Well it’s finally getting warmer here. We had a day last week that was just gorgeous. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and Sid was feverishly chomping on his Kong.

Let me back up a minute.

Jenn and I both work from home, so we were lucky enough to be able to bring our lunch outside and eat on the stoop. The stoop is a great place to hang out as there are always people, dogs, and kids passing by. As an added bonus, the front of our building gets a lot of sun, so it was nice to be able to soak in some rays and replenish our Vitamin D supply.

In order to keep the Hooth occupied while we ate, we loaded up the Kong with his favorite comestibles: apples slices, venison jerky, and peanut butter. Yeah, I know – It makes me a little nauseous to think of it all mixed together, too.

He, however, has no such fear of exotic flavor combinations and within minutes had propped up the Kong into the ideal peanut-butter-slurping position.

Who needs a knife and fork when you’ve got a well-trained tongue?

Unfortunately, the poor little guy doesn’t realize that the Kong eventually does get empty. He has tried barking at the Kong, but so far that hasn’t proved successful. He’s wizened up a little though, and now he gazes at us when he wants the Kong refilled. How can we say no to that happy face?!

This past weekend brought with it beautiful Spring-like weather. We haven’t really had a full-on fun day at the park since the fall, and all of us have put on a little extra “padding and insulation” over the winter hibernation period – even Sid. Since Sid isn’t allowed at the YMCA, we took him through our very own Pug Boot Camp.

Unlike Boot Camp fitness classes for humans, which require all sorts of tension bands, weights, and mats, the only supplies needed for Pug Boot Camp are a plush russet potato, a plush bee, and proper workout apparel. Sid happens to have all of these supplies in spades.

We began the workout with some potato-in-mouth short sprints…

… and then moved on to some bee fetching. This skill requires deep concentration, eye-muzzle coordination, and a strong affection for plush bees. Well, at least Sid possesses that last component.

Once the bee fetching was over, we started doing some chasing, pushing his dexterity to the max and beyond. Sid was definitely blasting his quads, mastering his glutes, pushing his max, zoning in on his core, etc.

He was even able to master more advanced skills, including a power run with bee-in-mouth and ears fully extended.

He was pretty knackered after a while, but we made sure he got a proper cool-down.

After Sid’s Christmas 2010 “Blizzard of Toys” (parts 1 and 2), you’d think we would take a break from spoiling the little dude and let our bank account recover. We’ll, you’d be wrong.

Whenever we order stuff from Amazon, we always wind up tacking a dog toy or seven onto the order. So when Jenn ordered her 2011 desk calendar on December 22nd, we added on a few items for the Sid-man. Whether it was the blizzard, the free super-saver shipping, or the general holiday craziness, we’ll never know, but our package wound up getting severely delayed.

It finally showed up today.

Remember the baby frog that Sid got from Grandma Demski back in October? Well, he had practically worn the thing out from chewing and licking and other forms of man-handling, so he was practically floored when a brand spanking new one showed up today in the package from Amazon.

After a swipe with his deft hand, Sid knocked Frog 2.0™ to the floor and began the process of attacking it via a method referred to as “death by saliva”.

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After Sid had plucked all the chickens from the coop, he was ready to move on to more dangerous critters: S-S-S-S-SNAKES!

Aunt Erin and Uncle Will got Sid a Snake in the Grass toy by Kyjen for Christmas. The puzzle-type toys really get Sid fired up and this one provided an added twist – elastic. There are four snakes inside the “grass” – 1 baby snake that is removable and 3 larger snakes that stay attached to the grass via elastic bands. So now when Sid extracts a snake, it flings around on the elastic as he hunts for the rest.

The baby snake is his favorite.

Since words can only do so much, here is another “Sid Vid” that demonstates Sid’s snake hunting destroying skills.

By the way, the music featured is Brooklyn’s own Baby Soda who I caught the other night at Bar Bès. They play really great old-time toe-tappin’ jazz.

We had a great Christmas this year in NY, and despite our worries about surviving the winter weather, Christmas day actually turned out to be extremely clement (I write this as we are currently mid-blizzard – more on that in another post).

Sid ended up with two new puzzle toys that have instantly become his current favorites. One of these puzzle toys was a Martha Stewart Chicken Coop which has 3 tiny chicks that live inside of a plush house.

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Okay, long story short: Sid’s wearing a cone around his head:

We recently weaned him off his hydrocortisone for the winter (which will be explained in a future follow-up post to my earlier allergy post), and ever since, he’s been gnawing on all four of his feet and scratching away at his poor little chin.

I’m half-convinced that all of this paw chewing is due to boredom, so I thought a “comfort cone” (or “cone of shame,” if you’re a pessimist) might help him break his current cycle of destructiveness and find some other, more productive, things to do with his time.

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Last weekend, while Brian and Sid were lounging on the couch, I was in Fort Smith, Arkansas, visiting my beautiful goddaughter, Tabor.  She’s pretty darn cute, and as you can see below, she was really happy to see me:

But, did I mention she has a dog?

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