Sick puppy

Poor Puppies...Alfie and Waffles went to the vet this afternoon to be tested for a urinary tract infection. Because of the cold and rain, neither of them have been good about going outside to do their business and yesterday I noticed some blood in the puddle one had left in the kitchen. I couldn't be certain which one had a problem or if Alfie was coming into season, so I made an appointment with the vet to take them both in. Unfortunately, I had to teach, so I arranged to have my parents take the dogs to the vet and for me to meet them there. It was a family affair. It turns out it is Waffles with the problem, although Alfie does have crystals in her urine as well. It seems like this is natural for her as we have had her tested in the past. Waffles, on the other hand, not only has a UTI, but a suspicious x-ray. The doctor was checking to make sure no stones were forming. As far as she can tell, they aren't, but she may have a bit of "sludge" built up already so it's good we brought her in. She is on an antibiotic and I am changing both their diets for a time being to see if that helps.

Neither of them enjoyed the visit. Alfie even nipped at a vet tech while getting her nails done. By the time I arrived, 10 minutes into their appointment, the two were both frantic eyed and panting. They seemed pleased to see me, though Mom and Dad were doing a good job.

Santa Claus Came to Town

I know the blog has been quiet lately, but not for the lack of things going on. I've been busy, real busy and much of it is writing and dog related. And, of course, it's almost Christmas. I have three articles to write before the holiday season is up. One of them is called Pet Love and it is for Upper Valley Life Magazine. It is about all the interesting things we do for our pets such as pet massage, training, pet Reiki and animal communication. Me and the pugs have been busy experiencing them all. I'll write more about that later and of course, you'll have to read the article, but this post is about another pet-related experience. This weekend while my nieces and nephews gathered across town in restaurants and libraries to see Santa, the pugs and I headed off to Country Animal Hospital, our local vet, dressed in elf costumes and Santa hat to see Santa for ourselves. In spite of the beginnings of a snowstorm, turn out was great with dogs and cats all making an appearance to sit on Santa's lap and have their pictures taken. The humans were awarded with cupcakes, cookies and hot cider. My elfin pugs brought smiles to the face of my vet, staff and even Santa. My niece and nephew, who had seen "a creepy Santa" at the library, wholeheartedly agreed that the pugs' Santa was closer to the real deal. I explained that Santa had to hire helpers to dress like him, but he didn't want anyone to mistake them for him, so he only hired mediocre look-a-likes. My pugs, however, seemed content with the doppelganger -- excited just to be out and about on the blustery winter's day, and, to be at the vets without having to get a shot.

My Pet Love article explores the interesting array of things we do for our pets, the reasons why we do them and the ways in which they cement the animal-human bond. Chasing two wiggling dogs down, dressing them in costumes and hats, and loading them in cars with hyper nieces and nephews may beg the question why, but I like to think I took my pugs to see Santa for the same reason so many parents take their children. It's fun, it's magical, it brings smiles to many faces and so often these aren't only the faces of the little ones.

Writing Prompt: What Makes You Laugh? The Tree is Up

As a night owl, there is something about the warm glow of Christmas lights to keep me company through the night. The house grows cozier with the addition of the Christmas tree even if it is fake and pink. I consider the color of my tree a statement. For years I fought having a fake Christmas tree and then one day I stumbled upon the pink tree for sale and decided if I was to go fake I was really going to go fake -- no pretend pine for me. This one is magenta and full of ornaments that are special to me including a number of pug ornaments. I even have a pug Santa.

I put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving because my niece Ellie was here and I wanted her to have the experience of the tree. She looked at it and just laughed. What a wonderful reaction -- pure glee! I felt like I had achieved the ultimate achievement -- my candy-pink pug tree had not only elicited a smile but giggles and wide eyes. What could be better?

Writing Prompt: What makes you laugh? Write about it.

Remembering Vader, Meeting an Aquaintance

It was a dark and stormy night…well, at least a dark and really cold one. So dark that I had a difficult time finding the driveway to the home I was supposed to visit. I was on my way, my pug Waffles, in tow to conduct an interview for an upcoming  article in Upper Valley Life Magazine on “pet love” -- the interesting services we will pursue for our pets. This interview was with a woman who does animal reiki and while she had provided me with her address, this time my GPS failed me. When I finally found the building, I was equally perplexed on how to get inside and nervous as I have never brought one of my pets to an interview before. Waffles had accompanied me to one of our writers’ workshops with Jon Katz and was on her best behavior then so when the interviewee suggested I bring her along and allow her to try some reiki on her I agreed.

