Pug Phrases

Over the years, I've come up with a bunch of random phrases to describe my two pugs and the things that they do.  Sunny and Rosy are so funny and strange, these thoughts just come into my head as I watch their crazy antics.  Over time, with repeated use, the terms become firmly embedded in my internal dictionary.

I think all these phrases are self explanatory, but below are some photos showing examples.  And besides, who doesn't love seeing photos of pugs?  Crazy, sad people, that's who.

Drumstick Attack:  Rosy has a deep, deep love for Sunny's drumsticks.  I don't know what caused it, but she's frequently head butting and gnawing at them, all while wagging her tail in pure joy.  Sunny's so chill, she puts up with it for the most part, but when she's had enough she lets Rosy know.

Wing Attack:  Rosy's love for Sunny's wings is strong, but not as strong as her love of her drumsticks of course.  Usually she'll resort to a wing attack if the drumstick is blocked, but drumstick is always her first choice.

Rice Teeth:  I love Rosy's tiny row of bottom teeth that look like grains of rice!  Her top lip often gets tucked in, showing off her beautiful teeth in a funny, awkward smile.  She has to go for a dental cleaning sometime this year, and I fear that she'll lose some of her precious lil rice teeth.

Pug Blanket:  Sunny usually likes hanging out in her corner of the couch for her naps as it's more comfortable than draping over me like she used to do when she was younger.  But sometimes she wants to snuggle and Rosy's in the way.  Sunny's solution is to climb on top of both of us and lay down, creating a super warm and cozy pug blanket.  I love pug blanket in the fall and winter!  But in the warmer weather months, it's not so much fun.

Pug Barnacle:  Pug barnacle is just another way of saying velcro pugs.  I use the term velcro pugs to describe how my pugs are obsessed with me and follow me room to room.  But when they can't stand being separated from me and have to make some form of constant, physical contact, I think of them as lil barnacles, glommed onto the ship that is me.  Rosy's the main culprit.  When Sunny wants my attention, she resorts to painfully pawing at my arms until I pet her.

Dagger Nails: Pug nails grow faster than anything else on earth.  And while many dogs have their nails ground flat against the pavement on their regular walks, something about the way my pugs walk or stand sharpens their nails into tiny daggers at the ends of their paws.  Every time I come home and they jump on my legs I wince at the little stabbings.

Hearts Shooting Out of Their Eyes:  When my pugs aren't sleeping, eating, fighting with each other, playing with their toys, or watching tv, they're likely gazing at me as if I'm the best thing that ever existed in this universe.  Such adoring stares!

Some of these photos have crossovers. Like the one below is an excellent example of lil bean and rice teeth too!

Sunny Dreams of Sushi:  If you've never seen the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, then add that to your Netflix list right now!  After my sister and I watched it a few years ago, we noticed that Sunny's tongue often looks like a piece of sashimi.  This then led to our singing, "Sunny dreams of suuuushhiiiiii!" over and over again as we massaged her lil velvety ears.  Sunny loved that.  She still has a little sashimi tongue.  Actually, it's not so little.

Freshly Baked Pug Loaves:  I don't mean to brag, but Sunny is one of the best pug loaves I've ever seen.  Sometimes I can't even see a single limb.  But this phrase isn't meant to describe just her awesome pug loafing (she does her best work on the couch, which often involves her dreaming squeaking).  It's specific to when I wake up and Sunny and/or Rosy are sleepy pug loaves on the big bed, smelling Fritolicious.

Sunny Singing The Song of Her People:  My mom loves teaching our dogs to sing.  She gets great joy out of tossing her head back and seeing our dogs mimic her action and howl.  We thought Sunny was mute for the first few years I had her.  Now we can't stop her singing even if we wanted to.  But why would we ever want to do that?!  She has the best little hoarse awoowoowoo!  She's so dramatic about it, I like to say she's singing the song of her people, as it seems that serious and important.

Lil Bean:  Sunny and Rosy are both shaped like lil beans, but Rosy is especially a lil bean.  Something about her plump small body just screams, BEAN!  I often like to sing to her "Lil bean! Lil bean, lil bean, lil beeeaaaaaannnn!" which gets her really really excited.  And that makes me happy.

