WORDS EVERY PUG WANTS TO HEAR

The other day someone at the park said two words every pug wants to hear: looks skinny.

As in "Puglet looks skinny!". As in, Puglet looks like he could use some more food.

Uh huh, you heard me. MORE FOOD.

So when we went to Petsmart yesterday to buy a new snail for Fish, I hopped up on the scale to check the numbers. First the scale said I weigh 24.0 lbs, but then I moved or breathed or something and gained a little weight. That brought me up to 24.2 - still plenty skinny.

Weight loss tip: stay very still when on a scale. Any sudden movement could cause you to gain weight!

It's been awhile since we made a video or did a real photoshoot, so the lack of extra-curricular cookies might explain my skinniness. My human promised we'll be working on something "very cool" and mega doses of cookies will be coming my way soon.

Soon? Uhm, how soon is NOW?

HUG A PUG DAY

Last week I saw a thingy on Facebook that said September 29th is Hug a Pug Day. I didn't think much of it at the time, but after 2 days of the silent treatment from my human, I know how important hugs can be. And how much I really like them.

{Hint. Hint.}

Now, I know there are lots of non-pug dogs here, and even some cats and just plain humans. But that doesn't mean you can't celebrate this genius holiday. Somewhere out there is a lonely pug in a need of a hug. Or at least a pug who wouldn't mind getting hugged one or two or a hundred more times.

Because pugs love love and hugs are kinda sorta like love.

So if you have a pug at home, remember to spend a few minutes hugging him/her on this pug holy day. If you don't have a pug at home, hug whoever you have. If you don't have anyone at home to hug... uhm... you can come hug me!

REDEMPTION

Thanks for all the awesome ideas on how to win back my human. I've been practicing my best cute/sad/pathetic faces in front of the mirror and even figured out how to make a cute/sad/pathetic sound effect to go along with the face. I think it should work.

As a bonus, I got this supercute sweater in the mail yesterday from Noodle in Monterrey (his mom made it!!!). I know how much humans love when we wear clothes, so as soon as it's not 100 degrees out, I'm going to put on my new sweater, make my best cute/sad/pathetic face (+ sound effect) and make my human feel really bad about taking pictures of that poodle in the park.

Uhm. I mean make her forget I accidentally attacked a poor innocent poodle.

PS: If you want to see what the poodle picture was supposed to look like, it's on today's Daily Frolic. I guess my human took it after she made me go sit in the car.

THE POODLE INCIDENT

So, I kinda got in trouble yesterday for "interrupting" one of my human's pictures. She was all ga-ga over this poodle in the park and I was all uh-uh because he kept coming near my ball *and* Nikon.

And I kinda lost it.

Of course my human caught my not-so-finer moment for everyone to see (then quickly stuck me in the car and apologized to the poodle people for my "psychotic behavior"). The poodle incident was 2 days ago and I think my human is still mad at me. I've been trying to think of something extrasupercute I can do to win her back, but every time I strike a pose she just gives me this look and says "No camera for you, Little Creep."

What do you to after you've been bad to make your human love you again?

FFF: attention deprivation

Lately my human's been so busy shooting strangers, that she hasn't been taking that many pictures of me. Y'know, her muse or whatever.

I've been trying to be good about not hogging the camera, so I've been waiting (kinda patiently) for her to start shooting me again. Waiting. And waiting. And waiting... but the waiting hasn't been working.

So yesterday I tried my hardest to get Nikon's attention. I Jimmied. I ran around with stuff in my mouth and looked cute. I splashed in the water like it's the first time I ever saw water, even though I see it all the time. Nothing.

In one last desperate move, I did my best pose-on-something. There I was, all twisted up like one of those pretzel things, and my human totally didn't notice! Until some lady walked by an said "Oh! Look at the pug. He's posing for the camera!". That FINALLY got me some attention. And today's picture.

HoM-OVER

So, last night we went to the House of Meat and I ate a whole BUNCH of stuff when my human and The Man were out (please don't tell my human this because she might take away some of my food).

I was kinda worried someone might notice my sudden increase in tubeyness... until Dutch outdid my eating by jumping UP on the counter and consuming an ENTIRE frying pan full of melted cow (technical term: grease).