Waffles and I roamed the perimeter of the fence, but I was unable to figure out how to open it so we eventually climbed a long snow-covered slope to the woman’s front door. No one uses the front door here in New England – never. She opened the front door and said, “I can’t believe you braved the front door!” I looked at her and immediately realized that I knew her. She had mentioned that she had once worked at the Upper Valley Humane Society, the place where I frequently took my former pug Mira for obedience classes. Vader would accompany us and everyone liked him so much they would allow him to walk around inside the class. He was old by then, 9 or 10, chubby, but not so old that he didn’t enjoy taking part in the class. I think he liked to show off to Mira that he already knew sit, and stay and come. But he also had a calming effect on some of the other dogs and he became a favorite with all the teachers and volunteers. I think we took the class four times earning four different certificates just because Mira and Vader enjoyed themselves so much and people enjoyed them. It turns out that the woman I had come to interview was one of the assistants in the class, a woman with as calming an influence as Vader. I could easily understand how she could be successful doing energy work.

No sooner had I declared “I think I know you,” then she said, “Maybe. Our you Vader’s mom?”

“Yes,” I replied and while I started to tell her he had passed, she was already saying, “Oh my gosh, I was just telling someone about him today.”

Vader and Mira had taken the last class at least four years ago. He has been dead for at least a year, but this woman not only remembered him but also had been talking about him that very day. She volunteers at a local library and one of the children there told her he had a black pug. She said she knew a black pug and told him about Vader. “Vader was quite a presence!” she said to me.

He must have made an impression for her to remember him so many years later. We conducted the interview, met one of her Lhasa apsos, had a reiki session and reminisced about Mira and Vader. To learn about the Reiki, you’ll have to read the article when it comes out (I’ll be sure to post it), but suffice it to say Waffles and I left calm and happy even though she managed to have a huge accident on the woman’s floor. She claimed not to mind and I believed her. She was a true dog person, I knew.

“Let’s keep in touch,” I said on the way out. “We dog people are our own tribe.”

“Yes,” she said. “I love being part of a pack.”

So do I especially one that shares my memories, sorrow and joy.

Spreading Sunshine

“Oh Amy Look! Look at that one! She’s so cute!” An older woman around my friend Joan’s age squealed at her McDonald’s coworker. “Look Amy! A black pug!”

“There’s another in my back seat,” I offered.

“Oh Amy, Look! There’s another one!” She squealed again as if she had discovered Alfie for herself instead of me telling her.  “Look, Amy, it’s a fawn.”

“Ohhhh, look! They’re so cute! Mary!”

“Oh, that one is so cute!” The older woman says pointing at Waffles!

“They are so cute!” The two women exclaimed.

This was my encounter when I took the pugs through the McDonald’s drive thru the other day. An hour later we were walking in downtown Randolph when a woman in an old car, shaking from the volume of the music on the radio, rolled down her window and squealed at us. “They’re so cute!”

I had to smile. Dogs have a way of bringing people closer, encouraging conversation among strangers. Pugs have a way of spreading unadulterated joy!

Racing Stripe

When you own a lot of dogs like my friend Joan, some of them blend into the background and some of them stick out. Soup, the dog of several names, stuck out. Part of this was because of her unique appearance – as a wee pup she leaned against the heater for too long and burned herself down her whole right side causing a moccasin-like appearance as she recovered and grew. Later, we referred to this scar as her racing stripe, an apropos name as, like her mom Suteki before her, she was always trying to run away. Often accompanied by her friend Teddy. It’s hard for me to remember who would run away more, Soup or Suteki, but they both made their fair share of escape attempts, usually visiting the house down the road or showing up at the other end of town or being turned into the vet’s by a good citizen.

Soup, littermate to Moses, was originally named Zipporah after Moses’ wife in the Bible. This was shortened to Zip and eventually due to several mispronunciations on Joan’s part became Soup. Soup was feisty and a real survivor. Sometimes throughout the years I have felt sorry for some of Joan’s pugs, being one of so many. Soup was one of those pugs I never felt bad about – she was in no way needy, content to be part of a large pack.

She was happy to pile up in one of Joan’s pig troughs in front of the fire, sitting atop her mother, father or friend, happy to be petted, addressed or fed.

