Thank you all so much for your tidal wave of positive JuJu for our pug-neighbor Natasha (a.k.a. the Dowager Countess of Pugton Abbey). We’ll be sure to pass it on to her!

This weekend we finally got some snow here in New York. Last winter was Sid’s first experience with snow, and boy did he get an introduction. The day after Christmas last year we were hit with a blizzard that basically shut down our neighborhood for a few days. It was insane – city buses were left abandoned on the streets, people were cross-country skiing to get around, and the garbage bags were left for WEEKS on the sidewalks! This year, the snow came more with a whimper. I took Ol’ Flat-Face to Prospect Park so he could get a refresher course on the cold fluffy white stuff.

As soon as we entered the park, he started the investigation.

With the snow covering up most of the ground and the low plant-life and fallen leaves, Sid struggled for a while to find the ideal spot on which to “do his business”. He usually takes a pretty decent amount of time (even more whenever we’re running late for something), but the snow definitely had him perplexed. He eventually found a good spot, but then something caught his eye.

As you all probably know, once a pug sets his/her mind to something, there is no turning back. Resistance is futile. Sid is no exception to the rule, and before I knew it, I was being towed over to where the action was happening.

We ended up in the Long Meadow, where tons of kids were out sledding. There were lots of families and even few other dogs. Sid took an immediate interest in this sledding business and proceeded to ask me if he could participate.

“C’mon, dad, can’t I go sledding? PLEEEEEEASE?!”

When I told him we couldn’t because we didn’t have a sled, he got a little huffy, so I told him that we would go sledding – but just not today. We’d first need to go the store and get a pug-sized sled. He perked up a little.

Unfortunately for poor Sid, rains came today and reduced all the snow to slush – then just muddy grey water. I guess we have time now to go to the store and get our pug sled so we are prepared for the next snow storm!

Have any of you other pugs been sledding? A certain pug with a new sledding obsession wants to know.

The first pug Sid met when we moved to Park Slope was our lovely neighbor Natasha. Natasha’s a 14-year-old whippersnapper who regularly holds court on our block, slowly waddling up and down the sidewalk during her daily walks, focused more on getting attention and love from the neighbors than taking care of her “business.”  When you get to be Tashi’s age, you get to have a little bit more say in how you walk your walks.

She’s a bit of a local celebrity, really, and all the neighborhood dogs love Natasha while respecting that Tashi calls the shots.  For all you Downton Abbey fans out there, we’ve decided that if there were a “Pugton Abbey,” Natasha would be the Dowager Countess:

“What is a week-end?”

Well, we ran into Natasha and her mom last night, and it looks like Natasha’s not doing so well.  We were hoping that everybody could send some SUPER-STRONG Juju her way.

Feel better, Natasha!

As you all know, pugs provide many functions that assist us humans in our everyday lives. From floor cleaning to feet warming, all the services pugs provide beg one to ask the question, “how the heck did I get along before my pug?”. Well, not only have pugs dominated the domestic-care industry, they’ve now entered the technology arena – starting with an accessory for the much-beloved tablet from Apple.

Introducing: the iPug iPad Stand.

Featuring a self-cleaning mechanism, soft neck-roll wrist rest, and a bad attitude, the iPug iPad Stand is ready to hit the streets (right after he does his business).

Don’t let your precious iPad wobble on some dull plastic stand – instead, get the stand that purrs when you pet it, and even snores when in sleep mode! There are countless accessories for the iPug iPad Stand, including multi-colored soft cotton cases so you can personalize the color of your iPug iPad Stand (orange and blue shown in photos). Why settle for boring?!

The iPug iPad Stand can be yours today – for the low cost of one bag of venison jerky treats.

So, thanks to Myko’s awesome suggestion, we spent much of this weekend posing Sid in his new confidence shirts (you’re welcome, lady pugs).  I’ll let the photos speak for themselves…

Hey guys, so Sid really wanted to write today’s follow-up post on confidence shirts, but Brian (wisely) only gave Sid a commenting account for the blog, not a full-fledged write-your-own-posts type of account.

So, while Sid is stewing in the corner muttering about how life isn’t fair, I’m going to transcribe his written notes into a blog post that I’m sure he’ll say isn’t half as awesome as it would’ve been if we’d just let him write it himself with no supervision whatsoever.

