Wednesday, July 23, 2014

All Henry, All the TIme

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!