PHASE II

So, I've been keeping an eye on PugPros (our local pug rescue) to see if Flat Puglet is making a difference. I figure if the number of adoptable pugs goes down, the Flat Puglet Project must be working.

Well. I was totally heartbroken to see how many homeless pugs PugPros has. There are 32. That's 32 too many!!! There were 27 when my human made this little collage of their pictures last week and I remember hearing there's a waiting list for pugs to get IN to the rescue (not enough foster homes). Not good.

Pug Pros Adoptable Pugs

And that's just pugs. And just here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I suck at math, but I'd guess you probably have to multiply these 32 pugs by about a gazillion to find out how many homeless dogs there really are. Totally not good.

Flat Puglet has been busy spreading the word. And his hosts are doing a completely awesome job showing him around and telling people about his mission (seriously - we've been really amazed by the awesomeness of his visits!!). But if FP is going to change the world, he needs to get major attention. So I think it's time for Phase II of the project:

OPERATION, uh... PHASE II.

Phase II is all about getting FP noticed, big time. Like Oprah-big-time. OK, maybe Oprah is more like Phase III. But you know what I mean. He needs to go places where gazillions of people will see him. He needs like, an audience.

And here's where I ask for your help!

I need your most brilliant-est ideas. Where should FP go? Who should he try to meet?? My human has a few totally random places in mind (the Ace of Cakes place, Dogtown, Cesar Milan's k9 rehab center) but her brain's been working overtime and is gimpier than usual so the list pretty much stops there.

So..... Any ideas???

* * *

FLATTIE NEWS!
My flat self loved Florida, but needed to cool off a little after so much time in the sun. So he headed back to Illinois, where he was welcomed with fresh snow (and and a bully stick!).

FP and his host Scamper went on to meet lots of pugs at a place called ADOPT!

Read about it here at flatpuglet.com.

SERIOUS NEW MOVES!

Hi everybody ~ I'm baaaack! I really missed you all yesterday, but moocho thanks for listening to Dutch's story. I had no idea he had soooo much to say! Poor guy is totally exhausted now. Maybe I should let him take over more often!?!

Anyway. Since yesterday was so wordy, I won't say much today. But I do have an extrasuperspecial video for you. The last one we did was so much fun to make, I asked my human if we could do another one. I haven't done anything special for Jenny The Pug in awhile, so I decided to dedicate the new video to her.

(I also want her to know I'm not just a model, but an actor too)

My human said I'd have to learn some serious new moves to impress a girl like Jenny. And I also still need to get famous so I can use my fame to save recycled dogs. So I tried reeeally hard to make every new move count. I really hope you like them! Oh, and don't worry -- I picked out the music this time...

(Can't see my new video?? Click here to watch it on YouTube)

* * *

FLATTIE NEWS!

Today my flat self is in sunny South Florida and I'm stuck here in rainy North California. He sees the other ocean for the first time, passes the sniff test (barely) and learns more about rescue in the Sunshine State.

You can read about it here on flatpuglet.com

WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE RECYCLED

Hi everybody. This is Dutch. I know this is Puglet's blog but he said it'd be OK if I borrowed it for a day.

I really liked reading all of your stories. I know Puglet told you a little bit of mine, but he doesn't know my whole story. My human said maybe I should share more of it in case anyone's wondering what it's like to be recycled....

I used to live with a lady and a bunch of other Dalmatians. The Lady imported me from my homeland (The Netherlands) when I was a puppy. She wanted a show dog and she wanted a winner. My parents were winners, so The Lady thought I would be a winner too.

I never wanted to be a show dog, but I didn't have any choice. Luckily there's a height limit for my breed, and by the time I was a year old, I was half an inch too tall for the show ring. Dalmatians in The Netherlands are bigger than American Dalmatians. I guess The Lady didn't know this.

That extra half inch made me an official loser. The Lady lost interest in me and I spent the next few years in the kennel. She let me make babies a few times and that was fun, but that was about it.

Until one day, a visitor came to see me. It was very exciting because I didn't get many visitors. I tried to be on my best behavior for the visitor, but it was hard to contain my happiness. The Lady yelled at me to be good, but the visitor didn't yell. She just tried to hold me still so she could pet me.

I didn't know who the visitor was, but I loved her instantly.

After a few hours, the visitor put me in a crate with a blue fuzzy blanket. I had no idea she was my new human (I found out later that Dalmatian Rescue helped her find me) and didn't know what was happening or where we were going. It was very scary. We rode in the car for a very long time.

We got to San Francisco in the middle of the night. It was nothing like the kennel and I was so overwhelmed I couldn't pee. When we got to our house, there were more stairs than I'd ever seen in my whole entire life. This is a little embarrassing, but I was 3 years old and didn't know how to walk up a flight of stairs. It took a long time, but eventually I made it to my new home on the second floor.

My first day in my new home.

Stairs were the first of many many MANY things I knew nothing about and found completely terrifying. Like mailboxes. And traffic cones. And garbage cans. And those things newspapers live in. And bikes. And buses. And skateboards. And people - lots and lots of people. People who wanted to pet me. People who looked me right in the eyes. People in hats and glasses. People with scary shopping carts full of cans. Way too many people. And dogs. I was never allowed to play with other dogs so I didn't know how. The vet said I was too skinny to have my boy parts removed and other dogs didn't seem to like them very much.

