A HALLOWEEN POEM (by Dutch)

~ Happy Devil Horn Day ~

Once a year I wear a pair of devil horns.
I don't mind wearing them,
so they stay on all day.

Some people point at me and laugh,
but I don't mind that.

Others try to take my picture,
and that I do not like at all.

~ ~ ~

HAPPY HOWLOWEEN

I really don't know how you humans come up with this stuff. I mean, a special day for dressing up in funny outfits? Honestly, the whole thing sounded pretty silly, especially when my human brought home that goofy banana/garden gnome/smurf suit for me to wear. But now that I get to be a ferocious, nose-pinching lobster, I'm kinda digging the idea.

And Brother Dutch? Not so into the whole Howloween thing. I tried to get him to wear a matching lobster suit so we could be a flock of lobsters (or whatever you'd call it). Someone might try to put soy sauce on us, he said. I will pose WITH a lobster, but I will not BE one.

I wasn't sure if he'd really been traumatized by the lobsters in the park - or was just using them as an excuse not to wear a costume. Then my human explained that Dutch isn't a huge fan of change so he wears the same thing every year. And it isn't a lobster suit.

Turns out Dutch's idea of a Howloween costume is a pair of red glittery devil horns. I think he felt kinda bad about ruining my flock of lobsters idea though because Mr. I-don't-like-change (or cameras) did agree to strike a pose with our toy lobster, Bubbles.


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Final No-Contest Contest News!
If you haven't sent in your picture yet... time is running out!! If your human doesn't have a picture to send in, tell them to hurry up and take one.

We want to see your cuteness!

Please send us your cuteness by midnight tomorrow.
Dailypuglet.com for all the info.
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PUG ON ART: Samuel Price

Remember when I went to that Pumpkin Festival and saw stuff called "art"? Well, there was a collection of pieces (technical terms for art stuff) that were so cool, I hunted down the artist who made them. And yesterday we took a trip to his studio.

In case you're as new to this art stuff as I am, an "artist" is someone who can take bits of nothing and turn them into beautiful, uh, works of art. At least that's how I understand it. And that's exactly what my new artist friend Samuel Price does. He takes bits of old magazines... and turns them into dogs.

Seriously. In Sam's hands, that little scrap I'm holding in my mouth can become art.

Sam told me it's called collage and he's been doing it for about 10 years. "Collage" was another art thing I'd never heard of, but my friend Google told me people have been doing it for a really long time. Sam started doing collage out of something my human calls necessity.

"When I was young and couldn't afford to buy paints, I began cutting up the magazines and newspapers I had lying around in my studio and gluing them to a canvas," he told me.

I can't imagine how many hours Sam spends looking through magazines before he finds all the bits he needs to make a dog (each canvas has more than 1,000 little squares). But somehow, by the time he's finished, all those little squares look just like a frenchie, or a beagle - even a pug!

I wish you all lived near Sam so you could visit him and his dog collages too. But you can see a lot of them on his website thingy: www.mydogcollage.com.

And trust me, you really want to see them.

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No-Contest Contest News
The gallery is getting nice and full (and VERY cute). Be sure to visit the No-Contest gallery to AWWWW at everyone.

And if you haven't sent in your picture yet... hurry up! Dailypuglet.com for all the info.
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ROCKET DOG

Last night we were just hanging out on the couch when my human got a message on her phone asking us to vote in a contest.

UGH! What's with all these stupid contests?!? she said. I am SOOOO sick of voting and contests! But then she read the whole message, made a bee-line for the computer, and voted.

I asked what changed her mind about being sick and contests being stupid. Oh, I'm still sick of them and they are still stupid. But I can't NOT vote for Rocket Dog.

Rocket Dog? I was pretty sure we didn't know any dogs named Rocket Dog. My human explained that Rocket Dog isn't a dog - it's a group that rescues dogs. Then she told me the story behind Rocket Dog, which I'm going to share because it's a good one. Even though it might make you a little leaky.

This is what my human told me:

So, the lady who started Rocket Dog (her name is Pali) understands what it's like to need rescuing. She grew up on the streets (her mother was mentally ill/an addict who died when Pali was 10) and as an adult, Pali found herself homeless, HIV-positive and living with addiction.