Sometimes it really sucks to be short.

At first I was really kinda mad at Dutch for being tall enough to eat stuff off the counter. I mean, how fair is that?? But a few hours later, melted-cow karma totally kicked in and taught him a lesson. We're talking sick with a capital S - From both ends. Maybe even at the same time.

Mr. Grease-eater was up all night and I heard my human say something about a trip to the V-word. I'm not feeling so great today, but not bad enough to need the V-word.

I guess being short is better than eating melted cow. Sort of.

NEW SPORT

Bella-T + Me

Before I jumped off the couch and gimped my foot, I had a really fun weekend. On Saturday we went across the grey bridge to Pt Isabel and met up with Bellatrix. It was her first time there so I showed her where people drop food on the ground sometimes, and all the best places to pee.

I'm pretty sure Bellatrix had a fun time.


After introducing Bella-T to play at Pt Isabel, it was my turn to try a new sport: shopping. I think I've mentioned that my human is the worst shopper on the planet. And I didn't know this was a problem until Bellatrix's human started shopping for me.

Because shopping = cool pet stores and cool pet stores = cool food.

So, we headed to a store called Redhound in a place called Berkeley. Dutch remembered going there for training classes when he first moved in with my human, but he doesn't remember any shopping.

This one fits.

Shopping at Redhound was really cool. There were loads of toys and snacks and things to sniff, and the people in the store were all supernice. Even the shop dog was cool (his name is Fella) and I was totally OK with my human using the Nikon on him.

Pretty please??

While I was busy checking out the goods, Bellatrix got bellyrubs galore and Dutch helped a customer pick out a dog bed. Lucky for me, Dutch is tall enough to scope out snacks that I can't see or smell because these suckers are TASTY. I usually don't bother chewing, but I took my time with this snack.

I got the blue one, can you guess which one Dutch got?

BEHOOVED

Uh, someone's positive thinking yesterday did something really weird to my feet. I went from gimpy-footed to... hooved!

Nah, just kidding.

My gimpy-brained human was cleaning out the dog cabinet yesterday and found a whole bunch of new parts she totally forgot to feed us. And I thought everyone's brains could use some comic relief after all that deep thought, so I tried on a few parts for a quick picture before eating.

The parts I'm wearing came from some exotic animal I don't remember the name of, but we got them at Pugnacious and they're more tasty than the usual kind of hooves we get. Whatever they are.


Dutch is modeling a pair of feet called Twin Hoofers. I think they might be from a cow, but the ingredients label says they contain: hoof, tendon, bone, cartilage so who knows. I just know they are taste-y.

THINK POSITIVE

Today's the day I was going to announce the winner of the Virtual Pug Sunday (and other dogs and cats) no-contest contest. But yesterday I jumped off the couch and somehow gimpied one of my left feet and my human didn't want me to run around trying to figure out which name to pick as a winner.

I think that Fate thing must have gimpied my foot so I could talk about something more important today. So I could ask you all to think positive for someone else's gimpy foot... and fix it... like we did with Fred the Boxer's ear.

Because yesterday I got an email from my friend Suki in Texas telling me about a new toe that recently appeared on one of her feet. Suki's had two knee surgeries and is now part bionic, so at first I thought her new toe was just another bionic body part. But the vet said her new toe is the C-word and now Suki's having surgery on Thursday to lose the C-word toe.

That's where we come in. Let's all think positive for Suki and the stupid new toe. Let's try and turn the C-word into the B-word (benign). Ok? Ready? Start thinking.

FFF: don't touch my tooble!

Frank + his/MY tooble

I'm going to finish off this week's sharing streak by dedicating today's Freeze Frame Friday to my buddy Frank. And MY tooble.

I've been trying reeeeally hard to be good around the camera so maybe my human will start taking me with her on stupid photo shoots. Or at least maybe when she shoots dogs for the stupid Daily Frolic. So last weekend when we met up with Frank and his friend Boomer (she was yesterday's Daily Frolic and is extrasupercute) to work on a top secret project, I was on my best behavior.

Things were going fine until my human had the genius idea to let me and Frank share a giant Tooble. I guess she thought a 3 foot long Tooble would be enough for two pugs to share. Uh, hello!

She thought wrong.

