Personal Space

Zoe has absolutely no concept of personal space. Whether it is with me or with Nappy, she has to get as close as physically possible or she is not happy. This is a common Zoe pose for when she wants to "snuggle" with Napoleon.

Luckily for her, Napoleon doesn't really seem to mind at all, except for the first grunt when she plops down on top of him.

Back At Last!

Hi everyone!

Sorry we have been gone so long but we kind of have a good excuse. We are pregnant! And in turn that means that I was feeling super sick for a good part of the last 4 months! I am proud to report that I am feeling much better now, however that has been replaced by being SWAMPED at work. Being exhausted after work has translated into 0 posts since November. Shameful, I know.

Everyone here at the pug farm is doing well though. Zoe is growing up and had her first birthday in December. Napoleon is doing great and actually lost 2 lbs at his annual vet wellness exam so the vet is very pleased with him. Now, we just need to get Zoe back from porker status. AB is also good and excited (read: nervous) about he new arrival!

I am hoping to post more often coming up and will get some pics of the puggies up soon!

Wordless Wednesday

Belated Halloween Costumes

Finally had a chance to post some pics of the puggies in their Halloween costumes. Napoleon is a football player, which happens to have a "W" on it for WKU.... not for the other "W" as someone else asked me... anyways. Zoe is a cheerleader. Napoleon, as usual, was not impressed with his costume but Zoe apparently likes dressing up and wore hers all night without issue.

Happy Halloween!

Here is a pic of our pumpkin that AB and I carved last night. He entered it in his work Pumpkin Carving contest, so we are awaiting the verdict. I'll keep you posted.


Hope everyone is having a great Halloween. I will post some pics of the pugs in their Halloween costumes after they wear them tonight. They are going to be so cute!

Update: We did not win the contest, we think it was rigged. ;)

Halloween Fun Stuff

In honor of Halloween, I wanted to upload the picture my sister sent me of her dog Ryder in his Halloween costume, but stupid Blogger won't upload it for some unknown reason. Anyway....

I also saw this Halloween Meme that I found on Manicdote’s blog and thought it was fun.

1. What is the worst treat to get when trick-or-treating?

Apples. Ok, come on, Halloween is the one holiday where candy is a must. Plus, apples weigh too much to cart around all night!

2. What character from any horror film would you most like to play? Hmmm.. that’s a hard one. I would say

3. Would you rather be a zombie, alien, or psycho?

I guess a psycho because then I wouldn’t have to eat brains or travel for many light years on a space ship.

4. How many Halloween, Friday the 13th, or Nightmare on Elm Street movies combined do you have on DVD? AB has the Friday the 13th box set. I think we have Halloween on VHS.

5. What is the scariest movie you have ever seen? Poltergeist! That movie scared the poop out of me when I was little. I still have visions of that clown and the creepy guy from Poltergeist II and III.

6. Lamest costume you have seen on Halloween? Those stupid couples costumes that are a plug and socket. Those are just stupid.

7. Favorite Halloween treat? Anything chocolate, Snickers, Milky Way, etc.

8. Friendly-faced jack o’lantern or scary one? I like friendly silly faced pumpkins. Here is our pumpkin last year.



9. Have you ever had nightmares about a scary movie character chasing you? No, but I did have nightmares after seeing Hostel. I hated that movie and it gave me scary dreams for weeks. I find no redeeming qualities in scary torture movies.

10. Best thing about Halloween? Scary movies on TV.

11. Strangest Halloween custom you’ve heard of? I don’t really see the fun in smashing some little kids pumpkin. It’s just cruel.

12. Person in your family who most likes Halloween (not counting yourself)? Probably AB, followed by this mom as a close second. AB really loves Halloween, probably due to his love of scary movies. His mom has had her house decorated for Halloween (3 groaning ghosts outside, Halloween shower curtain, and full black and orange kitchen sets, just so name a few decorations)

13. Are you superstitious? If so, name at least one superstition of yours. Not really, but I also have knocked on wood, wouldn’t walk under a ladder, and don’t open umbrellas inside. Maybe we are all a little superstitious.

Heaven Is Just A Pig Ear Away

I bought the puggies a special treat last night... Pig Ears!! Needless to say, they LOVE them. I let them work on them for a couple hours last night and then again tonight. Here are some pig ear chewing action shots.

Napoleon



Zoe

Quick Trip to Canadialand

Sorry we keep dropping of the face of the earth but we had some unexpected news last week. I found out last Friday that my Grandfather in Manitoba passed away and we had to take a quick trip up there for the funeral. It was as you would except a trip for a funeral would be. Grandpa did live to be 92 years old and passed away painlessly and peacefully, just as I would hope to go one day, so that made things a bit easier.

Last Saturday / Sunday we ended up driving from KY to Manitoba, to the town of Holland, about an hour west of Winnipeg. The drive took 21 hours, including stops which could have sucked except we had 4 drivers and the weather was pretty good. Last minute plane tickets were out of this world expensive and AB doesn't have his passport, so if we flew, he wouldn't have been able to go. AB got to meet the entire side of Dad's family -- Dad is one of 10 kids, so AB met 9 brothers / sisters and their spouses and 22 of my 24 cousins on that side, along with various other second cousins and extended family members. Slightly overwhelming, but he did awesome and even played a song on the harmonica at my Grandpa's reception.

We were able to attend the prayer service Monday and funeral / burial / reception on Tuesday and then drove to Fargo, ND that night. We drove the remaining 17 hours on Wednesday and got home at 1am so we could return to work on Thursday. The puggies spent 5 days with Ninah and were excited to see us when we got home.


