Posts Tagged ‘pug love’

Patriotic Pug Pack!

Sid was worried he’d be the only neighborhood pug at Prospect Park on July 4th.

But, when we arrived at the Long Meadow for off-leash hours, there were already six – SIX! – pugs running around like maniacs in celebration of our nation’s independence.

Eddie was there, leading the pack…

And Winston made his official off-leash hours debut!

The lovely Lola couldn’t get enough of Winston’s puppy energy…

And Sid’s friend Bruno brought along a new buddy…meet Pugsley!

If patriotism were measured in licks, snorts, and circular high-speed chases, these pugs would be right up there with Jefferson, Washington, and Franklin.

Get this pug’s face on a dollar bill, stat!

Prospect Park Pug Pile-Up

This Sunday we had a great time at the off-leash hours in Prospect Park. Many of Sid’s pug friends were also in attendance, including his buddy, Eddie.

However the real party was just getting started.

As we, Eddie, and his parents were on our way out of the park, in strolled a familiar face: Winston!

Sid pulled Winston aside and attempted to impart the ancient ways of treat acquisition, while Eddie explained the best technique for face licking.

Almost immediately, in walked another pug friend, Cosmo!

Cosmo started running and everyone else joined in the chase. At this point, it was starting to become difficult to tell everyone apart as they all had on blue harnesses (I think we ended up bringing the right pug home with us).

Of course, Winston ended up being the center of attention.

 

We can’t wait for next weekend!!!

Eddie the Pug

A few weeks ago, we started taking Sid to the off-leash area of Prospect Park in the mornings before we started work. While we haven’t been religious about it, we’ve been getting out there at least a few times a week.

Sid just loves it so much. It’s hard to avoid feeling guilty when we sleep in too late, or start our walk and then turn around the corner instead of crossing the street to the park. Oh yes, he knows the route by heart.

Anyway, he’s met many new furry friends at the park, and one in particular is Eddie the pug. Meet Eddie:

Eddie is a very social pug (he even has his own facebook page!) and he and Sid hit it off really well as they share mutual interests in eating treats, high-speed dog chasing, and pug-rent manipulation tactics.

Like Sid, Eddie’s a very athletic pug and is always ready for playtime, or running laps around the park. They actually obtain some pretty high speeds for pugs. So fast, in fact, that I was unable to get a good photo of them careening around the long meadow.

Eddie is still young and impressionable so Sid has been trying to impart the ancient methods of treat-obtaining to him. Sid’s technique involves flying at top speed from person to person at the park, not unlike a bee going from flower to flower, until he finds the jackpot: some poor unsuspecting sucker with a baggie full of treats and a weakness for adorable smooshed faces.

WAAAAA! WHERE’S THEM TREEEEEATS?!

Two Years Ago…

Fair warning, people: we’re about to get sappy.

About two years ago today, Brian and I officially adopted a surly little pug named Siddhartha.

It was a surprisingly difficult feat to accomplish, although looking back at the events of the time and how they unfolded, it seems as though some magical force had determined long ago that Sid belonged by our side.  And I’m pretty sure that force was Bea Arthur.

No, not that Bea Arthur.

This Bea Arthur:

See, I was never a dog person.  They just always seemed so…needy.  And the slobber…oh, God, the slobber!  For me, cats were where it was at.  I adored cats – so dainty and independent and not slobbery.  I couldn’t get enough of them.  I was obsessed, and I begged my parents constantly for a cat of my own.  I remember, when I was eight, waking up on Christmas morning and walking into the living room to find, perched on top of the huge pile of presents underneath the tree and keeping perfectly still, a black and white cat. I couldn’t believe my eyes – and I shouldn’t have, because that perfectly still cat was actually a very realistic cat PUPPET.  That Christmas went down as the year I discovered the dangerous combination of high-hopes and uncorrected myopia.

