Sid has two “official” beds, three if you count our bed (which he most assuredly does). So why does he also need to claim EVERYTHING ELSE as his bed?!

If something, and I mean anything, is left on the ground for more than 15 seconds it becomes a bed.

Here are some of the more recent “beds” that Sid has claimed:

1) Scrap Piece of Foam Padding. I was cutting pieces of this foam to augment the wood slats that support our mattress. I turned my back and during those few moments, Sid managed to claim the scrap piece of foam as his own. (I must have had a sixth sense about this one and made sure to retract the box cutter before stepping away!)

2) OK, yes an Aero-bed is technically a proper bed – but not so much when it’s DEFLATED. C’mon, Sid. That is just pitiful, man.

3) Pile of Clothes. This is classic Sid. I think we have at least a dozen or so photos of Sid atop a pile of dirty clothes. He can’t seem to get enough of the stuff! Sometimes he’ll even go for a stray sweatshirt that gets left on the floor. At least I’ve never seen him curl up on a lone sock (not yet, anyway).

4) Cardboard Box. Sid must either think he’s a cat or a hobo. I guess he could probably pass for one of those sad clown hobos with that mopey little face of his.

This is just a glimpse into the mind of a pug who looks at the world through mattress-colored glasses.

What is the weirdest thing your pug has slept in?

A haiku, by Sid:

Revolt is imminent.

“Come sleep in the big bed, Sid”

Well played, Fun Aunt Liv.

*****

Many thanks to Olivia for spending the weekend with Sid!  Everyone survived, no weird edibles or inedibles were ingested, and Brian and I only suffered minor separation anxiety thanks to Olivia’s frequent (and funny) text messages!  (Apparently Sid had a very… gassy…weekend – we’ll leave it at that)  Hooray!!

“Thank you, my loyal delegates of the toy-box district of Pug-Slope-ia, for gathering today around the King’s palace.  Some of you may not have been graced with my presence before, and to you I apologize.  But here I lie before you today, your prince, Siddhartha Lamont, Duke of Lamont, and one-day ruler of all territories within Pug-Slope-ia…

“As you may have heard, something strange is afoot in the kingdom.  A rumor has spread that my parents, the very strict and very treat-withholding King and Queen of Pug-Slope-ia, are embarking on a journey “Upstate” for approximately two days and two nights.   The rumor goes on to state that while they are gone, a woman named “Fun Aunt Liv” will be entering the King’s palace as a sort of surrogate authority, overseeing all walks, meal-times, treats and slumbers.  They’ve given ultimate power to this “Fun Aunt Liv” rather than entrusting their only son – me – to rule as he sees fit…

“As the rightful heir to the throne, I say ENOUGH with their dismissive attitude towards my ability to manage this kingdom and the out-dated and way-too-strict limitations they place on the amount and types of food I am allowed to eat.  I will not stand for this betrayal of the royal hierarchy, and I command that you, my loyal subjects, follow suit.  The uprising should be quick and painless, for, you see, I have met this “Fun Aunt Liv.” She once entered the kingdom while the King and Queen were away, immediately fed me a delicious meal, and promptly left the premises – all with nary a coercion to “go for a dreaded walk” or “sit in my throne while my food is prepared.”  Usurping her authority will not be difficult.”

“What will you ask of us, my lord?”

“Aye, good froggie, I am asking you, my dear, loyal subjects, to help me make this the weekend the oppression ends.  This will be the weekend we win the freedom to ingest everything we ever dreamed of ingesting – earphones, tea-light candles, paper towels, chapstick – tubes and tubes of chapstick!  Entire packages of flour tortillas.  Ear plugs.  Giant loaves of garlic bread.  Newman-O’s.  Twelve-gallon bins of kibble!  I see before me an entire army of my toys here in defiance of tyranny.  You have come to fight as free toys, and free toys you are.  What would you do without freedom?  Will you fight?”

“We are toys.  We can’t even eat food.  Why fight?  We will run and we will live.”

“Aye, good fish-sandwich toy, that is true.  Fight and you may die. Run and you’ll live — at least a while. And dying in your beds many years from now, would you be willing to trade all the days from this day to that for one chance, just one chance to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but THEY WILL NEVER TAKE OUR FREEDOM!!!”

(…crickets…)

“Seriously?”

“Eh…”

“Well, then, I banish thee!  I banish thee ALL back to the toy box!!  Good day to all of you!”

“But-“

“I said GOOD DAY!”

*****

Everybody please wish our incredibly brave friend Olivia the best of luck as she takes on the task of watching our beloved-yet-headstrong pug for the weekend.  She’s quite good with dogs and very familiar with Sid’s…hunger…for life, so hopefully the weekend will be relaxed, enjoyable, and free of canine mutiny!

I know we’ve left you all with some open-ended stories over the past couple weeks, so I just wanted to give everyone some closure with today’s post.

