So, while Miss Timothy Buttons was galavanting around the set of Rachel Ray, Sid was preparing the guest ela-bed for the arrival of one of his best little gal pals, Lola!

Lovely Lola spent the weekend with us while her ‘rents went out of town, and as you can imagine, Sid was THRILLED to share all of his toys and beds and treats for TWO WHOLE DAYS.

Like T-Buttz, Lola is a spunky young lady who just wants to play, play, play.

I don’t know why these sweet little chicas are so keen on getting the attention of this ol’ curmudgeon:

Seriously.

Lola didn’t let Sid’s “Donnie Downer” demeanor stop her from tryin’ to have fun, though. She and T-Buttz could teach a course in determination!

Sid, meanwhile, could teach a course on being a stick in the mud.

Yup, Sid, woe is you.

Okay, full disclosure – these photos are from, like, hour 53 of Lola’s visit, so I can forgive Sid’s lack of enthusiasm.  Overall, I think Lola and Sid had a great time hanging out. Really!  We have more pics and videos to post throughout the week, including pics of Sid and Lola at a pug meet-up with another sweet little lady pug whose brother is a regular reader of Pug Slope – so exciting!

AND!!!

We heard back from the vet about the lump on Sid’s back!  It’s not a cyst, and it’s not anything worse than a cyst.  Phew!  It’s a fatty lipoma – a little bundle of fat tissue that Sid has apparently decided to keep around just in case we ever forget to feed him.  So, thank you again for all of the juju!!!  And now that we know Sid is okay, we’re going to redirect all that super-powerful juju to anybody who just feels like they could use a little pep in their step as we round out these winter months.  Stay healthy, everybody!

“The distinguished gentlepug keeps his whiskers cropped close to the muzzle and his turkey-leg toy held close to the chest.” – “The Distinguished Gentlepug’s Handbook for Living”, 4th Edition, 1922.

Oh my God, you guys.  We have even more cuteness to share from our trip to Chicago.

Two of Brian’s good friends from college, Nate and Angelica, were in northern Indiana visiting family, and they brought along their amazingly precocious and adorable daughter, Kit (duh, what were they gonna do, leave her at home?).  Since we were in the same general region, Brian, Sid and I took a quick road trip into the Hoosier State so we could hang out with them for the afternoon.

This was really epic for a few reasons:

1.  Despite Sid’s gruff demeanor, he loves meeting kids, especially ones that are super cute and are named Kit.  He even picked out a gift to bring for Kit – a little plush pug in a pink camo purse – and wore his coolest black tee-shirt.

2.  This was the first time we got to meet Kit, too. We also wore our coolest clothes, but we forgot about the whole gift thing so we quickly added our names to the present that Sid brought along when he wasn’t looking.

3.  Kit is very smart and she’s an avid reader of Pug Slope.  For real. She dropped the phrase “Sid Vids” about four or five times while we were hanging out and talked in depth about her favorite videos of Sid, which planets she’d like to visit, and her favorite types of trees (coniferous, obviously).

As you can see from the pics, we had a very long, very chilly , but very ADORABLE walk. We then settled in to Kit’s grandparents’ house for some mulled cider, cookies, and play time.  We all had a blast.

Also, just so there’s no confusion, I’d like to point out that Kit is indeed a human child in a bear suit, and not a bear proper.  Sid, of course, is all pug.

Okay, Sid, we get it.*  You LOVE potatoes, you LOVE your new gigantic duck, you LOVE using unconventional items as bolsters, and you LOVED hanging out with Payton.  Now stop being so absurdly cute so your dad and I can get some work done!

*I swear on the integrity of this blog that we humans played no part in arranging the toys in this photo.  This was all Sid’s doing.  

First of all, Happy New Year, everyone!

Christmas and New Year’s have already passed and I’m sure everyone is eager to get on with 2012 and return to normal life, but we wanted to do a quick recap of our trip with Sid to Chicago for Christmas with my side of the family.

I’m sorry, Sid – but all those presents aren’t just for you!

The three of us stayed with my sister and her husband in their amazing pug-proof house. See, they are also familiar with a food-motivated dog – their Bichon/Poodle mix named Sweetie has an appetite on par with our flat-faced wonder. Sid had met Sweetie before when we passed through Chicago on our cross country drive from California to New York. For the most part they got along well – although Sid was a bit of a jerk and commandeered all of Sweetie’s favorite toys. Luckily, Sweetie lives up to her name and was kind enough to let him chew on her prized possessions.

