Not much going on here

Mom has been such a slacker! Geez, can't a pug keep up with her blog? 

Anyway, we are sad that we won't be seeing our friends this year. No road trip for us. We haven't been home for Christmas in three years. Gosh, we've only been home for Christmas for two out of our entire six years! Mom is going to put up a little tree in the living room where the cats can't get to it. They like to knock the ornaments off. 

Fortunately, we are not getting the nasty weather that is hitting so many of you! We hit 80 degrees today, breaking a record. We expect rain and cooler temperatures, but no ice or snow! 

Stay safe and warm, friends!

Parade day!

We are on our way to the parade right now. Mom's terrible about getting pictures at the parade. It's dark. There's three of us to handle. Blah blah blah.

Plus it's supposed to be raining until right before the parade starts so we won't put on costumes on until right before we get going.

So, in case she doesn't get good pictures, here's Isabelle and her Jeep.

Remember, you can watch it live on WVEC.com. We are unit 25.

Parade prep

Modeling a lion collar for fellow pug marcher, Stella.

Zebra!

Petunia would not put her bully stick down for a picture.

Tallulah says, I can't believe you are forcing me to wear this collar.

Parade is Saturday, starts at 7 PM Eastern. You can stream it live on WVEC.com!

Be sure to check us out! A herd of zebras, a pug safari guide in a Jeep! Plus lots more jungle puggies!

Exam results

Mom got her exam results on Friday. Let's have a partial whoo hoo for her! She passed the two exams that were the weekend long papers. She did not pass the five hour one. 

So that means mom needs to study more and take it again when she's ready. She ordered a lot more books and will be meeting with some professors to get a better understanding of the material. 

While it would be awesome if she had passed all three, she'll take two out of three. These exams were brutal. She would have been really sad if she failed all three. This way, she'll have one area to focus on instead of many. 

So back to her staying put on the couch for hours at a time. We can live with that. 

Happy pills and other stuff

Tallulah went to the vet last night. She's been extremely anxious and lashing out at Petunia and Isabelle for a few months. After trying everything from rose quartz crystals to aromatherapy to herbal remedies, mom finally decided to try the pharmaceutical route. 

Mom prefers to do things as naturally as possible for her and for us. That's why we do titre testing instead of automatically vaccinating every year. But she realizes that if alternative therapies aren't working, then it's time to try a pill. 

So Tallulah is on Prozac now. We are trying it at the lowest dosage first for a month, then we will increase it if necessary for another month. Meds like this can be tricky so we may have to try a few different meds and/or dosages before we find the right fit for her. 

Miss T has always been an anxious dog and honestly has been a brawler with Petunia since she was six months old. But it's worse now. Fireworks and storms never used to bother her, but this summer was bad. And when she gets too anxious, she redirects that anxiety to fear aggression. Everyone has scars from that. It's no way to live. So we'll try some happy pills and see how it goes. 

In alternative therapy news, mom tried two new things she read about in the Whole Dog Journal. One is called EMT Gel. It's a topical gel to be used on wounds (say like from a dog fight!). It starts out sticky but then dries up. It's like a glue on the skin, so it's flexible. Mom likes this one. It's even safe for birds. It also works on nail quicks. It doesn't sting or stink like Liquid Bandage either. It isn't cheap like Neosporin, but so far, mom thinks it is worth it. She's used it a few times and only uses a smidge each time so it will last a long time. We will always keep a tube in our first aid kit. 

Photo from Amazon

The second thing was Wobenzym. It's a pill that humans or dogs can take. It's supposed to help with inflammation, digestion problems and healing among other things. Isabelle has been taking half a tablet every night to help heal her wounds and to try to ease her arthritis pain. We are using it as a preventative thing for the arthritis before the really cold weather sets in. We'll let you know how it works. Check out the October 2013 issue of the Whole Dog Journal for more info on these products. 

Photo from Amazon

Have you tried something new that works?

Happy Halloween!

Because of that school stuff, we didn't get costumes or Pugoween or anything fun this year. But this year, mom was able to give out candy to trick or treaters. She had a little help.

This is Count von Candykeeper. Mom made him in Texas a very long time ago. He's seen better days, but mom thought he deserved to come out of retirement.

Isabelle got to hand out candy with mom and the Count. She wasn't thrilled to be sharing the spotlight. 

Seriously, mom? 

Oh well, I'm going to work on this Kong treat. 

There weren't a lot of trick or treaters. 

More candy for mom!

Oh, and we got extra treats since we spent the night in our crates.

Hope everyone got lots of treats and no tricks!

We're back!

Holy pug, that was a long break. But we're back!

If you are interested, here's how the exams worked.

 She picked up a piece of paper and a blank thumb drive on a Friday at noon. 

Had from Friday at noon til Monday at noon to answer the question on the paper in the form of a researched paper. She did that two weekends in a row with two different questions. 

In between, she took a five hour exam in a classroom about statistics and designing research.

tl;dr- tests are hard

It was the toughest thing she's ever done. Even physically, it was stressful. 

Fortunately, no migraines and no emergencies that caused a big problem. 

There's always emergencies, right? 

Like the time her water pillow sprung a giant leak. 

Mom thought Isabelle had peed right on her, she was so wet. 

Or the time that her exam paper wouldn't save 

so she took her whole laptop to turn in before the deadline.

But it all worked out. It's done and she can breathe normally again. 

We were no help at all. 

Mom wished we did more of this.

In fact, we got pretty rowdy and had to be crated a lot. 

Can you blame us? All she did was sit and type or read! 

We missed several dog events (including Pugoween) and two meet ups because of all this school stuff.

Mom said she'll make it up to us by walking us more. 

Sheesh, at least we'll get out of the house more.

The results won't be in for a while, maybe by mid-November. 

So all that walking will help distract her. 

In the meantime, she has to get started on our zebra costumes and turning the Dogger into a safari jeep for the parade.

Isabelle is modeling her new Gripper socks. 

We are still catching up on blog reading, but were really sorry to see that Gracie Lynn and Benny had crossed the Bridge. Our hearts go out to their families and loved ones. 

The blog world mourns with you.