Mom's Nebraska trip

Our aunt had surgery the last week of January, causing mom to abandon us! 

But since it was our aunt, we forgave her. 

It's been a long time (thank goodness) since mom has been inside a hospital. Things have changed. Mom got this thing that let her know when the surgery was done. 

  After surgery, our aunt got some pretty flowers and balloons. 

Fortunately, she got to go home before mom left. Back home, mom got to meet all the cockatoos our aunt has. Mom has pugs, aunt has cockatoos. Four to be exact.

 This is three of them. From left to right, BB (boy), Anoni (boy) and Angel (girl). BB is a foster bird! He was pretty mistreated and needs a lot of help and understanding. Aunt is very good at that so hopefully, he'll be good as new soon. 

This is Aya. She has been known to bite. She chases our uncle around the house, biting him. That beak can do some damage too. Fortunately, Aya didn't hate mom. She did spend a lot of time giving her the eye though. And she stalked her one time. But no bites. 

These birdies can be really loud. Like smoke alarm, ear-splitting loud. Fortunately, they settled down once aunt came home. After that, hardly a squawk. 

Mom thinks she'll stick with pugs. 

They are pretty and they can talk, but they can also tear your eye out. 

They are incredibly smart. And like all smart creatures, if you don't provide them with stimulation, they will create their own. Like chew the chandelier wires. Or take the keys off the laptop. Aunt has them watch Baby Mozart DVDs and has the kids read to them. 

They need human attention like pugs do. 

Yeah, mom's going to stick with pugs. 

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Isabelle and her new crate mate Delilah.

Snow!

A couple of weeks ago, we had snow. Now, it was nothing like our neighbors to the north and the midwest have had, but it was enough to cancel school and shut the cities down. 

What do you mean we have to go outside? 

You don't seriously expect us to go out there, right?

Um, no. We're good inside. We can hold it.

This stuff is cold on my paws! 

 I'll just stay right here on the deck, thanks. 

The snow reflected so much light, it seemed like daytime at 11 pm!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Or Happy Friday as mom calls it. 

She forgot it was Valentine's Day until she started reading all your posts. Oops. 

Please enjoy a picture of us from Valentine's past. 

Awesome things 1-10

Mom is back from her trip. More on that later. Let's just say it was not the most pleasant traveling experience.

This is Noodles' idea that we totally stole from her. We are listing 100 things that are awesome and for which we are grateful.

Let's be honest, there aren't 100 things that makes a pug happy. Unless 99 of them are food. So we are letting mom make this list.

1. Grateful that we live in America. Sure, there are problems. Serious problems, but this is still an awesome country. We don't have to dodge sniper bullets to go vote. Women can own houses and run businesses. Doggies can get the best healthcare money can buy. It's a pretty awesome country to live in. 

2. I am grateful that I have a decent job. Yes, the paycheck is important, but my work actually makes a difference in our town. I have awesome coworkers who appreciate me. And really, that's sometimes better than money. 

3. We are grateful that we live in a nice house (although we trash it with stuffy guts) in a neighborhood where people look out for each other. 

4. We are really grateful for some of the awesome people in our neighborhood. It's comforting to know that if I needed something, there are people I can call to help. That's really important for a single person.

5. We are grateful for the friends we've made through blogs and Twitter. You understand us like no one else. We have built a community that reaches out to help each other. We comfort each other because no one else understands what it's like to lose one of us. We are a tribe of pug and dog people.

6. We are grateful for our in-person friends. Some of you internet friends have become in-person friends too. These friends have opened their homes to us, cleaned up our poop! and fed us. You are here to hug us when we need it. 

7. I am grateful for my family. They may not be pug people, but they don't hesitate to help if we need it.

8. Tallulah is awesome. She is awesome because she is the only pug who would pick me over food! At night, she has to be close to my head to sleep.

9. Petunia is awesome. More than any other pug here, Petunia loves to be on my lap. She wiggles into a comfortable position, lays her head on my chest and makes a sweet, sighing noise. 

10. Isabelle is awesome. She is a spunky senior. When she first came to me, the vet didn't think she would live that long with all the problems she has. She's proved them wrong for almost five years. 

Crazy week ahead

Noodles had an awesome idea about 100 Happy Things. We are totally stealing that idea. We think we are going to split it up and do some every month. Starting next month. 

Things are upside down here. Mom is leaving us, for the first time ever. 

We've never been apart for more than a few hours. 

What? You're leaving? Without us?

Our aunt Mandy is going to be in the hospital next week, and mom needs to be there. With the short notice, mom couldn't take off enough time to drive there and back. Plus, she'll be at the hospital all the time, leaving us alone anyway. 

So we get to have sleep overs with some friends. Tallulah and Petunia are going to stay with Stitch and Lilo. Isabelle is going to a home with other senior dogs. They'll probably be playing Bingo all week. Or sleeping. 

Snoooooore

There's a flurry of laundry and food making and list making and packing. We are pretty high maintenance pugs, apparently. To make it easier for our friends, mom has separated out our pills and supplements by meal. 

And made a bunch of food for us. Mom's trying to make it as easy as possible for the lovely people who will be taking care of us. We are going to be a handful as it is.

And to top it all off, it's supposed to snow tomorrow! 

And get really cold again. So we'll do that camping thing for most of the week. 

Snow? Seriously?
 Does the weatherman know this is the South?

This week ought to be fun with the snow and the cold and the packing. 

Around here, even an inch of snow sends people into a panic. Good thing mom went grocery shopping already! 

If any of you have tips on how to be good houseguests, let us know in the comments!

Misadventure

Well, we made it through the cold snap ok. No pipes freezing, no frostbitten paws. We were glad to move back upstairs though. 

The last really cold night was Thursday. It had warmed up enough that we wanted to go outside again. About 9 pm, mom let us (Tallulah and Petunia) out to potty. She was putting her coat on when Tallulah started barking very high-pitched and shrill. Mom grabbed her phone for the flashlight and ran out to see what was going on. 

You may recall that this guy pays us a visit once a year or so. 

Mom's not sure where he was in the yard or what he was doing. But when she ran outside, Petunia was dragging it across the yard. Mom thought it was a plastic bag or something, maybe had food in it. When she shined the flashlight on it, she realized what it was. 

Boy, was she freaking out on the inside. These little buggers can do some damage with their claws and carry all sorts of nasty diseases. Amazingly, we actually listened to her and dropped it. Mom bribed us to come inside for a cookie. Once we got inside, mom removed the wad of possum fur from Petunia's mouth and duly rewarded us with a cookie. Then we got crated. 

She went back outside to check on the possum. By that time, he was getting up and running off. He really was playing dead! That kind of surprised mom given that the possum probably outweighed us by 10 pounds. A few years ago, when he was under the deck, he hissed at us. And when he was on the fence, he hissed. Mom figures that he was on the ground somewhere, maybe burrowing in the leaves or something. She doesn't think we are fast enough to have chased and caught it. Maybe the cold had slowed its reflexes or something.

Hopefully, Mr. Possum will share the news that our yard is not friendly to critters that look like living squeaky toys. 

Hope your weeks is less eventful and no where near as cold as last week was!