Hi, my friends! It’s Sid with you today as my Dad has been buried under with work from his
“day job” and has been slacking at his pug-blogging duties (not to mention his pug-spoiling duties, but I’ll get to that in a minute). That’s why I gotta take charge here.

First off, HAPPY NEW YEAR to all you wonderful folks! I hope you all got to celebrate the New Year in style.

Although I normally tend to live in the moment (or just nap), I do occasionally find time for some self-reflection, goal-setting, and taking a look at the bigger picture. So on January 1st, like I imagine many of you probably did, I set up a New Year’s resolution for myself. Something very near and dear to my heart.

However, with only one week into 2016, I’m saddened to report that I have already failed at fulfilling my 2016 resolution. However, the failure was not due to my lack of diligence or dedication but in fact was due to powerful outside forces. Well, actually one force: My doofus Dad.

I mean, how I am I supposed to meet my resolution of eating one whole bag of baby carrots per week when he KEEPS THEM LOCKED AWAY IN THE FRIDGE and only gives me like TWO B.C.’s PER DAY! It’s not fair I tell you!

Did anyone else have their glorious New Year’s resolutions thwarted by their human(s)?

We hope everyone had a lovely Christmas. Sid got a new lion stuffie filled with squeakers and was also the recipient of an unending flow of treats and snacks all weekend long. His waist quickly vanished and soon I found myself staring at a pug sausage. So after a long weekend of relaxing and gorging, we returned home and got back to our ol’ brisk walk regimen. Guaranteed to remove those extra holiday inches and rolls.

Although, we were almost immediately cut short due to a dusting from Mother Nature.

It’s a little hard to strut your stuff when the sidewalk is frozen solid.

We did manage to at least get around the block, at which point Sid thought he might take refuge under a nice bush with a family of rabbits until Spring.

Is anyone else snowed in?

Sid and I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

Hey guys and gals! My Dad has been rushing around buying Christmas gifts so it’s me reporting today.

Oh, have I got a story for you!

See, I was out walking at the park when all of a sudden…

Whoa, sorry there. Let me start again.

So, I was out strolling at the park like usual when…hang on a sec, let me just get a little more comfortable…

OK. Um, where was I? Uh…the park…right…strolling…

…yes, the park. It’s…such…a nice…birds…smelling trees…sometimes food scraps…

ZZZ ZZZ ZZZZZZ

Hey everyone!

It’s Sid here with you today.

I have a quick question for you: is it Spring already?

Have we already made it through the dreaded midwest winter?! I only ask because it’s been unusually warm and rainy here in Chicago for the past week.

My Dad was out on the west coast all last week so I was living it up with my fantastic pug-sitters. Let’s just say an entire bag of baby carrots was consumed by yours truly in only a week’s time. There was none of that rashioning stuff my Dad normally does. I was given baby carrots to my heart’s content!

Anyway, when my Dad returned from California I think he brought back the best souvenier ever – WARM WEATHER!

It’s been pretty grey, but at least I don’t need to cuddle up in my striped afghan.

Anyone else enjoying some unseasonable warmth?!

P.S. My good pug friend in Oakland, Bea Arthur, is having trouble with one of her eyes. She’s got to have lots of drops and has to wear a cone (poor girl!). Please send her some good pug juju if you can spare!

Sid and I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday. As expected, Sid was spoiled with all kinds of tasty scraps and got lots of extra belly rubs from his grand-pug-rents.

This was an exciting Thanksgiving for us because it was the first time that Sid and I got to ride together on the Metra train to visit my family out in the suburbs.

You may remember, shortly after moving to Chicago, I discovered that pets in carriers were allowed on all Chicagoland public transit systems except the Metra trains that link the city with the suburbs. I met another person who had just started a petition as she wanted to bring her small dog with her to events in the city. So for the past couple years we worked together to get more and more signatures on the petition. We were able to get articles written about the issue in local news sources, we attended meetings of the Metra board and spoke during the public comments section, and this summer they finally implemented a pilot program to allow pets in carriers on one of the lines during the weekends. It was a success so they expanded the program to all lines during the weekends and holidays. I’m hopeful that by the end of the year the permanent policy will allow pets in carriers on all lines at any time, just like all the other public transit systems.

Sid is a traveling champ and once he gets in his red travel bag, he has no trouble kicking back and relaxing. I always provide him with an ample dose of treats while he’s in his bag, so of course he often doesn’t want to get out of the bag when we arrive at our destination. Most other travelers don’t even notice that I have a dog with me, and those that do ask me all about him and “ooo” and “awww” the whole time (most pugs are used to, and expect, this kind of adoration).

So this Thanksgiving we were especially thankful for all the Pets on Metra supporters, including all you lovely Pug Slopers that signed the petition, and the wonderful folks at Metra that made our dream a reality!

Welcome to Chicago! Where one day when you go for a walk in the park it looks like this…

and the very next day you go to the same park and it looks like this…

Boy, was that one quick Autumn!

In an unrelated matter, anyone interested in doing an apartment swap for a couple weeks (or months)? You can come live here and experience the nonpareil joy that is a Chicago winter while Sid and I stay in your tropical beach house near the equator. I swear we’ll take good care of the place.