My human could tell I was overwhelmed by all the new stuff so we spent our fist day together hiking with the cows. It was my first time off-leash and I ran around like crazy. I didn't get much exercise in the kennel and my legs didn't enjoy running as much as I did. By the time we got home, my back legs wouldn't bend.

New yoga pose: Rigid Dog?

I didn't want to be any trouble on my very first day, so I tried to sleep without bending. At first my human thought my yoga pose was kinda funny, but we ended up at the emergency vet. They had to give me a shot to make my legs bend again.

I want to say everything got easier after that, but it took me a little while to understand the real world. My human said I was like a puppy in a dog body. So we took it slow. And I grew up. And the world got less scary every day.

Today, the world isn't scary at all (except for cameras). And if you met me on the street, you'd never guess I used to be afraid of mailboxes.

* * *

FLATTIE NEWS!

Today the flat me heads back to the Sunshine State on a very important mission (on top of his usual mission). He enjoys the sunniness, spends time with Central Florida Pug Rescue, meets two little puggies and learns that gators need love too!

You can read about it here on flatpuglet.com.

WHAT'S YOUR STORY?

Yesterday I overheard my human telling someone at the park how me and Dutch came to live here. I've heard her tell our stories about a billion times, but never really thought about how we each have our own story to tell.

Like my friends Stubby, Frank and Wendell. Their people KNEW they wanted a pug named Stubby. Or Frank. Or Wendell. And now I have pug friends named Stubby and Frank and Wendell. Pretty cool, huh?

I really liked when we swapped stories about our names - so let's swap stories about our, uh, stories!

DUTCH

Dutch was my human's first recycled dog. As a kid, she raised puppies for the Seeing Eye. The puppies would stay for a year, then go into training to be guide dogs. When she grew up got her first apartment, she immediately found a breeder and got her first forever puppy - a Rottweiler named Moby. A few years after Moby, came Grendel.

Twelve years later, Moby and Grendel were both asleep. My human was very sad and had to wait a few years before her life was ready for another dog. When the time was finally right, she decided not to get another puppy. She liked the idea of adopting an older dog, but knew it would be impossible to go in the local shelter and not come out with like twenty dogs. So she spent a lot of time talking to Google and narrowed things down to a breed: The Greater Swiss Mountain Dog.

Swiss Dogs were supposed to be a lot like Rottweilers (big, sweet, goofy), but minus something called a "stigma" that made being a Rottweiler mom kinda hard sometimes. But when she talked to some Swiss Mtn Dog people, they all said city life isn't the best life for a Swiss Dog. Back to Google. More talks with dog people. A few breeds later (Weimaraner, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Catahoula) she finally decided on a Dalmatian.

My human met two other Dalmatians before Dutch. She said they were both nice dogs, but something wasn't right. There was no connection; something was missing. When she met Dutch, he was a total mess inside and out. But there was just something about him. Right away, she knew he was the one.

ME

I came along a few years after Dutch. My first humans had too many dogs to take care of so they recycled me. I wasn't supposed to stay here forever, but nobody told me that.

My human had been thinking about getting a second dog, but our city compartment is a little small for another Dutch. She never in a million years imagined getting a small dog -- until she met me. After two days (maybe less) she was completely in love with me, smallness and all. Obviously, I stayed.

I've heard my human tell people she never really understood 'the whole pug thing' until I came along. I think that means she didn't really like pugs. Can you believe that?? Not liking a pug? Crazy! Of course now my human is a total pug freak. She might like pugs even more than I do -- and I am one.

So, what's your story?

* * *


FLATTIE NEWS!

Today the flat me goes to the big city. The REALLY big one - New York. He meets lots of people (including an Oscar) and gets to eat ridiculously tasty food.

You can read about it here at flatpuglet.com

MAC ATTACK

I'm a little late today because of something my human calls 'technical difficulties'. But I just call them Jack and Vegas.

So, last night we went to The Man's house. It's where our friends Jack and Vegas - aka The Crazy Labrador Brothers - live. I love The Man and Jack and Vegas are ridiculously fun. I little bit crazy, but totally fun.

Anyway, my human and The Man went out to eat and left us all at home to have some serious play time. As usual, we went completely nuts. Even Dutch - and he hardly ever plays and never goes nuts. It was all fun and games... until Jack and Vegas played tug of war with my human's laptop, Mac!

I have no idea what they were thinking. Mac was waaaay up on the kitchen counter, just hibernating away in his little carry pouch, totally minding his own business.... and next thing you know, Jack and Vegas are out in the backyard playing keep away. With Mac.

Me and Dutch knew it was wrong and tried to stop them, but Jack and Vegas wouldn't listen. They didn't stop until Mac's carry pouch was torn to bits. Which was right about the time my human and The Man came home to find poor little Mac lying in the driveway, full of teeth marks.

And that's pretty much when the fun ended.

My human says it's a miracle little Mac survived the attack. This morning she took him to the laptop vet and they said he will be fine in a few days. Luckily my human's other computer, HAL 4, is too big to leave the house so he didn't get eaten. I'm pretty sure if Jack & Vegas ate HAL, the world might come to an end. At least for Jack & Vegas.

***

FLATTIE NEWS!

Today's visit with Flat Puglet is very cool. He goes to Phoebe & Kizzy's house in Oregon and meets a BRAND NEW baby! (He does other stuff too, I've just never seen a new baby before)

You can read about it here (and meet the VERY cute Mr. Chance Wayne) at flatpuglet.com.