TOY REVIEW: The Chuck-It Stick

Here it is - the best toy ever. Ok, for now. But it's still my #1 favorite at the moment, so I thought I'd share the joy:

The Chuck-it Stick. On a Rope.

I'm not exactly sure what to call it, but that pretty much sums it up. The reason why it's my new favorite is because it's soooo much fun for everyone. Especially me. Don't get me wrong, The Wubba was a great group-play toy, but this Chuck-it Stick-on-a-Rope thing is even better.

Why? Because of the rope. None of the big dogs want anything to do with the rope - they all want the big fat squishy end. Brother Dutch and both the Labradors fight over who's going to get the fat end, and no one even tries to get to puny rope end. Which leaves it ALLL for me.

I hate to admit it, but being the little guy can be tough sometimes . Having a piece of the toy all to myself is pretty cool. Even if it's the end no one else wants.

WOE IS DUTCH

Brother Dutch has been kinda mopey lately. I thought maybe those shots from the vet were making him sleepy, but he says he feels fine. My human thinks he's depressed because the weather has been so icky. I think he feels bad because I get so much attention now. Y'know - the gifts, the pug paraphernalia, this blog. It's always Pug this and Pug that. Before I came along, it was 100% Dutch. Now he has to share. And I guess I'm not always the best at sharing.

Even though I steal the toys and the bigger dog bed and hog half the couch so he has to lay on the floor... I love my Dutch. And I don't want him to be sad. I hope you don't mind if I invite him to come on the blog a little more often. Y'know, make him feel more special. Don't know if he'll be into the idea - he doesn't really like the camera that much. But I'm hoping he'll appreciate the gesture.

If that doesn't work, I'll give him my bed, the good spot on the couch AND all my toys. Ok, maybe not all my toys, but he can have a few. At least until he feels better.

I love you, Dutchman!

SWALLOW BEFORE LYING

I knew when my human said "Puglet, what are you eating?" the correct, 100% truthful response was not "Nothing".

And I guess I also knew I was busted when my human continued the interrogation with "Puglet, did you eat one of my new plants?". I should have just said yes. I know I should have. But at the time, I just couldn't fess up. So I just shook my head and tried to look innocent.

It's not that I'm a dishonest pug. Really. I just didn't want to disappoint my human by being bad. By being a plant-eater. Besides, I figured she'd never even know I ate the plant because I only ate part of it. It's not like the plant was gone. It was just... less. Plants at our house die all the time, I figured she'd never know it happened.

I was so wrong.

I knew it was all over when my human's tone of voice got all slow and serious. "Puuuuglet, is that a LEAF in your mouth?".

Uh-oh.

Everyone, learn from my mistakes:

1) Don't eat the plants.
2) If you eat the plants and are asked if you ate the plants, just say yes.
3) If you eat the plants and get caught eating the plants but decide not to be truthful about it, be sure to swallow ALL the evidence before lying.

REALITY CHECK?

Have you ever seen a picture of yourself and thought: Is that really what I look like??

Well. Even though my human takes pictures of me all the time, I rarely see any them. I've just never been all that interested. People tell me I'm cute every day; I figured that's all I needed to know.

Up until now, anyway.

Today my human brought home this... uh... pug-like thing that someone gave her because it (and I quote) "Looks just like Puglet!". No offense to the kind, sweet person who brought us this gift, but perhaps you'd benefit from a pair of eyeglasses?

Or....

Maybe this really is what I look like.

CASE OF THE MONDAYS

Is it just me, or should weekends last longer?

On Saturday we went for a hike and I got to see my cow friends and chase squirrels. That was super fun. After that I went to the vet and gave blood for a heartworm test. Not exactly fun, but not so bad either; in exchange for blood, I got a cookie. On the way home we stopped at the pet store to pick up some marrow bones. The guy at the register who usually gives me a cookie accidentally spilled the WHOLE JAR of cookies all over the floor so this time I got LOTS of cookies. After that I probably took a nap. Can't quite remember, but all in all it was a good day.

Sunday was even better. Went to the beach with brother Dutch and the Labradors. The Man (the Labs' human) brought along the coolest new toy that puts all previously mentioned cool toys to shame (I'll review it sometime this week). I also ate a crab leg, nearly got swept out to sea by a tsunami-size wave, and ran into my parrot friends. Got to talk a little more about future flight plans (the parrots make flying sound soooo easy).

When we got home from the beach, my human wanted to mess around with some new camera stuff so I volunteered to be a model. Dutch hates the camera and I've learned that all you have to do is sit really still until the camera makes a clicking noise - then it's cookie time! (FYI - this is by far the easiest way on earth to score a few cookies). The day ended with a big fat marrow bone and a very long nap.

