Sid is still talking about the ice cream he ate this past weekend and his fun visit with Christy, Tim, Donald, Daisy, Gammy, and Gampy. In addition to taking Sid out for some amazing ice cream, they also gave him a gift bag with some awesome plush toys in it. There was an ample supply of plush potatoes, which, as you probably already know, are one of his all-time favorites, and an extra-large and extra-floppy plush lion.

Sid has become smitten with the lion and now he carries it around with him when moving from one room to another. He also likes to bring it onto the bed at night and hike it through his back legs REPEATEDLY. I guess we all got to have our bedtime rituals, right?

Thank you guys for such great toys! You certainly know what Sid likes!

Well folks, I survived two weeks of stinky, messy wet dog food (of course Sid loved the stuff). Not only is wet dog food foul to the human olfactory system, it’s also much harder on the wallet than dry food. I’m glad Sid still has plenty of healthy teeth left to crunch on hard food!

Since harder-chewing items like antlers are out of the mix for now, I found a softer, yet more stinky, alternative: ROLLED SALMON SKINS!

Whenever I hold something in my hand and start talking in a higher-than-normal voice, Sid knows he’s in for something good.

He made a bee-line for his bed and started smacking his lips and spinning in circles.

Once he got the fish skin in his mitts, he immediately knew what to do with it. He has good instincts. Actually, on second thought it’s probably not a very smart idea to assume that everything presented to you is edible but that’s the way he operates.

It actually took a Sid a good amount of time to soften and eat the delectable treat although I wish it would have lasted him a little longer. The worst part was when he got near the end and kept trying to wolf the “bite-size” morsel down. Took him a few attempts (ew!). Luckily they are not messy and the smell is much more tolerable than wet dog food so win-win!

We hope you had a good Valentine’s Day weekend. As you can see above, Sid got spoiled on Valentine’s Day with an enormous new split antler.

Most of his other antlers have been chewed down to little stubs so I figured it was about time he got a new one. Luckily this one is like four times longer than the previous ones so I’m hoping it will last longer.

His favorite time to chew is right before bed. I guess it’s how he winds down before going to sleep since he can’t read a book or do yoga or something. Do any of your dogs also like antlers? When is their favorite time to chew?

The lack of recent posts is due to the fact that I was out of town for bit. While Sid was stuck at home, I was on the West Coast to visit some friends in Los Angeles and Oakland. This trip provided a welcome departure from the endless days of below-zero windchill temps that were bombarding the midwest and keeping Sid and I cooped up like hermits.

When I crashed through the apartment door, with my suitcase and carry-on bag flailing behind me, I expected to be bowled over by an ecstatic pug, overjoyed that his master had finally returned. Well, this was the “Welcome Home” face I was greeted with:

I think Sid may have actually been rotating his head slowly back and forth, muttering “tsk tsk tsk” under his breath. In other words, I was presented with the infamous PUG GUILT TRIP. I’m sure many of you are familiar with this move. Sid claimed that during the past week he received NO TREATS, NO BELLY-RUBS, and was subjected to EPIC WALKS through various snowstorms and blizzards without even a meager confidence shirt to protect him from the elements. Well (for once) I actually knew better as I had been in communication with his pug-sitters the whole time I was gone. He even got DOUBLE DINNER one night! COME ON! Talk about SPOILED!

I was really happy to see him, though, so I played along with his story and gave him a bunch of baby carrots and chest rubs. Whatever works, right?

Sid and I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We were lucky enough to have a four-day weekend so the two of us journeyed to my parent’s house in the suburbs.

Where is the turkey I was promised?

It’s amazing how spread out everything is once you leave the city. Sid enjoyed all the new smells, the ample supply of shrubs to pee upon, and all the toys that he commandeered from his canine cousins, Sweetie and Ellie.

He even got to eat a few bites of turkey and thankfully it did not exacerbate his allergies. I don’t know if he actually got a chance to really taste the flavor of the turkey though as the pieces instantly slid down his throat in the same manner that a fish slides down a penguin’s gullet. I told him to “enjoy” and “savor” this special treat but I think my message went in one floppy ear and out the other.

What special treats or snacks did you all get to eat this Thanksgiving?

Thank you all for your positive comments and support! I actually took Sid to a brand vet on Friday and I left with a very good feeling about our visit. The vet said that Sid looked really good, his blood levels were all normal, and also to not worry about the dose of prednisone I have been using to handle Sid’s allergies as it is very low. She does not suspect a dose that low would not have any bad long-term effects, which was a huge relief for me to hear. So Sid’s back on his low dose of pred, he’s been de-coned, and (thank goodness) isn’t scratching his face off anymore.

So, in addition to taking the vet’s advice, I also took the idea that many of you had suggested in the comments and addressed Sid’s baby carrot deficiency with the following:

After the smoke that puffed out from his ears dissipated from the room, I saw the plate – now completely empty – slowly whir to a stop. And then I found Sid passed-out in this position nearby:

It’s not even Thanksgiving yet and he’s already got a case of severe food coma!

Today my dad said something that my little pug brain could not understand. I tried my usual technique of tilting my cranium to the left…

And then flopping it over to the right.

I then repeated the steps a few more times, but I still could not process what he meant when he said, “We need to buy more baby carrots because we ran out.”

Um, what does that mean exactly?

Or do I not want to know?