Then one day, Pali met a shelter dog named Leadbelly. And Leadbelly taught Pali that you can't take care of the ones you love if you're not taking care of yourself. So she went to rehab, got off the streets, and now dedicates her life to saving dogs like the one who saved hers. And when I say dedicates, I mean DEDICATES.

By the time she finished telling me the Rocket Dog story, my human was a little leaky (you can read the full story here). She said there are lots of people with big hearts who'd love to save the world, but not many people like Pali who actually devote 100% of themselves to trying.

And that's why she clicked for Rocket Dog.

--

I'm never asking anyone to vote for anything again. Ever. But if you like voting and are looking for things to vote for... might i suggest this contest from some lady named Rachel Ray ? It's just for rescue groups like Rocket Dog.

Clicking for this one takes a few minutes because you have to vote for a bunch of stuff, but my human says it's interesting to read about all the different groups who entered. Oh - and you only vote once a week, not everyday.

ORIENT-what-ting?

I got soooo excited about the bully-sticks that I totally forgot to tell you about what happened before I got to taste that little bit of heaven.

OK, so on Saturday mornings we usually go for a hike over where the cows live. The hike is about 5 miles long and every time we go, I see something new and cool. A flock of giant turkeys. A skunk. Big black snakes. Brand new baby cows. All sorts of stuff.

Well, this time we saw packs of people sneaking around and acting really strange. They were walking in the creek, crawling around in sticker bushes - that kinda thing. After the whole Visitors scare, Brother Dutch was a lit-tle freaked out by people hiding in bushes and barked to scare them away. But the bush people weren't afraid. They were way too busy to care about Dutch's noise.

Clearly, they were on a mission. And that mission was something called 'orienteering'. I know this because my human stopped and asked what everyone was doing in the bushes (I guess she didn't want us to freak out and pull another pond-jumping stunt).

One of the bush-people explained that orienteering is kinda like a treasure hunt. You (or your team) use this thing called a compass to find secret spots on a special map. There's no trail to follow (which explains the bush-people) it's just you, a map and the compass thingy. Whoever finds all the secret spots and gets to the finish line first, wins. The people who don't win still get to hike around and have fun.

I asked my human if we could try orienteering. She said only if we're allowed to bring something called a GPS. To keep us from getting lost, she told me. I told her I'm pretty sure you use the map & compass to keep from getting lost.

Exactly, she said.

HEAVEN IS. . .

A freeze-dried bull penis.

Yup. You heard me. Yeah yeah, I know. Gross. But until you've spent hours gnawing on a bully-stick (the kinder, gentler name for the freeze-dried boy parts of a bull) you just have no idea.

I'm not a religious pug (the whole animals-don't-have-souls thing? can't get past that) but I am what you might call 'spiritual'. And thanks to a special delivery from a pug named Buford T. Justice, I now have a pretty good idea what heaven must be like.

Heaven is a freeze-dried bull penis.

Buford T & his pug family sent me and brother Dutch a whole bunch of heaven to chew on. And get this - somehow Buford convinced his humans to get into the bully-stick business and now they have an online store called Buford's Bullies. They sell all sorts of heavenly, all-natural chewy bits and Buford (and his sisters Peggy & Bambi) get to be in charge of something called "Quality Control', which just means they get to eat stuff!

And the best part?** Buford and his pack donate money to pug rescue every time the sell something. They've even volunteered to donate a few prizes to The No-Contest Contest. Now the three finalists will be able to choose from a snout, hoof, ear AND bully stick or lamb trachea. Hmmm Hmmm!

** Ok, maybe the heavenly taste is really the best part but I'm trying not to be selfish.

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NO-CONTEST CONTEST NEWS
I'm so excited! The gallery keeps filling up and I've been practicing how to pick names (is harder than I thought). Can't wait to pick out some No-Contest winners!

[Go to www.dailypuglet.com for info if you missed my No-Contest announcement & are cringing at the thought of another contest]
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SWAMPTHING & SLIMEBUCKET

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NEW PICTURES :)
My human didn't have her normal camera when we went in the pond, so she had to use her phone to take our pictures. Took a little while to figure out how to get pictures off her phone, but here we are in all our slimy, swampy glory.
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So we were at the park yesterday and I saw a man with a special camera just like the one The Visitors had. And it looked like he was pointing it at me.

