Sid’s never participated in an official “Tongue Out Tuesday” before and even though he’s giving it an attempt this week, his reluctance is, um, just a bit obvious.

Clearly someone thinks he’s too cool for school.

Hey there all you lovely-looking Pug Slopers!

Sid here today. I really hope you all had a great Halloween and hauled in loads of treats. I sure did!

I forgot to mention that the weekend BEFORE Halloween, I got to attend a HOWL-O-WEEN pet parade and costume contest just up the street from the Pug Slope H.Q. It was pretty awesome.

As you guys already know by now, I was dressed up as “Bruce Pugsteen” this year. I was getting the thumbs up from all the people gathered there for the parade. I mean, check this out:

“Sit tight, take hold, Thunder Rooooad!”

I’ve got pipes, what can I say.

Anywho, there were tons of pooches and humans in really cool costumes. There was a Boston with THREE HEADS!!!

Does that mean he gets THREE DINNERS each day?! I sure hope so. He was getting double-takes from both humans and other dogs. There was also a dog elaborately dressed up as a Bonsai tree.

I ran into another pug who, along with her friend, was dressed up like a Mariachi! Ole! I have no idea how their hats stayed on all day. Superglue perhaps.

Although I didn’t win any prizes during the contest portion, I had a fun time parading around with the other costumed pups and collecting free treats all day. I gotta start planning my costume for next year…

Sid, I mean “Bruce Pugsteen”, wants me to remind you that you can double-click this image to enlarge it. You know, in case you want a poster-sized version to hang up in your bedroom.

Hope you all have a fantastic Halloween! Per Sid, make sure you opt for “TREAT” rather than “TRICK”!

This weekend, we were lucky to have an entire weekend of fantastic fall weather. Yellow and orange leaves slowly tumbled to the ground via unseasonably warm breezes. Even an alley with electric wires and garbage bins can look amazing this time of year.

Sid and I took a nice long late-afternoon stroll eastward. There’s a cute path in Andersonville that winds along the train tracks. We’ve walked this path many times before but this day it happened to be stocked with an array of carved pumpkins. Sid was interested.

Somehow Sid managed to NOT eat any pumpkins. I couldn’t believe it. He sure gave each one a thorough going-over with his super sniffer though.

After wandering through puddles of dappled sunlight courtesy of the beautiful old trees that line the streets of Lakewood-Balmoral, we ended up at the lakefront. The water was exceptionally high that day and the Foster Dog Beach was about 1/8th its usual size!

Soon, the sun started getting lower in the sky and everything became golden. I love Autumn.

Hey everyone!

Have you noticed all the brown and yellow leaves everywhere?!

I love the leaves. Well, not exactly the leaves themselves but the buried treasures that lie below!

Whenever I encounter a pile of leaves while I’m out on a walk, I make sure to dig around to see what amazing goodies I can unearth. If my Dad is watching he always makes me spit them out, but sometimes he’s looking away and doesn’t catch me. I inhaled what I believe was a piece of a discarded donut on my afternoon walk today. Score one for the Sid-man!

There’s something about hunting through the leaves that makes whatever I find taste that much sweeter. I guess it’s the element of surprise. It’s like how unwrapping a present somehow makes the present way cooler than if someone had just handed it to you.

What goodies have you found hidden under the leaves?

Although I’m feeling pretty good today, last week was another story. I had come down with some kind of cold or flu or combination thereof last week, and let me tell you, I don’t know if I would be here today without the help of my nurse. My fawn-colored, treat-crazy nurse.

• He kept me warm and toasty at night by sleeping against the small of my back.
• He made me laugh when I was feeling miserable.
• By regularly prodding me when he wanted to eat, it reminded me to keep eating and drinking fluids even when I wasn’t feeling particularly hungry or thirsty.
• Seeing him nap in the sun encouraged me to keep sleeping so I could allow my immune system to beat the cold/flu into submission.

I’ve also never heard of a human nurse that flipped onto their back and purred with joy when their belly was rubbed by their patient. PUG NURSE FOR THE WIN!

Thank you to everyone for the Birthday wishes for Sid. Saturday was the big day and I tried to go all out with his Birthday cake this year.

This year’s model was pretty similar to last year’s, with the main part of the cake fashioned out of a de-cored Michigan apple  sliced into layers with peanut butter spread in between each layer. However, those brown sticks are a new addition. They are called “Jumpin’ Sticks” from Natural Balance. They pretty much look like Slim Jims for dogs. The perimeter decoration consisted of two of his favorites edibles: baby carrots and watermelon slices.

While I was busy slicing and dicing and assembling said cake, Sid was doing his best to manage his excitement. There was a lot of panting, heavy breathing, squeeking, and scurrying around taking place. I mean, how much anticipation can a pug take!

I set up the cake on Sid’s play blanket because he is known to make a huge mess when he eats watermelon. He employs his patented “gorge and regurgitate” method when consuming large watermelon chunks. It’s a bit disturbing to the uninitiated and the main impetus behind the super-tiny cuts of watermelon on the plate.

He could barely hold that pose for one photo and then he dug in full stop. Yum!

Happy 9th Birthday to my best little buddy!!!