Well, the 2-day bear-hunt has ended on a good note. Thank you for all your well wishes during the exhaustive search.

Things got confusing mid-way through the hunt because Sid actually has THREE bears. The one he was looking for is the one in the middle (confusing, right?!):

Sid was very relieved to find this particular bear. It had taken him months of chewing it, soaking it with saliva, and patiently allowing it to dry out in order to get this little bear to its state of “crusty perfection”.

In a show of his appreciation for my role in the search party, Sid was kind enough to pick up all his toys off the floor and put them back into his toy basket.

Ok, I lied. I did that part.

In reality, this is what he did immediately after I had put away all his toys:

(Yes, the little turd is LAUGHING IN MY FACE!)

Have you ever had one of “those days”?

Specifically one of those days WHEN YOU CAN’T FIND THE TOY YOU WANT RIGHT AT THE EXACT MOMENT YOU WANT IT?

You search high, you search low, you practically get lost in your toy bin and yet, even after having pulled every single toy from its hiding spot, this ONE TOY is nowhere to be found.

Hrmmmm…

If you happen to come across a light brown mini plush bear with a non-functioning squeaker, please let me know.

People, Sid has come down with a severe case of Beaver Fever.

Um, no, not BIEBER FEVER, I said BEAVER FEVER.

Yes, BEAVER FEVER. Wait, no, not that kind.

I meant something more like THIS:

I’m not sure there is a cure for this condition (though Sid doesn’t seem to mind one bit).

Has anyone else come down with a case of B.F.?

I’m not sure if it was in response to Sid’s last post, but the weather certainly seems to have fixed itself this week. It’s been nice and cool – perfect weather for the flat-faced. We’ve been able to get over to the park every day. While this means the flow of Sid’s “pity toys” has stopped, I think he’s genuinely excited to go to the park. In fact, whenever we leave the apartment now, he only lets me turn in one direction – TOWARD THE PARK.

We’ve been meeting a bunch of new friends there – both the four-legged and two-legged variety. Sid’s even reached out of his comfort zone and has been interacting with non-pugs – including a “Tree Walking Coonhound”. Yeah, I know it sounds like I just made that up but it really is an actual dog breed!

Hopefully this weekend we’ll get a chance to take some photos of Sid hanging out with some of his pals. That is of course if he ever decides to get out of bed.

Sid’s impression of a cashew nut.

Hey friends!

I think the weather may be broken. If it’s not totally broken, it’s definitely confused – or maybe just indecisive. It’s like when you root around in your toy bin and keep pulling out different toys. One minute you want the tiny plush froggie, then you see the hide-a-squirrel and must have it immediately. Then like two minutes later you crave that delicious deer antler. Yeah, so that’s what the weather’s been doing – first it’s sweltering hot, then grey and rainy, then sunny and beautiful for 20 minutes, then mega-thunderstorms roll in (My voice is raspy from all the barking I had to do during the most recent storm). Now it’s just cold. So see what I mean, IN-DE-CI-SIVE.

However – there is a SWEET side-effect when the weather turns fickle. Well, two actually. First, my walks have been shortened to like fifteen minutes each. This is because we could get caught in a thunderstorm any minute. I know sometimes I like walks but on the whole, but sometimes my dad goes a little crazy and takes me on his “errands”. Um, sorry, Dad, but I really don’t want to walk with you all the way to the CVS to get toilet paper. The second side-effect is that when I have to be cooped up due to inclement weather, my dad feels bad so he goes into the new toy stash and pulls out something fuzzy and squeeky and oh-so-irresistable. So, thank you, weather for being confused or indecisive or totally broken this past week. Now, back to my toy thrashing.

It started off as a typical Sunday afternoon. I had just finished my dinner (yeah, I eat dinner at 4:15 PM sharp) and was about to take my post-dinner nap when all of a sudden I was interrupted by my dad rummaging around in the closet. Being the curious pug that I am, I had to check out what the heck was going on.

Out flies my red travel bag. Ok – are we going flying again? Or on the subway? Then comes a big towel – oh crap, am I getting a bath today? Then my EXTRA LONG extendable leash. Wait, I have one of those? Before I knew what was going on, I was sitting at the bus stop in my travel bag.

While in on the bus, my mind was racing – I’ve never gone to the vet on the bus, we walk to Urban Pooch where I get my baths, and when I visit my grandpugrents we have to rent a car. What kind of crazy trip was I being taken on?! Well, our destination became clear as soon as I heard the seagulls squawking and the waves crashing: We were AT THE BEACH!

I hopped out of my travel and immediately sprinted to the water. The water was pretty frigid so I just dipped my toes in for a bit then laid out in the sand to soak up some sun.

My dad tried to get me to play fetch with a mini tennis ball, but since he didn’t have any treats there was no way I was going to bring it back to him (Dad still needs to read Urban Hounds instruction for how to teach a human to play fetch – TREATS ARE REQUIRED, POPS!). Instead I decided to create some “Beach Art”…what do you think?

(You might need to double-click to appreciate my masterpiece full size)

I had been frolicking around for a while at this point and the heat and sand and manic panting must have gotten to me because out of the haze I thought I saw ANOTHER PUG ON THE BEACH!

Turned out it wasn’t a mirage, but an actual little pug named Ginger. I ran over and said hi. She comes to Foster Beach pretty often so she showed me where the good spots to pee were. We sat in the shade and split a bowl of cool water (Please don’t tell T-Buttz, she’ll kill me!).

Before we left, I showed my dad my best impression of an Egyptian Sphinx:

Pretty good, right? BOL!

After all that running around, can you believe my dad and I walked the whole way back home?! He said it was because the temperature had dropped and it had become a “pleasant evening” but I just think he was too cheap to pay the $2 bus fare! I was POOPED by the time we got home.