Monday, July 28, 2014
If you browse through the OBP archives you may notice that Henry has had the fewest number of blogs with him as the center of the story. In some ways, that probably has to do with the fact that he has been the most healthy. And we love that he is healthy! But, another reason is that he is just such a good boy, and let's face it, well behaved pugs rarely make blog history.
He does everything right. He listens (when he can hear---his hearing has been getting kind of dull). He follows directions. He doesn't mess with the cat. He doesn't have potty accidents in the house. Even when it's raining. He will just go outside and get wet and be happy with a towel dry off when he's done. Or really, even if no towel dry he's good with that too! This is so not Benny or Looney like. On rainy nights Ben would not poop outside (but then would leave us a "surprise" in the guest bathroom overnight) and Luna would just be able to "hold it" until morning. They were prima donnas. Both of them. But not Hank.
I am in no way implying that Benjamin and Luna were bad pugs. They were very well behaved, but they did have a little bit of mischievousness to them. Henry's mischievous side is almost non existent. Instead,he was always happy being the practical sidekick to Benny and Luna.
Henry is just so well mannered, unobtrusive, laid back and mellow that there is nothing we can really say that will make him sound exciting. LOL I guess we should throw him in a leather jacket and have him hop up on a motorcycle just to give the appearance that he's as bad ass. 
In all seriousness Henry has a wonderfully charming personality, but that really plays better to a live audience.
He is truly an unsung hero.
Friday, July 25, 2014
When Benjamin passed, I don't think that we mentioned that in addition to getting an urn for him we also bought urns for Henry, Luna and Cupid. We knew we wanted them all to be alike and we had already somewhat regretted not pre-buying for all of them when Solsey passed. We figured we'd better not make that mistake again. It is crazy, but Solsey's urn was a mere $20 from walmart.com. The other pugs, well, let's just say they were not as much of a bargain. But we wanted to be sure that they were all engraved and engraved in the same font and that they were the same style.
So, you may have noticed that Luna's is slightly smaller than Ben's. And we have Henry's waiting for him. But there is NO RUSH!!!!! Please, Henry! Stay for a long while! Like FOREVER!
We also got Cupid's urn but hers is not like the pugs's. Hers is a red ceramic heart and did not have an engraving option. But it is official. We are now mature planners. Ugh.
And for the curious, yes, Luna also had a cedar box. Cupid said good bye to her in much the same way that she said goodbye to Benny but not for nearly as long. But it was still sincere.
We are not ready for anyone else to be earning their urn any time soon. Henry & Cupid monopolize the sofa alone now. Sometimes though, just the 2 of them together literally take the whole couch! It is no small wonder how the 7 of us ever fit on there at once! (2 Humans, 4 pugs and a cat.....it was a miracle!) Now, 2 people, 2 pets and there's still not much room.
We are making it work though. Getting through the pain. Happy memories trying to replace tears of sorrow. Like Grammy always said, "this too, shall pass" and she's right. Time heals all wounds, right?
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Uh, oh. It looks like Benjamin and Luna didn't teach Henry how to use the dog beds. This is not good considering Henry is now the sole owner of about 22 dog beds!
Wednesday, July 23, 2014
As we move forward after the back to back blows, we are laying all our eggs in the Henry basket. We have been doing our best to keep his spirits high (which in turn has been helping us, too). Now that Henry no longer has a stay home buddy he hasn't really stayed home much. He has been going almost everywhere with us. This has inadvertently caused its own problem. He now EXPECTS to go everywhere. That means to work with us, to the grocery store, to the gym, etc. It was a delicate balance in the beginning. We were fortunate to have the weekend to get Henry used to being the last pug standing but as the weekend wore on, we knew that we would not want his first alone time to be first thing Monday morning. And we wanted him to be so exhausted by Monday that he wouldn't care if we were there or not. (And that plan did work! He was pretty wiped out when Grammy pugsat that day. And even into Tuesday he was still mellow!)
So, we took Henry on walks in the park, walks around the neighborhood, for car rides, to go get ice cream and the big adventure was that Henry went to visit my job. I got the ok to take him to work with me a day or 2 each week. It won't be the same as it was when I worked from home, but it will be kind of similar. So, we began the grooming process. We took him to my job for a little while when no one was there. This way he could his get sniff on and lose that initial excitement in private. Later in the week, we took him there at the end of the day so he could meet some of my co-workers. On both trips he did an awesome job! Henry loved the attention from the guys at my job and they poured on the lovin'! He took control of the room as soon as he walked in. He was a pug on fire!