Frank, in a moment of un-Frankness, decided to try and hog the whole Tooble. Today's picture is the look he gave me when I tried to hog it back. My human was too busy trying to keep us from killing each other to take pictures of what happened next, but it wasn't pretty. And it wasn't 100% my fault either.

DEAR PUGLET

Franklin

I get a lot of Dear Puglet emails. Usually it's just to say hi or say how cute I am. Sometimes there's a question. Stuff like how do you stay so slim? Where can I buy Toobles? What kind of camera does your human have that makes you look so cute? Y'know, things that are pretty easy to answer.

But I recently got a different kind of email. From a pug in need. His name is Franklin, he lives here in San Francisco, and is looking for a new home. Franklin's email made me leak a little bit, even though I know there will be a happy ending. Franklin said it'd be OK to share the email with everyone so I'll let him do the talking.

Dear Puglet,

My mom was hoping your mom could post something about me on your blog because I need a new home. I'm a super cute 3 year old, neutered male pug, named Franklin. My family really loves me and I love them but I'm just not a city dog.

I'm loyal and loving with my people and I get along with my dog friends but the trouble is I just hate everyone else! I'm kind of like a mini akita but cuter of course. My mom can't take me out to the dog park any more. In fact, you may have met me at pug sunday. I'm the pug who always attacks Dutch before I realize that chasing rubber chickens is more fun than fighting.

I'm an excellent guard dog. I hate being on a leash and all the people walking past my house all the time make me crazy. My family home is too busy! Too many people coming in and out all the time.

I need to live down at the end of a long dirt road in the country where I can play fetch to my hearts content and visitors are rare. Another dog to play with would be great.

My pluses: My mom says I am the best snuggler ever! I have really good breathing and eyes. I am very well trained. My tail is divine. I'm sweet and gentle with my family members, including the little girls.

My minuses: I have bitten a couple of people who have surprised me. Pug rescue won't take me because I'm a biter. My family thinks that our home just isn't the right place for me. I'm like a crabby old man trapped in a pug body! Can you help? Sincerely, Franklin the Pug

If you know of a non-city human looking for a pug to call their own, or have any ideas for Franklin... send us an email dailypuglet-at-gmail.com. We'll pass the message on to Franklin and his people.

DISGRUNTLED

After the twigs, uh, left the building on Saturday we met up with a bunch of my human's friends. They were all dog shooters too, so everywhere I looked there was someone to pose for.

Cameras to the left of me. Cameras to the right of me. Cameras in front of me.

I was in heaven! Striking a pose takes a lot of concentration, so it took me awhile to notice that the cameras I was posing for were named Canon and Pentax. My human's camera is named Nikon. Where was Nikon? And my human?

Well, I'll tell you where they were. And I have today's picture to prove it. My human wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention to ME because she was too busy taking pictures of a stranger dog for the stupid Daily Frolic. That's her in the background with the yellow hair. And that's me in the front, looking disgruntled.

And she wonders why I eat sticks.

Huge thanks to Lily's dog-shooting mom (Chickpea Photography) for documenting this injustice!

SOCKS + TWIGS

So, last Friday I fell off the wagon. I'd been doing pretty good with the whole not-eating-stuff thing ever since my human threatened to make me wear one of those bee hats... but something in side me just said EAT IT, so I did.

What I ate was a bunch of twigs. And by Friday night the twigs hit some part of my insides that doesn't like twigs. It really didn't feel good. I moped around and whined a little and tried to find a comfortable way to sleep but couldn't. So I woke everyone up to keep me company.

My human wasn't happy about being awake in the middle of the night, and she totally wasn't happy it was because I ate something I know I'm not supposed to eat. So she gave me some magic mineral oil and we all went back to sleep.

By morning, the twigs (and everything else I'd eaten) were ready to come out. We drove over the bridge to Pt Isabel, and as soon as we got out of the car the twigs were history. About a minute later, I met a pug named Massimo.

Massimo isn't looking his cutest in today's picture because when I was busy eating twigs, he was busy eating one of him mom's socks. Like me, Massimo is a repeat offender/addict. I think this was his 3rd sock incident.

Luckily the socks Massimo eats are small and have never gotten stuck, but we both still got a big huge lecture about eating things we shouldn't.