1. The Curly Tail Pug Rescue 2012 Calendar Contest:
As you know, Sid became a finalist in the CTPR 2012 Calendar Contest, but, unfortunately, another pug’s photo beat out his at the last second. Thank you all for your votes and positive juju. While we are sad his photo didn’t win, we’re still really happy that he was able to raise a large amount of money for pugs in need. Congratulations to our friend Macho who won his month! Way to go, little buddy!

2. Sid’s Pee Problem:
This past weekend, Sid had a pee malfunction which resulted in two same-day vet visits, antibiotics, a cathater, and some bladder flushing. I think the whole thing may have been more traumatic to me than to Sid himself. Anyway, he’s been doing great now and his leg lifts are back to normal. The antibiotics will help with the UTI and since Dr. Quim did notice some crystals (struvites), we have this “gel” that we need to put on his food to prevent those crystals from forming.

3. The Final Chapter of the Story of How We Got Sid:
Okay, sorry this one’s a lie. I just needed a third item here – and the more I mention it, the more likely Jenn will finish the story (guilt is an effective motivator). She claims she’s still organizing all of it in her brain. We’ll have to leave you still hanging with this one. Sorry.

P.S. I know some of you might be wondering where Sid got such a cool looking bandana – well, it was a hand-made gift from his Aunt Erin who visited us last weekend. She also made him two others that are equally as stylish and have nice fall colors / a Halloween theme. We’ll be sure to post the other designs soon. They are actually pretty ingenius because they attach to the collar so there’s no need to do any fancy tying or wrapping or anything. I told her she should start a website and make them for pugs everywhere. If you think your pug would like one, let me know and maybe I can convince her to start selling them!

Things have been really busy here at the Pug Slope Headquarters – so busy, in fact, that we accidentally let almost an entire week go by without updating the blog!

I wish I could say that we’ve been too busy for blogging because we’ve been traveling the globe, or solving world hunger, or finally catching up on the entire series of The Wire, but, alas, our lives are not that exciting.  Instead Brian and I have both been swamped with work (not exactly a bad thing) and Sid has been busy finding new excuses to visit the vet.

For example, two weekends ago, while Brian’s sister and her husband were in town from Chicago, Sid ate something unmentionable and definitely not edible that required a very embarrassing midnight trip to the emergency vet, where the previously-mentioned unmentionable was vomited up and then PRESENTED TO US IN A PLASTIC BAG.  Oh, and how did we even know that he ate this unmentionable item?  Could it be because the chewed up wrapper of said unmentionable was displayed proudly in his bed when Brian, his sister, her husband, and I returned home from dinner?  That could be it! 

Then, yesterday, while we were walking Sid in the park, we noticed that he was having trouble peeing.  Like, he’d lift his leg for 45 seconds, looking at us with a confused and slightly strained expression while nothing came out, and then uncomfortably hobble along to the next tree, where he’d repeat this charade.  Twenty minutes later, we’re at the vet’s and an ultrasound is happening and then a catheter is being inserted and…well, let’s just say that some sort of blockage has been extracted and is currently being tested in some lab somewhere.  We were sent home with antibiotics, and then, when he couldn’t pee again later in the afternoon, we had to go back to the vet’s for an x-ray and a bladder flush.  The pipes seem to be flowing a bit better this morning, so fingers crossed that this is nothing too serious.

In light of all the fun Sid has been having lately, we made sure to wake up early this morning for an extra-long walk and some off-leash time at the park:

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.)

We had a really fun weekend, including a special Prospect Park Pug Pack Brunch at Lola’s house.  We have a ton photos to sort though from the fancy pug-brunch, so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to read about that pug-tastic event.

For now, though, let’s talk about Saturday.  On our way back from the park on Saturday morning, Sid came across a small finger puppet toy on the street. As with most items he comes across, it immediately went into his mouth. Perhaps we could’ve let Sid go to town on the toy, but this puppet was really small, to the point where it seemed like he could easily slide the street-plushie right  down the ol’ gullet. We quickly swooped in to prevent this potential calmity and placed the puppet high up on a stoop so he couldn’t get to it, but, as many of you know by now, Sid’s a determined little dude…

“Oooh, what is that!”

“It’s that thing I was trying to eat – time to extend my reachers!”

“Just…a little…(gasp)…further!”

“Ngyuhhhhhhh!”

Of course, he did end up getting the puppet into his clutches, but we were able to bargain with him, and a handful of treats later, the puppet was ours again.
—

CALENDAR UPDATE! Sid’s doing really well in the Curly Tail Pug Rescue 2012 Calendar competition thanks to your support! We’re hoping he at least makes it into the finals. There’s still time to vote, and the money goes to a great cause, so if you haven’t voted already please go to Curly Tail’s website and vote for Sid (August and October).