Sid and I spent a few days out in the suburbs visiting my family. Early one morning, the two of us hopped in my mom’s car and took a little jaunt over to Katherine Legge Park in the town of Hinsdale.

During the early morning and evening hours, large sections of the park available for dogs to run off leash. Just look at all those lovely trees and lush grassy fields!

Sid got super excited as soon as his paws hit the ground and he took off exploring the rolling hills.

After he romped around for a bit, his eyes caught something really interesting.

It was the small winding creek that runs through the entire off-leash section of the park.

Of course, he had to go in for a closer look. You all are probably aware of his obsession with water!

Sid felt like a real “king of the hill” while there! We can’t wait to go back again next time we’re out visiting the fam!

We’ve had some really sunny and warm weather here in Chicago which has been lovely. And when the sun comes out, so does the tongue. Well, Sid’s tongue I mean.

So many flowers are in full bloom…

…but no time to stop for a sniff today because we’ve got to get this pug hydrated!

Back to the Pug Slope Headquarters where your pre-cooled water awaits!

About a week ago, I rented a nice camera lens for the weekend (for the photo buffs out there, it was a Canon 50mm 1.2L). This is a really nice lens that I cannot really justify buying outright, but luckily there is a camera shop called Dodd Camera just a bike-ride away from Pug Slope HQ. They have tons of equipment that can be rented out and have really good rates for the weekends.

I headed out to Winnemac Park with Sid to try out the new lens. Sid seemed exceptionally excited about this particular photo shoot – probably because I actually remembered to bring some treats with me this time.

In the early Spring, the park district does a controlled burn of the prairie areas of Winnemac Park so back in April of this year the area on the far side of the fence looked totally barren. To see what I mean check out this post from April. Over the summer, though, the plants quickly return and grow at incredible rates. Soon the whole prairie area is filled with lush green leaves and lovely flowers that last all through the summer.

The plants are all native species, so the local pollinators are very attracted to them. There are often lots of bees collecting pollen and even monarch butterflies fluttering by!

Sid didn’t want any bees accidentally landing on him so he trotted over to one of the more open areas of the park near the weeping willow trees.

After a little stroll through the field he laid down near the far end of the park and made sure I delivered with the treats. He was being very photogenic so I complied.

I’m definitely excited to try out some other lenses from Dodd. Maybe next time I’ll try a fish-eye lens so I can show you guys some LARGER THAN LIFE close-ups of Sid’s pug mug?! I wonder if he’d approve…

Hi everyone! Sid reporting. I’m so glad you’re here today. I want to tell you about the insanely fun time I had last weekend. Now that I’ve had a few days to recuperate, I’m ready to tell you all about it.

Well, I first knew something was up when my dad starting digging around in the closet and out flew my red travel bag. Last time that got pulled out we ended up going on an epic adventure in Lincoln Park. This time, however, we didn’t ride on the El train but instead got on a city bus. When we arrived at our destination in the west loop – Pet Care Plus – I was greeted by a handful of friendly pugs. Some of them were wearing flotation devices which I thought was odd, until I set eyes on… THE POOL!

I began by doing a few laps around the perimeter. To make sure the pool was, you know, up to all the proper regulations and such.

There were a few pugs swimming and some bobbing around in their floatation devices. I noticed a few other pugs just hanging out at one end of the pool, where the water was only dew-claw deep. Aha! That looked like a good place to start.

It was very hot and the sun was beating down, so getting my feet wet felt splendid and instantly cooled me off. Then all of a sudden I saw something familiar in the water. It was my glow-in-the-dark WIGZI ball!!! My dad had brought it with so we could play in the water.

It floats, and sometimes it would drift out of my reach into the deep end…

See how I put on the brakes?! Luckily my dad or some of the other awesome humans there would toss it back in my direction so I could try to bob for it in the shallow water again. Trying to catch it in the water was really challenging. I eventually found the best strategy was to quickly dunk my whole head under water to grab hold of the ball.

I decided to take a break from playing with the WIGZI ball so I waded back into the shallow end of the pool. Well, guess who I ran into?! None other than my friends that I met last month on the pug boat tour – Violet and Timmy!

That’s me and Violet – isn’t she cute?! She’s very petite. She just celebrated her 10th birthday and brought home-made mini cupcakes for all the pugs. They were delicious! Full disclosure: I actually ate two cupcakes. Thank you so much for the cupcakes, Violet!

I was feeling a bit mischievous and saw Violet trying to take some glamour shots, so I thought it’d be funny to photo-bomb them (with my blue potato, of course). Hee hee!

My dad and I played a bunch more with my blue potato, I met a bunch of other cool Chicago pugs, and I was the lucky recipient of some complementary butt scratches. Yes, that is the spot!

All in all, it was the perfect day for a pug.

And now you can hopefully understand why I was soooo pooped when I got home! I can’t wait to go to the next pug pool party!

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Thank you so much to Violet’s mom, Christina, for taking the bulk of these photos. See, my doofus dad, in the heat of packing all the beach towels, toys, sunscreen, and other items, FORGOT to bring his good camera! So Violet’s mom was kind enough to take a bunch of shots of me! THANK YOU, CHRISTINA!

Also, THANK YOU to Chris and Dee Dee for organizing and hosting the event. If you live in Chicago and are interested coming to the pug meetups, the group’s website is: http://www.meetup.com/chicagopugs.

Sid reach a new level of exhaustion yesterday.

He was pretty much horizontal from 3pm until bedtime. I actually had to wake him up to give him his dinner, which, as you know with pugs, is unheard of.

Now you’re probably wondering: “what sort of crazy activity would cause a pug to get THAT TIRED?” Well, I’m going to let Sid tell you all about it later this week, but here’s a little picture preview. Let’s just say it involved a pool, a plush potato, and about thirty pugs…

(Above photo by Christina Gibson)

It certainly has been hot here in Chicago and the other day our ceiling fans just weren’t cutting it, so Sid and I took a stroll over to the lake to cool off.

The water level in Lake Michigan is a very high this year and the Foster Dog Beach has been reduced to a little triangle of sand. But Sid hardly noticed as he was there for one reason only: SWIMMING!

I got in the water with him and, let me tell you, that chilly water felt amazing and cooled off both of us instantly.

At times, the waves got pretty choppy and Sid ended up a little deeper than he realized. He is really good in the water, though, and managed to keep his head above water the whole time.

While there, we met a new pug friend: Colby!

Sid and Colby splashed through the waves and kicked up sand while racing each other on the beach. Colby certainly has a cute little face, huh?

With more sweltering days on the way, we may start making every day beach day!