I hope you're feeling better Massimo!

MACHO MAN?

I'm too sexy for my collar.

I guess I kinda forgot to let Dutch show off his birthday (thanks Molly in PA for reminding me). So today I guess I'll talk about Dutch. And let him show off for a change.

The first surprise came at Pug Sunday. Bellatrix brought giant bags full of stuff for Dutch's big day. The goodies were getting a lot of attention from all the pugs, so my human ran and put the bags in the car to keep them safe. Then Zoey & Phoebe's human showed up with more bags!

Another trip to the car for safety.

And then a nice, pugless lady named Heather came with a bag full of tasty snacks, but these snacks were for ME so my human let me & the other pugs have some. I think kitties would like the salmon snacks she brought me. They were nice and stinky and fishy!

Happy birthday to me!

Back at the house, Dutch got to gloat, uhm, I mean enjoy his surprises. There were sqeakies and cookies and bully penises and turkey gullets and the cutest little birthday cakey thing my human has ever seen (I stole a bite - it was also supertasty!). Dutch was so happy, he even smiled for the camera. Sort of.

Bellatrix, whose human is the queen of shopping, got Dutch a really cool waterproof, macho-but-not-too-macho collar. It was a little too big for Mr Skinny neck, so yesterday we went over the grey bridge to play with Bella + Spencer, then headed over to Dog Bone Alley to get Dutch a smaller version of macho-ness.

Dutch was so excited about the waterproof collars at Dog Bone Alley, he tried on like every single one of them. Of course he liked the girlie ones the best, but the humans decided yellow daisies would look better on a GIRL and stuck with the punk-preppy argyle & crossbones.

How can a boy choose just one?

So far, Dutch has gotten TONS of compliments about his new collar and has only been she'd once. Thanks everyone for making my big spotted brother so happy on his 7th special day!

FFF: Alkemie

My human is really sick of wearing fleece, so yesterday we headed south (again) in search of sun.

We ended up at Water Dog Lake Park (again) even though the lake is really a scuzzy pond. My human got to shed her fleece and we made it through another hike without being eaten by a snake or lion. Everybody was happy.

On the way home, we stopped at Whole Foods to buy tomatoes because my human forgot to water our tomato plant and it died. She also bought some ice cream, which has never happened before. Because my human HATES ice cream. Something about a bad tonsil experience and ice cream being too "creamy"?
No idea.

Brain freeze?

I guess when I was cooling off in the scuzzy pond, my human talked to some guy who makes this cow-free ice cream called Alkemie. And I guess a long hike in the hot sun made cow-free ice cream sound really good. So she bought some, thinking it wouldn't really be creamy.

Hello! If you hate the cream part, why not just buy ice??

Anyway. Turns out cow-free ice cream is just as creamy as the kind made from cows. Which is good news if you want your ice cream to be, uhm, creamy. But since my human is a cream-hating freak, me & Dutch got to eat it instead.

Mmmm, mmmm.

I'm not sure how Alkemie gets creamy without the cream. Or how it compares to ice cream made from cows, because cowy ice cream has never set foot in our house, but Holy Cowpies does it taste good!!

DRAW THE DOG

My human says people who can draw have special powers. Powers she (and a lot of other thumbs) don't have. So she was superexcited when my friend Lily sent us a link to the Draw the Dog website.

Draw the Dog is kinda like Daily Puglet. They post a new funny picture every day (except they work Saturdays and I don't). But it's also waaay cooler because the pictures they post aren't from a camera; they're made by hand with the special powers.

The drawings are based on pictures/stories people send in, and my human is very excited to send one of her camera picture (of ME) to someone who's got the powers. But we have NO IDEA what picture to send. I mean, there are kind of a few to pick from. I know a lot of people have a favorite Daily Puglet.

Any suggestions??

I'm not special -- you can send your own pictures/stories to Draw the Dog too! I think it'd be really funny if they got flooded by pugs :)

* * * Part Update * * *

Thanks to you, I now have a whole BUNCH of eating to do.

Woo. Hoo!

In case you're looking for a new snack, here's the new & improved official Daily Puglet part List:

• beef cheeks
• beef knees
  
• lam lungs
• lamb legs
• duck
• anything/everything from a butcher
• canned tripe
• smoked pig bones
• antlers
• turkey gullets
• chicken feet!