I wasn't sure what to do, so I told brother Dutch... who totally panicked and told me to make a break for it. I had no idea what that meant, so I just did what he did. Which was jump into the duck pond. Which was really NOT a good idea because it made my human pret-ty mad.

Guys! EEEEW. Get OUT of that gross pond. NOW!

We'd never jumped in the pond before, how were we supposed to know the water was going to be so stinky? And green. And slimy. I tried explaining this to my angry human, but she wasn't interested in excuses. She just wanted to know why.

Seriously guys, we come here every day. You know the duck pond is off-limits. What's the malfunction??

We usually don't get yelled at, but she was real close to yelling. Dutch gave me the keep-your-little-puggy-mouth-shut look, but I hate when humans aren't happy so I totally spilled the beans. I showed her the man with the special camera and told her our suspicions about The Visitors.

She wasn't exactly sympathetic.

Puglet, that man is videotaping the ducks. And The Visitors? They were from a company called IDEO. They're designing a product for dogs and wanted to get real-world information about dogs and their people instead of sitting in a design studio, pretending to know everything. We were talking about you and Dutch because you are DOGS.

Oh.

Did I feel dumb, or what? On the way to the car, other dogs at the park laughed and called us "swampthing" and "slimebucket". By the time we got home, the green slime was dry and didn't want to come off. We had to take the longest bath on earth. But at least we weren't in danger of being abducted or deported.


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ANOTHER NO-CONTEST CONTEST UPDATE
The gallery is getting VERY cute! Yesterday we had two international entries, so now Canada & Romania are in the house. Woo - Woo!

[Go to www.dailypuglet.com for info if you missed my No-Contest announcement & are cringing at the thought of another contest]
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THE VISITORS

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PUGLET'S NO-CONTEST CONTEST UPDATE
Thanks for sending in your photos! The gallery is filling up with SO much four-legged cuteness ~ please keep 'em coming.

[Go to www.dailypuglet.com for info if you missed my No-Contest announcement & are cringing at the thought of another contest]

Oh, and today's picture? That's me and Stubby, a pug-friend from the Chicago area who sent me his photo for the No-Contest. My human thinks we might have been separated at birth (even though he was born about 11 years before I was).

I asked if maybe we could be reunited because Stubby lives next door to a family of foxes and gets to eat Popeye's fried chicken. At my house we have demon chihuahua neighbors and snack on cheerios or carrots. My human completely ignored me when I asked about the reunion, but I remain hopeful.
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I'm a little late today because we had some visitors at my house. Two visitors, actually. I'd never seen these people before and they didn't act like the people who normally come around. They were really nice, but kind of... official. Like they had a job to do or something. Both had notebooks. One had a special camera and the other had a regular one. They asked my human a lot of questions and wrote down a lot of what she said. Made her sign some papers too.

Don't get me wrong, The Visitors were super nice. I sat on their laps and ate snacks while everyone talked. The Lady Visitor took lots of pictures with her camera and the Man Visitor pointed the special camera at us for what seemed like a really long time. The whole thing made me a little nervous.

I didn't pay all that much attention to what everyone was talking about, but I'm pretty sure most of it was about ME. Ok, so I heard The Visitors ask some stuff about brother Dutch and my human too. But that might have just been a cover, you know, to hide their true intentions.

I mean, what if The Visitors were, like, secret government agents? Like in the movie about that alien I supposedly look like. Maybe they saw my blog and think I'm an Extra-Terrestrial too? What if their visit was some sort of reconnaissance mission and they're plotting an alien-pug abduction??

I asked brother Dutch what he thought about it. He said he hadn't thought about it at all. So I told him my suspicions and that got him ALL freaked out about his own "alien" status. Dutch was born in another country and I guess he heard people from other countries called "illegal aliens" on the news once. He's afraid The Visitors might have been immigration agents here to check on his "status". He was only a baby when he came to the U.S. and doesn't really know if he's legal or not - or even what it all means.

I could be abducted, Dutch could be deported, and I'm afraid to ask my human what's going on because I don't want her to panic. Dutch & I are BOTH freaked out enough as it is.

