Lately, either we’re shrinking or the world is expanding. Some really big things have come into our lives, and we wanted to share them with you--sorta. You can have the thing we don't care to eat.
One day when I was on a therapy dog visit, we took a walk before meeting the kids. Guardian found this thing--it looked like maybe an elephant’s ear or a really, really gigundus leaf.
Those other things in the photo are jumbo cow ears. We don't share those.
Just to give you perspective for its size next to me, see this:
Gus is bigger than me, but that leaf is still large even next to him. See for yourself!
I’d
pretty much chewed my jumbo cow ear down to normal cow ear size, but you can see Gus
is still working on making his look like one from a regular cow. He's food possessive, but he wants to make this special treat last longer. That, or he's just slow. I vote for that last idea.
We’ve walked in many a place, but we’ve never seen any leaf this big. There must be something different in the dirt and sun and water near that library, is all I can say. I’d hate to see the size of the pugs that grow there. Hmmm...maybe that’s where the cows that have those jumbo ears grew up!
Anybody out there know what kind of tree that leaf came from?
So guess what today is? One year ago today, I convinced Guardian that we needed to be seen all over the place. The only way to do that was to do something on the internet. Guardian reads The Daily Puglet blog, and Puglet has like a gazillion and twelve followers. He’s known EVERYWHERE, especially since his human is going all over everywhere snapping 999 photos of pugs. (We’re on the list somewhere--maybe 3rd from the last?) So we started our own blog!
Here's our first entry--all about ME, naturally.
We wanted to celebrate, but we're not much of a celebration household here. Guardian is all paws when it comes to throwing a party. She never learned how to do that. Gus is always up for a party, but only if someone else is having it. Me? I'm a small group sort of party dog--but I'm very particular about the noise (like almost none). So, we were a little bummed out.
Then today Guardian brought in the mail, and guess what? There was the the latest copy of Pug Talk. And guess what again? Right there, first article, was Pug Snort Report. And there was a photo of ME next to the list of articles.
It wasn't all our blog, of course. Just a couple of posts about our Library adventures and the kids who read to us. But because it came TODAY and it was US in print all over again, Pug Talk made us even MORE of EVERYWHERE. So,well, it gave Gus and ME and Guardian a way to have a two dog and one human party all on our own.
And the rest of you...
Thanks for stopping by to read...we're going to have a special dinner tonight for our party!! We'll be thinking about all of you, even if a real party didn't seem to show up.
One Sunday Guardian took us to a place with new smells, lots of new people, some new dogs, and even alien beasts (you’ll hear about them much later)!
Even though I don’t like riding in the car crate with Gus (he is SUCH a whiner), I figured a new outing was worth it. Guardian had said it was going to be a place we’d never been before, and she had excitement in her voice. If she’s excited, we’re excited.
Once there, we met up with two people friends. We knew Margie, but Lee was new to us. No matter. All people we meet don’t stay new for long.
The adventure seemed to stop then. We got tied to a metal pipe while the people ate and talked. Gus and I did get a carrot, but from the smells, we were hoping for a lot more.
Captives
Eyes on the Carrot Prize
We started to walk then...and walk...and walk. Along the way we met two men dressed all funny. Guardian said they were soldiers from a very, very, very long time ago. They didn’t look all that old to me.
Nearby were some old wooden buildings. They looked like they could have been doghouses for Irish Wolfhounds. The soldiers told us that’s where the they slept during an important war that happened in this park. There was some dude named George who was a famous President and lead the soldiers into battles. There were thousands of soldiers & the weather was very, very cold, with lots of snow. Pugs are for peace, not war (most of the time, except for protecting our food bowls and treats), so we couldn't figure all this out.
We kept walking and walking, but there were so many new smells and people and dogs that we didn’t mind--- we were having lots of fun. Lots of grass and trees and big clouds, too. The people liked that.
This was a gun those soldiers used a long time ago. A gun on wheels?! I’m laughing in this picture, ‘cuz I thought that was the funniest gun ever! Gus stood guard, just like a soldier. I guess he was getting ready to be a war dog or something. Yeah...in your dreams, Gus! That made me laugh even more!
When we got back to the parking lot, we had quite a surprise. There were people sitting on top of these huge 4 legged aliens. They were riding on these aliens that made clip clop sounds as they walked. OMIGOSH...they made other strange USNs (Unidentified Strange Noises), too. Just watch...and listen...carefully. Not sure what effect these USNs have on humans!
Gus, who just doesn’t have very good sense, decided he wanted to investigate. Not me! I know an alien when I see one, and I’m hiding. There’s no telling what aliens will do. I’ve seen movies about them, and there’s never a good outcome.
