Today, my favorite little creature in all the world, Siddhartha Lamont Sanchez Demski, turns 12 years old! He’s still very spry for an older gentleman. Here’s to many more years of treats, belly rubs, and ridiculous adventures together!

Love always,
Dad

xoxo

Hi everyone!

It’s Sid here today. I can’t believe October is already and its end! What happened?!

I mean first it was my Birthday, and then my dad’s Birthday, and then all the leaves started falling down.

And now it’s Halloween today and I didn’t even get a chance to pull together a costume! Time to recycle one of my old ones…

So I guess I’m a turtle…but…with two heads? Confusing, I know.

Best not to think too much about it and instead focus on the TREATS.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Hi everyone!

Sid here today. I’m sorry I’ve been away for a bit. I had been reading about bears and hibernation and thought I’d give it a try since the weather has started getting colder here.

I’m a champ at taking naps and thought this would be pretty easy. Well, I was only able to hibernate for about 4 hours before I started getting hungry and had to go stare at my dad and persuade him to give me a few treats. So bears go the WHOLE WINTER without eating? I don’t know how they can do it. I can barely go an afternoon! Do you guys have any hibernation tips for me?

Sid and I hope you all had a nice Halloween and that your treat bounties were plentiful. Sid did enter the South Andersonville Neighborhood Association’s dog costume contest again this year but the weather was really lousy. It was rainy and cold so most dogs were soaking wet and shivering. I think Sid’s lion mane came in handy as it kept the water off his face and kept his head toasty! We didn’t win any of the prizes but I think Sid enjoyed parading around with the other costumed pets.

Fall is in full effect here in Chicago and despite the lousy weather on Halloween day every other day has been exceptionally gorgeous. We took a trip to a park that is about a mile away from our apartment and flanks the Chicago River. It’s the aptly named “River Park”.

I love that retro-looking sign!

Sid had a great time running through the fallen leaves and sniffing all those fragrant Autumn scents.

Although he was able to get pretty close to the river there was a fence that prevented him from taking a dip.

River Park is filled with trees of all sizes. Many of them were lovely shades of orange and red. Have the leaves started changing color where you live?

We’re going to try to get over to River Park at least once a week to see all the trees change color this month!

Hey there all you lovely-looking Pug Slopers!

Sid here today. I really hope you all had a great Halloween and hauled in loads of treats. I sure did!

I forgot to mention that the weekend BEFORE Halloween, I got to attend a HOWL-O-WEEN pet parade and costume contest just up the street from the Pug Slope H.Q. It was pretty awesome.

As you guys already know by now, I was dressed up as “Bruce Pugsteen” this year. I was getting the thumbs up from all the people gathered there for the parade. I mean, check this out:

“Sit tight, take hold, Thunder Rooooad!”

I’ve got pipes, what can I say.

Anywho, there were tons of pooches and humans in really cool costumes. There was a Boston with THREE HEADS!!!

Does that mean he gets THREE DINNERS each day?! I sure hope so. He was getting double-takes from both humans and other dogs. There was also a dog elaborately dressed up as a Bonsai tree.

I ran into another pug who, along with her friend, was dressed up like a Mariachi! Ole! I have no idea how their hats stayed on all day. Superglue perhaps.

Although I didn’t win any prizes during the contest portion, I had a fun time parading around with the other costumed pups and collecting free treats all day. I gotta start planning my costume for next year…

This weekend, we were lucky to have an entire weekend of fantastic fall weather. Yellow and orange leaves slowly tumbled to the ground via unseasonably warm breezes. Even an alley with electric wires and garbage bins can look amazing this time of year.

Sid and I took a nice long late-afternoon stroll eastward. There’s a cute path in Andersonville that winds along the train tracks. We’ve walked this path many times before but this day it happened to be stocked with an array of carved pumpkins. Sid was interested.

Somehow Sid managed to NOT eat any pumpkins. I couldn’t believe it. He sure gave each one a thorough going-over with his super sniffer though.

After wandering through puddles of dappled sunlight courtesy of the beautiful old trees that line the streets of Lakewood-Balmoral, we ended up at the lakefront. The water was exceptionally high that day and the Foster Dog Beach was about 1/8th its usual size!

Soon, the sun started getting lower in the sky and everything became golden. I love Autumn.

Hey everyone!

Have you noticed all the brown and yellow leaves everywhere?!

I love the leaves. Well, not exactly the leaves themselves but the buried treasures that lie below!

Whenever I encounter a pile of leaves while I’m out on a walk, I make sure to dig around to see what amazing goodies I can unearth. If my Dad is watching he always makes me spit them out, but sometimes he’s looking away and doesn’t catch me. I inhaled what I believe was a piece of a discarded donut on my afternoon walk today. Score one for the Sid-man!

There’s something about hunting through the leaves that makes whatever I find taste that much sweeter. I guess it’s the element of surprise. It’s like how unwrapping a present somehow makes the present way cooler than if someone had just handed it to you.

What goodies have you found hidden under the leaves?