RACE CARS, NOT DOGS

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GOOD NEWS!
I found a new contest. I know I said no more contests. But this one is different because *I* am in charge! Read about Sophie, then have a look :)
** Puglet's No-Contest Contest **
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Since I won't be donating $100,000 to rescues any time soon, now's probably a good time time tell you about Sophie. Not my pug-cousin Sophie in New Jersey -- this Sophie is a greyhound we met at the Pumpkin Festival. She was there with a few other greyhounds and some people from greyhound rescue (Greyhound Friends for Life).

I don't know about you, but I'd never met a greyhound before and didn't know too much about them. Sophie was really sweet and super-chatty. She told me alllll about greyhounds. And why they need rescuing.

Sophie told us it's really rare to meet a greyhound that didn't come from a racetrack. She explained that greyhounds are like dog-versions of the racehorses I've seen on TV. People breed them to race, and only to race. Problem is, races are kinda like contests: they're not always nice and there can only be one winner. The even bigger problem is that dogs who don't win races aren't worth anything to the people who race them. You can probably guess what that means.

And Sophie said even the dogs who do win don't have it easy. They live at the track in kennels and race until they get injured or hit something called a "mandatory retirement age" (5yrs) - whichever comes first. Even though greyhounds can live 12-14 years, when they're done racing, they're usually, y'know... done.

That's where the Greyhound Rescue people come in. They take dogs like Sophie from the track and find them real homes and forever humans. I hope you don't mind me letting Sophie be my stunt double for today's photo, but maybe someone here has been looking for a dog just like her. Besides, I think you've seen moooore than enough of my face lately!

CALLED ON ACCOUNT OF BAD WEATHER

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The polls are closed!
please read...
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I want to thank everyone who fought to overcome annoying technical difficulties and long delays to click for me. Please thank all friends & family who did the same...

But don't think I want to be in the cute contest anymore.

Maybe I just had too much time to think because it rained all day yesterday - but this contest is teaching me things about humans I just don't want to know about.

Like the one pug rescue group who didn't want to vote because my plan to pick the names of 10 rescues from a hat made the whole thing "too speculative" for them to get behind. This almost made my human leak. Who cares WHICH pug rescue group gets the money, as long as pugs get saved??? she said.

Another bunch of people said my promise to donate money was something called "dubious". I don't exactly know what that means, but I get the feeling it's not a compliment. They said to prove I'm "legit", I should post written agreements with any rescue who might benefit. Written agreements?? I don't even have thumbs!

All I wanted to do is help pugs and my human have a better life. I never meant to be speculative or dubious.

Then someone said they saw a cute picture of brother Dutch in the contest. Except we never entered a cute picture of Dutch, just the one you all picked of me. Turns out someone in a place called Rancho Cucamonga (!) entered this picture my human took of Dutch at the beach with his rubber chicken, which is more weird than anything. But still.

The final straw came when my human told me about the bruhaha over how last week's contest winner got all his votes. A lot of people are upset about it because the winning dog's human "bribed" people in a Facebook group to vote for him.

It just doesn't seem like a cuteness contest anymore and I don't want to waste anyone's energy with a bogus contest. I liked it better when I just did my best to look cute here on my blog and made nice people go Awww. Maybe instead of wasting time on some bogus contest, we can come up with our own ways to harness the power of my cuteness??

Again, thanks bunches for all the votes. I promise - NO MORE CONTESTS!!

IT'S CALLED A FESTIVAL

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The Polls are FINALLY open!
Vote Pug: http://tinyurl.com/yk6kdee
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Remember the super-pumpkin from last week? Well, over the weekend there was a great big party for it down in Half Moon Bay (brother Dutch is telling me the technical term for it is Pumpkin Festival). They have this party, uh Festival, every October to celebrate pumpkins and raise money for stuff like town parks and trees.

I'd never been to a festival before, but sign me up for all future ones! There were a gazillion people (I got kissed and pet and Awwwwwed-over by about half of them), cool things to look at (Dutch says it's called Art - apparently this wasn't his first festival) and LOTS of tasty snacks all over the ground for dogs to eat.

I'm new to this whole pumpkin thing, but they're kinda cool. For one, you can eat them. I found a piece of pie on the sidewalk -- all I can say is YUM. And if you have a great big knife, tons of patience and a whole bunch of time, you can turn a pumpkin into just about anything. Like this scary man that Dutch was afraid of (and I barked at):

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CUTE CONTEST UPDATE:

While we were at the festival, me & brother Dutch campaigned hard. We wore our halloween costumes (a HUGE hit) and passed out hundreds of Vote Pug! cards. Lots of people got very excited and promised to help Team Puglet win.