And now it's Monday.

SNORKEL?

Have any of you ever snorkeled?

I've been doing a lot of swimming lately and am having a lot of trouble keeping water out of my nose. As you can see in the picture, the water is pretty much at nose level. Brother Dutch says it's because I have no neck, but I'm pretty sure I have a neck. Jack the Labrador says it's because I have no snout, which we all know is true, but there really isn't anything I can do to fix that.

So I asked my friend Google about it and the advice I got was to use a snorkel. I looked around online and guess a snorkel is kinda like a snout, but I'm a little nervous about trying to breathing through a tube. Would love to hear from anyone who's tried a snorkel.... and lived to tell about it.

HELP WANTED

My human's been staring at the computer a little more than usual lately. This gets pretty boring to watch after awhile, so yesterday I finally complained.

Alright, I didn't complain so much as just parked myself at her feet and put on my best sad-eyed look. A look that said I'm withering away from sheer boredom. Step away from the computer. Love me. Play with me. Pay me some attention. Please! At first my human resisted. Then she spilled the beans:

Sorry, Pug. I can't play with you right now, we're in a recession.

Duh. Of course we're in a recession. I hear enough NPR in the car to know that. But I guess this recession thing has made it so my human actually has to spend more time in front of the computer because she's a freelancer (?) and it's getting harder to find work in this economy. So I came up with a brilliant plan: me and brother Dutch are going to get jobs.

I'm not sure if we have any marketable skills (other than looking cute), but I figure it's worth a try. A job would give us something to do when the human is staring at the computer and bring in some extra money for stuff like new toys and cookies. With the national unemployment rate at 9.7 percent (11.6% here in California) I figure we'll at least have lots of company if we don't find one.

PUG IN BOOTS

It was raining this morning (a rarity for San Francisco in July) so my human seized the opportunity to introduce an entirely new level of pug-humiliation: footwear.

See those things with the eyes that kinda look like cows? Well, they're cow-boy boots. Yeah. Someone gave them to my human because they'd look "sooooo cute" on me. I'm not sure if they look cute or not, but they're totally impossible to walk in. I've worn things on my feet before, but these boots were ridiculous.

I mean, what good are rain boots if you get stuck standing outside in the rain because you CAN'T MOVE?!? I guess your feet stay dry, but what about the rest of you??

BASEBALL ROCKS!

I got soooo distracted by the whole destiny/parrot thing that I completely forgot about the baseball game we went to last Friday.

Not just any baseball game - this was a real, professional baseball game in a big giant stadium with hot dogs and popcorn and everything. Once a year they let dogs come and watch and our spotted friends Miley and Boka's human got us a few tickets (THANKS Laurie!). The teams playing were the Oakland A's and Los Angeles Angels and I think we wanted the A's to win.

Honestly, it was a little hard to follow the game at first. I know all about baseballs, but the rest was a bit confusing. I also didn't understand that the little white specs down on the field were just people. Kinda freaked me out when they started running around. Both teams looked exactly the same to me, so I wasn't sure how I'd know if/when our team was the one doing the right thing. Luckily whenever our team did something good, everyone nearby would get all excited and ywll real loud. That definitely made it easier to follow along.

By the third inning thing, I was totally into the game (and brother Dutch was fast asleep under a blanket, dressed in his bandana "Babushka", apparently just like last year). Our team ended up winning 7-3 and I got to eat a nacho, part of a hot dog and a whole lot of popcorn. Gotta love this baseball thing! Can't wait til next year.

DESTINY?

Do you believe in destiny? Fate? Y'know - a predetermined, inevitable course of events. Well, I'm not 100% convinced about the whole "destiny" thing, but if it *does* exist, I am totally destined to fly.

The universe gave me another sign yesterday, in the form of three giant parrots named Isis, Freedom and Pearl. I met them at the same beach where the other giant winged-things live, which seems a wee bit more than mere coincidence. Don't you think?? I mean, when was the last time YOU ran into a trio of giant parrots?

Anyway. I got to ask the parrots all sorts of questions about flying and I think it sounds totally doable. They said I just have to work on my aerodynamics, whatever that means. I'm sure my friend Google can fill in all the blanks. I might not be colorful or have wings, but I've got destiny in my corner. If there is such a thing.

SWAMP THANG!

Sorry I'm a little late posting today - got hung up in the bath tub. I had an early morning rendezvous with the Labradors and came back feeling not-so-fresh.

