I must confess the boys & Luna have way too many plush toys. They have a little over two toy bins full of various plush toys, but one of them is always playing (or should I say dismembering) with one of them. They do have their favorites, though, and they seem to drag those toys everywhere. They nap with them, take them in the yard and sometimes Benny will even try to convince you to let him take his puffy on a walk with him. With the amount of action that these toys get they can get pretty filthy. So this weekend was bath time for all the plush toys. We did two loads of plush toys and a few more loads for their dog bedding and pillows. The toys all cleaned up very nicely and the dog beds smell very nice. So now the boys & Luna are on a mission to dirty everything back up again!
So, it has been about a year and a half now that Luna has been with us. While she did come to us with some issues, the biggest one has been her chronic eye problems. She has dry eye. She also has another issue where water congregates near her cornea. (If they ever gave this condition a name, well, I wasn’t paying attention and/or probably couldn’t pronounce it anyway.) So, Luna has a very diligent schedule for eye medications. The medications have been changed a few times and the schedule numerous amounts of times. It seems like as soon as we remember the routine, it changes again. Usually after a trip to the eye specialist, we will have to create a new spreadsheet to keep track of her medication schedule. We will have to go back in 2 weeks for a recheck, but currently, her medication schedule is as follows:
Muro ointment first thing in the morning every day (left eye only)
Cyclosporin at lunch time and dinner time every day (left eye only)
Neopolydex at lunch time every day 5 minutes after the Cyclosporin (both eyes)
Tacrolimus mid afternoon every other day (left eye only)
Muro ointment again at dinner time every day (left eye only)
Cylcosporin again at bedtime (left eye only)
See why the need for a spreadsheet? It can be a little daunting when the routine changes but there’s still always a routine. The last time we went to the vet she asked if Luna gets a treat for taking her meds. I told her heck no because on a schedule like that she’d weigh 500 pounds! Fortunately, the vet was supportive and told us that if Luna was good about taking her meds, then no treat was necessary anyway. We are very thankful because Luna does do a super job when she gets her meds. There are no problems when she gets drops, but on a rare occasion, she will get a little wiggly when it comes time for the ointment. We can’t really blame her, though, she puts up with an awful lot. She is a really good girl. It’s almost like she knows how much they help her. It’s a real shame, though because no matter what we do, her vision still deteriorates slowly. She does better in the daytime but nighttime is another story. She doesn’t seem any worse for the wear, though. She’s our little trooper.
Happy 4th of July! I hope all the US readers have a wonderful and safe holiday. Our original plans were to take the pugs to the beach today, but so far this morning it has been pouring down rain. There may be a bit of a break in the rain later this evening, but I still don’t think it will be beach weather.
So on to plan B. We are just going to have a relaxing day around the house until we go to a cookout later this evening.
One more thing, in honor of Independence Day, H. Doodle is having a sale on the Freedom Harness. For this week only it is on sale for $17.76!
We had so much fun making the Pug Love video that we decided to make one for each of the pugs. Luna was up first, of course, since she is the little diva of the house. So we hope you enjoy little Luna’s solo debut. Stay tuned for Ben & Henry’s videos which will be coming soon.
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!