There was some SNAFU and the contest people didn't post my picture until TODAY so we lost a whole day of voting yesterday. Booo! Sorry to anyone who went to vote & couldn't :( First Hansen's made us wait all day, and now this. Why are all these contest people so slow??

AND THE CUTEST IS...

Over 100 people took time to vote on my cuteness and the overwhelming favorite was...

Cute #2!

We now have Team Puglet's official entry for the new contest. YAY!

Here's the link to register & vote: http://tinyurl.com/yk6kdee

If you're asking other humans to click for me, DailyPuglet.com now has a special page with all the details in one place. Hopefully, this will make it super-easy for people to join in.

We spent today down at the giant pumpkin festival. My friend Jack the Labrador's human works for the town and finagled a way to have "Vote for Pug" posters put up all over the place. My face was on the side of a parade car, on buildings and city work trucks. Made me feel almost famous.

I met LOADS of pug fans and posed for about a zillion pictures. My human says even if I don't win the contest, my face is now on plenty of iPhones. I wonder if there's a prize for that?

-- Overall Cuteness Results --

Cute #2 WINNER [49 votes]
Cute #3 came in a distant second [24 votes]
Cute #5 took a close third [19 votes]
Cute #4 ranked only luke-warm cute [9 votes]
Cute #1 was me at my least-cutest [3 votes]

PLEASE PICK A NUMBER!

Sorry this is so late today. A man had to come to our house and give us back the internet. I heard him say it broke last night when they were doing some repairs. That made my human laugh, which was much better than what the broken internet made her do.

Anyway. My human looked through my pictures for stuff that looked cute. She says we need a picture that will make people go AWWWWW. People go AWWWWW at me all the time, so you'd think we could just use any picture of me for the Cute contest... but no. My human says we have to pick a special extra-cute one.

She tried to find some that you haven't seen before, but if you've seen a cuter one here on my blog, we could use that too. Doesn't matter, as long a it's THE cutest picture ever.

Please let us know what your favorite is!

!! Voting starts on Sunday this time (Oct 18th). I'll put the voting link & contest info right here for everyone to find it. So just tell your people to go to dailypuglet.com :)

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RANDOM NEWS: The lobsters are *still* parading around my local park. Last night a man said he's seen hundreds of them going to and from the parking lot everyday this week. Weird!

LOBSTER PARADE

I've got some good news about Team Puglet, but this isn't The Daily Puglet Contest blog, so first let's talk lobsters.

So we had our first big rain here this week and lots of places got flooded. And I guess when things get flooded, things happen that usually don't. Y'know, cars float. Mud slides. And herds of lobsters invade my local park. Seriously.

The park was closed because of the flooding/high winds but we went in anyway because we'd been cooped up inside all day and my human wanted us tired. We snuck in the back way, then did our usual lap on a dirt trail around the lake. I checked out the ducks, Brother Dutch chased imaginary squirrels. Some trees were on the ground, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Until we got to the main path in the park and saw all these, uh, creatures walking towards the main parking lot. And there weren't just one or two of them. There were LOTS. Like, more than a hundred. They were bigger than a humans hand and red with giant claws and a funny flipper tail. They looked just like a toy lobster we have that makes bubble noises when you chew on it.

Of course brother Dutch was afraid of them.

Two ladies were putting lobsters into a giant bag and my human thought they must be trying to save them, so she helped gather them up. Then I heard one lady say, "Tastes good with soy sauce" and saw my human give her a weird look. She stopped helping after that.

Another man was trying to herd the lobsters off the path, so they wouldn't die, he said. My human helped him instead. I tried to help, but one of the lobsters almost pinched me in the face, so I just watched after that.

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Team Puglet News!

Arizona Pug Rescue, Green Mountain Pug Rescue (Vermont) and Illinois Pug & Boston Terrier Rescue have all joined Team Puglet.

We're going to the CA Pug specialty show on Saturday to take pictures and recruit new team members.