However, getting inside my office was a little tricky. There is a flight of steps with no backs leading up my office door. Henry was a bit apprehensive about the stairs but he even navigated that. Not quite with "ease" per se, but he did manage to get up the whole flight on his own. He was not comfortable going down, though. So, he got a lift (he was carried). On the second visit, though, Henry owned the steps both up and down.
We will keep you abreast of further progression as Henry may become a working class dog. hahaha!
So, for now, it is all Henry, all the time. We are just putting all of the focus on him now. He still has a lot of life left and if we are honest, he's missed out on a lot of fun stuff because his siblings were not able to keep up with his pace. We want to be sure that we are giving him everything he needs in his golden years, too.
PS For those questioning, no.... no more pugs anytime soon. But thank you all for the suggestions. We will be a one pug show until there are no more pugs. Then we will decide what next after that.
PPS And last, again, we are so grateful for all the readers that have read, prayed, sent loving well wishes, shared kind words, kept us in your thoughts. It has been a trying time and all of your support has truly been comforting. To those that have loved and lost and those that are loving and on the edge of losing, we know your pain. In time things will be better. Like Luna, we prevail over the hurdles that life brings and like Benny we try to do it in a positive and good natured way. Thanks again!
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Late last week, we got to bring Luna home. She now joins Benjamin, Sol and Lou C.
We made sure to put Benjamin's puffy with him and thought it would be fitting to put one of Luna's favorite chewy sticks with her. These are the chew treats that she would bark for each night. While I'm sure Luna appreciates our gesture, I know she is a bit perturbed we gave her a brown chewy stick. The red ones were her favorite. If we tried to give her any other color she would smell it and refuse to take the treat that was not of her liking with a look on her face that said, "Get the good stuff!" Inevitably we would crack and retrieve a red colored stick. She would then trot off happily into the living room to enjoy her treat.
So, Looney, I'm sorry this isn't a red chewy stick. But you ate all the red ones little one.
Monday, July 21, 2014
The day Luna passed there was a Super Moon. Given the sleepless night we had endured and the overall stress of the last few days we had no idea of the lunar event that was occurring that night. Our vet informed us. In the moments after Luna passed our vet broke the silence and profoundly said, "I think it is only fitting that there is a Super Moon tonight."
That night, shortly after the sun set, we leashed up Henry and took him on his first solo adventure. We got in the car and started driving to the beach. We stopped at a little park on the river just before you reach the beach. We walked with Henry to the water's edge and through the clouds we could see the moon shining brightly casting beams that were dancing on the water. La luna was shining bright and seemed bigger than life, just like our little Luna.
Monday, July 14, 2014
It is with a very heavy heart that I must share that Luna passed away on Friday morning. Looking back now, things started to take a turn for the worse on Wednesday afternoon. That is when we first noticed an increase in panting and uncomfortableness in Luna. We were able to get her to settle and sleep on Wednesday night. Early Thursday morning was OK, but around lunch time on Thursday things began to escalate. We gave her one the rescue shots that we had left from Benny and that made it so she could rest a bit. However, her breathing was not good even when she was "resting". In the wee hours of Friday morning her rescue shot began to wear off and her panting was increasing and her distress was becoming even greater. We gave her another rescue shot to hopefully give her some comfort until we could get to the vet on Friday morning. We went to the vet first thing on Friday morning to discuss what options, if any, we had. In our hearts we knew that Luna was telling us it was time, but we just wanted to make sure we didn't have any other options. Our vet confirmed our biggest fear. There were no other options and Luna was on the brink of respiratory failure. Not wanting her to suffer any longer we made the heart breaking decision to let her go.
At just 15lbs Luna was a small physical presence with a larger than life personality. She was feisty, loving and extremely loyal. Wherever her people were that is where you would find her.
I remember driving to South Florida to adopt Luna like it was yesterday. It is hard to believe that we are saying goodbye to this little girl so soon. Luna taught me a lot about toughness, overcoming adversity and making the most of what you got. She made a happy life out of the imperfect hand she was dealt. I am so thankful that I could to deal her a few cards and share in some her many adventures.
The loss of Luna alone leaves a gapping hole in hearts, but coming on the heels of saying goodbye to Benjamin everything is magnified. We are going to take a break from posting this week to help get our heads around the even newer normal we are experiencing here in the OBP house.
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