A long story

More years ago than I want to count, I decided to write a book and get it published. So I got this Daruma, and if I understand the Japanese custom correctly, you color in one eye when you start a project, and the other when you meet your final goal. So here's how he looked for all those years, his eye, originally filled in with a permanent black Sharpie, gradually fading to gray.



To make a very long story short, well, there it is. So here Daruma is getting his other eye.



And here he is, with the finished book, with the slightly different colors of his eyes representing my years of effort, or something like that.



And here's the whole deal with a pug added because everything is better with a pug.

(There are pugs in the book too! Also zoo animals! In case that makes anyone more inclined to purchase a copy. And you can read a chapter here.)

long-suffering

I'm thinking that my next book is going to be about how stupid dog owners are. Lilly says that she has PLENTY of material to contribute.

General Announcement to Pug Dogs

1. Dogs are naturally crepuscular. This term refers to a species which is active at twilight, that is to say, at dawn and at dusk. (Cf. the more familiar terms nocturnal and diurnal, referring to animals which are active mainly at night and mainly during the day.)

2. This is a natural feature of dogs which makes them a suitable species for domestication as companion animals by a species such as my own, which naturally pursues full-time work outside the home.

3. Therefore, even if I am working at home, it is appropriate for you to expect entertainment in the evening when the workday is over.

4. So please LIE DOWN and stop jumping up with anticipation every time I get up from the computer. Thank you.

Pugs in the news

This news story from Canada should NOT be used by pugs as an excuse for getting fat.

Residents of a Prince Rupert, B.C., cul-de-sac banded together to save a neighbour's dog, Bob, from the jaws of a wolf.

But it may have been Bob the pug's pudgy waistline that thwarted the attack.

Norm Hebert had heard rumours of brazen wolves prowling around Prince Rupert, but it took him a moment to realize what was going on when one showed up on Alpine Drive, the street where he lives, last Thursday.

At first, Herbert thought another neighbour's larger dog was playing with Bob.

"On second look I realized it was a wolf," he told CBC News.

Aiming to end the attack, Herbert rushed out and whacked the wolf with the first weapon at hand — a Sherwood Featherlight hockey stick.

Despite manufacturer's claims that the stick's carbon fibre shaft allowed for accelerated recoil and energy transfer, the Sherwood failed to have the desired effect on the seasoned predator. The animal merely trotted off with the pug in its jaws.

"He just glared at me … and he picked it up like a mother would pick up her kitten," Herbert recalled.

Neighbors joined in a pursuit to rescue the pudgy pug.

And eventually, the neighbourhood posse had the wolf cornered against a chain-link fence, with Bob the pug dangling from its jaws.

"Black, brown chest, he was probably a couple of hundred pounds," Deschamps said of the wolf. "We hit him with sticks and rocks and he decided to drop Bob at that time."

Bob had been punctured, but his pride was intact. Mostly.

"Apparently, he was too fat for the wolf to get a good bite into him," Deschamps said.

Perhaps sensing his continued survival on the mean streets of Prince Rupert might be a matter of size rather than strength, Bob has since refused to eat his dry food. Only black forest ham and cheese will do, Deschamps said.

If Pugs Did Decade-End Retrospectives

Stolen from my internet friend David Wahl, often previously mentioned on this blog in connection with Roscoe the pug of sainted memory.

"Best 10 Smells of the Decade"

1. Prime Rib Gravy
2. Human feet when they remove their shoes after a long day
3. Pee
4. Other pugs' face wrinkles
5. That Great Dane that rolled in dead fish at the park.
6. Poo
7. Whatever it is that you're eating right now.
8. Kitchen garbage that one time you ate crab legs and left the shells overnight.
9. That dead thing you wouldn't let me smell long enough to conclusively identify.
10. Gary Shandling.

Five pugs and a foot

Five pugs and a foot
Originally uploaded by wombatarama

We had a party of pugs last weekend and I forgot to mention it!
More pictures here and here.

Plant one!

Lilly entered a trick contest at an event run by the store where she goes nearly every day to beg for cookies, Living Ruff. She did a routine of all her tricks in a row, starting with the dance, including the wave bye-bye and ending with this, the Plant One.

The judges sitting at the table are Mary Alice of Charm City Cakes, famous for the tv show Ace of Cakes, Jen, famous for the Silver Spring Penguin, and some guy. He does something really worthy with therapy dogs at Walter Reed but I don't know his name, and in this picture, I am standing so you can't see him. Sorry, Some Guy.

Lilly won second place, which had a $30 gift certificate prize. She can buy her own damn cookies for a few weeks.

Unclear on the concept

There is a nice store in our neighborhood called Living Ruff. Now that the pugs know that they give out free dog cookies there, Lilly will not go for a walk in the morning unless I clearly state "we are going to the STORE."

Sometimes there are other dogs there and the excitment level gets so high that the cookie feeding frenzy looks like it's about to turn violent. This is usually Lilly's fault, so as in this picture, she gets picked up and put on the tall chair for a time-out.

Someone elsewhere on the internet commented that this was the happiest he'd ever seen someone in time-out and I realized, this is because she keeps getting cookies. I think we are a little unclear on the concept.

General Annoucement to Pug Dogs

When I am lying in bed in the morning trying to sleep, if you absolutely must lick your foot, PLEASE do so without making that UNGODLY RACKET. I know that this is possible, because I have licked my own paw for comparison purposes and it is UTTERLY SILENT.

