A WALK IN THE PARK--AGAIN

We went for another walk with our pug buddies Oscar and Otis again in Fisher’s Park.  It was a pretty hot day, so we started out in the shade. 

   

O&O’s guardian, Judy, found this strange plant.  It was Jack something—why would someone name a plant “Jack?”  Anyway our Guardian got all excited about it because she used to have one in her backyard when she was a pup.   Only she said hers was like 3 feet tall.  What's with her and these strange plants anyway?? (Remember the Devil's Tongue?)  http://pugsnortreport.blogspot.com/2012_04_01_archive.html

Gus and I were pretty tired when we came to the trail’s end and started across the big, wide lawn. 

This is how far we were from the big white car Guardian uses to take us places.

We are just worn out!

Me especially

Hey! Do you mind? I'm trying to sleep here!

 

JAZZ AIN’T THE ONLY THERAPY DOG IN THE HOUSE!

This is Gus.  You haven’t heard from me in a loooong time.  But I just had to put in my therapy dog four-paws worth today.

Jazz always gets the posts about therapy dog visits, but I do them, too.  I never did that before I joined this pack, so my style is very different.  I’m sort of a “lay low” sort of therapy pug.  You all know I don’t see so well.  So when I get into a new and different place, I sort of get shy.  I may not be a “meet and greet” sort of pug, but I love loving, too!

See? They love me, too!

This was last summer.   What is Doggone Good Readers on Saturdays is also done outside of the library.  It’s called “Bark Pals,” and it's only in the summer.  I was told to say it’s an “outreach” program.  That means kids who live farther away from the library can come read to dogs, too.  It’s on a day in the middle of the week in daylight hours.  It was hot outside, but inside was cool.  Bright lights sometimes bother me, but I was just more confused about what I was supposed to do.  So I just followed things Guardian said, like “sit” and “down” and “stay.”

I got some boy readers, too.

She's reading about a pug who thinks he's unloveable--but I'm not that pug!

 

I think I did a pretty good job.  So there, Jazz.  You’re not the only pug therapy dog kids want to love!

LOVING LITERACY AND LOVING LOVING

On Saturday I went to another library for a program called, “Who Let the Dogs In?”  Well, there were only three sisters and me, so I was the only dog let into the place. Guess that makes me special, huh?  Yeah, well we all know that’s true anyway!

Who Let the Dogs In sister readers

Doggone Good Readers Room

Very different than the other library I go to, where we have like 6 other dogs in the room and like 30 kids.   Each dog gets assigned up to 5 readers, so no one barges in another's group. That library has the program, “Doggone Good Readers,” in a separate room, so nobody else is allowed in to disturb the kids reading, not even parents!.   

Doggone Good Readers and all that loving

Doggone Good Readers really show their love and appreciation

 

But the new library had me in a very open space, the children’s library area.  Kinda different because other very young children wandered in and wanted to pet me while the 3 sisters were reading (well, one is only 4…more about her in a minute).  I was happy for the attention, but it seemed sorta rude, doncha think?

I was restless and didn’t want to lie down right away.  I mean I loved the kids and their attention, but I think it was too quiet there and not enough different people to love me. HAFTA be loved by more than Guardian each day or the day isn’t a great one.  Too many windows, too, so it just felt different.   

 But the littlest sister was very cute...she said she couldn't read, but she made up a story from the pictures.  Very clever.

Littlest loves real books even if she can't read words yet

Don't want to leave out the middle sister

Look at what big sister is reading--MY BOOK!

I liked Big sister, too, 'cuz she read my book, "Pick up That Book and Read to Me," (and of course she loved me, too!).  Funny thing is, if you look at the photo above, Big sister was on a page that had the OTHER library's Doggone Good Reader's picture.  Maybe we should bring both programs together some time.  Yeah, then I'd have a pile of kids to love me!  And there'd be a bunch of other well-trained therapy dogs, too.

Guardian will probably take me back to the new library.  Don't get me wrong--I'll take petting and attention wherever  I can get it.  So, bring it on, "Who Let the Dogs In?" and bring on the kids and even maybe one other calm therapy dog--next time.  I could use lots of extra lovin'!!

THE DEVIL'S TONGUE

Not much happening lately....well. let me say there HAVE been things happening, but Guardian hasn’t been doing much with Canon.  Everyone wants to SEE me and Gus, not just read about us.  That’s why it’s been a month since we’ve been posting here. So lame!