Starting Saturday, dailypuglet.com will take voters to a special page with all the info about the contest (a link to vote will be added monday). Hopefully, this will make it easy for people to join Team Puglet and/or vote. Don't worry, if you usually get here using that address, you'll still be able to.

Tomorrow: we all pick a picture to enter and I'll reveal Jack the Labrador's master plan.

AM I CUTE ENOUGH?

So I got an email yesterday from a pug named George (hi George!) who thinks I should enter a new contest that starts next week. This one doesn't have anything to do with soda - he said something about cuteness? And a great big prize?

But my human said no way. No more contests. Team Puglet is all clicked out. But then I gave her the look - y'know, the one that makes humans melt and give you cookies and stuff even after they've said no more? She wavered a little. Then my friend Jack came up with this plan on how to win this time. He said if we get everyone on Team Puglet to ask 5 friends to vote, and have those 5 friends ask just one other person - we could totally do it.

I thought that sounded OK. Brother Dutch thought it sounded "a lot like math". And my human said it sounds "like a scam you'd read about in an email from Nigeria". I don't know anything about math. Or Nigeria. But I do know I really want to give money to homeless pugs. And I probably shouldn't tell you this because my human doesn't like when I write about her (this isn't The Daily Human, she says) but she was really hoping to win some of the Hansen's money for herself too.

I don't know all the details because it happened before I came along, but I guess my human got ambushed by one of those great big trucks with all the wheels and her brain got hurt. It was the same accident that made her dog Grendel go to sleep, so she doesn't talk about it much because it makes her leak real bad. I hate when humans leak, so I don't ask many questions.

Anyway, my human's brain did get better, but not totally better. It's still kinda gimpy. And her new gimpy brain can't do the same kind of work it used to do, and I can tell she's had a hard time getting back on her feet. I know what a pain a gimpy foot can be - but a gimpy brain? That must really suck.

The whole idea for The Daily Puglet actually came from one of my human's brain doctors (who also has a pug). I heard the doctor say it would be a good way to do "something positive" each day and use her brain in a way that wouldn't make it so tired. I'm pretty sure that part of the plan has been working, but I know my human is always looking for other things to do too. Things that pay money, she says.

That's where I got the idea to enter the Hansen's photo contest. I could win money for my human, and get some money to help pugs at the same time. Everyone would win and I would be the hero! But things didn't go as planned (obviously) and now I'm wondering if I should try to win another contest, try to rally Team Puglet to make a comeback... or just go back to doing the things I do best: looking cute in the privacy of my own home and here on this blog for my friends.

What do you all think?? Do you think it's worth a second try? Am I cute enough to win? Does Team Puglet/blogger have any more clicks left? I posted to a pug forum to see if there's any new support there, and I've got my human on the fence now. I just know I could push her off with a little... help.

AND THE WINNER IS...

A 1658 pound super-pumpkin from Des Moines, Iowa. We went to see it yesterday while waiting for the bad news about the Hansen's contest.

Super-pumpkin is 5' 4" tall and more than 14 feet around the middle. Its human drove all the way to California to compete in Half Moon Bay's 36th annual World Championship Pumpkin Weigh-off. We watched them unload it from the back of a big truck using this yellow fork-lift thingy that made Brother Dutch a little nervous.

The human who made the giant pumpkin said these suckers can grow about 30 to 40 pounds a DAY. That's like two whole pugs worth of pumpkin!?! My human says you can make tasty pies out of pumpkins. You know how many tasty pies a 1658 pound pumpkin must make!?!

Here's a clip from our local news. If you make it to the last few seconds, you'll see me sitting on the super-pumpkin for today's photo.

THANKS!

Well, today's the big day. Pretty soon we'll know if I won the Hansen's contest.

But you know what? Even if I don't win, right now I'm feeling pretty special. At first I felt a little weird about asking people I've never even met to take time to vote. And not just once, but every day. For like weeks in a row.

No one seemed to mind me asking though. Lots of you clicked for me every day - sometimes even by phone! You wrote about the contest on your blogs & forums, sent out emails to other humans, and never complained about my annoying daily voting reminders.

I could only fit one flower in my mouth, but a whole *bunch* of thanks to everyone who clicked, crossed their paws & curled their tails. OK, maybe the curly tail part happens on its own. But thanks anyway!