(I think NASTY! is the word my human used to describe me).

Since y'all have seen me take a bath before, thought I'd share a picture of why I always get so dirty whenever I hang out with the crazy Labrador brothers. Even though I don't swamp-dive for sticks, somehow I still end up covered in mud. OK, maybe not THIS much mud, but enough to land me in the tub.

JAWS!

First jellyfish, now sharks. Yes, that thing in the picture is a baby leopard SHARK. I watch Animal Planet, I've seen shark week. I KNOW what a shark is and I know what a shark can do. I just didn't know they live near the beaches *I* go to.

To be fair, the only reason that shark was on the beach was because some guy with a pole pulled him out of the water. And, in the shark's defense, he didn't seem all that threatening. After the first 3 seconds, he kinda just laid there in the sand and didn't move. But still. He smelled scary.

My human pet a Leopard shark at the aquarium once and said I shouldn't be afraid of them. They eat little things like crabs and small fish - not pugs. Google says the Leopards like to hang out in San Francisco Bay (where I swim!) to avoid getting eaten by a Great White. Bay water is too warm for Great Whites, so they stick to the waters off the coast (where I also swim!).

The beach has become a dangerously exciting place.

HELLO JELLYFISH!

It was really really hot again yesterday so I talked my human into taking us to the beach to cool off. Loads of other dogs had the same idea so there were plenty of friends to play with but I still managed to get myself into some trouble.

Hello, Jellyfish! I honestly thought it was some kind of dog toy. Like a really cool frisbee or something. Brother Dutch was hogging the rubber chicken, so I was just trying to keep myself entertained. I had no idea the thing would launch an attack on my face.

Ok, attack might be too strong a word to attach to something that doesn't move. But it hurt like an attack. I mean, it really hurt. I wanted to fight back, wanted to tear the evil jellyfish to bits - but my human intervened. She said the jellyfish didn't mean to hurt me, it couldn't help it. I don't know why she didn't step in *before* I stuck my nose where it didn't belong, but better late than never. I guess.

We left the beach right after the attack and by the time we got home, I could almost feel my face again. I asked my friend Google what the jellyfish's problem was, why it was so mean. As always, Google was full of wisdom: Jellyfish don't have a brain or consciousness, just a collection of nerves. They don't sting because they are angry. They do it out of reflex. Uh, ok. But it still hurt.

Just in case you ever decide to stick your face in a jellyfish, Google says there are things you can do to relieve the pain: -- apply vinegar on the sting; acidity counteracts jellyfish venom.

-- if you don't happen to have vinegar with you at the beach, wash the wound with sea water. Do NOT use fresh water or bottled water, it will only make things worse.

-- if none of the above works, get a friend to pee on you. I guess this might work better if you're a dog though.

WINGS

So I'm totally into the idea of flying now. Like, borderline obsessed.

Google makes it sound super easy, so I asked my human if she could help make flying happen. Except I couldn't remember what the flying things we saw at the beach are called (you humans have SOOO many different words for things, it gets confusing for those of us who rely on smells to tell things apart). So I just said I need wings. Big, colorful wings.

Yeah. I got wings alright. No idea what the things on my head are supposed to be for.

I love my human, I do. But sometimes.... she gets things sooooo wrong!

IT'S A BIRD.. IT'S A PLANE.. IT'S WHAT?

Hey everybody. Sorry about sleeping in on Friday. Not sure what's going on - I've just been really tired lately.

Anyway. When I finally did get out of bed on Saturday, the weather was really nice (no fog!) so a bunch of us went to the beach. Even though we go there a lot, I'm always a little freaked out by the ginormous birds that live there. I mean, they are HUGE. Like small airplane huge. Like, big-enough-to-eat-a-pug-whole huge.

Usually I just see the scary birds swooping high above the cliffs, but on Saturday they were a whole bunch of them just sitting around on the ground. Being with my friends made it feel safe enough to investigate (y'know, the whole pack-mentality) so I snuck up on the scary birds to check them out. I figured they'd fly away when I got close - but they just sat there. Kinda creepy. When I got close though, I could smell they weren't birds at all. Lots of metal and fabric and stuff my nose didn't recognize, but definitely no bird.

I was all ready to bolt when I saw what appeared to be one of the not-a-bird creatures EATING a human... until I heard the human being eaten tell human (and I quote) Yeah, you cannot have more fun than this!! Hmmm. Turns out the guy wasn't being eaten by the not-a-bird creature, he was riding it. And he was having fun doing it.

