Yes, Sid is wearing a purple polka-dotted bootie.

In the midst of all the excitement over Sid’s new pug-mate last week, we noticed that our handsome husky* guy was having a very…odd…health issue.

Between his toes, on his back right paw, were some weird growths.  Sid doesn’t like having his feet touched, so we were attempting to piece together the facts based on repeated split-second views of his foot.  It looked like one of the growths was big and round, and the other was long and skinny – Brian claimed he saw a nail growing out of the long one and he was convinced that Sid was growing a mutant toe.  I, meanwhile, was trying to keep an open mind and set off to Googling phrases like “dog toe growths” and “dog mutant paw anomalies” and “pug prosthetic limbs discount.”

We set up an appointment for Saturday morning with our very patient vet, Dr. Quim, at the Prospect Park Animal Clinic. Sid reluctantly let Dr. Quim take a good look at his toes, and Dr. Quim was pretty sure it’s just a viral papilloma (or, in layman’s terms, a wart).  But, he wanted to do a biopsy, just in case, so Sid got to spend his weekend wearing this jaunty purple polka-dotted bandage, which, considering that dogs are color-blind and not particularly amused by patterns, and also considering the bandage was wrapped around his foot immediately after we watched him scream in pain during the biopsy and subsequent cauterization of the affected area, is obviously designed to promote the healing of both the pet’s foot and the parents’ mental health.

I mean, how could your mood not perk up when you look at this silly thing?

We were able to take the polka-dot bootie off his foot yesterday, and we should hopefully hear from the vet in the next few days with the results of the biopsy – We’ll keep you posted!

*More on Sid’s newfound “huskiness” tomorrow.

Um, so, Sid read the blog yesterday, and now he’s all embarrassed.  Apparently I wasn’t supposed to write about his new girlfriend and their big date and how IN LURV he is.  Also, I’m supposed to tell you that we “made him” wear that bow-tie and then I’m supposed to post a photo of him dressed in his “cool” clothes.

Ta-da:

So, now, like any teenage pug who’s been mortified by their mother, Sid is acting out.  I found him this morning trying to mail himself to Fresh Direct, our grocery delivery service, because we, apparently, don’t understand him the way Fresh Direct understands him and if he lived at Fresh Direct he could eat all the Ginger-O’s and apples in the warehouse whenever he wanted and Brian and I wouldn’t be there to say “Leave it!” or “Uh-oh!” and he probably wouldn’t even have to sit or stay or Jimmy or ANYTHING before eating ALL OF THE DELICIOUS FOOD HE COULD GET HIS PAWS ON.

Sigh.

We live in an age of dressed-down comfort.  Between business casual offices and the acceptability of wearing yoga pants as pants-pants, there just aren’t many opportunities to don fancy attire in today’s world.  Consequently, Sid’s favorite bow-tie has been collecting dust in his wardrobe closet for quite some time.

In fact, the last time Sid donned his bow-tie was for a gate-jumpin’ photo shoot back in California.

Yeah, that’s right.  Sid doesn’t let his athletic pursuits compromise his debonair sense of style.

But that was over two years ago!

Well, lucky for Sid, a bow-tie-worthy occasion arose this evening, and what’dya know?  The ol’ black tie still fits!

But where was Sid going that warranted such formal attire?  Hmm…Could it have anything to do with one of these little ladies?  We’re dying to find out!

We let Sid borrow the camera for the night, and as soon as we get those photos developed we’re posting them straight to the blog…

We did a pretty good job avoiding the heat when it rolled in last week, but on Sunday we made an error in our timing of Sid’s morning “business meeting.”  Taking Sid out for his walk at 7am seemed like a great way to avoid the long-simmering heat of the late-morning / early-afternoon hours, but our half-awake brains didn’t think about the fact a 7am walk meant that he’d need to go out for his evening business around 5 or 6pm at the latest – – hours that had been among the hottest of the preceding days.  With a morning walk that early, there was no way Sid was going to make it until sundown, so we started brainstorming a solution that would provide Sid relief from both the heat and his bladder.

Luckily, we already polled our (amazingly resourceful) pug readers on the topic of keeping cool back in June.

Mochi had suggested a cooling vest, which is brilliant, but we never got around to actually buying one before we encountered the moment when we desperately needed it.

Payton said something about a Frogg Togg.  I’m still not quite sure what that is or what it means.  I Googled it and found some people-clothes for camping…regardless, it was still something we’d need to buy.  We needed a NOW solution.  Always at the last minute over here at Pug Slope!

Noodles suggested freezing a wet Sham-Wow and draping it over Sid’s back.  Hmm.  Now, we (sadly) don’t own any Sham-Wows, but we do own hand towels!  And a faucet!  And a freezer!

And that is how Sid became the dorkiest coolest pug in Brooklyn:

Sid didn’t let his dorky accessories bring him down, though, even when we ran into some cooling-accessory-free (i.e., normal) dogs on 7th Ave.  He looked those dogs in the eye, lifted his leg up high, and acted like wearing a frozen hand towel on your back while peeing was the new hot thing.  When he was done with his business, he trotted over to them and said, “My mom says there’s nothing cooler than safety,” which is a decidedly un-cool thing to say, but I’m not going to be the one to tell him that.  I’d rather he avoid heat stroke than win homecoming king.

Then we came across a fire hydrant spraying cool water into the street and onto the sidewalk.  We tried to turn this into a Pug Slope photo op, but Sid’s new-found confidence and strong regard for safety kept him from playing along.  “Dad, you of all people should know that water is a leading cause of lost marbles in flat-faced dogs,” proclaimed Sid. Sigh.

So, Sid wouldn’t play in the spraying water, but we managed to get him to stand near the hydrant for a few quick shots.

And, when we got home, we followed Sid’s Mimi’s advice of putting a frozen water bottle in the dog bed.  Like I said, the coolest pug in Brooklyn.

This past weekend brought with it beautiful Spring-like weather. We haven’t really had a full-on fun day at the park since the fall, and all of us have put on a little extra “padding and insulation” over the winter hibernation period – even Sid. Since Sid isn’t allowed at the YMCA, we took him through our very own Pug Boot Camp.

Unlike Boot Camp fitness classes for humans, which require all sorts of tension bands, weights, and mats, the only supplies needed for Pug Boot Camp are a plush russet potato, a plush bee, and proper workout apparel. Sid happens to have all of these supplies in spades.

We began the workout with some potato-in-mouth short sprints…

… and then moved on to some bee fetching. This skill requires deep concentration, eye-muzzle coordination, and a strong affection for plush bees. Well, at least Sid possesses that last component.

Once the bee fetching was over, we started doing some chasing, pushing his dexterity to the max and beyond. Sid was definitely blasting his quads, mastering his glutes, pushing his max, zoning in on his core, etc.

He was even able to master more advanced skills, including a power run with bee-in-mouth and ears fully extended.

He was pretty knackered after a while, but we made sure he got a proper cool-down.

Apparently, Sid’s new toy has gotten the better of him.