Just the other day, Sid got his first taste of jicama and now he’s a full-fledged jicamaniac. Be sure to turn up your speakers for the full “crunch-o-sonic” sound experience!

When Sid and I went for our morning walk the other day, we made a slight detour. I know from the photo above, with the retro lockers, space-age chair, and sparkly floor, that one might think were in a bowling alley. Unfortunately for Sid, were not going bowling but were instead going for something else that starts with the letter “B”.

So, um, like where do I rent my shoes?

The weather here for the past couple of weeks had been very wet and that, coupled with some major road and sewer construction underway in our neighborhood, had led to large swaths of mud and puddles of water the size of small lakes. Our walks took us right through the heart of this mucky territory daily. In summary: the pug was filthy.

This explains why we were not rolling strikes but were instead squeezing bottles of pug shampoo. The caked-on mud required a bit more shampoo than normal, but soon our flat-faced wonder was squeaky-clean and smelling of coconuts.

Now, Sid, don’t forget to dry off!

In case you didn’t know, we are currently at the apex of the Semi-Annual Pug Shed-A-Thon. I’m sure you other pug owners can relate to the moment when you realize: no, a crew of carpet installers did not creep into your home in the wee hours of the night and lay down some wall-to-wall beige-colored shag carpeting; IT IS ALL PUG FUR! And yes, one of those minuscule hairs did just stab you in that tender part of your foot like a tiny tan needle. OUCH!

And this is all from a SINGLE PUG, remember. I don’t know how you multi-pug people do it. I suppose at some point you just embrace the fur-floor life and accept that you can never have people over to your house ever again.

Well, I thought I might try to nip things in the bud before they got too out of control, so I got out a new bag for the vacuum cleaner and put that poor machine to the ultimate test. After some serious sucking, I was able to see the oak floorboards once again. How lovely!

Although not everyone would agree with me. Whenever I tidy up the apartment, Sid gets in a rebellious streak and tries to undo everything I tried to accomplish. I mean, according to him, all those individual pug furs are strategically placed like a work of art. So this time he decided it would be a perfect time to rummage around in his toy bin and extract every toy – including some he hadn’t played with in months or possibly years.

I tried to help him at first as I thought maybe he was just hunting after a certain toy. Nope. He just wanted to put all the toys back where he likes them: scattered around the entire living room. And soon to be covered once more in a layer of pug fuzz.

Hey guys! Sid with you today.

Sorry I’ve been away for a bit longer than usual. Life had been humming along pretty normally here at Pug Slope HQ until Saturday morning at 4am when I awoke abruptly from my sleep due to a pain in my back and neck area. It came and went suddenly. My Dad bolted up to see what was the matter and said I was just sitting on the bed frozen, like a pug statue. It was because I was afraid if I moved I might get another jolt.

He took me outside because he thought it might have been gas or something but I did my business like normal and then felt fine and plopped right back to bed.

The next day I just couldn’t get comfortable. No sharp pains or anything but I just kept sitting on the edge of my bed instead of nestling down like I usually do. I was eating fine (you know something is SERIOUSLY wrong when a pug stops eating!) and had no problems walking or anything, but I was restless. In the early evening, since I wasn’t really improving, my Dad loaded me up into the rental car and drove me to the emergency vet.

I’m sure many of you have been to a place that looked JUST LIKE THIS! I tend to get into hyper/nervous mode at the vet’s office (especially the EMERGENCY vet’s office) so I was pacing around, panting, and evading humans by scurrying under chairs. Notice the sad tail. Luckily, the humans there ended up being very nice and were gentle to me.

The vet lady checked me out and all my vitals looked ok. She adjusted my head and worked her fingers on my back to see if it caused me any discomfort, but I didn’t feel any jolts like I did at 4am, which was good. She suspected I just tweaked my back or neck somehow (Maybe it was that bad dream I had where the grocery store ran out of baby carrots!). She gave my dad a vial of some “pug happy pills” that are supposed to help me with any discomfort for the next few days.

I do feel much better today and have been able to squish into my bed like normal, so it sounds like my back is untweaking itself. I was even able to flatten out on the floor!

Please send me a little good pug juju if you can spare to make sure my back stays in its normal UNTWEAKED state. In fact let’s never mention that awful T word again and instead focus on the good T word (the one that ends with “reat”).

With just a few hours to go before the big Powerball drawing, Sid made me run down to the corner liquor store to pick his numbers.

He told me he plans to do the following if he wins the $1.5 billion:

1. Fly all his canine friends (and their humans) from around the world to Chicago for an “epic” play date and treat binge.
2. Donate $1 million to each pug rescue organization.
3. Purchase a few more confidence shirts as most of his are pretty threadbare.
4. Buy a rustic vacation home on a baby carrot farm.
5. Nap more

Also, he added that even though I paid the $20 for the tickets, we are by no means “going splitsies” on the winnings. Apparently, since they are HIS numbers, HE gets full determination as to what happens to any winnings. Well, we’ll see how far he gets without me when he tries to claim his prize.

Anyone else get their tickets?!

Hiya Pug Slopers!

Sid here with you today to close out the week. Thank you so much for all the Birthday wishes! I hope every one of you was able to celebrate with me and have a baby carrot.

And SPEAKING OF BABY CARROTS, I’ve got a story for you.

So just the other day I got up to get a drink a water and when I came back to my bed, there was a package sitting there with my name on it!

It came all the way from the home of Donald and Daisy! I couldn’t contain my excitement so I started ripping open the package.

I could not believe what was inside. It sounded like this toy was designed specifically for me!

I asked my personal chef (a.k.a. Dad) to fill it up ASAP with some b.c.’s and seal it off with some peanut butter!

You can probably guess what happened next…

Thank you so much Donald and Daisy, and their parents, Tim and Christy! What a thoughtful Birthday present. I love it!

Today we are celebrating Sid’s 10th Birthday!!! As we mentioned in our last post, Sid and I went on a camping adventure over the weekend so we were on the road for his official Birthday on Sunday. We had a great time hiking and camping and will tell you all about just as soon as I sift through the few hundred photos we took! Since we were away from home I postponed the dispensing of Sid’s Birthday cake until today…so here it is in all it’s goopy, chewy, crunchy glory:

I packed it with Sid’s favorite ingredients: apples, peanut butter, clementine oranges, and (as many of you had predicted) baby carrots.

You should have heard the screeching going on while I was making the cake. At one point Sid slipped on his own drool.

OK Sid, this is it. Get Ready…Get Set…GO!!!

He went straight in for the apples – the peanut butter layers didn’t slow down his chewing one bit!

Now on to all the snacks dabbled along the perimeter!

And now to lick up any remnants! A pug leaves no trace behind.

Folks, that whole cake was gone in about 2 minutes. Based on the way he just burped in my face, I think he liked it!