The leaves are changing color and the air is becoming brisk, which means it’s time to update our masthead!

This past weekend in NY really encapsulated all the amazingness of fall. The weather was ideal for a nice stroll through the park and we figured we might as well tie in a photo shoot with our favorite little flat-faced pal.

It went something like this:

“Okay, really, Sid? We don’t need all the ‘tude right out of the gate. As we detailed in your contract, like all your other shoots, this one will also end with treats – I promise. Lose the flap flip, man.”

“Yes! That’s more like it. We want to show everyone that pugs are majestic, thoughtful creatures that ponder the important questions of the universe: What is the meaning of life? What does it mean to be ‘pug’? Why must dinner be served at 5 pm and not 3 pm?”

“Hello?! Are you tuning out? You can’t tell me you’re getting bored already. Well, maybe a new location will inspire you more.”

“Yeah, this looks much better. These leaves are great. Um, hey, Sid…over here…No, that’s not Timothy Buttons, it’s a squirrel. Look at the camera, buddy.”

“Okay, that’s a little better. You’re just a tad too aloof, though. We needing something a little less brooding and more  front-page-of-cuteoverload.com, follow?”

“Now you’re on the trolley! The head tilt is definitely a keeper. Can you give me just a little more variety to work with…”

“BOOYAH! That’s the stuff. No one can resist a back-and-forth head tilt. If we turn those two photos into an animated gif, we might have the next internet meme on our hands. Let’s just try to ease it back a little bit, though, I mean, technically you’re like a 42-year old man and I don’t want your head popping off its axis.”

“PERFECT-O! Way to go, man. Here’s to another job well done. There is a fully-loaded kong treat bone waiting at home with your name on it.”

So how do you guys like the new fall masthead?

Brian and Sid have apparently been waking very early every morning and going to Prospect Park.  Brian claims that he asks me – while I’m sleeping – if I want to go along with them, and that I say “no.”  And then he says that he says, “Are you sure?”  And supposedly I say, “yes.”  Then I wake up two hours later ready to roll and everybody’s already wiped out from all the fun they had in the park.

So, last evening, while I was wide awake, I told Brian that I absolutely wanted him to wake me up for Sid’s morning park time. And what a morning it was!  There was a crazy mist covering the entire long meadow, and the leaves have finally changed into their vibrant fall colors.  We didn’t have the good camera with us, so I whipped out my iPhone and took some Hipstamatics:

Brian and Sid walking near the ball fields.

On the Long Meadow, looking towards the dog beach.

Brian and Sid heading towards the Long Meadow

The mixture of sunlight, morning mist, and fall colors was so lovely that even an ol’ curmudgeon like Sid paused for an extra moment to take it all in:

I’d like to imagine that the expression on Sid’s face in the final photo on the bottom right is Sid having an epiphany about what really matters in life, but it’s more likely him realizing that all of this nature-gazing is delaying his treat time…

Thanks to the votes of his loyal friends and fans, Sid made it as a finalist in the Curly Tail Pug Rescue 2012 Calendar Contest. Thank you all for your votes!

But the contest is not over yet and the votes are still important to ensure he gets on a page in the calendar.

Here are the links to vote:
AUGUST or OCTOBER

(Sid’s fur-pals, Mochi, Macho, and Marshmallow are also finalists for February and May! Congrats you guys!)

So just to remind you of how calendar-worthy Sid is, here’s some cute shots of him from this past weekend.

Curly Tail Pug Rescue has just posted the entries for their 2012 Pug-a-Month Calendar. Now the voting process begins.

Each vote costs $1 and of course the money goes to the rescue to benefit pugs in need.

Let’s try to get Sid on one of the months!

They split up all the entries into individual months and Sid’s been nominated for August and October (which is actually the month in which Sid and I both celebrate our birthdays!).

Some of our regular commenters – Mochi, Macho, and Mashmallow – are also in the competition (see February and May) so please cast some votes for them as well!

I guess it’s a bit redundant to say “cute” when talking about pugs. I mean, pugs are pretty much cute by definition.

How would you like to see your little pug’s mug on a calendar?!

The Curly Tail Pug Rescue is accepting photo submissions for their 2012 calendar.

You can enter by going to their website: http://www.curlytailpugrescue.org

We’ll definitely be entering some photos of Our Man Sid – but how to choose the right one…(if you’re anything like us, your photo library is somewhere around 85-90% pug).

I can’t believe it’s already been a year since we packed all of our belongings into a Penske truck and drove from Los Angeles to Brooklyn. This may come as a surprise to you, but Sid is a great traveler.  The cabin of that truck became our cozy little home for about eight days, and Sid was happy as a clam.  Seriously.

We put a rubbermaid container between the two bucket seats and put his bed on top so he could be up at our level.  His water dish sat on the dash between our cup holders, and his Petco safety strap kept him buckled in but gave him a little freedom to move around.

Oh, and we quickly learned that the only way to avoid mass mayhem on the highway was to store his food / treat supply inside the rubbermaid container he was perched upon.  You gotta learn some lessons the hard way.

Click through for a few photos from the first days of our trip:

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We did a pretty good job avoiding the heat when it rolled in last week, but on Sunday we made an error in our timing of Sid’s morning “business meeting.”  Taking Sid out for his walk at 7am seemed like a great way to avoid the long-simmering heat of the late-morning / early-afternoon hours, but our half-awake brains didn’t think about the fact a 7am walk meant that he’d need to go out for his evening business around 5 or 6pm at the latest – – hours that had been among the hottest of the preceding days.  With a morning walk that early, there was no way Sid was going to make it until sundown, so we started brainstorming a solution that would provide Sid relief from both the heat and his bladder.

Luckily, we already polled our (amazingly resourceful) pug readers on the topic of keeping cool back in June.

Mochi had suggested a cooling vest, which is brilliant, but we never got around to actually buying one before we encountered the moment when we desperately needed it.

Payton said something about a Frogg Togg.  I’m still not quite sure what that is or what it means.  I Googled it and found some people-clothes for camping…regardless, it was still something we’d need to buy.  We needed a NOW solution.  Always at the last minute over here at Pug Slope!

Noodles suggested freezing a wet Sham-Wow and draping it over Sid’s back.  Hmm.  Now, we (sadly) don’t own any Sham-Wows, but we do own hand towels!  And a faucet!  And a freezer!

And that is how Sid became the dorkiest coolest pug in Brooklyn:

Sid didn’t let his dorky accessories bring him down, though, even when we ran into some cooling-accessory-free (i.e., normal) dogs on 7th Ave.  He looked those dogs in the eye, lifted his leg up high, and acted like wearing a frozen hand towel on your back while peeing was the new hot thing.  When he was done with his business, he trotted over to them and said, “My mom says there’s nothing cooler than safety,” which is a decidedly un-cool thing to say, but I’m not going to be the one to tell him that.  I’d rather he avoid heat stroke than win homecoming king.

Then we came across a fire hydrant spraying cool water into the street and onto the sidewalk.  We tried to turn this into a Pug Slope photo op, but Sid’s new-found confidence and strong regard for safety kept him from playing along.  “Dad, you of all people should know that water is a leading cause of lost marbles in flat-faced dogs,” proclaimed Sid. Sigh.

So, Sid wouldn’t play in the spraying water, but we managed to get him to stand near the hydrant for a few quick shots.

And, when we got home, we followed Sid’s Mimi’s advice of putting a frozen water bottle in the dog bed.  Like I said, the coolest pug in Brooklyn.