Friday, April 3, 2009

Happy Birthday, Henry!

Happy Birthday, Henry!  Today Henry turns 7 years old.  It has always been hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that Henry is younger than Benny.  From day one, Henry has always played the big brother role because, let’s face it, Benny has always been Baby Benny.  But, they are only a week apart in age, so I guess it really could go either way.

Henry is by far the most adventurous of the four pugs.  I remember when it was just the boys and we would take them on hikes through the woods, Henry would never stay on the trail.  He was always straying off to the left or the right to see what he could discover.  Which totally paid off for him the day he stumbled upon a whole peanut butter and jelly sandwich just laying on the ground.  It probably is his biggest find to date, but his finders resume isn’t too shabby as he has really come across some crazy things over the years.

For me personally, Henry fills a special part in my life.  He is my big dog in a nice small package.  You know how some people are drawn to small dogs and some love big dogs?  I have always found myself stuck in the middle somewhere.  A part of me loves larger breed dogs and would love to do all the rough and tumble big dog things.  But, another part of me loves just being able to scoop up one of the pugs and carry them around with ease.  I think it is really one of the reasons I love the pug breed so much.  Pugs are small, but they have a lot of big dog traits, hence the “multum in parvo” description.

But, for me, Henry is just the perfect combination of big dog attitude in a small dog body.  He loves to swim, likes to pretend he is a hood ornament when we ride in the car and has an all around adventuresome outlook on life.  I will never forget the time we took the dogs to a dog park in Annapolis, Maryland.  It was our first time visiting the dog park and a few of the regulars told us about a nice little walk that led to a spot that looked out on the Chesapeake Bay.  They also told us about a little section of beach that was used as a unofficial dog beach.  Eager to take in the view of the Bay, we set out with the pugs.  After we spent a few minutes looking out at the water, we walked over to the dog beach.  It was a windy day and the water was very choppy, but the beach was still full of labs and appropriately enough at least 5 Chesapeake Bay Retrievers all fetching sticks or balls from the water.

After seeing how choppy the water was we decided that we weren’t going to encourage the pugs to take a swim.  We figured the pugs would have fun just running along the beach.  We made our way down the narrow trail that led to the beach and when we hit the sand we unleashed the pugs.  Benny ran around in the sand and Henry took off running into the choppy Chesapeake Bay after a few retrievers.  My first instinct was to intervene and not let him into the water, but I didn’t want to be the nervous mom so I let him go to see what he was going to do.  Out he went and he was immediately bobbing up and down in the very choppy water.  A few times, waves went right up over his head, but he didn’t care.  He was doing his best to keep up with all the bigger dogs.  He only made a few trips out and back before he was tuckered out, but that didn’t matter much to me.  It was quite a site to see a pug paling around with labs and retrievers in the Chesapeake Bay.

Besides being the most adventurous, Henry is also the most trusting of all the pugs.  Not that the other pugs are nervous around us, but Henry just has this notion that no matter what the circumstances we will not fail him.  For instance, he will just leap right out of the truck at you, fully expecting you to catch him.  And if he is leery of something, he will do it if you tell him because he has this trust that we would never steer him wrong.  It is one of the greatest feelings in the world and one of the things that fuels his adventuresome spirit.

So, in honor of Hank’s 7th birthday, here are a few of my favorite Henry moments shared on the blog:

• Things I learned from my pug Henry
• Footage from the Yellow Submarine
• Lifeguard
• The Pug Tug
• Ready to be served
• Improvising

Also, to celebrate the founding pug’s birthday, we are offering free shipping at H. Doodle on all orders through the weekend (4/3/09 - 4/5/09).  Just use the coupon code henry7 during checkout.