Anyway, one of our dogless neighbors, Jake, was talking a lot about a flower he has called The Devil’s Tongue.  It was really hard to imagine what he was talking about.  One flower on a long stalk, a weird purple color, and a really, really bad smell, according to humans.   I heard someone reading out loud that it "mimics the smell of a dead water buffalo."  (But I bet we pugs would find that smell YUMMY and want to roll around in it!)

When the flower came into bloom, Jake invited us over to see it.  Seeing it was even weirder than trying to picture it when Jake described it.  See for yourself!

Just to show you how freakin’ BIG and Alien this thing is, here we are next to it. I’m cringing 'cuz I didn’t want it to EAT me--which it could have done!  NO LIE!   I overheard the humans talking about how the smell attracts creatures, and sometimes they fall into that thing’s--what do I call it?...tube??   Gus doesn’t look very sure of it, either, does he? I lost any desire to roll around in it, I can tell you that!  And those are Jake's legs in the back--and he's a tall guy.  I don't know how he can sleep at night, knowing he's got the devil's tongue just waiting to swallow him up.

Would you want to tempt being sucked down into THIS!!??

A SHORT VISIT FROM DARBY

You remember our friend, Darby the Havanese?  He’s doing really well after his dog hospital visit and surgery a while back.  His Guardian, D2, doesn’t like having him on the medicine that has something called “steroids” in it.  She’s slowly cutting back on it to see what the smallest amount is that he can take and still not lose his cookies.

Anyway, he seems to have his bounce back.  He really tries to drag D2 into our house when we walk by it while we are out and about, and one day Guardian said to D2, " Let him come in and inspect our toy box."

Now, our Guardian doesn’t have a fancy picture shooter, and she’s not really too good with getting pictures without blurriness.  So, I’ve picked out the best from her lame attempts (and you can see how awful the rejects were by what I finally said OK to!) to capture Darby’s excitement.

Darby was wearing one of my Fido Fleece coats that was too tight for me (Gus and I both need the “BC” Big Chest size the Fido Fleece coats have—Guardian sometimes calls me “Mae West.”  I don’t know who or what that is, but she said it was someone with a BC, too. I wonder what breed she was?). We think it looks really classy on him.

Anyway, Guardian scattered the toys around our toy box and here’s Darby trying to decide which one he wants to attack.

 

I asked Guardian to throw some back in the box, since Darby couldn’t really decide.

  So after that, Darby was better able to choose.

 

Darby here—I’m telling Gus which ones I like best.

Jazz here…Well, I never….he’s havin’ WAY too much fun, and why am I just standing here not having fun yet?

That blurry object in the upper L corner is Darby...playing with MY toys.

 

“Oh no, says Darby.  I just got here and now I have to leave???!"

 

So here we all are, posing for that shooter.  Well, it sorta came out OK.  But one day we hope Guardian really finishes those online My Creative Classroom Photoshop Elements courses.  I think then we’ll all look much, much better—with a few Photoshopping tweaks!   A new picture shooter wouldn’t hurt, either. Hint, hint....

(Guardian here..hey Jazz, that last photo IS Photoshopped--a little.  Here's the before:)

 

 Jazz here...well, anybody out there with a Guardian who is a really good picture shooter??? What else could our Guardian have done?  I mean, what's that yellow thing in the background? 

OK, OK, Guardian, you can stop Photoshopping now..sheesh!

GOOPY EYES

Gus has allergies.  Guardian had him both food tested and “other” tested.  Three of his biggest food allergy problems were FISH, RICE AND BEETS.  Now, we can live without beets, but it’s pretty hard to find doggie eats that don’t have rice or fish.  Guardian has found a bunch of them, though, so he doesn’t feel left out.  Me, I’m OK—I can eat just about anything but dead bugs.  Just allergic to hard floors, coldness, loud noises, and being ignored.

Now, with the “other.”  Gus’s body doesn’t like certain trees, grasses, molds and something Guardian said were “mites.”  She can’t even pronounce the names of some of these things.

Gus also has sick eyes.  Guardian said it’s something that makes his eyes all goopy.  She sometimes calls the goopy stuff  “Goobers.”  If you look at our eyes side by side, Gus’s eyes look like something from Stephen King.  All dark.  My eyes are brown with a dark circle in the middle.  Gus doesn’t have that dark circle.  

They’re all dark. They’re weird and spooky.

