Today, the general mood here at Pug Slope Midwest HQ took a 180-degree turn for the better. And all it took was the arrival of an enormous box from Sid’s favorite online store, Mr. Chewy.

Yep, Mr. Chewy doesn’t mess around. I think he intentially used the biggest box imaginable to make Sid flip his gourd. I mean, Sid goes berzerk whenever I bring anything home in a small grocery bag so you can imagine his excitement upon seeing a box the size of a dorm fridge.

It didn’t take long for his determined paws to shred through the layers of kraft paper to get to the real MEAT of the package: Salmon & Chick Pea food and Venison treats (both the crunchy and chewy varieties).

Thank you, Mr. Chewy, for brightening this pug’s day – I mean MONTH.

Love,
Mom and Dad

I’ve come to the conclusion that Sid has absolutely no faith in our promise to reward him when he does something good.  Considering the number of treats this pug gets throughout the day as rewards for doing things as minor as sitting in his bed, I have no idea how and when we lost his trust.  Was there some incident in the past when he saved a boy from a well and we totally forgot to give him a treat???  Perhaps he vacuumed up all of his pug fur one weekend and we didn’t even notice, let alone give him a carrot???  Whatever it was, now the pug can’t just patiently wait for his treat when he does something good, as you’ll see in this video of Sid waiting at the bus stop in his travel bag:

Hi everyone!

Today is the last day to help fill up Sid’s Treat Jar!

Thanks to your generous donations, Sid’s already recouped a significant chunk of his treat funds, but, like all pugs, when it comes to treats he can never have too many.

To contribute, please click on the Sid’s Treat Jar widget on the right-hand side of PugSlope. You can use either paypal or a credit card (a PayPal account is not required).

Here’s a recap of the “treats” that you can get in return for your contribution:

$10.00:

• A special thank-you on the blog

$25.00:

• Planet Cool Sid desktop wallpaper (designed by Sid himself) for your computer
• A special thank-you on the blog

$50.00:

• Sid Solves Your Problem – Submit a question to be included Sid’s new Planet Cool Sid advice column. He can answer questions about anything and everything! According to him, HIS INPUT IS PRICELESS.
• Planet Cool Sid desktop wallpaper
• A special thank-you on the blog

$100.00:

• A print of my painting of Sid wearing his knit aviator hat
• Plus all the stuff listed above!

$150.00:

• For those of you who are dogs: a Sid’s Picks Combo Pack featuring your very own confidence shirt and potato toy!
  Or, for those of you who are humans: your very own set of Pug Slope note cards!
• Plus all the stuff listed above!

$200.00:

• Here’s where it gets crazy, guys. A special VIP access code for the PugSlope.com Treat-bone Live-Cam, good through the end of 2012. Log in every weekday between 1pm and 2pm ET to see Sid chillin’ like a villain with his peanut-butter-filled Kong bone. It’s gonna be EPIC.
• Plus all the stuff listed above! People might think you are obsessed with Sid (like we are)!

THANK YOU again for all of your love and support and good juju throughout this whole process. Sid continues to be doing really well on the allergy shots and hasn’t had any steroids for almost 2 months now. Also none of the nasty “Carl Brigade” has returned. WOO HOO!!!

P.S. For those of you that received the “Sid Solves Your Problems” reward, please be sure to send in your problem. You can email ssyp @ pugslope.com with your problem.

Well, hello there!  Wow!  Welcome, everybody, to Planet Cool Sid’s Guide to Living!  On today’s show, we’re going to talk about KONGS!

KING KONG (HAHAHA – I’M HILARIOUS!!)

We all love our Kongs, right?!  I know I do!  But, have you ever gotten a Kong toy stuffed with peanut butter and carrot bits and you spend, like, twenty minutes enjoying its yummyness but then its EMPTY and as much as you bark at it, no more yums appear inside it, so you just give up and sulk in the corner with some second-rate squeaker toy that isn’t even edible and whose lack of flavor makes you curse the universe that we live in??  Yeah, me too, my friends. Me too.

Stupid Empty Kong

Well, guess what?

That Kong that you love?  It’s actually EVIL.  Sometimes, even though your Kong looks empty, it’s actually still filled with microscopic morsels of peanut buttery goodness that it’s decided to keep for its own selfish gain.  Here’s how to make sure you get every last bit of tasty goop from your Kong nemeses.

Step 1:  Study your Kong from afar.  Get to know its shape, its color, how it spends its alone time, where it hides its secrets.

Look into its soul.

Step 2:  Use the information you’ve learned in Step 1 to weasel your way into your Kong’s circle of trust.  Remember the old adage, keep your friends close and your enemies closer?  Well, I’m not totally sure that applies to this situation, but it’s the only adage I know so let’s pretend it does.

You can trust me, Kong.  I’m on your side.