I was so confused until my human explained the whole thing to me. Apparently, the not-a-birds are called hangliders and humans ride on them to fly. I have to admit, this sounds really cool. I tried to convince my human to let me try it, but she said you kinda have to know what you're doing.

I'm going see if Google can teach me --I really want to fly now!

5 MORE MINUTES

Hi everybody, Puglet's human here. Puglet must really be tired from all the tug-of-warring this week because he absolutely will not get out of bed. Usually he's up with the sun (or the neighbor's barking chihuahuas, whichever comes first) but today he's totally zonked out.

I've been trying to wake him up for hours, but he just keeps saying Five more minutes. I've become a human snooze button!

I'll have Puglet do a real post if he ever gets out of bed, but for now all I have is picture of two sleeping dogs.

TOY REVIEW: The Wubba

Keeping with my promise to be less self-indulgent, I spent the whole morning working by butt off so I could bring you another toy review. Testing toys with my friend Boka might look like fun but... ok, I'm not going to lie. It's totally fun. Especially when the toy being tested is the best dog toy EVER**.

Everyone, meet The Wubba.

The coolest thing about Wubbas is their tug-ability. They're kinda shaped like an octopus, so there's lots of different parts to grab onto. One Wubba can entertain multiple dogs at one time, so everyone can join in the fun (which make the fun even funner!). At one point, there were four of us latched on to the Wubba at the same time. Usually that kind of scenario ends in a dead toy, but the Wubba remained intact. We'd probably still be tugging on it if the humans hadn't interrupted.

(Note: my human says even if you accidentally rip the Wubbas fabric off, the play doesn't have to end. Unlike most toys, the guts of the Wubba are also playthings. Two tennis balls!)

Wubbas are also excellent for fetching, especially in water. Thanks to my lack of snout, I have a really hard time retrieving in the water. To get my mouth around a ball, I pretty much have to stick my whole face underwater (my human says to imagine bobbing for apples). It's not pleasant and I almost drown trying. Don't have this problem with The Wubba. The whole thing floats so it's super easy to just latch on to a leg and go.

-- Summary --

Entertainment value: 4 paws when shared with a friend / 3 paws solo
Tastiness: 0 paws for taste - it's flavorless
Duration of play: + an hour (or until the humans break it up)
Durability: stood up to MUCH tugging without so much as a torn stitch
Variety: The Wubba comes in a bunch of different sizes, materials and with or without a squeaker. They even make a high-visibility night Wubba and Wubbas just for cats.

--

** as always, this list is subject to change minute by minute

STUNT-DOUBLES

My human says if you ever need a huge dose of cuteness, go to your local Pug Sunday.

Here in San Francisco they happen on the first Sunday of the month at a park called Alta Plaza. But they happen other places too, on all different Sundays. My cousin Sophie lives all the way on the Other coast and she says they even have to Pug Sundays there.

I don't think I've been doing much in the way of "cute" lately. I mean, now that I'm officially an ADULT dog and all, I can't just be cute all the time. But don't worry, I convinced a some of the little guys at the last Pug Sunday to be my cuteness stunt-doubles. Enjoy their incredible puppy cuteness while you can. I'll be back tomorrow.

BRACHYCEPHALIC DEATH MATCH

I finally met my match at the beach yesterday: Piper the Boston Terrier.

Not sure if the big dogs have just been letting me win all this time or what, but I outweighed Piper by a whole bunch of pounds and STILL couldn't out-tug her. We tugged and tugged for about fifteen minutes straight before our humans finally ended the match on account of heavy breathing/excessive foaming at the mouth.

According to my human, when you have no face (technical term: brachycephalic) all sorts of stuff can go awry. I guess an uninterrupted game tug-of-war is one of those things. Apparently, breathing is another. Wow. I never realized just how many things us flat-faced dogs are up against in the breathing department.

---

STENOTIC NARES - Just a fancy name for skinny nostrils. The smaller the nostrils, the less room for air to get in. Kinda makes breathing a challenge.

ELONGATED SOFT PALATE - It's hard to cram all the parts of a normal dog's mouth & throat into the brachycephalic's short face. The result of this experiment? An ill-fitting soft palate (the thing that separates nasal passage from oral cavity) that flaps loosely down into the throat. This little flap can cause breathing problems (and lovely snorting sounds).

TRACHEAL STENOSIS - "Stenosis" means narrowed. A brachycephalic dog's trachea (windpipe) may be dangerously narrowed in places.

