Thank you all for the advice on how to help a pug shed a pound or two. We’re going to try the green bean approach combined with a little more vigorous exercise and see how it goes. We’ll keep you posted.

Unfortunately, Sid got a little overzealous when he heard the words “green beans”.

Even though he possesses an uncanny ability to distinguish food items from non-food items we bring home, he has never seen a green bean before, and when some giant green vegetables we brought home landed on the kitchen island, he figured they must be these magical green beans that his pug friends were talking about.

After a few sniffs, he was convinced.

I guess leeks must have a good smell to pugs because Sid was not going to give up!

Much to Sid’s disappointment, dogs are not supposed to eat leeks, so we quickly moved them out of the Sid Zone™. He wasn’t too happy with that but we were able to appease him with a few blueberries instead. Potential crisis averted.

Hope you all have a great, leek-free, weekend!

DISCLAIMER: Much to his dismay, no leeks were consumed by Sid during the creation of this blog post.

So at Sid’s recent vet visit to address the “mutant toe” we also got some other interesting news. It turns out our little guy isn’t so little anymore.

He tipped the scales at 22.8 pounds!

That may not seem like a lot but it’s the most he’s ever weighed.

We’re not sure if this extra padding is related to the Ginger-O’s incident, or lack of morning exercise time at the park due to the excessive rain we’ve been having, or perhaps Sid is just “letting himself go” now that he’s got a girlfriend.

Either way, we need to get Sid back to his 20-21 pound ideal weight.

Some potential solutions:

1. Aquatic exercises like his friend, Payton.

2. Invite Timothy Buttons, his girlfriend and personal trainer, over for more cardio-infused playdates.

3. Less treats (Sid has already strongly vetoed this one).

4. Doggie Dancing???

Anybody else have any thoughts on how to shed a pound or two?

Yes, Sid is wearing a purple polka-dotted bootie.

In the midst of all the excitement over Sid’s new pug-mate last week, we noticed that our handsome husky* guy was having a very…odd…health issue.

Between his toes, on his back right paw, were some weird growths.  Sid doesn’t like having his feet touched, so we were attempting to piece together the facts based on repeated split-second views of his foot.  It looked like one of the growths was big and round, and the other was long and skinny – Brian claimed he saw a nail growing out of the long one and he was convinced that Sid was growing a mutant toe.  I, meanwhile, was trying to keep an open mind and set off to Googling phrases like “dog toe growths” and “dog mutant paw anomalies” and “pug prosthetic limbs discount.”

We set up an appointment for Saturday morning with our very patient vet, Dr. Quim, at the Prospect Park Animal Clinic. Sid reluctantly let Dr. Quim take a good look at his toes, and Dr. Quim was pretty sure it’s just a viral papilloma (or, in layman’s terms, a wart).  But, he wanted to do a biopsy, just in case, so Sid got to spend his weekend wearing this jaunty purple polka-dotted bandage, which, considering that dogs are color-blind and not particularly amused by patterns, and also considering the bandage was wrapped around his foot immediately after we watched him scream in pain during the biopsy and subsequent cauterization of the affected area, is obviously designed to promote the healing of both the pet’s foot and the parents’ mental health.

I mean, how could your mood not perk up when you look at this silly thing?

We were able to take the polka-dot bootie off his foot yesterday, and we should hopefully hear from the vet in the next few days with the results of the biopsy – We’ll keep you posted!

*More on Sid’s newfound “huskiness” tomorrow.

Starting with Hurricane Irene and ending with Hurricane Timothy Buttons, we’ve had such an exciting week that we’re ready for a little relaxation this weekend.

Sid’s already started early.

Hope you all have a great Labor Day weekend! Extra treats for everyone!

Man, that Timothy is one sassy lady-pug.

Earlier we overheard her saying to Sid: “First we wrestle, then we practice our synchronized breathing, and then you get a kiss.”

Today is an exciting day at Pug Slope headquarters. Our pug count has doubled.

Timothy Buttons, Sid’s girlfriend, is spending the night. Yeah, I know this is a little controversial considering they’ve only been on one official date, but they have also hung out on numerous occasions at Prospect Park off-leash hours and who are we to stand in the way of love, right?

Timothy is a much younger pug than Sid, though, and he’s been having a hard time keeping up with her. His usual laid-back morning rest time has been replaced by hi-velocity madcap chase after hi-velocity madcap chase. This was his expression about 10 minutes into their 4th chase:

It’s been near-impossible to get any of our actual work work done today due to the compulsive need to grab our phones/cameras in order to document the hilarity that is ensuing around us.

More to follow…

Um, so, Sid read the blog yesterday, and now he’s all embarrassed.  Apparently I wasn’t supposed to write about his new girlfriend and their big date and how IN LURV he is.  Also, I’m supposed to tell you that we “made him” wear that bow-tie and then I’m supposed to post a photo of him dressed in his “cool” clothes.

Ta-da:

So, now, like any teenage pug who’s been mortified by their mother, Sid is acting out.  I found him this morning trying to mail himself to Fresh Direct, our grocery delivery service, because we, apparently, don’t understand him the way Fresh Direct understands him and if he lived at Fresh Direct he could eat all the Ginger-O’s and apples in the warehouse whenever he wanted and Brian and I wouldn’t be there to say “Leave it!” or “Uh-oh!” and he probably wouldn’t even have to sit or stay or Jimmy or ANYTHING before eating ALL OF THE DELICIOUS FOOD HE COULD GET HIS PAWS ON.

Sigh.