HAPPY PUGLET DAY

In the past year, I've learned a lot about special days and how humans celebrate them. Santa. The Easter bunny. Firsts and Fourths. Birthday hats and lobster suits. Because there was so much leaking yesterday, my human decided to make today a special celebration day. She said today we're going to celebrate me.

Happy Puglet Day!?!

I thought it sounded a little, uh, grandiose for me to tell everyone I have a special day that isn't my birthday. But my human explained that I came to live with her and Dutch in the middle of November last year. It's not grandiose. It's called an anniversary, she said.

She also said Mushu's mom reminded her to do something she should do more often: celebrate those we love.

So to celebrate my first anniversary / Puglet Day, today's pictures are from my very first day with my new family. I was five months old. I loved brother Dutch right away, even though I think it kinda freaked him out a little (top picture). It didn't take him very long to learn to love me back. This is us a few weeks later:

I also loved the beach. I still remember the first time I played in sand and saw the ocean. I didn't want to leave so my human let us stay until the sun went down. This was my first beach sunset:

I think all dogs should have their own anniversary day. Especially because I'm pretty sure a special cookie or something will be part of the celebration. And if you don't know when your anniversary day should be, you can share today with me.

FOR MUSHU

No adventure from me today. Just a few words in memory of Mushu the pug.

Mushu went to sleep unexpectedly over the weekend. I never met him in the fur because he lived far away. But I got to know his cute face during the No-Conest. And I know he was a recycled pug who got his name from his mom's favorite Chinese food (Mushu Pork) and was sometimes called Monkey Beast by his dad.

I asked my human what you're supposed do when a friends goes to sleep. She got a little leaky and said something about flowers and a moment of silence. And hugs. Lots of hugs for the people who will miss their sleeping friend.

So lots of pug hugs to Mushu's humans, and a moment of silence for Mushu so he can sleep in peace.

FIRE PUG

Whenever kids see brother Dutch they always yell Fire Dog! Fire Dog!

This totally used to freak me out because I thought one of us was about to go up in flames or something. Then yesterday I met a fireman and he explained what the whole Fire Dog thing is all about.

So... waaay back before there were cars, dalmatians like Dutch used to run with these horse-drawn things called coaches. Rich people (technical term: aristocrats) liked how cool the spotted dogs looked running next to their coaches and used dalmatians to protect their horses and luggage from getting stolen (this makes me laugh because Dutch is a total wimp and couldn't guard his own shadow).

Anyway. Firetrucks also used to be pulled by horses and since dalmatians were so good at hanging out and running with horses, they ran with the firetrucks too. When the firemen were busy putting out a fire, dalmatians stayed with the firetrucks to keep the horses safe and calm.

Hearing all this made me a lit-tle bit jealous of the spotted dogs, with all their protecting and firefighting and stuff. People see Dutch and think he's a hero. They see me and think I'm an alien. Dutch is made to run 20 miles and protect valuables. I am made to, what, sit on laps and look cute?

Honestly, this got me feeling a little inferior. Especially when the firemen asked Dutch to pose for pictures on their truck. Hellllooo! I am the camera-dog. I am the ham. But when they were done taking Dutch's picture, they let me sit on the firetruck. And it was really cool and everything... but really not all that comfortable. And it's kinda hard to look cute when you're standing on metal, trying to act like you could protect something.

The firemen laughed at the idea of a Fire Pug and that's OK by me. Dutch can have the firetruck. I'm going to stick with what I was made to be good at: warm, comfy laps and looking cute.

PUG SUNDAY (the sequel)

I know I just wrote about Pug Sunday last week, but I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as too much pug. So when Lola from Lafayette invited me to her local PugSun I said yes yes yes.

Please??

Luckily my human is a total sucker for pugs, so on Sunday we drove over to a place called Walnut Creek to meet Lola and get puggy with her friends.

There was this one guy named Phantom who is THE coolest looking pug I've ever seen. And I've seen A LOT of pugs. Phantom came from a family of black and fawn pugs and I guess couldn't decide which color he wanted to be, so he picked both. How cool is that!?!

And there was a little pug-on-wheels named Daisy who cruised around like a race car driver. She was fast. I've met a few dogs-on-wheels, but Daisy's the only one I know with front-wheel drive.

My human forgot to ask how Daisy got her wheels. All I know is they don't slow her down one bit (they might even make her faster). And when Daisy's wheels come off, her body is perfectly designed for sitting up and looking cute. She must get SOOOO many treats.

MY HUMAN'S SECRET LIFE: BERLIN

Whenever we ride in the car, my human makes us listen to NPR. Sometimes it's reeeeally boring, but sometimes I learn things about the world and it's OK. On the way to Pug Sunday yesterday (more on that tomorrow), the people on the radio were talking about some place called Berlin and a wall that fell down or something. I wasn't really interested until my human said she was there, in Berlin, right after the wall fell over. Said she still has a piece of it.

Huh? When did she go to this Berlin place - and why didn't I get to go too??

When I grilled her about about it, she just laughed. It was 20 years ago, Pug. You weren't even born yet. Your mother's mother's mother wasn't even born yet.

Oh.

This is one thing about my human I always forget and will never get used to: she had a life BEFORE me. She's been places and and done things and seen stuff that I know *nothing* about. And this kinda freaks me out a little because I like to be as close to her as possible at all times. She says I'm sticky like velcro because once velcro sticks, it doesn't let go.

I told my human I want to know every single thing that happened before me, starting with Berlin. She laughed and said that's a whole lot of stuff. But she did tell me about the Berlin place, the giant wall that used to split it in half, and how different the two halves were when she visited them.

It doesn't sound like I missed much (especially in East Berlin) but I still wanted to know what it would have been like to be there. So I found a wall and tried to imagine it... which didn't really work. So from now on I'm going to stick super-close to my human and never miss anything she does ever again.