Sunday, January 24, 2010

We now resume our normal pug schedules

The normal Florida winter weather has returned and the boys have fallen right back into their usual routine. That makes for happy pugs.

Friday, January 15, 2010

8 Freezing Nights

We had 8 consecutive nights with temperatures below freezing and the pugs were not pleased. Heck, even I wasn't pleased.

Now, I know to many of you 8 straight nights of temps in the high twenties would seem like a heat wave, but you have to be easy on us Floridians as we are delicate people when it comes to cold temps.

My favorite piece I read about our cold snap was from USA Today. To paraphrase, the paper surmised that you can throw a hurricane at Florida and we can handle it, but bring on the cold weather and it is chaos. A state of emergency had to be declared to save the citrus crops, stores couldn't keep gloves, scarves & space heaters in stock and iguanas started to fall out of their trees. And that article didn't even account for the effect the cold temps were having on the pugs

The pugs mainly spent their days & nights sleeping. They didn't even wake up for breakfast until 6:45 AM on a few days because they didn't want to have to go out and go potty in the freezing cold.

Fortunately, it looks like our normal winter weather is returning. We will be hitting our normal 70 degree mark during the days today and tomorrow. Plus, the temps will remain in the 50's and 60's during the evenings. Now that is more like it.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Wintry Weather

You can file this under Things that Rarely Happen in FL. On Saturday morning we had a nice sleet/snow mix going on outside. Of course it didn't lay because the ground was still pretty warm, but it was still an odd sight to see the wintry weather here in FL.

Of course the pugs had to go out to go potty in the morning and they were quite surprised to hear the sleet and see the white stuff. It was funny to see the snow laying on the back of the pugs. It didn't photograph well on the fawns, but the snow showed pretty clearly on the back of Sol.

The only pug the snow didn't gather on was Luna. She ran out, did her business and then high tailed it right back into the house. That girl is from Miami. She doesn't do wintry weather.

If you're intersted, I have posted other, non pug related, wintry weather shots on Flickr.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Good Reason Needed

Last night it got down around freezing and the pugs were hesitant to go out unless they had a good reason. Benny & Sol went out to go potty and usually Henry would tag along just for the fun of it, but he decided to watch them from a nice warm spot inside. Can't say that I blame him.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Cold Front

A cold front moved through Wednesday into Thursday and let me tell you I have never been so excited for a cold front to sweep through town in my whole life. It brought fabulous weather and a much needed break from the heat. The pugs also took full advantage of the gorgeous day and spent most of their time outside in their usuals spots - parked by the pool.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Rough Week

The pugs have been a little depressed this week.  It has been raining here since Sunday evening.  I’m not talking about a little bit of rain either.  It has been pouring hour after hour, day after day.  I haven’t been paying too much attention to all the weather details, but I heard the weather lady mention last night that we had 18” of rain since Sunday.  That seems like an absurd amount and the northern girl in me keeps thinking, “Could you imagine if this was snow!”

But regardless of how many inches of rain we have had, the pugs are miserable.  Three pugs are miserable because every time they need to go out to go potty they get drenched and the fourth pug, who is completely indifferent to the water falling from the sky, is mad because I will not take him for a walk or let him dawdle all morning in the pouring rain.  I think having a pug that doesn’t care if he is getting wet is almost as bad as if he were upset that he is getting wet.  There doesn’t seem to be a happy medium with the bunch.

The funniest has got to be Luna though.  She refuses to walk out the door if it is raining.  You must pick her up and carry her across the threshold and if you really want to make it back in the house anytime soon it is in your best interest to put her down in the grass.  But as soon as she feels the wet grass on her paws a blank look comes across her face and she appears incapable of processing a thought.  Logic would tell her that if you want to get out of the rain, go potty real quick and you will get to go back in the dry house sooner.  But, she can’t bring herself to physically move.  She just stands there soaking up all the rain drops.

Benjamin is the king of thinking he can hold it until it stops raining.  Benny always scratches at the door when he wants to go out.  However, I will see him walk over to the door, peak out the glass to see if it is raining and if it is, he will walk away from the door.  A minute later he will do the same thing.  He is in utter turmoil because he knows he has to go potty, but there is no way he is going to ask to go out in the rain.  So, when I go to take him out, he acts like he doesn’t have to go potty.  Once I drag him out the door, he makes a mad dash to the grass, does his business and then sprints back to the house.  However, he always finds a way to pick up a piece of mulch that is streaming down the driveway as he is running back into the house.

