Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Caption This #180

Looking forward to your captions in the comments.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Happy Gotcha Day, Cupid

Eleven years ago today, we adopted Cupid from a local shelter. But, Cupid wasn't the cat we were supposed to adopt.

We had put in an adoption application for a different cat, but for reason's I can't remember that cat had a 3 day hold on it. So, we made sure we went to visit our soon to be cat everyday until we could bring her home. The first day we visited our potential kitty, the cat did nothing but hiss at us. This was odd because the day before the cat was perfectly nice to us. We chalked it up as a fluke and told her we would come back to visit the next day, which just happened to be Valentine's Day.

We returned the next day as promised and again the "almost ours" kitty had no love for us. She hissed and wanted nothing to do with us. We were starting to take it personally now and having doubts about adopting a kitty that clearly did not like us.

Dejected, we took a quick trip around the cat room and that is when we saw a cat rubbing up against the door of her crate. We stopped to say hello and a shelter volunteer quickly came over and asked if we wanted to hold the cat. We said yes, and Vanilla, which was the cat's pound given name, was quickly in our arms. She wasted no time flipping herself on her back and showing us her white belly.

For about 20 minutes the cat laid flat on her back, purring and kneading and drooling. Yes, drooling. Needless to say we were smitten.

The volunteer explained to us that Vanilla came to the shelter earlier that morning. A young couple brought her and her much older sister to the shelter because they just had a baby and Vanilla would not stay out of the baby's crib. The older cat that Vanilla came in with was not doing so well adjusting to her new surroundings, so the shelter staff called the young family and they returned to pick her up and bring her back home. After all, the older cat was not causing trouble with their baby. They wanted to be able to bring Vanilla back home, but they had to put their baby first.

We explained to the shelter staff, that we had an adoption application pending on a different cat that had done nothing but hiss at us since we signed our intent to adopt papers. The volunteer asked which cat and took a quick look at her files. She explained that the cat we had an adoption application on also had two backup adoption applications. So, if we chose not to adopt her, two other families were waiting in the wings.

We looked at each other, and within minutes we were filling out an adoption application for Vanilla.

As lovable as she is and given the fact that we adopted her on Valentine's Day we thought it was only proper to rename Vanilla to Cupid. After all, she used her charms to get herself sprung from the pound in less than 10 hours.

Friday, February 11, 2011

Rain

Yesterday morning, when I got up to feed the dogs, I could hear the rain beating down on the roof. I knew in about 5 minutes, after the pugs finished scarfing down their breakfast, they weren't going to be happy campers.

The morning routine is that after they finish eating, the pugs let themselves out through the doggie door and go potty in the yard. They promptly return to bed after that.

As I stumbled around still bleary eyed, I heard Benjamin go out through the doggie door. Less than one second later, he came right back in. He stood there looking around, weighing his options. Could he hold it and go right back to bed? Probably not, because just knowing that it is raining outside makes Benny have to go potty. Would I allow him to pee through the screen from the cover of the lanai? That was a risky move because he knows how I feel about the boys peeing on the screens.

So, I told him we would do our summer thunderstorm potty trick. I would take him out front and he could go potty on some flowers by the front door while remaining under cover. Except that it is not summer and the flowers that the pugs normally potty on have all but shriveled up and died because of the cold winter weather.

Knowing what he is supposed to do, but not having the flowers he likes to pee on, Benjamin is pacing. Finally he gets up the courage to sprint out to one of the flowers, go potty real quick and sprint back. I open the door and he runs as fast as he can back to bed.

Seeing the ordeal that Benjamin just had, Luna decides that she can hold it and promptly goes back to bed. I know she can, so I let her go back to bed without going potty.

Henry, on the other hand, proceeds out the doggie door, business as usual. He may or may not even notice that it is raining. Either way, it doesn't matter, because he doesn't care. He is his usual dawdling self. He eventually, comes back in, very wet from his time in the yard and hops back into bed. I encourage him to lay next to Ben.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Somewhere Fun Walk

A walk at the City Center falls under the "Somewhere Fun Walk" category in our data tracking experiment. I love going to the City Center and the pugs really enjoy it as well. There is a nice path that meanders around a lake that is a half mile long. When we go, we usually try to get a mile in with the pugs, which would be just two simple laps around the lake, but Henry refuses to walk around the lake twice. He will actually sit down and refuse to take another step. Not because he is too tired and can't walk, but because he has a rule that he will not walk at the same place twice on one walk. Been there smelled that, is his motto. So to extend the walk we have take a couple side routes. And Henry loves the side routes, because there is nothing he loves more than getting off the beaten path and exploring.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Playful

This is a shot of the boys after their bath a few weeks ago, but lately Benjamin & Henry have been romping around the house more and more. When they were pups it was all play all the time, then Luna came along and they each had someone more interesting to play with. Then they decided that sitting on the couch is more fun than chasing each other.

But, lately, they are back to wrestling around for a bit in the evenings, usually right before we go on our walk. The roughhousing doesn't last nearly as long as it did when they were pups, but it still makes me smile to see them play even a little bit. While they are many years older, their style of play hasn't changed much at all. Benny still likes to nip at Henry's ankles and Henry loves to grab hold of that big ole wrinkle on the side of Benny's face and pull him around the house. Boys!

On a side note, I received an email from Grannygoogs early this morning. Looks like she is back online. I will make sure that she receives today's Daily Pug Picture and hopefully we will see her around soon.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Caption This #179

Looking forward to your captions in the comments.

Monday, February 7, 2011

A Puppy Bowl Party of Sorts

Meet Jade. Jade came over on Sunday to play with the pugs and to watch a bit of the Puppy Bowl. She was also kind enough to bring her humans Jennifer and Corey. And it was a good thing she did because Jennifer brought pumpkin bread. Yummy, yummy pumpkin bread.

The pugs played a bit, but like any good Puppy Bowl party there was lots of snacking, which I think was the pugs' favorite part. Turns out that Jade loves pumpkin bread too!

Jade has a super sweet, outgoing personality and reminds me of Sol in a lot of ways. I like to think that Sol, in her younger days, was a lot like Jade.

Thanks for hanging out with us on Sunday, Jennifer, Corey and Jade.