AB and I had a relaxing weekend and didn't do much except eat and go see a play -- Frankenstein at the Phoenix Theater. It was very entertaining. We also watched our Titans beat the Ravens today so we are now 5-0!! Whoo Hoo!

Words Only Wednesday!

We are happy to report that Zoe has miraculously recovered from her hunger strike. All is right again in the world of Zoe eating. I have no idea what was wrong with her the last 2 weeks but she just suddenly decided that she liked her food again. Pugs are too weird.

Other than that, not much to report on the pug front. AB turned 30 on Monday so we had a "semi-surprise" party for him on Saturday night. He knew something was going on, but not exactly what was going on. We had about 25 friends and family over and we ate BBQ, polished off a pony keg, and played volleyball in the backyard and Rockband inside until the wee hours of the morning. We had an awesome time and spent most of Sunday recovering. We also took Monday off and went up to Mammoth Cave and hiked a 7-mile loop around the Good Springs Church. It was a perfect day, except for tons of pesky flies. I also got AB Titans tickets for next Sunday so we will be going to Nashville for to see the Titans stomp the Minnesota Vikings. Go Titans!

More Food Info

We had a lot of comments regarding Zoe's picky food eating habits so I thought I would offer a little more info into what is going on. Zoe started getting picky when she came back from staying with Adam's mom for a week while we were on vacation. Zoe had been eating Science Diet puppy food and Napoleon was eating Nutro Natural Balance Lamb and Rice and everyone was happily eating their food. Recently they got rid of Napoleons Lamb and Rice food (which he is on for his allergy to wheat) and our vet recommended Natural Balance Lamb Meal and Brown Rice formula and said Zoe could also eat that now also. The happily switched to it and no one had any problems. Napoleon had always been a picky eater but with the 2 of them together (& competition) they both always ate their food with no problem. Now that Zoe isn't interested in her food, Napoleon seems to be reverting back to his picky habits. I am beginning to wonder if they just don't like this food, but our options are slightly limited because Napoleon does much better on the wheat free food. He gets really itchy when he was on the more inexpensive food.

The Natural Balance food is supposed to be good quality (it freaking cost enough!) and the pugs haven't had any digestion problems, gas, etc. I think they just fed Zoe soft canned food when she spent the night after she got spayed and now that she knows better food is out there, she is being picky. Our vet also recommended putting a scoop of plain fat free live culture yogurt in their food so we might try that. I kind of hate to keep "doping" her food because I feel like I am going to make her even more picky. Argh. Anyway, we will keep you updated.

In other news, Zoe is doing much better with her metal staples and her incision looks very good now. I am less concerned with her running around now that her incision is healing. It is almost impossible to keep them from playing and running around the house. Luckily, when she was on her pain medicine she was pretty tired and didn't want to play and that gave her some time to heal, but now she is all better and playing has resumed.

AB and I travelled to St. Louis this weekend so Adam could run his first marathon (before he turns 30 next week) but unfortunately Hurricane Ike hit St. Louis the morning of the hurricane and after running for 10 miles in a torrential downpour, they called the race off because the route flooded. Needless to say, after training for 16 weeks, AB was VERY disappointed. However, there is another marathon in Memphis in December that we may go to, and then one in Nashville in April that he will definitely run. You could not pay me to run that far! No thank you. Ike also hit KY on Sunday with lots of damage to roofs, trees and power outages. We came out OK, with only a few branches lost.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and Ike didn't affect you too much.

It Figures

Zoe is recovering nicely from her spay last week but unfortunately it was not without incident. She was really good all weekend, not running around too much and didn't try and lick at her stitches at all. On Monday night though, we noticed her incision looked a little red and she had a couple spots around the area on her tummy. On Tuesday the incision looked swollen and she had a red rash around the area and on her belly. We took her back to the vet immediately (because apparently we have the worst luck on earth with female puggies) and it turns out that Zoe is allergic to the stitches. They had to remove her stitches and replace them with hypo allergenic metal staples. She also got a strong anti-inflammatory and anti-biotic ointment. She ended up spending the rest of the afternoon at Ninah's office since I didn't want to leave her at home alone in case it got worse. Thank goodness, even after work, her belly was starting to look better and today it looks really good and is healing nicely. We go back to get the stitches out next Friday.


The other prob with Zoe is that she has become a super picky eater. I really have to coax her to eat her dry food lately and she used to live for food. I know nothing is physically wrong with her though, because if I mix in this Forti-Flora powder the vet gave us for a supplement with her food, she eats it and she also has no problem eating treats or begging for people food. I want to be tough love mommy and say, she will eat when she is hungry but I am a wuss. I am thinking about changing her to another brand of food, but I am leery because the brand they are on is really good and Napoleon likes it. Anyway, hopefully she will become less picky... Anyone have any ideas for picky eaters?

Napoleon is always is good happy go lucky self. He was not too impressed that Zoe couldn't play very much this weekend, but he did take advantage of the quiet to catch up on some much needed sleep.



Here is Zoe modeling her new Cabo T-shirt I found at Target for $3. She is the first pug I have had that actually seems to enjoy wearing clothes! It doesn't bother her at all. Napoleon on the other hand, HATES it.

Zoe Spay Day

Zoe is getting spayed tomorrow. Please send good vibes our way. I am a complete nervous wreck but I know she will be fine. I will update tomorrow!


Update! The vet just called and said Zoe is awake and did fine. AB and I are going to go visit her tonight and then we pick her up tomorrow at lunch. I am taking a 1/2 day tomorrow so I can keep an eye on her. Thanks for the positive thoughts being sent our way!