HEAT STRESS - Thanks to a host of respiratory complications, brachycephalic dogs are really inefficient panters. Dogs with more "conventional" head construction can pass air quickly over their tongues to cool down through panting. For brachycephalic dogs, so much extra work is required to move the same amount of air that the airways become inflamed and swollen. This can lead to a further over-heating, making them good candidates for heat stroke.

---

Pretty serious stuff! Guess I shouldn't be too upset about our game of the tug-of-war ending in a tie, huh?

CHECK OUT MY SNOUT!

I think the 4th of July should happen every single day. Not just July days either - I mean EVERY day. 365 days a year.

Why? Because I've now been on this earth for an entire year and July 4th is the ONLY day I've ever gotten to eat a pig snout. I'm not real sure what you humans do for The Fourth because me and brother Dutch had to stay home when my human went out, but I hope your celebrations include snouts too.

YUM-MY.

Can't believe I'd never seen, smelled or tasted a pig (or its snout) before. Sometimes my human calls me Piglet or Pig but I just thought she was saying my name wrong or something. I didn't know pigs were real. And I definitely didn't know pigs were soooooo tasty. At least their snout parts, anyway.

INDEPENDENCE DAY

My friend Google says July 4th is a celebration of our independence. In the spirit of this holiday, I hereby claim my independence from all future wearings of embarrassing head ornaments.

Happy (early) Fourth of July everyone!

FYI: This is my first Fourth of July, but Brother Dutch says it's a very loud holiday. Not sure what he means by"very loud", but I've been told not to be afraid. My human says the noise sometimes causes dogs to run away (animal shelters usually see a spike in lost dog reports this weekend) so be sure your dog is securely enclosed and wearing his ID tags when the noise starts.

You might also want to have some Rescue Remedy on hand if your dog tends to get stressed out.

IT'S A MIRACLE!

There was a bit of a health crisis here at Case de Puglet yesteday.

I was in my human's office watching Fish float around in his bowl when all of a sudden he started swimming around real real real fast. Like he was getting electrocuted or something. Probably doesn't sound all that alarming, but if you knew Fish, you'd know he doesn't do *anything* fast. He doesn't really even swim. He's more of a floater.

I knew if Fish was moving, something must be terribly wrong so I barked to alarm my human. By the time she responded, Fish had stopped swimming and was floating on his side at the top of the bowl. Motionless, but not in the usual way. I knew we had to act fast, so I went straight to my friend Google for help.

Of course Google had an answer, but I wasn't sure if i could trust it. Sounded kinda weird to me: give Fish peas. Like, frozen peas - but thawed and smushed.

Are you sure? I asked Google.
Yes, Peas. Google kept replying.

My human didn't have any better ideas, so she humored Google's give-peas advice. I was prepared for the worst, figured we'd wake up this morning and find Fish swimming with the fishes. But did a total 360 and is completely alive and well! We found him floating around like he always does, all calm and upright, munching on a pea.

It's a miracle! I told Google.

No, it's fiber. Google replied. Fish can get constipated and when they do, the air bladder that allows them to swim can malfunction. The fiber in peas can un-plug a constipated fish and restore order to his system.

Oh. Well, miracle or not - I'm just happy Fish is still alive.

BEAR ATTACK!

Before our Lake Tahoe camping trip didn't happen, my friend Ody asked if there'd be bears where we were going. I didn't know what a bear was so Ody me that his human daddy told him that bears are (and I quote) "giant creatures that will eat me!".

Oh.

Well, Ody's definition of bear didn't exactly tell me what one is -- just that I should be very afraid should I ever meet one. I meant to ask my friend google for more info, but then our trip got cancelled and I figured I'd never need to know. Pretty sure there aren't any giant pug-eating bears in my neighborhood.

Was I wrong! Last night, my human had lots of work to do so she put the TV on for me & brother Dutch. She does this sometimes so we'll be quiet and leave her alone (she says Animal Planet is better than a chew toy, though I totally disagree). Anyway, I never know what half the animals on The Planet are until the announcer tells me. Last night's show was all about these big brown things that kinda looked like dogs, but my human had the TV's sound turned off so I didn't know for sure.

When I asked my human to turn the sound up, the first word I heard was BEAR! Ody's words flashed through my mind: Giant creatures that will eat me! and I guess I kinda snapped. I was really afraid but wanted to scare them off the TV, out of my living room. So I barked and tried my best to look ferocious. The bears on TV didn't seem to care, brother Dutch just got annoyed, and my human laughed and put the TV back on mute.

My human filmed the whole thing so you can laugh too.



(my human's better at pictures than video, you'll just have to trust me that those things on TV really *are* giant scary bears).