**

RESULTS ARE IN: despite everyone's best clicking, Puglet didn't win The Grand Prize. He says pugs still rule though.

**

SPECIAL WEEKEND EDITION

Only TWO days left to Vote for The Pug (uhm, that's me) in the Hansen's Soda photo contest. You can click 3 times each day (hint hint).

Here's the link to vote for my picture:

http://www.hansensloves.com/sanfrancisco/your-best-shot-gallery.php?week=5

See you Monday! We'll find out then if Pugs rule...

MILEY FLYS, PUG SINKS

Well, I was right. Miley came to the lake with a plan. Sort of.

Miley: Hey Puggit! Guess who can fly? Miley can! Miley can!
Me: Liar.
Miley: No, really. Really, I CAN. Last weekend I saw this thing on the TV about penguins or pelicans or some bird that starts with the puh sound. My person had it on that TiVo thing so I watched it over and over and over until I figured out how the birds do it. I've been practicing all week.
Me: Were they parrot birds? I met a few parrots once and they said wings make them fly. Where are your wings?
Miley: I don't need no stinkin' wings! I've got EARS. It's all about the ears.

At first I thought Miley was either lying or just making fun of me. Then I thought she might be crazy (my human says the right word is delusional) because these spotted dogs can be kinda nutty sometimes. But then... I watched her take off. Y'know, like, leave the ground.

Yup. Miley can totally fly. I watched her do it a bunch of times and still can't figure out how it works. I did everything I saw her do - but instead of taking off, I just sank. Like a stone, my human says.

Miley says it's all in the ears. My ears are a lot smaller than hers, maybe instead of wings I just need bigger ears? The spots all have big ears. I mean, just look at brother Dutch's!?!

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FINAL ANNOYING VOTING REMINDER: Voting closes Sunday at midnight. Please keep clicking - we'll find out Monday if Pugs rule.

Yes We Can! Yes We Can!

Vote for the Pug:

http://www.hansensloves.com/sanfrancisco/your-best-shot-gallery.php?week=5

GIMPY GETS THE GREEN LIGHT

It was really cool hearing everyone's name stories yesterday. Who knew humans put so much thought into what they call us? I mean, most of the stuff that comes out of my human's mouth makes no sense. I had no idea her head could be so full of thinking.

[Hope you don't mind, but Brother Dutch (aka Princess, Dutchilicious, Rain Man, Boo) is a little sensitive & felt a kinda left out yesterday because he "doesn't have a cool pug name". So I said he could star in today's picture. Y'know, to make him feel like one of us.]

Anyway. I survived my trip to the vet. She couldn't find anything wrong with my foot, but thinks I might have sprained a toe or two during the first gimpy episode, then re-gimped it going nuts at Pug Sunday. The vet said I can stop elevating and gave me the green light to play -- but I'm supposed to take it easy on my toes for the rest of the week.

I asked if swimming would be OK and she said swimming would be better than OK. So later today we're going to meet the spots (Miley & Boka) at the lake. I haven't heard anything from Miley about another flight plan, but Miley is kinda wily. You never know what she's going to do next.

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DEEEEP THOUGHTS

Life is still on hold because of the foot, so I don't have any new adventures to talk about. And this got me thinking... you know what I really like best about this whole blogging thing? Hearing from other pugs. I know lots of pugs in my neighborhood, but I never knew there were so many of us out there.

And I've noticed something about us pugs - we all have cool names. Ok, maybe my name isn't so cool. But everywhere I go, people know exactly what to call me. It works. I've heard lots of people ask my human if my name is really Pug, but I usually don't stick around to hear what she says. Thanks to my gimpy foot play-restrictions, I finally heard the full story yesterday at the park.

I'm a little fuzzy on some of the details, but for some reason, my human thought someone else would give me a "real name". So she just called me Puglet because back then I was a little pug. No one else ever gave me a different name, so I stayed Puglet. Except I've kinda outgrown the 'let' part -- so a lot of times it's just Pug, Puggers, or Pugaroo. Pretty much anything that starts with Pug.

I'd never really thought about it, but I guess a lot of names have stories behind them.

Like Rosie who comments here sometimes; she is Rosie because her human missed their sleeping dog, Daisy. A pug in my neighborhood is named Cartman because, well, he kinda looks like the kid from the South Park cartoon. Brother Dutch got his name because he was born in some place called The Netherlands. Don't ask me how that works.

