Pugg Life

Well – that’s what my answer would have been if anyone asked me!  Yup, she came back from an event on Sunday with an ‘absolute emergency’ foster pug.  Now, there’s already 3 of us.  I’m the cute one, Doug-Doug is the angry one and Vince is the old one.  We’ve got all 3 pug groups covered…as well as all the furniture.

But now we’re all squished together with Skye…sigh.  I mean, she still kinda smells (she’s had a bath but she’s in rough shape so only so much that can be done ’til she goes to the vet this week).  She’s also eating our Honest Kitchen food – what if there’s an apocalypse?  Our rations are going down by the meal.

She just learned how to sleep on the bed – she’s pretty tired and sleeps a lot.  When I asked why she did this I was told she probably hasn’t had a restful sleep for years.  She gets around way better than Vince does – even with her back claws so long they’re embedded in her paw pads. She doesn’t bark, which is a problem since when I bark at horses on the TV I expect everybody to back me up.

Her eyes are funky but they still work…she only bumps into me in the dark (not like Vince who uses us as his own pinball machine).  She’s not used to going outside for ‘business’, guess she was kept indoors in one room for several months at least.  Part of the smell is that room wasn’t exactly clean – if you know what I’m saying.

I’ve been told that I’m lucky enough to have a warm, safe home…good food…treats & toys…and a family that loves me unconditionally and would always find a way to ‘make it happen’ if things got bad.  She hasn’t had any of those things for a pretty long time so I guess I can let her borrow them for a bit.

First, if you haven’t seen Logan’s Run its a sci-fi classic built around the premise that after a certain age we need to be ‘taken care of’ so that the young & healthy can use the resources that the old & frail would be wasting…well, that’s it in a nutshell, google it for more.

But, back on-topic. Wait – movie features Michael Yorke – so you know its a winner. OK, now back OT. So we moved into a lovely house in a quiet neighborhood in a city just north of Boston, Revere specifically. The former city dogs now have a front yard and a back yard and furry friends right behind them. We still walk the dogs every day, twice a day…we’re not ‘yard only’ people…after all they’re pugs and need their exercise.

Neighbors seem nice enough, boyz have some fans already…all is good. So Saturday we’re taking the boyz out for a walk and the snowbird next door (there’s a couple of them living with the son who’s like 50-ish I think) is sitting on her front step and we walk by. I walk first with Vince and see her and say ‘hi, how are you?’. She gives me a look (probably doesn’t see too well BOL) and says ‘how many of them dogs do you have?’. I laugh and say 3. We get this ? a lot and folks usually respond with ‘wow that’s a handful’. Not this one, she says ‘you shouldn’t be here. This is a residential neighborhood, you should be out in the country.’

Now I realize she’s old and crazy and probably not happy with her lot in life (not an Old Country Buffet in city limits). So I just say ‘okay, have a nice day’ and walk on by. I turn and say to Michael ‘just bring them by fast, she’s a loon and she doesn’t like the dogs’. She repeats the same statements to him and he ignores her.

Now, I have (3) 20-lb pugs. I am well within city by-laws and my dogs do not yap or bark all day. They are city dogs so sidewalks only, they go on no one’s lawn to pee or take care of business, I don’t allow it. They’re not perfect but 1′s a therapy dog, 1′s 12.5 years old, blind & deaf…and the other one loves everyone. So its not like I moved in next door with 3 pit bulls (not a slight against the breed, just a comparison)…or 3 yappy chihuaha’s (again, not a slight)…or whatever. So what business is it of hers how many dogs I have?

All I’m saying is when she falls and breaks her hip, I’m not gonna hear her calling for help. And I might start playing Logan’s Run on the side of the house for the old bat to see

Growing up…what pug hasn’t wished for a pony for his birthday? Well, its not Vince’s b’day but tomorrow he’ll get a pony ride (provided the pony is down with it).  He’ll be accompanying me to the Revere Beach farmer’s market where we hawk our treats every week…its going to be a cool day at the beach so he can snooze in the sun and sand and get fed treats by chicks in thongs.

This week is a special ‘family week’ and amongst other activities there will be pony rides!  We promise to post pics…I wonder if I can find a cowboy hat in Vince’s size in time for the market tomorrow?

Is a lawn!  We’ve been away for a bit while we moved (ok, parents moved – we supervised) into our new house!  We’ve got lots more space, quiet side road, and not one but 2 yards…front and back.  For city dogs this is a frickin’ big deal!

Vince refuses to walk *anywhere* now, he just goes out and lays on the lawn.  In back we’ve got green…front mostly looks like hay.  But we’ve had a lot of rain recently so hopefully we’ll have some green up front too.

We’ve got dog pals in the yard behind us and we’re closer to lots of our pug pals. We’ll post pics and vids soon as we finish getting caught up.

The move was *a lot* of work and there was a lot of cussing and all that…but just last night we heard mum say as she watched Vince snoozing in the grass that it was all worth it to give him a yard. We don’t know how many days or months or years Vince still has with us so the yard goes a BIG WAY towards all of those days (hopefully years) being good ones.