See the Goober in his left eye?

She also said he sees things like he’s looking through a really dirty, muddy window.  [Guardian here: Gus has Pigmentary Keratitis.  The top layer of the cornea turns all brown. Any of you pugs out there have that, too??]  He seems to see fine, so far as I’m concerned.  He doesn’t bump into things usually unless he’s after a bit of something he thinks is food and an open door gets in his way.  Then, that’s his fault for not looking, I bet, not because his eyes can’t see.

Anyway, all this means Guardian has to keep his things clean—him AND his bedding.   She’s always washing things from his Man Dog Cave because she noticed his eyes were not as goopy each time she did that.  She squeegees this stuff in his eyes every day.  She’s sneaky.  She waits until he’s all sleepy and almost comatose on the sofa while the TV is on.  Before he knows what’s happened, his eyes have medicine gunk in them.

And now, she has to “shoot” him.  That sounds deadly!  She explained that she wasn't using a gun.  She has to shoot him with a needle (UGH!) to make his body not hate those things that that the test said his body didn’t like.  Whatever.

Gus also has problems with something called “yeast.”   When he came to live with us it was EVERYWHERE on his body—but the worst were his ears and feet.  Guardian gave him special medicine and changed his food and was very careful about what he ate and tried to dry off his feet in inside his ears all the time.  But Gus HATES to have his feet touched.  If you had swollen areas around your toenails and sore areas in-between your toes, you’d hate to have your feet touched, too.

The skin around his dewclaw is puffy and red and itches.

 

I’m lucky.  Guardian knows where I came from.  She visited where I was born and saw my Mommie, Sadie, and knew that I came from a place that was not a puppy mill.  But we think rescued Gus came from a place that only wanted to make money from puppies.  They didn’t care about who his parents were or what sort of place he grew up in.  So, he probably had a bad start in life.  But when he came to us, his luck changed. Guardian says we can’t change his jeans (she changes hers!) but we can change lots of other things to help him be healthier.  So, I’ll tell Gus to be happy he’s gonna be shot.  It’s not every day, so that’s good. He won’t be so itchy and maybe all that other stuff that makes him feel bad will get all better.   Honestly, though, he really doesn’t seem unhappy.

So, how many of you pugs out there are itchy or have an eye problem or this yeasty stuff?  What do your Guardians do to help you???

OSCAR AND OTIS

It's been forever since Guardian wrote about us.  She's got a lot of typing to do to catch up, so I've been staring at her a lot. She knows what I'm thinking!

Gus and I want to introduce some of our other friends.  You all know about Darby (he's doing a LOT better, in case you're curious), but meet Oscar and Otis, two of our pug friends.

They came from the Delaware Valley Pug Rescue, where Gus came from. When they were up for adoption, they had to go together.  There was a home near us that wanted to adopt both of them. Guardian took us over to meet the family, Judy and Michael, before O&O came to live there.  They had a big house and an even bigger (to us, anyway) back yard.  Guardian had to check out the fence to make sure there were no holes for curious pugs (really!?) to sneak out, but she couldn’t find any.  Gus and I were able to run around and explore—although I generally am too busy showing Gus and everyone else who’s the top pug (and Guardian is forever pulling me off him) to sniff around much.

Anyway, Judy and Michael were the perfect home for O&O, especially since they’d already had two previous pugs.  They had adopted those pugs when they were seniors, too, so we all knew they had big hearts.  Here are O&O with their guardians.  Can you see their backyard—and that’s only a tiny part of it! 

Otis and Judy      Oscar and Michael

 

We’ve been to their nice yard, but we’ve been meeting them at a local park mostly, ‘cuz their backyard swims a lot in rain.  And I sure don’t like getting wet and muddy.  (What pugs out there love getting wet and muddy?  Raise a paw, please!  I think you're rare.)

Fischer's Park

Now, O&O are surely BIG pugs.  Not fat, just BIG!  So take a look here and you’ll see for yourself.

Oscar, Jazz, Gus, Otis

Oscar & Otis; Jazz & Gus in back

 

Those two are a lot of meaty pugs compared to us!

Since no one has extra hands to take pictures while we’re all walking, we can’t show us all in action together.  But here’s Pam, holding on for dear life while 30 lb Oscar is off on his park adventure.

 

We’ll have more adventures with O&O and their guardians in the future when the sun shines warmer and the rain doesn't try to wash their yard away.  Stay tuned!