Sol, is probably the smartest of the bunch, because she cuts the wet grass out of the process and just goes potty on the sidewalk.  Not ideal, but if it keeps her from going in the house, then I am behind it 100%.

And then there is Henry.  Henry knows it is raining and he just doesn’t care.  He always starts out like we are going on a normal walk and when I tell him that we aren’t going for a walk because, hey haven’t you noticed, it’s POURING.  Then he promptly starts to dilly dally in the front yard.  He walks through puddles, smells every blade of grass and just stares out across the lawn.  I think he is wondering what he can do to possible get wetter.

So, we are hoping that things will dry up a bit and that the flooding on local roads will subside so that we can do something fun on the upcoming 3 day weekend.  We had planned on another canoeing outing on Saturday, but we nixed those plans.  I’m thinking the pugs would love to go for a nice, long, dry walk.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Got A Boat?

When Sol first came to us she didn’t seem so pampered, but now that she has been here a while she has quickly gained a serious sense of entitlement.  For example, she is seen here wearing a raincoat.  This was our vain attempt to help keep her a little bit dry in the continous down pours we have been experiencing over the last couple days.  However, while wearing the raincoat, she did not move once outside.  Instead, she insisted on a more appropriate form of accommodation.  A yacht pehaps, Sol?  We ended up taking off the slicker and toweling her dry once again but she seemed extremely displeased with the whole rain event we are in the midst of.  Poor Sol.  Rags to riches to slightly damp.  Poor poor Solsey Baby.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

I Love Florida Winters

Yesterday was a long day and after work I went out in the yard to just chill with the pugs in the yard and take some pictures of my favorite subjects.  That’s when it hit me.  It was December and I was contemplating putting on shorts because it got up to 82 degrees.  Granted, everyday isn’t this warm, and we have been having some cold weather lately (by Florida standards), but it sure is nice to be able to hang with the pugs in the yard and not freeze!

What’s the weather like in your parts?

Friday, August 22, 2008

Down

Henry is more than happy to show how Fay knocked over our very top heavy Bougainvillea.  So far, other than that, a few million pine needles everywhere and having to drain the pool all is OK.

Have a great weekend everyone!  For those who like to check in on the weekends and miss not having anything new, I have decided to start posting something from the archives on Saturdays.  I figured after almost 4 years of blogging I have plenty of posts and I can re-share some of the older ones.  I would post something new, but I am afraid I would run out of things to talk about going to 6 days a week.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Fay

We didn’t really start to feel the effects of TS Fay until last night.  But since last night we have gotten rain, rain and more rain with a little bit of wind thrown in there.  Luckily, nothing too bad at this point.  However, Fay is a bit fickle and it has been difficult for forecasters to really pin down her path.  Right now it looks like she is going to skirt right by us out on the Atlantic and then turn back and hit Florida again.  We have been keeping a watch on the weather and Benny has been more than happy to help us out.  He was getting an updated report this morning as we were eating breakfast.

TS Fay reminded me of a question that was sent in a while back by a blog reader that wanted to know how we prepare for hurricanes.  I’d be more than happy to share, but first let me preface this with we have never actually been through a hurricane.  We are relatively newcomers to the state of Florida and have been lucky enough not to have to ride out a storm.  With that being said here are some of the preparations we make each year with a focus on the pugs and the cat.

Water, batteries and other staples

We stock up on all these things.  Many have told us all about being without electricity for several days so we make sure we have plenty of batteries on hand to power our flashlights and little lanterns for a good long time.  We make sure we have enough water not only for us, but also for the pugs and the cats.

Crates

We make sure the dog crate that fits in the car along with the cat’s carrier are handy in the garage.  If we are ever forced to evacuate or go to a shelter, I like to have a crate with me if for some reason we would need to keep the pugs contained.  We also have 6 foot leashes and harnesses handy.

Food

One of the biggest problems with the pugs is that their food must be refrigerated.  If we lose electricity for several days it is likely their meals will spoil.  So we always keep a big bag of Wellness kibble on hand during hurricane season.  During that time we give them kibble as treats and we mix some in with their food so it would not be a complete shock to their digestive system if they had to switch to an all kibble diet suddenly.

In all honesty, with 3 dogs and a cat, if a serious hurricane threatened our area we would most likely evacuate.  So we try to keep a list of our essentials.  For example, Luna’s eye drops.  Can’t forget those.

Hopefully, our lucky streak over the last 3 years will continue.