Boop!:  With a tongue as fabulous as Sunny's and one that's always sticking out, how can I resist touching it and giving her a "boop"?  She hates the boop so I don't do it that often.  But sometimes it looks so soft and squishy or so dry and wrinkly I can't resist.

Happy Leap Day!

Happy leap day!

That is all.  Carry on.

What To Do With Your Pug When It's Snowing

It never fails.  Every first snowstorm, Sunny gets even more stubborn than usual and refuses to do anything outside.  I lay down pee pads indoors and she just sits on them.  I take her back outside and she just stands there with her tail down.

Rosy does her business quickly because she gets that the faster she does it the faster she gets to go back inside.  But Sunny either doesn't get it or just doesn't care.  It's like it's a matter of principle.  She won't go.  Doesn't matter if I dress her up warmly, put booties on her delicate lil paws, or shovel her an elaborate racetrack or maze in my backyard.  She will hold it in for as long as possible until I start to worry about what must be going on inside her.

This snowzilla blizzard was no different and she went the first 24 hours without pooping.  Luckily, she eventually went outside and we avoided any accidents in the house.  After the first day with snow, she gets better but it never gets easy.  I still have to follow her and nudge her to walk to make sure she goes.  While all my neighbors' dogs are frolicking in the snow, Sunny (and, to a certain extent, Rosy) are begging to go inside so that they can snuggle on the sofa.  They're definitely "special" dogs.

And here are some photos of Sunny and Rosy "enjoying" the snow.

The first day started off with light snow and the girls were miserable and refused to do anything in the backyard.

When that didn't work, I got out new sweaters (mostly to keep their fur from getting wet) and put on some booties, hoping they'd feel comfortable enough to go during a walk.

They were not pleased.  But at least it kind of worked.

The next day was the height of the storm and Sunny refused to go but Rosy happily obliged.  (For the record, Rosy does not poop butterflies.)

Once the storm ended, the first thing I did (before even digging out my car) was shovel a racetrack in the backyard for the pugs.

 

Sunny finally went after digging into the snow until her paws got encrusted with dirt and grass.  Smh.

The pugs started to get restless with their racetrack...

So I extended it into an awesome maze.

Sigh.  So much snow.  Such demanding pugs.  Such a crazy pug lady.

Family

You can't choose your family.

Poor Sunny. Sometimes I feel bad for her because Rosy can be such a pain with all her drumstick attacking, humping, and food and toy stealing. But I know they love each other deep down because I catch them snuggling or playing together all the time now.

Picture evidence of Sunny's and Rosy's volatile relationship.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

I've been feeling WTF lately about many things. Whiskey tango foxtrot. Bah humpug!

Fashion Show

There are many promises I made to myself before adopting my pugs that I have since broken. I never intended to let my pugs lay on my brand new fabric couch, and now I've switched to all leather furniture and we camp out on the sofa together all the time. I never intended to let them onto my bed, and now I often wake up to a pug butt in my face with another pug snuggled next to me under the duvet.

But I really thought I'd hold to my last promise - to not become a crazy dog lady who dresses up her pugs. Nope. Sorry. Broken.

I've now moved beyond dressing my pugs in functional coats and sweaters for the cold weather and have bought mohawk hoodies, costumes, and even onesies. Yes, I am that crazy pug lady. And I accept that.

Behold:

Today I ordered three more onesies. Yaaassssss. 

Ugh Bugs!

This weekend I found the first ever tick on Sunny.  It was traumatic.  Not for her, but for me.  We were at my parent's house with my sister and her family and I was rubbing Sunny's belly with my nephew.  I noticed a weird gray bump on her neck waddle and said, "What's that?  Is it moving?"  My nephew leaned in close and said, "It's moving!  It's moving!"  Chaos ensued.

Luckily, my brother-in-law was there to expertly pull out the tick, intact, with a pair of tweezers.  It was still wriggling and he put it in a plastic bag so that I could show the vet.  We then cleaned Sunny's bite wound and I called my vet in a panic.  My niece ran away and my nephew was hopping around the room shouting, "This is scary fun!  Scary fun!"

I took Sunny to the vet and her bite wound looks good and she appears to be doing okay.  But, I have to keep my eye out for any symptoms of lyme disease over the next few months.  We'll have her blood tested in January to be sure as it's too early to test it now.  I also switched both Sunny and Rosy from Frontline Plus to Nexgard.