Guardian knew better than to let Gus loose with the aliens, so she held him while he tried to figure out what language they used and to communicate with them. I’m letting him ‘splain all that here.
Gus: Sniff, sniff Alien: Sniff, sniff, chomp, chomp Gus: What are you? Alien: A horse, dummy. We know you’re a dog, but you look weird for a dog. Why is your nose between your eyes? Gus: Uh...why are you so BIG and don’t bark or growl!? You’ve got funny feet and purple socks. Are you a vegetarian? Alien: Duh!
Gus: I knew then that it wasn’t likely they would eat us, so I told Jazz it was safe to come out of hiding.
Jazz: NO Way! There are worse things than having an alien eat you, Gus. Well, maybe not, but I heard one of those people who rode on the alien that they might stomp, then chomp us. Anyway, I was SO relieved that we were going home at that point. I was pretty tired, but felt safe, at least, since we were leaving the aliens behind.
I want OUTTA here!!
As we left, Guardian took a picture of the name of the place. Good thing they put out the warning!
Remember the OBSESSIONS post in July? Remember Guardian had all these scenes she made with not a single pug in them?
Well, she showed us these pictures, which finally have pugs in them.
So, here are some pictures she made with pugs.
Guardian used pencils that wrote in colors to give them pug fur colors.
Little Pug: "Play with Me" Big Pug: "When is the next meal?"
A Boy & His Pugs
Pug Thinks "Can I eat a this fluttery thing?"
What’s weird about these kids and pugs is that they came from the computer! They weren’t on those wooden blocks or stuck to a clear plastic thingy.
We never knew pugs & kids could live in a computer.
We really like these next two.
We’re not puppies anymore, but we can still make puppy dog eyes when we want. Food drives us to take desperate measures!
This was the one that made us believe Guardian was really serious about making pictures with pugs. The only thing wrong with it is--why not “pug” instead of “dog”?
OK readers---do you believe that has Guardian finally heard us?
Do you think Guardian should be forgiven for not doing any pug pictures before?
Yeah, we hadn’t been to the pug meetup for ages. Too hot, too rainy, Guardian too lazy.
Then, for once, all the good things came together--good weather, good health, good energy. It was off to the meetup.
I looked around to size the place up.
Of course, we had to greet the others in a proper puggie fashion.
And I looked at all the people legs. Maybe somebody had some treats they would share. A pug must always be on the alert for dropped morsels.
Gus had to find a chair leg to pee on.
I was kept on leash, while Gus got to wander free.
People get all excited when I try to hug Gus. I'm a girl, remember, so why do they get all giggly when I hug him?
Really, they’re just hugs. Pick up your mind, people! So what if that’s all I do while off leash when we visit anywhere?
Oh, all right, I’ll ‘fess up. I’m trying to be TOP PUG, and I have to do that in front of people who may think I’m not. I have to get the message out somehow. Don't people need lots of reminders?
Gus here. So not too long ago, when the weather was hotter, we were at a place we remember from before. Guardian called it the “Philly Livestrong Challenge” Village. It was in a big grassy field next to some buildings, surrounded by huge paved areas with lots of cars. Guardian said it was some sort of college. We knew it was going to be a different day when Guardian put our Therapy Dog jackets on. In fact, it was going to be two special days, like it was last year and the year before. We were volunteers, and we were told to be serious about it. Well, we're pugs, so, really, how serious can they expect us to be?
Guardian said people were walking and running and riding bicycles to get money for the something called the "Livestrong Foundation." They help people with a bad disease called cancer. Guardian knows about that disease up close and personal.
This guy had ridden lots of miles...
...and this is where he finished
We met a girl who rode a bicycle that was missing a wheel. Her Dad had died of cancer when she was a baby. Today she’s 9, and she and her family came all the way from the middle of the United States to run or walk or cycle to raise money. Her mom told us they have come every year to this Challenge. This is the 6th year it’s been here. (If the video doesn't play, go to the link.) http://youtu.be/rdn4pSYCRk8
Everywhere we went, people came over to pet us and tell us about their dogs. We did our tricks, and people laughed and laughed.
There’s something about hope in laughter.
This was a team of people with orange shirts who loved seeing our tricks.
There were lots of other teams, but nobody else with those cool orange shirts.
Yep, it was a special two days. But we had a challenge to meet, too.
Since we couldn’t raise money, we aimed to raise smiles. Our challenge was to leave the Philly Livestrong Challenge Village with more smiles than before we came.
You look at the photos and tell us... did we meet our challenge?