Does anyone else here know the story behind their name? I'm all curious now to hear how humans come up with this stuff.

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INTERMISSION

My human said I can't go anywhere or do anything fun because of the gimpy foot. I told her that makes for a pretty boring Daily Puglet, but couldn't get her to bend the rules.

Since you've already seen me elevate and stare at the camera looking bored... today I have a video of me doing nothing. Ok, slightly more than nothing. But not by much. This is how me and Brother Dutch play. Dutch is kind of a wimp so I have to be real gentle and pretend like he's winning. We do this everyday for about 2 minutes - gimpy foot or no gimpy foot.



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RELAPSE

The gimpy foot is back.

Everything was going great... On saturday, I went for a five mile hike over where the cows live. Sunday morning we went to the beach. Yesterday afternoon was Pug Sunday and I ran around like a wild pug for about an hour... until my foot went bad. Then I just stood next to my human and waited to leave.

Brother Dutch was having such a good time, we stayed a little while longer to let him play. I did my best to elevate. It wasn't much fun, but I'm really glad we stayed because my friend Ody showed up. I'd never met Ody before - we only know each other by blog - so it was so cool to finally smell his butt.

Meeting Ody made me super-bummed about the bad foot though. I've wanted to play with Ody for a reeeally long time. Y'see, Ody had leg surgery a few months ago and had to take some time off to recover. Now that he's all healed up and ready to play, I'm out of commission with a stupid case of gimpy foot.

Even though I couldn't play, it was still cool to meet Ody & his humans. His dad even carried me back to our car (note: being carried down the street by a man isn't nearly as bad as being carried down the street by your MOM). I got the frozen peas/baby aspirin treatment as soon as we got home and I've been trying to elevate. Problem seems to be in the toes.

Wednesday, we go to the vet.

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BRING ON THE BOOTY!

It's almost time for the big Hansen's contest vote-off and I'm a little nervous but super-excited about my chance to win The Grand Prize.

My human said she couldn't have taken our winning photo without [quote] my ridiculous level of cooperation, so she's giving me a share of the big prize if we win. She just bought me like a year's supply of Pirate's Booty as a thank you, and since I'm only allowed to eat so much food, I've been trying to think of ways to spend my share of the winnings.

I finally came up with a plan: I will donate my share of the prize money to help homeless pugs. Sometimes I feel kinda guilty that my human had to stop fostering dogs when I came along and I don't think The Grand Prize is enough to buy a new apartment that doesn't have a 2 dog limit... so I figure helping our local pug rescue (pugPROS) is the next best idea.

There are aren't any judges in the final round - whoever gets the most votes wins. So now I need your help more than ever! My human and her friends are asking everyone they know (and lots of people they don't) to click for me when the voting starts on Monday. Please please pleeeeeeease keep voting and tell all your friends to vote for me too.

Voting runs Oct 5th - 11th. Here's a link to the final gallery:

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WINGS + BALLOON + FLOATY VEST =

So yesterday I hung out with my spotted friend Miley. Y'know, the one who knows a mule and is always full of good ideas?

Well, Miley feels bad for getting my hopes up about flying (twice) and is determined to get me off the ground. She's really nice like that (and I think maybe a little stubborn too). Anyway. When we met up at the lake to go swimming, she was all excited about her new idea to help me fly. Let's call it Plan X.

Miley figured out that a bunch of balloons just isn't enough to get my [quote] fat pug butt off the ground, but by adding the floaty thing that makes me lighter in water and something wing-like, I might be light enough to take off. So Plan X went something like this: wings + balloon + the vesty thing that makes me float in water = me being able to fly.

Sounds good, right?

The humans thought Miley's idea was pretty funny. Brothers Dutch & Boka thought it sounded scary. I just want to fly and am willing to try anything that won't hurt me. The humans agreed Plan X wasn't dangerous and gave our latest experiment the green light. We attached a pair of balloon butterfly wings Miley brought to my floaty vest, and I even climbed up on a rock to get closer to the sky. Ok, so Plan X didn't exactly work. I didn't fly, but I did scare the bejeezus out of brother Dutch and the wings were kinda cool and super-fun to swim in. Knowing Miley, she'll have another idea soon.