There is nothing the pugs seem to enjoy more than freshly cut grass. As soon as we are done mowing, the pugs are very anxious to get out int the yard and run and roll around. There is just something about the smell and feel of the grass that just gets them all fired up.
Benjamin really runs around like a mad man and with the summer heat his face gets dirty real quick. Just look at how filthy his wrinkles are in the picture above. His face gets dirty so quickly and he has the deepest wrinkles. We use Malacetic wipes to clean him up and while he isn’t fond of them he does let us wipe out his wrinkles. More details on wrinkle cleaning to come, I am just amazed at how quickly Benny’s wrinkles get dirty compared to the other two. What about your pugs? How often do their wrinkles need to be cleaned?
So the snake saga continues. I see my friend the black racer a few times each week. I can’t be 100% sure that it is the same snake, but I like to tell myself that we only have one. However, this guy in the picture is definitely not a black racer. I found him in the gutter in front of my house and as soon as I saw him the little rhyme, “red on yellow can kill a fellow” popped into my head. I looked him up in a little book that I have and I believe it is a coral snake.
Other than that, I have spotted a grayish snake in the backyard as well. He was very hard to spot because it looked like he was trying to go under ground. I’m not exactly sure what was going on.
As you can tell, I don’t really know that much about snakes. I’m not really sure why we have so many either. We do have a lot of frogs, so I guess they are here for them.
They just make me a little nervous because it seems like we are always stumbling upon one. I guess, I am going to have to read up on snakes and other Florida wildlife so that I am just more prepared.
I have been having a lot of fun learning how to make videos, so I thought I would try my hand at a little video montage of the boys swimming with some pictures of Luna thrown in there. Unfortunately, Luna’s swimming videos from this weekend didn’t turn out too good. I think she sabotaged them on purpose once she heard I was making a montage. She wants her own video and she doesn’t want to share screen time with the boys! She is a pretty woman after all! I hope you enjoy!
Summer has officially arrived and the current weather here in Florida is not very pug friendly. Heck, it isn’t really people friendly either. On some days it is downright hot. Because of the heat, the pugs haven’t been keeping to their normal routine. They no longer go out for a walk when I get off work, instead they just go out long enough to do their business and then everyone retreats back to the air conditioned house.
We have pushed their normal long walk back to around 9:30ish at night. By this time, it is completely dark and while it is still hot, the pugs are able to cope with the heat. In an ideal world, I would get up early and give the pugs a nice long walk in the morning before things warm up, but with my current work load and schedule that just isn’t going to happen. I wish I could muster it, but I know for a fact that it just isn’t going to happen.
Because we have been walking so late at night, our walks have been restricted to just around the neighborhood. On the weekends we usually try to go to the park or the beach or someplace fun, but since we are going out at odd hours of the night that pretty much rules all of those places out. This is the hardest on Henry as he really likes to mix things up and he can easily get bored with walking the neighborhood each night. We try to take a different route each night, but there are only so many possible combinations that is it pretty impossible to give Henry all the variety that he needs.
But despite the fact that they don’t get out nearly as much in the heat, the pugs are taking it all in stride. They spend the cooler hours of the morning lounging around the pool and they move inside when it gets unbearably hot. One day this week, Henry was laying outside soaking up the sun’s rays when I saw him get up and plop himself down on the first step of the pool. This cracked me up because he has never gotten in the pool when no one else was swimming. He just had all he could take of the sun and he just wanted to cool himself off. When I went out to keep an eye on him, he looked at me like, “What, you do the same thing all the time!”
I’m glad to see that Henry is resourceful, but now I have to keep a really close eye on him because he knows that he can’t go swimming when there is no lifeguard on duty!
The tiny Mimosa tree that we planted in the backyard appears to be doubling in size everyday. Since it has grown so much since my last update, when I caught Henry sitting next to it the other day I quickly snapped a picture and knew it would be perfect for the next Mimo update. Benny, however, got a little jealous and promptly came over to water the Mimo. It seems he doesn’t like the Mimo stealing his blogging limelight.
When I fussed at Benjamin for being such a cranky old man, he gave me a look that said, “What? You don’t think this little tree is getting so big from water and sunlight alone, do you? It’s all because of Benny’s specially formulated Miracle Grow!”
Awhile back I posted a few pictures of the Mimosa tree that we planted in the backyard. Since we planted the tiny tree it has really hit a growth spurt. We couldn’t be more pleased! Here are a few more pictures of the tiny tree so that you can see how it has grown.
I admit, right now it kinda looks like a big weed in the yard, but it is starting to develop a trunk and pretty soon it will look more like a tree. I can’t wait until little Mimo gets bigger and gives us some shade in the yard.
The other day I went outside to test the pool water and I saw this guy in my yard. Even though I was on the inside of a screened in area he still startled me, to say the least, and he was slithering all over the pugs’ favorite spot to sit when the grass is still wet with dew.
He kept bumping into the screen and I couldn’t figure out what he was doing. Finally, he found his way inside the drainage strip of my pool deck. The pool area is screened in and surrounded by cool deck. About 3 feet away from the house, a drainage strip that is about a half inch wide runs along the length of the deck. The strip is made of a heavy rubber and has little slots in it that allows the water to pass through when it is not full of pug hair. The water then exits from either side of the deck.
It is hard to see it in this picture, but right underneath the gutter there is small break in the concrete of the deck. This allows the excess water to flow out. We have another hole just like this on the other side of the deck. Well, the snake is using this little tunnel to get from one side of the yard to the other side of my house! Not cool! I’m going to have to make that a toll road. Because if he wants to get to the other side of the yard he is just going to have to slither around the long way!
So needless to say, I am now paranoid every time the pugs are in the yard. I’m all for nature and wildlife, but nature can happen outside of my fence. The only critters I want inside my fence are pugs!
