Pug Slope, INC had its first holiday party this weekend and Sid got a little out of control.

After drinking an entire bottle of Red Cat wine, he tried to start a fight with a plush potato. The potato won.

After that embarrassment, he hobbled over to his bed and zonked out. We found him the next morning in this pathetic state.

Luckily, with an ever-shedding pug in our home, there’s always plenty of “hair of the dog” for those rough mornings.

The fifth installment of TWISB: I’d be pulling your leg if I said I didn’t enjoy this.

On Sunday, my cousin Mickey and her daughter Bethany came down to New York City for a mega-spectacular day of shopping and candy.  Their first stop was the American Girl Store on 5th Ave near Rockefeller Center.  When I met up with them, they were just wrapping up at Dylan’s Candy Bar on the Upper East Side.  From there, we took the R train over to Times Square and had lunch next to Ringo Starr’s drum kit and Pug McCartney’s Hofner bass at the Hard Rock Cafe.

After our rock and roll lunch, we braved the holiday madness of the Times Square Toy’s R Us, M&M’s store (more candy!), and Hershey store (can you tell the day’s itinerary was planned out by an awesome ten-year-old?).  By the time we were done at the Hershey store, we were all exhausted and broke, but we had four hours to kill before Mickey and Bethany had to get back to the Port Authority for their bus back to Binghamton.  What do you do when you’ve got four hours to kill in New York City?

Why, you take the F-train all the way back to Park Slope so you can meet Sid, of course!

Bethany and Sid immediately hit it off.

Bethany’s an awesome dancer, so Sid asked if she could show him a few moves.

And before they left, Sid, Bethany and I posed for the obligatory “goofy” photo.

Sid can’t wait to hang out with Bethany again, and neither can I!

Break out the pug Snuggie – Winter has finally arrived. There was a light dusting of snow last night that stuck to the trees and the ground, where it remained until this morning. When I took Sid for his morning walk in Prospect Park, he had his first experience with Ol’ Man Winter. On our usual path there is a low point where a large puddle of water usually collects after a storm. Today the puddle was topped with a thin layer of ice.

Sid approached the slippery surface with curiosity and caution, but as soon as he stepped on it, the ice began cracking. Not knowing what to do he sped up and started breaking more ice. Luckily the water was only about half an inch deep so he just ended up confused by the whole situation.

We are still really looking forward to his first experience with some real snow. Looks like that moment may be right around the corner.

The fourth installment of TWISB: C’mon people, give Sid a hand!

I took Sid out for a walk as usual. And as his usual self, he was being a little bit stubborn and refused to do his business. I took him around another block to see if he would finally cave in but no luck. He just kept sniffing leaves and then moving on.

About five minutes later I noticed him “funny walking”. He did have on a t-shirt, his harness, and collar which sometimes upsets his equilibrium, so I bent down, re-adjusted everything and proceeded to get back to the walk. The funny walking continued. His right-rear leg was not making contact with the ground. I tried to look at his foot to see what was going on but he refused to sit still for a second so I could check him out.

I carried him back to the apartment to get a closer look and his foot pad looked really weird. Jenn said one of his toes had split down the middle. Great – another trip to the vet (Sid must not have been satisfied with November’s multiple visits). Well, I craned in for a closer look and realized the split section was not Sid’s toe but instead a nut shell that was the exact same color and size as Sid’s toe. It had gotten stuck over one of his toes like a little cap. Below is a photo of said nut shell.

The shell just popped right off and Sid was back to normal. Jenn and I breathed a sigh of relief as another potential vet visit had been averted.

This is the face of an evil genius:

I was never under any illusion as to who was calling the shots in this house, but damn this pug is sneaky.

One of the many things we do to keep Sid’s ego in check is enforce a strict “Sid sleeps in Sid’s bed” policy.  We’ve gotten lax about it here and there – he’s such a good snuggler – but after a night or two of sleeping in our bed he starts prancing around the apartment like he owns the place and then the next thing you know he’s forcefully sneezing, stomping his little legs and jerking his head towards the fridge in a hilariously misguided attempt to dictate his own feeding schedule (Sid’s ideal feeding schedule = all food, all the time).

Recently, though, Sid realized that at a certain point in the night, Brian and I are both unconscious (because we’re sleeping, duh).  So, Sid began sneaking up into our bed in the middle of the night.  Brian, being a light sleeper, would immediately send Sid back down to his own bed, and I’d be none the wiser.

Well, apparently Sid noticed that while Brian wakes up easily, I sleep like a rock.  For the past week or two I’ve been waking up around four in the morning with this twenty-two pound nimrod SLEEPING ON MY BACK.

That’s right, he bypasses the Brian-threat by walking down to the end of the bed and jumping directly onto my side of the mattress, where he then proceeds to flaunt his ability to concoct evil schemes by SLEEPING DIRECTLY ON TOP OF ME.

Don’t you look at me like that, little man.  I know what you’re up to.