The weather in Chicago was incredible this weekend, so we hopped a bus bound for the lake. Instead of heading to Montrose Beach, where we ventured a few weeks ago, we went to Foster Beach, which is smaller and thus makes keeping tabs on your frolicking pooch more manageable.
As to be expected, Sid had a blast and by the end of the day was covered in sand and panting like a maniac.
Sid told me he wanted to do a full report of the day’s events so he’ll be writing Part II for you.
Man, this past week just flew by. I blame it on the rain the AWESOME weather we’ve been having here in the lovely Pug Slope neighborhood on Planet Cool Sid.
I know I’m like allergic to all this nature and blooming stuff, but the flowers are actually so bright and colorful that it’s almost worth the extra itchiness. I was a bit bummed to find out that the flowers don’t taste as good as they look.
There’s also all these delectable new smells. My nose has been working overtime.
There are tons of new dogs out at the park that I’ve never seen or sniffed before…including MORE PUGS!
I know Sid mentioned in his last post that he was beat from all the activity last week. Well, today’s video will provide further explanation as to his strong desire to remain an F.P. all weekend long…
Even though Sid is quite an athletic pug (I’ve come to accept that my boy is a “jock”), I was still shocked to find him utterly obsessed with baseball. I mean, I guess it is the “American Pastime” and everything, but he’s usually not interested in playing with a ball unless it’s stuffed with peanut butter or salmon treats. Boy was I wrong!
I think if we keep up training, he may be ready for the majors some day!
After all that mixing and mingling with all the neighborhood pugs the other day, I’m pooped. I’m so glad it’s finally the weekend. I plan to lie low – like LITERALLY. This is a FLAT PUG WEEKEND.
Over the winter, I noticed a severe shortage in the number of pugs in our neighborhood. There were a lot of dogs that came to the park regularly but Sid was always the lone pug.
Well, that all changed once the weather started getting warmer.
Pugs have been heading to the park in droves and Sid has been making some local pug friends. For those that have trouble telling all the curly tails apart – including me – Sid is the one in the black harness.
A bunch of the local pugs are actually pairs – I guess you can’t have too much of a good thing!
I wish I had gotten a photo of each pug individually but they were all constantly in motion. Also, whenever pugs get in groups, they all seem to want to have their butts facing the camera (I guess they think it’s hilarious – sorta like their version of a photo-bomb).
Let’s see if I can remember all the names of the neighborhood pugs that we’ve met so far (with a little help from the note I keep in my phone…shhh don’t tell anyone my secret):
On Sunday morning, I took Sid over to Urban Pooch for some de-skunk-ification. This was his second visit to U.P. and while he was still squirmier than when bathed at home, he seemed more relaxed than the first time we went.
While I was busy scrubbing him, two different pugs came in and had their nails dremeled. Both seemed pretty calm during the process so I thought I’d see how Sid would do. He runs away and hides whenever I get out the nail clippers (hoping to trim his dew claws) and refuses to let me so much as touch his paw so I didn’t have high hopes for the dremel, but I figured I’d at least give it a shot.
After I dried Sid off, the Urban Pooch assistant, Luke, popped Sid up on a table and started dremeling away. My job was to distract Sid with a constant flow of venison jerky straight to the muzzle. Luke was super quick and gentle with the dremel – I don’t think Sid even really had time to process what was going on until it was already over. Sid actually kept his cool for most of the process, and wasn’t bothered at all by the noise (it was a lot quieter than I expected). He started getting super-squirmy near the end so we conceded to let him get away with two nails un-trimmed.
So it looks like two (nicely trimmed) dew claws up for the dremel!
PUG SLOPE chronicles the adventures of a pug named Sid as he navigates his way through the world. He was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, started the blog in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and is currently calling Chicago, Illinois his home.
