bit, and I would like to point out, that she is running no where near as fast as she can. She takes it easy on the boys
My favorite part of the video comes at about 1:32 when Benny turns into a mad man and circles the bench.
Hopefully, there will be more playing videos to come. I will try to get one of little Luna outrunning her big brothers.
You may recall last Spring that we planted a tiny little Mimosa tree that we grew from a seed. Well, look how that little tree has grown! The Mimosa tree made it through its first FL winter and is in bloom now. I simply love the blooms.
The tree is finally big enough that it is starting to provide some shade in the yard. This works out really well for the pugs as they love to lay around in the yard. Although, the cat seems to enjoy the tree the most.
Luna’s eye doctor is about an hour away from home so rather than just making the drive to go to the vet we decided to stop at a dog park in Sanford that was on the way. Luna’s appointment was for 10:45 am so we figured it would be best to stop at the park on the way there to beat the heat. We got up extra early and managed to get to the park at a little after 9:00 am which gave the pugs plenty of time to play.
A few years back Dog Fancy magazine featured Paw Park in an issue that named the best dog parks in the nation, so I was very excited to check out the park and see what it was all about. The park was very open and in the middle of the park was a huge tree that had fallen during hurricane Charlie. They decided to leave the tree to give the dogs something to climb on, which I thought was pretty cool. The pugs were immediately interested in checking out the tree.
And it wasn’t long before Benny was climbing all over it.
After they investigated the tree, the pugs made their rounds and introduced themselves to the other dogs at the park.
The park has a time out area for dogs that get overly excited and I just couldn’t resist taking this photo.
My favorite thing about the park was that there was a sidewalk that went around the perimeter of the park. We walked along the sidewalk and the pugs happily followed along. It was like being on a walk in a regular park only not having to use any leashes.
Yesterday, we went canoeing and we were feeling brave so we decided to bring the pugs along with us. Benjamin & Henry had been on a few row boat trips before with us in Maryland and always did a great job, but this was Luna’s first boating experience and our first boating experience when being outnumbered by pugs.
It was a very cloudy day and it was actually drizzling when we set sail. We scheduled an early morning trip in the best interest of the pugs and the clouds made for perfect weather for them.
Before we launched we got Henry & Luna suited up in their life vests and securely attached their leashes to their life vests. When we were putting on Benny’s life vest the zipper broke! There was a little bit of panic because we clearly did not have an extra life vest and we couldn’t really rig his vest to make it work. So needless to say, I was very paranoid about Benny not having his vest.
The pugs all hopped into the boat without hesitation and before I knew it we were floating down the creek. The creek was very calm so we took our time to get the pugs all setup. We laid out towels in the bottom of the boat so that they could be cozy and not have to rest only on the metal floor. We also filled up a water bowl for them so they had access to water. They rocked the boat a tad in the beginning when they were trying to figure out the best lookout points, but they settled fairly quickly. As we paddled, they gazed at the passing trees and watched the water passing them by.
After a while, they pretty much tied themselves together with their leashes. This was causing some problems so we took off their leashes. We were confident that they were not going to jump or fall off the boat at that point so we took the life jackets off Henry & Luna as they were making them very hot. This is the when the pugs truly settled down and relaxed. True to form, Benjamin propped himself up against the side of the boat.
It wasn’t long until, the pugs were sound asleep. As we were floating down the river all we heard was the sound of water flowing, birds chirping and Henry snoring. It was so serene.
Luna was the same height as the metal bars running across the canoe. When I first saw this picture, I thought, Luna must have joined the witness protection program.
All in all, I think the pugs had a great time. I know I sure did. I was very proud of them for doing such a great job. They didn’t hesitate to get on the boat and once on they settled down fairly quickly and kept their paws and heads inside the boat at all times. Too bad every morning doesn’t start with such a peaceful outing.
I got a very cool camera for my birthday that can take pictures underwater and I finally got a chance to put it to use on Friday night. I got some underwater video of Henry fetching his favorite toys from the pool.