PARTS OF A WHOLE

Tooble.

Thanks to your ideas, I have now have a new trick to work on. Maybe two. And maybe even another video to make. Woo hoo!!

I'm kinda liking this 30+ heads are better than one thing, so I want to have one more brain tornado. This time, about parts. Y'know, like animal parts. Because just when I think I've eaten all of them, a new one shows up. Like the Tooble. Or those Bison ankles Belltrix gave me. Or crunchy back strap thing from Buford + co.


I think the only way to make sure I eat all available the parts is to make a list. Sorry if this grosses any of the humans out. I know a lot of you read this first thing in the AM and maybe that's not the best time to talk about animal parts - unless you're a dog. And I'm a dog. So here goes...

Parts I have eaten:

snout
ear
ankle
hoof
some kind of bone thing
back strap thing
hide
penis
tooble
cow pie

I know there must be others. I mean, I've seen a cow and they're pretty huge. And you'd think huge = lots of parts, right? And then there are pigs and buffaloes and, I don't know, sheep and stuff?

Google says parts-for-dogs are the bits that human's don't want to eat, if that's any sort of clue. My human eats more carrots than parts, so she wasn't much help. The animal part diagrams I found were very inspiring, but didn't help me add any new parts to my list.

Any ideas?

RIDICULOUS CUTENESS (+ TALENT)

Meet Winston. Yeah. I know. It's OK, you can say it.

Awwwww.

Winston is the posterpug for the next generation of supermodel-actors. He's only 6 months old and already knows how to work it for the camera. He also knows how to wave, play dead (complete with a yelp) AND roll over.

The yelping part of the dead trick might have been a lucky coincidence. But the rest? Totally the real deal.

Winston's ridiculous cuteness (and talent) reminded me that I haven't done a single talented thing since Green Pug. And people have already forgotten about that. I've seen that E True Hollywood Story show on TV - I know what happens when stars fizzle out.

I'm waaay too young to has-been.

So. Since my human's all busy with her stupid Frolic stuff, I need your help. I need... a new trick. Something that can compete with younger, cuter dogs like Winston. But nothing that involves rolling over. Please.

Any ideas??

B-DAY BOOTY

So, I followed everyone's advice and picked out some "macho" neckwear for Dutch's birthday. I know you're probably wondering what's "macho" about a sparkly, baby blue collar. Well, not a whole lot, I guess. But it's definitely more macho than his pink Princess collar.

The cool thing about the sparkly collars is they're made out of vinyl, which means they can go swimming and not get icky. My human says the first one Dutch had lasted about 2 years before it started to get icky, so he should be good on collars until his 11th birthday.

I reminded my human that getting nothing but collars for your birthday is lame, so we got Dutch some other stuff too. Like salmon skins from Pugnacious, the world's largest Tooble, and a very cute, somewhat macho squeaky chicken from a place called George.

Macho chicken.

The macho chicken really can't compete with Henrietta, but I think it's pretty cool. Dutch played with it for about 20 minutes straight before it finally got stuck under the couch (and my human left it there because the squeaking was starting to drive her nuts).

Pret-ty cool birthday if you ask me. And it got even better when we met up with friends at Pug Sunday. But I don't want to make anyone totally jealous, so I'll let Dutch tell you about it later this week. It's been awhile since I let him talk anyway.

HAPPY #7

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DUTCH
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DUTCH
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DU-UTCH
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO DUTCH!

Since today is Dutch's special-day, that's all I'm gonna say. Except, uh, see you Monday!

CHEENGOO!

So, I gave my human the motivational underwear and your awesome list of suggestions. She's on her own now. I just hope she doesn't take Spencer B's advice and start running around town in her knickers. That would be super embarrassing.

Now that the motivational crisis is over, we can go back to talking about more important things... like me.

So, remember when I asked for advice on a cool new collar for Dutch? And Mathilde in Switzerland suggested a store here in SF called Cheengoo? Well, I've kinda been a little obsessed with the word Cheengoo because it just makes me happy.