Step 3: The Interrogation.  You can probably reveal your true identity and motives at this point, as well.  That’s what they do in the Batman movies, anyway.

Where are you hiding the last of the peanut butter, Kong?  

WHERE ARE YOU HIDING THE PEANUT BUTTER!!

Step 4:  If your Kong is anything like my Kong, it probably won’t talk.  Just stick the whole Kong in your mouth for a while until it frees those last bits of peanut butter from its dungeon of evil.

NOM-NOM-YUM-NOM-NOM-OOH-THAT’TH GOOD-NOM-NOM

Nom-slurp-nom Thtep Four can take hourth, but it’th worth every thecond!

That’th it for thith week’th Planet Cool Thid’th Guide to Living Nom-nom.  I’m your hotht, Thidartha Lamont.  From all of uth here at Pug Thlope, thankth for watching, and remember, nom-nom-nom, there’th no thuch thing ath an empty Kong!  Vive le Pug!

Last weekend, I got to meet the pugrent of one of our faithful pug slope commenters, Socrates – a fellow Brooklyn-ite. Or Brooklonian. Brooklynian? Whatever.

Anyway, the reason for the meet-up was two-fold: (1) so that I could deliver the portrait of her fine gentle-pug to her, and  (2) for an in-the-fur meeting of two great philisophical minds – Socrates & Siddhartha. Here’s the portrait of Socrates:

Unfortunately, we’ll never know what forms of deeper understanding or insight Socrates and Siddhartha may have come up with because Carlos got in the way. Or was it his cousin, Carl, Jr.? Since Sid’s muzzle wart entourage are contagious (only for other dogs that have never been exposed), Socrates had to stay home this time. But his mom still wanted to meet Sid (who doesn’t, right?!).

Not only was Socrates’ mom super nice and as pug-obsessed as we are, but she was kind enough to bring a toy and some yummy treats for Sid (and for us, too!). One of these gifts in particular made Sid weak in the knees – a piece of real honest-to-goodness DEER ANTLER! What’s particularly cool about this special treat is that the antlers are something that the deer shed naturally each year, so no animals were harmed in its making!

After so many attempts to obtain human snacks from high places, Sid has developed amazing dexterity with his paws. He pretty much uses his dew claw like a thumb (I think that’s how he was able to hack our computer and take over the blog last month!). Lucky for us, that day he was only using his amazing reaching ability to position the antler for the maximum chewability angle.

After an hour of chew-time, he was knackered. But of course he wouldn’t let the antler out of his sight.

“I keep all my prized possessions under my head. And then I cry a little.”

Thank you to Socrates’ mom for such fantastic treats! Sid said he wants to move out of our place and get a two-bedroom with Socrates up in the North Slope.

Hey everybody!  Part Two of Sid’s Manhattan adventure starts NOW:

So, Sid survived the subway, and after meeting up with Grammy Grace, Uncle Jay and Auntie Chiho in Washington Square Park, we made our way over to the West Village.

We were looking for a place to brunch, but stumbled onto a street fair / farmer’s market – dangerous territory for a food-crazy pug.

Luckily, we were able to get a table at a great wood-fired pizza place with outdoor seating before Sid noticed any of discarded churros or abandoned squash blossoms that lined the pavement around the farmer’s market.  We were seated right near the sidewalk so all the passersby could see that this was the place where the cool pugs eat.

Sid’s Five-star Yelp review: “OMG, I DIDN’T THINK IT WAS POSSIBLE, BUT THEIR PEANUT-BUTTER-FILLED KONG BONES TASTED JUST LIKE THE PEANUT-BUTTER-FILLED KONG BONES MY MOM AND DAD MAKE FOR ME AT HOME.”

After the meal, Sid was ready for a nap, but there was still more fun to be had!  Back to Washington Square!

Manhattan can be exhausting.  Some tired tourists make their way through central park in a horse-drawn carriage.  Others rest their aching feet in the back of a pedicab en route to a Broadway show.

Sid gets carried around Greenwich Village by his mother.

Yup.

It’s okay, though, because he needed the rest.  See, he met a new friend out on the street, and his friend told him about this “spot at the bottom of the square where all the small dogs get their ya-yas out, and it’s real hush-hush, ya’see, but if you’re cool and speak their lingo, you might just find yourself havin’ a real good time – a real good time, if you catch my drift.  ‘Cause these small dogs aren’t like you Brooklyn small dogs.  These small dogs live in Manhattan, the island of opportunity, the island of down is up and up is down and who’s walkin’ who?  That’s right, Mom and Dad, I’m walkin’ you.  These small dogs eat treats for breakfast, and treats for lunch, and treats for snacks in between breakfast and lunch – and for dinner?  MORE TREATS.  So if you play your cards right and do what I do, you might just get a taste of what we’re cookin’ out here, but just a taste, my flat-faced friend, ’cause IT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND.”