As she aged her tongue began to hang from her mouth, perhaps in empathy with her friend Teddy who had a protruding tongue since birth. Earlier this week Soup, who was only eight years old, got in a squabble with the other dogs and hurt her leg. At first Joan thought it was broken, but she quickly stood on it and there seemed to be no reason to take her to the vet. A few days later, however, she seemed to be acting poorly and Joan decided to schedule a visit. Before she could get there, however, Soup who was sleeping on her bed between two of her other friends died – quietly and contentedly, making little fuss or demand, acting just as she had in life. I will miss this happy girl. It is easy to mourn losing one so young. But, if one could pack a life in eight short years, this girl did and it is hard to mourn that. She, like her owner Joan, did things her way and was not one to be controlled. Perhaps her premature death was her attempt to make the ultimate run – perhaps she runs still, her racing stripe showing, her long tongue flapping in the breeze.

soup2

Kid versus Pug

Last week my niece 22-month-old niece Ellie came to our house for Trick or Treating. She loves my dogs and loves their toys almost as much. It’s hard to deny her anything so when she picked up Waffles favorite stuffed dog, a fluffy, cream creature, and asked to bring it home. It was hard, no impossible, to say “no.”

Waffles has lots of toys and although she favors some, she likes new ones even better, so I was convinced that she wouldn’t miss her doggie too much. Ellie went home with it and life continued as normal.

Tonight, Ellie and her parents swung by again on their way to New York on vacation. Excited to see Ellie, my Mom decided to give her an early Christmas present – ad stuffed, pale peach pig. She placed it on the kitchen table waiting for Ellie to arrive. A few minutes later I heard her call me.

“Don’t mention the pig to Ellie,” she said.

“Why,” I asked.

She motioned to Waffles pen and I looked inside. Waffles was happily curled up with the pig and upon seeing me jumped up with it in her mouth to play! It was precious how excited she was by her find and even if she hadn’t suckled it until it was damp and grimy, it would have been impossible to take it away from her. I certainly couldn’t and besides it seemed like turnabout was fair play – Ellie had taken one of her toys after all.

When Ellie arrived she seemed to care little for Waffles’ wet pig, but she did have a good time playing with a handful of her bone-shaped chew toys. At one point holding one that resembled a baby’s teether to her Mom saying, “This isn’t a baby’s!”

Gretchin agreed. “No, it isn’t,” she said, holding the blue bone out to Ellie. “Whose is it?”

“ELLIE’S!” She declared, gleefully grabbing it in her tiny hand.

And, Waffles who was suckling on her pig, not teething on the bone, didn’t seem to care at all.

Coffee with a Canine

There's a wonderful little blog I recently discovered called Coffee with a Canine. And, guess what? Alfie, Waffles and I are featured there today. We grabbed a cup by a beautiful lake on our way back from the Chestertown Pug Parade. The blog is great! It basically asks dogs and their owners to go enjoy a cup of joe and then be interviewed about the occasion and other aspects of their lives. Lots of fun reading and photos there. Go check us out and leave a comment!

Ahoy, Matey!

We thought about donning the pink wigs again. We tried on our princess gowns. We finally settled on pirates! The evening was too wet for the puggies to get their toes wet, so they stayed inside their pens and greeted visitors at the door in the pirate garb. Meanwhile, I hit the town with the nieces and nephews, fighting off the wet with umbrellas and raincoats. We trick or treated at the downtown stores then headed to the Town Hall for crafts and games, before taking a hayride to the bandstand and back again. We finished the evening with pizza from our local pizza parlor, Cockadoodle Pizza.

It's Like a Child's Birthday Party

It’s like a child’s birthday party – all the noise, the movement, the running, the shouting, hands reaching out and grabbing, tired sighs and gleeful giggles. Only it’s not a child’s party, it’s a pug party, the annual Halloween Party and Pug Parade in Chestertown, NY. And, while parents are often the ones doing the sighing and the children the giggling at a child’s party, here the adults are equally part of the fray. They fall on their knees and stuff squirming bodies into fuzzy costumes, wigs and cowboy hats, handing leashes to children and warning them to keep a tight grip on Penelope and Waldo while they shove squished faces through too small holes, tugging to pull dresses and shirts down over too broad chests. They don wigs and costumes, too, and turn little red wagons into Batmobiles and palaces for their superheroes and princesses; then, into tents for judging and down the hill in a parade. Pugs bark, kids squeal, parents laugh and everyone shouts, “hello.” Two pugs, fur raised, yip at each other in the parking lot.

“It’s not a party if there’s not a fight in the parking lot,” I say.

“Must be someone tipped over a keg,” the man next to me jokes. One thing we both are right about: the party has begun.

A reporter circles asking names of pugs and humans, where they are from, why they are here. But none of the people participating ask why. For a few hours we are all kids again, eating up the chaos and the merriment as if they were icecream and birthday cake. The pugs provide the wag of the tail and the impetus to leave agendas, stress and everyday responsibilities behind.  We are all having fun!

To see more pictures of this event check out my photo album on my Facebook page.