Thank you.

The amazing animal mind

The pugs now recognize the snap that my new laptop makes when it closes and come running when they hear it. They've figured out that when the laptop closes, we are either moving our location - like maybe we're going inside and are going to get a cookie - or even better, maybe we're done working for now and pugs are going to be paid attention to.

Pug puppy pushing pram

Here is a link to the third best pug video on the whole Internet.

(The first two are linked here.)

pugs on the rocks

He who the pugs call Not-the-Mama nicely agreed to take them on a hike today, but miscalculated a couple of things. One, that a blind pug can't climb up and down piles of huge boulders; and two, as seen here, that once you've climbed through the mud to get up on a rock and frame the perfect shot, you have to remember to focus on the pugs, not the river.

Lilly was having a great time - even at her age she is still like a little mountain goat. For Rose's part, she was thrilled when it was over, but I figure, we all should have an experience like that once in a while for a sense of perspective.

Pugs with their chins down on other pugs

Buddies
Originally uploaded by Tom BKK

Haven't had one of these in way too long.

It is said that in ancient China, pugs had their own slaves

Every Saturday morning in the spring and summer, we take a walk to the local farmers market and share a brioche from a wonderful French baker. Although it's been pouring rain almost constantly lately, we've been lucky on all the Saturday mornings so far - except today.

I always tell people that the nice thing about pugs is that they hate bad weather - you don't have to take them for long walks in the rain. I have to confess that I leave out the part where everyone else gets to stay home on the couch in the nice dry living room while I go out and get drenched to bring home the brioche.

This would be a title worth working for

We'd have a long way to go though. They've been disqualified on requirement 2 every day for as long as I can remember.

AKC APPROVES NEW OBEDIENCE TITLE

Requirements are as follows for the three levels of performance: B.D., B.D.X., and B.D.O.

All levels shall require:
1. Dog does not come on the bed unless invited
2. Dog does not get handler out of bed until alarm goes off
3. Dog takes up only his space
4. Once the lights go out, there is no activity from the dog such as bathing, scratching, chewing on toys, etc.
5. If told to get off the bed, the dog does so immediately.

The Bed Dog degree (B.D.) requires one handler and one dog in bed. It can be earned in a twin sized bed. Higher degrees require larger beds.

The Bed Dog Excellent degree (B.D.X.) puts one dog in bed with two handlers. At this level it is also required that the dog sleep at the foot of the bed, not between the handlers.

The Bed Dog Outstanding degree (B.D.O.) consists of two handlers and more than one dog. At this level it is required that the dogs do not bicker among themselves over space. (If you add a cat to the group, your dog can earn a Bed Dog Unbelievable. Cats can also earn any of these degrees, substituting C. for D. in the degree title.)

Non qualifying performance:
1. Dog anticipates the command to get on the bed
2. Any activity from the dog that requires the handler to get out of bed during the specified time period (when the lights go out until alarm goes off)
3. Knocking the handler out of bed
4. Soiling the bed
5. Not getting along with the other animals in the bed (B.D.O. level)

Major deductions:
1. Waking the handler, without getting him out of bed
2. Minor infractions of scratching, bathing, or chewing during night
3. Causing the handler's feet to go to sleep.



From a 1994 newsletter of a Maryland group called Pets on Wheels, which reprinted this piece by Joanne Barnes "from a Delaware Valley Wolfhound newsletter."

the pug mind

Rose is looking with great concern at a hopping, yodeling, remote-controlled lederhosen we just got from Archie McPhee. It makes quite a racket and is obviously unnatural and disturbing to pugs. But here's the funny thing: as soon as we had finished playing with it and taking pictures of them being disturbed by it, they expected us to give them cookies. Somehow it was clear to them that this was the kind of annoying experience that, if they put up with it, the humans would pay them for it.

The 21st Century

I just got yelled at for not updating my blog. By someone who could have just walked downstairs and talked to me, if he was so thirsty for a taste of my particular brand of entertainment. Well, it's nice that someone's reading.

Mostly the problem was that I didn't know what to post after that last one, but here's an aerial shot of a couple of smiling pugs to lighten the mood.

Pug with Found Object, in memory of Roscoe

Pug with Found Object, in memory of Roscoe
Originally uploaded by wombatarama

Roscoe, the best pug on the internet, who I have mentioned before, passed away yesterday. He was fourteen and though I never met him, it was obvious that he led the best life a pug can live. In the last few years there was nothing that was a bigger bright spot in my day than seeing a new picture of Roscoe.

Sometimes I hate the internet. There are enough things to be sad about without having your heart broken over a dog you never met. I guess that it is always better to have loved and lost, etc., even if long-distance and virtually. But that doesn't make it any easier to see him go.

other people's pugs

These are not my pugs. This is a picture that was taken for a recent column of mine about pug rescue. Awwwwww.

The pug mind

Somehow, Lilly knows when I am cooking meat scraps for her in the microwave. She doesn't get excited when I am microwaving something for humans, or when I am cooking meat on the stove. How does she know when I am cooking meat in the microwave for dogs? I suppose she can smell it - but it seems like she also knows that I never cook meat for humans in the microwave.

But she's not as smart as she thinks she is. Because you know what she does, in the remodeled kitchen, when I am microwaving meat for her? She runs over and stands, licking her chops, in front of the counter where the microwave USED to be.