After our photo shoot in the park this past weekend, Sid and I strolled over to the lake in order to find a good spot to sit down, relax, and enjoy the amazing fall weather.

We found a nice bench and watched some runners that were participating in the Brooklyn Marathon that happened to be taking place while we were there. But this didn’t last long. No, Sid did not start charging at the packs of runners, but instead made a bee-line for the lake.

If you thought he was just chasing after the ducks like a normal dog, you’d be wrong. Remember: Sid is not normal (to put it bluntly).

 If you thought he was trying to catch a fish, you’d also be wrong. There was not a fish to be seen.

For those of you that checked the box next to “Clearly he was just obsessively digging at the water like a doofus” consider yourself experts in the field of O.P.A. (Obsessive Pug Analysis).

“Um, what’s that you were you sayin’, Dad? Was it about me?”

For some video evidence of Sid’s obsession with pools of water, check out this post from July.

So, as Brian mentioned, Sid got one of his birthday presents early.  It’s a giant, unwieldy snake-like monster with very, very loud squeakers running up and down it’s body, crinkly arms, and a rattler in its tail.   Sid’s only allowed to play with it for, like, five minutes, once a day, because he turns into a MANIAC when it’s around.

“Awww, but look at Sid, so calmly snuggling with his cuddly new squeaky snake,” you say.  What a sweetheart, right?

Thankfully we have a video camera to capture the truth:

So, Sid has never, ever, shown any interest in fetching a stick.  Timothy, however, is a stick aficionado, and the other morning while we were at Prospect Park, something amazing happened…

Timothy found herself a comically large stick.  It’s right there, in the grass.

We began playing fetch with Timothy.  Sid, mildly confused by Timothy’s excitement, began chasing her each time we threw the stick to see what she was so excited about.

After about five throws, something clicked in Sid’s brain – there must be something delicious about that stick!

So, Sid, for the first time ever, began playing fetch with a stick.

And, in typical Sid fashion, our game of stick-fetch instantly went from “lighthearted fun” to OBSESSION.

Struggles commenced.

Hilarious struggles.

But Sid would not let go.

He wouldn’t even drop the stick so Brian could throw it again!

Had we created A MONSTER??!!

Only time will tell…

This is NOT GOOD.

Okay, class, let’s look at all of the ways in which this video is terrifying:

A) Brian and I are RIGHT THERE!  We’re both in the room!  For part of the video, I’m 18 inches away from him on the couch!  In fact, Sid turns around and LOOKS RIGHT AT US multiple times throughout!  At least when he was stealing our Tupperware, he respected us enough to wait until we left the apartment!

B) The apples are a whole shelf HIGHER than the shelf from which he retrieved the ginger cookies!  We keep everything breakable and edible on those two shelves specifically because we thought they were not on his radar!  Now we have to worry about our dishes?!

C) Again, we are RIGHT THERE!  Have you no shame, pug?!

(Okay, in Sid’s defense, we aren’t exactly telling him to NOT climb onto the back of the couch.  But, in our defense, can you blame us?  We need to get this ridiculousness on film, people!  If this isn’t a blog-worthy moment, I’m not sure what is!  And, to our credit, all subsequent attempts by Sid to scale the couch and/or shelves have been swiftly cut short by the proper authorities.)

On Sunday, Lola hosted a brunch for some of the neighborhood pugs. As an added bonus, the parents of said pugs were allowed to tag along.

There was an amazing spread of food for the humans. Much to Sid’s dismay, the bagels and lox were all kept well above pug-level, but there were plenty of dog toys to go around.

Lola was there, of course, along with Timothy Buttons (Sid’s girlfriend), Eddie, and Charlie. Lola got dressed up for the occasion in her bright yellow tee.

Eddie hopped up into his dad’s arms in order to work his way closer to the out-of-pug-reach quiche.

Sid latched on to Lola’s pink plush bee toy and basically spent 80% of the party with it in his mouth like a doofus. I guess it gave him an excuse to avoid any small-talk.

Lola and Timothy got the party started by breaking out the nyla-bone and battling each other for it.

…And all the while Sid kept relocating himself, with plush bee in tow, in order to avoid the action.

After a while, the pugs caught on that they were not going to be feasting on all the brunch goodies that the humans were eating so they started to raise a stink. However, a mutiny was avoided by Lola’s mom, who had the foresight to plan ahead with – get this – SMOOTHIES FOR DOGS!

Charlie: “Smoothies?! For Dogs?! Me want-ee!”

All the ears perked up when the box was brought out the freezer, even though none of the pugs had ever eaten one before. How is it that they know food from non-food (or maybe they just assume everything is food).

Sid sat like a good boy and waited as patiently as a pug can before he was given his Smoothie.

Time to Dig In!

Timothy had a better method for eating her Smoothie.

We can’t wait for the next pug brunch!!! Thank you to Lola and her parents for putting on such a great party for human and pug alike!

Today is an exciting day at Pug Slope headquarters. Our pug count has doubled.

Timothy Buttons, Sid’s girlfriend, is spending the night. Yeah, I know this is a little controversial considering they’ve only been on one official date, but they have also hung out on numerous occasions at Prospect Park off-leash hours and who are we to stand in the way of love, right?

Timothy is a much younger pug than Sid, though, and he’s been having a hard time keeping up with her. His usual laid-back morning rest time has been replaced by hi-velocity madcap chase after hi-velocity madcap chase. This was his expression about 10 minutes into their 4th chase:

It’s been near-impossible to get any of our actual work work done today due to the compulsive need to grab our phones/cameras in order to document the hilarity that is ensuing around us.

More to follow…

I know we’re supposed to be posting the photos from Sid’s big night out, but mother nature has insisted that we hold off on that for now.  Within a few hours, Sid’s about to experience his first hurricane!

As you can see, Sid is a very prepared pug.  He’s already holed up in his hurricane shelter crate, his treat, water, and food supplies overfloweth, froggy’s nearby, and he has a package of wee-wee pads on hand so he can take care of business inside rather than becoming the umbrella to my Mary Poppins while Miss Irene passes through Park Slope.  Hooray, weather!