I HATE HATE HATE all insects, spiders, ticks, etc.  All creepy crawlies!  I just want winter to come to kill all the bugs or at least make them disappear.  We should be beyond tick season!  And then as an icing on top of the cake, I saw a spider on my car today.  Luckily it was outside, but even speeding along the highway the spider clung onto my windshield wiper.  I sprayed my entire car with peppermint oil (I keep a bottle of it in my car just for this purpose), but it's probably still there right now, laughing at me and having millions of babies and making itself at home in my car.

P.S. I am using the term bugs to include all creepy crawlies such as spiders, ticks, mites, etc.  My hatred is not limited to just insects.

Here are some pics from the vet visit and our happy return home. Sunny was a trooper and she's very popular at the vet. And she lost a pound since her last weighing in April!

Halloween Costume Tip

Sunny and Rosy know what's the most important thing about Halloween - THE TREATS.

I've never been a fan of "sexy" Halloween costumes.  They often look ridiculous and uncomfortable.  And I'm all about comfort and what will let me eat as much as I want without a button or seam bursting.

My all-time favorite (and most comfortable) Halloween costume was when I dressed up as a Never Nude.  If you don't know what that is, Google "Arrested Development" "Tobias Funke" and "Never Nude."  I wore a Never Nude t-shirt (basically a regular white t-shirt with a Never Nude logo and motto that my friend got for me as a joke present) and cut-off denim shorts with sweatpants over them.  When I entered the party, I took off my coat and sweatpants.  This was during peak Arrested Development popularity and yet only one person at the party got what I was.  We were in a group chatting when he stopped talking and shouted out, "Are you a Never Nude?!  That's awesome!"

I hope that you all enjoy your Halloween, getting dressed up and going trick-or-treating or to parties, but remember the most important part of this holiday is to eat as much candy and treats as you can possibly stuff your face with.

Catch a Leaf on Your Tongue

The leaves from my maple trees are starting to change color and drop.  This is my favorite time of fall because the air is crisp, the foliage is beautiful, and there's nothing for me to do other than admire the change of seasons.  This will soon be followed by annoyance and rage at the massive amount of leaves that will fall and that I'll have to clean up and somehow get to my curb for the annual leaf vacuum by the county. 

I also love this time of the year because Sunny will often pick up a stray leaf on her tongue while we're out walking.  I can't believe I haven't managed to capture a photo of this!  But, every time I see it, I get distracted pointing and laughing at her and then by the time I remember to pull my phone out of my pocket (I love wearing coats in the fall - pockets!!), a breeze has carried the leaf away or she's slurped it and either dropped it or swallowed it.  One day, I promise you, I will get a photo of it! 

I mean look at this tongue.  It's always sticking out.  Of course things are going to get stuck on it!

I had some colored pens in my bag so I thought it would be fun to add a bit of color to the leaves.  They look a bit neon here because I always have to tweak my photos since the notebook's paper is slightly yellow.

Here's the maple tree in my front yard from this weekend.  It's just starting to change colors.  So pretty!  I have a love/hate relationship with my trees.

This was from last fall.  It looks pretty, but you can already see the leaves starting to pile up.

And some frolicking in the leaves last fall.  Both my pugs love running through the crunchy leaves, but Rosy especially loves it!

Ugh.  The leaves.  THE LEAVES.  So many.  I can't even.

Rain + Stubborn Pugs = Frowny Face

Ugh. Rain. So much rain. Such stubborn pugs. Bah!

This morning Sunny launched a poop strike. I expected it and thought I was prepared for it, but I'm no match for a stubborn pug.

After a few minutes outside, Rosy did her thang and so I let her back inside. But Sunny. Oh Sunny. We were outside for 30 minutes. 30 long minutes.

I was determined to outlast Sunny, to hold firm. But she won. I was already late to work and Sunny looked so pathetically sad with her head and tail hanging low. Plus she wouldn't move. At all. As soon as Sunny was inside, her tail curled up and she pranced about the house in victory. I'm sure she'll leave a consolation prize for me on the floor when I get back home.

Sigh.

I hope my neighbors didn't see my mini meltdown when I stomped my feet and shouted "JUST POO ALREADY!" But at least it inspired today's drawing. I forgot to draw shadows and actual ground but I didn't realize it until after I edited the photo, so *shrug*.