So, here it goes, an unedited transcription of Sid’s notes:

1.  Point out that I don’t need some stupid shirt to give me confidence because everybody knows I’m awesome and maybe I wouldn’t have such obsessive compulsive anxiety problems if Mom and Dad would just listen every once in a while when I sit really loudly and then sit even louder and HELLO, I’M SITTING so give me the stupid venison bits that are barely even treats but whatever they taste good and I should get them whenever I want them because it’s not like they’re Twinkies or something but even if they were Twinkies, whatever, I’m an adult, and in fact if we calculated this whole age thing fairly like the way you’re biologically supposed to according to the scientists or whatever then I’d be at least forty-two which is older than Dad and he’s the “oldest” person here so I’d totally be in charge and Mom would be the baby and Dad and I could make her go to her stupid bed or shake our hands or Jimmy for FORTY-SEVEN SECONDS whenever she’s soooo hungry that she feels like she’s about to starve to death and then maybe she’d start scratching her armpits with her feet all the time because she feels so trapped in her life and I could just throw a really tight shirt on her and say “all better!” but still not feed her whenever she’s sooooooo hungry or just, you know, wants a treat because treats taste good and who in their right mind doesn’t want a treat but MAKE SURE TO POINT OUT THAT I DO ACTUALLY LIKE THESE SHIRTS because they emphasize my broad chest and they look pretty cool for a dog shirt and I guess I don’t really scratch my armpits as much when I wear them, so yeah, tell Noodles that I don’t scratch or lick as much when I’m wearing them.

2. Tell Payton that she’d TOTALLY be a medium (even though the mediums look really small) because Mom and Dad got me a large once and, like, it started out okay but then like four hours later the neck was all baggy and Mom kept saying something about “Flashdance” which doesn’t sound very cool but they still didn’t take the shirt off me and then I went outside to “water the lawn” and when I came inside there was pee all over the bottom of my shirt which was totally HUMILIATING and totally something that stupid Edna would’ve done, not me.  Post picture of Edna looking stupid.  (Be careful not to write anything about how I secretly miss her, but maybe post another picture of me spooning with Elly because Elly was awesome and everybody will think I’m cool if they see me snuggling with her.)

(Picture of Edna Looking Stupid (Remember: don’t accidentally write anything about how much I secretly loved her))

(Picture of me spooning with Elly to help street-cred)

3.  Tell everybody to make sure that their parents use those scissor things to cut a tiny little slit in the neck of their shirts so that you don’t leave the house looking like this: (Insert stupid photo of me looking stupid and not confident with my head stuck in my shirt).

(Picture of me looking stupid)

4.  Tell Myko not to give my parents any ideas!  A fashion show?!

Well, unfortunately for Sid, we thought Myko’s idea was FANTASTIC.  We’ll be taking photos of Sid posing in ALL of his new shirts over the weekend!!

So, you know how Sid has…issues?  And you know how Sid likes to wear his confidence shirts as a means to combat those issues?

Like I need an excuse to post my favorite Sid pic.

Well, those shirts ain’t cheap.  We’ve found that American Apparel’s baby rib dog T’s have the best fit for his big ol’ pug chest, but they typically cost about $10 apiece.  That’s how much we paid for his awesome blue shirt in the photo above.  INSANE.

The white dog tees were once on sale at 3 for $21 on the American Apparel website, so we splurged and bought three of those, but after two years of heavy use, they’re pretty dingy looking and full of holes.

Anyway, last night I was walking around Manhattan, and I noticed that American Apparel was having a huge warehouse sale in an empty storefront on 6th Ave.  Brian was on his way into the city, so I sent him a text about it, and the next thing I know, the two of us are sitting on a cement floor digging through giant boxes of American Apparel dog shirts like frenzied maniacs, searching for size mediums.

THEY WERE THREE FOR THREE DOLLARS, PEOPLE!  THREE SHIRTS FOR THREE DOLLARS!!

I’m pretty sure Brian and I purchased the last remaining size mediums of the approximately 300 dog shirts that were hidden in a back corner of the store.  Out of all those shirts, there were only seven in Sid’s size:

To even out the purchase to a multiple of three (why not?), we grabbed two size smalls for a certain tiny puglet that hangs around the Pug Slope headquarters every now and then:

When we finally made our way to the registers with the nine shirts, our purchase rang up to NINE DOLLARS!  That’s $90 worth of confidence shirts for NINE DOLLARS!!!

And, of course, all this newfound confidence has gone straight to Sid’s head!