When I was sixteen, though, my parents surprised me with two kittens – twin boys from the same litter who snuggled and hugged each other for about 18 hours a day for their entire lives together.  I named them Sherman and Chez, and they more than lived up to my expectations of how awesome cats could be.  Chez, in particular, was my cat; there was something about our personalities that just clicked, whereas Sherman took more to my mom and my brother.  The cats stayed with my mom as I went to college, studied in London, and moved to Los Angeles, but whenever I came home, no matter how long I was gone, Chez, my feline soulmate, would greet me by rolling onto his back so I could give him a good belly-scratchin’ and then would spend the rest of my visit by my side or on my lap.

In November of 2007, at the age of 12, Chez passed away in his sleep.  Brian and I had just gotten married that June, and we were still living in Los Angeles at the time.  The last time I had seen Chez was the day before our wedding, a day so hectic that I’m not even sure I said good-bye.  As any pet owner can understand, my heart was broken.  I was devastated.  No animal is replaceable, but for me, Sherman and Chez were both the beginning and the end.  I knew that by marrying Brian, my first cats would also be my only cats. See, Brian is severely allergic to cat dander.  His throat closes up, he wheezes, his eyes swell – it’s definitely not one of those “grin-and-bear-it” mild reactions that some cat owners are able to live with.  There’s no getting around it.  Chez’s passing carried with it an extreme sense of finality.  I just couldn’t ever imagine loving a dog the way I loved that cat, or any cat, so it seemed as though Chez would be the only animal with whom I’d share such a bond.

Then, almost a year later, we visited Brian’s friends Angelica and Marco in San Francisco.

That is when I met Bea Arthur.

I had never met a pug before, and Bea is a pug-supreme.  Aloof, full of attitude, stubborn, ever the lady (even with a tooth infection that made her breath smell like sun-baked tuna), and unintentionally comedic, Bea was like a cat in (hilarious) dog’s clothing, and she spent our entire visit curled on my lap and sleeping with me on the couch, her rank tuna breath wafting about.  By the time the weekend was over, I was converted.  I needed a pug, and I needed one now.

Meanwhile, back in Los Angeles, there was a friend of a friend of a friend who needed to find a new home for a pug named Siddhartha…

(To be continued… )

Close Encounters of the Pug Kind

The weather in Brooklyn has been gorgeous lately, so the other day our friend Rob, a professional photographer, came along on Sid’s afternoon walk to stretch his legs, soak in the sunshine, and snap a few photos of the most adorable pug in Brooklyn. Rob took all the photos for today’s post. He’s obviously gifted when it comes to shooting photos of surly pugs, but his normal models are typically more…human. Check out more of his work here: www.robgullixson.com.

We had a nice photo session and Rob got some great shots of Sid among all the blooming flora. As we were leaving the park, though, we encountered something on the sidewalk that made Sid stop dead in his tracks.

Sid was confused. He thought he must have walked into a carnival and was staring into one of those funhouse mirrors. Across from him was a tiny smooshed version of himself!

He tiptoed in to get a closer look and sniff this reflection. He quickly discovered this wasn’t an optical illusion. This thing smelled like a pug, looked like a pug, and breathed loudly like a pug… It must be a pug!

Sid was baffled that something so cute and tiny could exist. We were, too. When Sid entered our lives he was already 4 years old, so we missed out on the puppy stage. We’ve never seen one this tiny in person.

His name is Winston. Sid was trying to sniff a little more but Winston was an excitable little fellow and was skittering all over the place. Pretty soon he was zipping away down the block.

When we got home, Sid felt a little worried we might “upgrade” to a younger model Pug, like Winston, and started googling phrases like “pug botox” and “nose-flap rejuvenation.” We gave him a big hug, disconnected the Internet, and told him not to fret because he’ll always be the cutest pug in our book!

(Thank you, Rob, for taking such great photos!)

Happy Pug-Momma’s Day

Sending Pug Love to Japan

Our thoughts are with the people in Japan who experienced a devastating earthquake today.

We are so glad to hear that Jason and Chiho (Sid’s uncle and aunt in Tokyo) made it back to their home safely.

Love,
Sid, Jenn, and Brian

P.S. Making a donation to the Red Cross to help in the relief efforts is as easy as texting REDCROSS to 90999 (for a $10 donation) or visiting their website: www.redcross.org.