Sid and Sweetie teamed up anytime someone was in the kitchen. They would turn on the charm, do tricks, create distractions, basically anything they could think of to obtain a morsel of what was on the counter. We were extremely diligent in assuring that nothing fell down to their level, but that didn’t squash their optimism.

My sister’s house is very sunny and Sid quickly discovered many warm, cozy spots to lay down and relax in. In addition to taking over Sweetie’s favorite toys, he also found her favorite spot on the back couch cushion and after a few spins was soon nested in. (Sorry, Sweetie! Sid can be a turd sometimes.)

Sid received many nice toys and treats for Christmas, including a Christmas neckerchief handmade by my sister and a new plush frog toy from my parents. Almost immediately after getting the frog, one of the little legs came off. Sid forgot about the rest of the frog and carried the little lone leg around with him the whole night. He loved that little leg.

Um, Sid – you sure you want to play with just the leg?

He also got a package of his one of his all time favorite toys – plush potatoes. Yes, these seemingly simple toys are one of Sid’s favorites. His favorite game is catch and these potatoes are the perfect size for him to catch. Plus – they have a squeaker inside which he adores (and quickly destroys).

Hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday. We’re hoping to get back to regular commenting and posting now that we are slowly getting back to normal life. We have a few more stories and photos from Sid’s trip, including a special “in-the-fur” meeting with one of Sid’s pug-blog pals, Payton!

P.S. Thank you all for your tips for flying with your pug – I think we used just about every single one. I’m so proud of how good Sid did! He’s a flying ace now.

The past twenty-four hours have been so awesome that we have TWO exciting topics to explore in today’s post.

First up, Miss Timothy Buttons came over last night with her parents and her brand new red Sherpa travel bag.  Her bag is just like Sid’s, except it’s Timothy-sized.

Yes, the bags are slightly different sizes, but we humans are bozos sometimes, and as soon as Sid and Timothy got inside the bags, we forgot which pug was where.  It’s in situations like these that a pug’s obsessive love of treats comes in handy:

Next, Sid woke up to find this package under the Pug Slope fiber-optic Christmas tree!

At first he thought Santa Pug had visited, but then he read the return address and realized someone even more awesome than Santa sent him this package – PAYTON!!

Sid wanted to open the package as soon as possible, but first he begrudgingly posed for a photo.

Inside the package were two wrapped presents and a little card!  Sid impatiently posed for another photo before unwrapping the gifts.

Seriously, guys. 

OMG, Payton!  An APPLE!  With a WORM!!!

Payton, it’s almost as though you regularly read a blog about Sid or something and know that apples are his FAVORITE things EVER!!

The apple toy was such a home run that Sid didn’t even wait to open the second present before going into full-on apple attack mode.

Sid quickly figured out that the worm comes out of the apple!  It’s like a mini puzzle toy!! He’s loves puzzle toys!!

When Sid finally calmed down from playing with his new BEST TOY EVER, we unwrapped the second present – a tiny Cuz!!!

Sid hasn’t quite figured out how to play with the Cuz yet…perhaps we can get some great photos and video of the amazing Miss Payton teaching Sid how to Cuz it up WHEN THEY HANG OUT NEXT WEEK IN CHICAGO!!!

Sid told me to say thank you SO MUCH to Payton and her parents for such an awesome and thoughtful surprise, and he can’t WAIT to learn how to Cuz from the master!!

We want to start out with a little apology.

We normally like to get at least three to four posts up on the blog every week, but December has been a crazy month.  On top of the aggressive travel-bag training Sid has undertaken in preparation for his big trip on the airplane, I’ve been taking the Greyhound bus back and forth every week to my hometown upstate for a root canal – it was much less expensive than what I would have paid in Brooklyn but required THREE separate appointments with the endodontist.  Brian and Sid have been holding down the fort here at the Pug Slope Headquarters, but the general craziness of the past few weeks means the blog has suffered.

Anyway, my final trip upstate was on Tuesday, and Sid’s Grammy Grace sent me back to Brooklyn with a suitcase full of Christmas presents for her favorite grandpug. One of those presents was a cozy new bed, and we decided Sid could get that present early since we didn’t really have a place to hide it in our super tiny apartment.

Well, as you can see in the video below, Sid was a bit confused over this present.  Overjoyed, elated, and enthusiastically thankful, sure, but still…confused:

Eventually Sid either realized that the bed was indeed A BED and NOT a gigantic fluffy sheet of awesomeness meant to be hiked between his legs, or he thought that he finally hit the jackpot when it comes to sleeping on top of his favorite toys.

Thank you Grammy Grace for this fabulous gift!!