Seriously. Try saying Cheengoo without smiling. Go ahead, say it right now. Cheengoo. Pretty impossible, right?

supercute neckwear + leashes

Well, I'd never been to Cheengoo and because my human is the lamest shopper ever, neither had she. So last weekend I dragged her to the store to check out their neckwear selection. Turns out they make supercute leashes and collars, for necks both fat and skinny.

While we were there, I learned from the store's owner that Cheengoo is the Korean word for friend - which makes it that much cooler.

Maybe if I ignore him, he'll go away.

Speaking of friends, I made a new one when I was supermodeling on Cheengoo's couch. There I was, working it for the camera, when all of a sudden this other pug shows up. His name is Gus and I guess he's extrasupercute because everyone immediately stopped aaawwwing at me and started awwwing at him instead.

Gus seemed like a pretty cool guy so I didn't chase him away. Or attack my human's camera to keep her from taking his picture. I just pretended he wasn't there, and when that didn't work, I just hung out on the couch with him. No biggie.

Yup. You heard me. My inner camera hog did not come out. Maybe I really am at the acceptance stage!?!

Chillaxing at Cheengoo with my new cheengoo Gus.

Anyway. The only reason we didn't get Dutch a Cheengoo collar is because he goes in the water so much, my human wants to find him some waterproof neckwear. But she said I can totally have my own Cheengoo collar one day. I'm just not sure when.

* * * UPDATE * * *

If you haven't checked out the Virtual Pug (and other dog and cat) Sunday gallery, it's gotten VERY cute. So cute that Gallery #1 reached maximum cuteness capacity (100 cute limit) and we had to add a second gallery to accommodate all the cuteness.

So if you haven't sent in a picture of your cute virtual self, hurry up already!

Email your cute virtual self to: dailypuglet2@dphoto.com

Here are links to both galleries:

GALLERY #1: dailypuglet.dphoto.com
GALLERY #2: dailypuglet2.dphoto.com

If you have no idea what on earth I'm talking about, read this:

http://dailypuglet.blogspot.com/2010/08/virtual-pug-and-other-dog-sunday.html

MOTIVATIONAL UNDERWEAR

I still have a bunch of adventuring to tell you about - our trip to Chengoo and George, the mysterious disappearing chickens, what happened when I Jimmied next to a heart shaped thing downtown - but I'm taking a break from adventures today to talk about more pressing things.

Like moral dilemmas. And mantras on underwear.

Ok, here's the thing. Even though I reached the 'acceptance' stage of grief, we all know that deep down, I can't stand my human's Frolic Photography stuff. But I'm also kinda torn, because I really love my human and people in general and the stupid Frolic stuff seems to make everyone happy. Like, Awwwwww kind of happy.

So when I overheard my human talking to my friend Lily's mom (she shoots dogs too) about not being good at self-promotion, and having a hard time getting her gimpy brain to approach/talk to strangers, I felt kinda bad for her. I mean, I'm like the king of self-promotion, right? And I pretty much greet to every human I see, whether they want to be greeted or not.

Then last weekend at the dog park, I overheard my human talking to Bellatrix's mom about this same problem. Bella's mom is like me, she'll talk to anyone. And she said she could totally "pimp out my human" (I think "pimp out" is kinda like promoting) but I'm pretty sure my human kinda has to do her own pimping.

Now I kinda feel compelled to help. Even though I don't really want to (I think this is where the moral dilemma part comes in).

So I asked google what to do. And google said something about doing the right thing. And my human needing a mantra - something you tell yourself over and over again until you believe it. Or it comes true. Or something like that.

The mantra thing sounded like a good idea to me, but my human's gimpy brain forgets things a lot, so I don't think the "over and over and over again" part of a mantra will work without some kind of reminder. And our house is already full of those post-it note things. So google suggested a poster. Or a screen saver. Or a T shirt. But my human would just forget to look at the first two, and would never wear the third one.

Then it hit me: motivational underwear!

My human could wear her mantra ALL THE TIME and nobody would ever know. And every time she pees (and she pees like all the time) she'd see it and remember. Genius, right?

So I got a friend to make her a pair of the underwear. I don't know if it'll work, but it totally made her laugh. Said something about hoping she doesn't get hit with a bus with them on.

And just in case my genius idea doesn't work... if anyone has a better idea than the underwear, please share it.