Talented Friends Forever Memories

Portraits of AJ and Jelli Bean, The Hoosier Hug Pugs and our furkids.

What an amazing gift from The House of Pawz and the talented brush strokes of Michelle Rouse.  We were really blessed by the draw (pardon the pun) in the first ever Dogster Dolls Ornament Exchange.

As a so called artist, I know the difficulty in capturing the essence of a subject in a portrait and animals can be especially hard to convey their personalities. Michelle has a way to quickly and very precisely do just that.

From AJ’s (on the right) overly dramatic brooding of the thinker, to Jelli’s mischievous innocent guile, Michelle captured the soul of our loves.

Thank you so very much and as long as there is breath within me, I will sing of the talents of my dear friend and her House of Pawz. 

Michelle’s personal muses

Gus, Brody, Boo, Raven, Cousin McGoo, & Wheezer

The House of Pawz

Balancing Siblings

 

I daily give thanks that I am not the Octomom. Not that I do not love children, as I do and had three of my own.

Tom and I are now very proud and happy parents of two Pugs.

“Okay,” you say, “These are dogs for crying out loud. How can you begin to compare them to human children.”

Well, let me tell you. Siblings are siblings, in skin and in fur. Were there are two or more, be assured there will always be jockeying for your undivided attention.

As the senior ranking Pug in Residence, AJ (he is my Puggy-man) is  feeling that his space and time has been invaded by an alien being. He is ready to join the Boarder Patrol and send Jelli Bean back to what ever land she may have come from.

At the great age of three years in is moving into young adulthood and has left some of his puppy ways behind in childhood. While Bean is a bundle of hyper energy  and wanting to play the way puppies play… a nip here and a yap there. AJ even refers to his sister as Ms. Wigglebutt Yappybaby when she is tormenting him. He will also go to great extremes to be as far from her as possible

Without growls or snaps he just gives a look of, “Why me? What did I ever do to you?”

These tormented looks have brought on guilt and tears from me. I knew he would have to adjust but I did not really think he would make me feel hurt and that I had betrayed him. Yet let her cry or let him think we are hurting her and he is right there to investigate. I think he is just waiting for her to get bigger and not be so nippy and yappy, since he has forgotten what he was like as a pup.

Meanwhile our little 1 pound 5 ounce Jelli Bean is growing into a great personality of her own. As of August 6, 2009, she is tilting the scales at a whopping 3 pounds 12 ounces. She is catching up to where she should be at 10 weeks of age so I guess we are doing something right.

Bean has also learned there is no need to gobble her food as there is no one else she needs to share it with. AJ will not eat “dog food”.

We are delighted and amused as our two youngest children, AJ Hoosier Hug Pug and his sister Jelli Bean, grow in love and trust.

As you can see, AJ is falling under his sister’s spell. Although she is sightless in her left eye having suffered an injury at four weeks of age, the girl is personality plus and full of determination. She has no fear and tries to climb everything, not giving up until she has succeeded.

She will steal your heart with a single glance. As she seems to have done with her AJ and to us as well.

Tom and I are doing our best to give equal quality time to each of their needs. We have Mommy and Daddy time for each separately and jointly, which seems to make sense to the kids.

Dear Ms Anniebelly Bossybritches

 Hi, I am Jelli Bean, but you may call me Jelli or Bean. I have heard a lot about how you just seem to know how to handle your misbehaving brothers, Howie Pee and Java Cheesybritches and I need help.

As the sister of AJ HoosierHugPug ;o], who seems to have the reputation of being a tough Grilla-Guy and does not want any of his buddies, like Howie, Java, Louie or CurlieMoe know he may just have a soft spot for his new sissyfur… ME!

Now, look at this face! I ask you, how could he not just love me? My problem is I want to play and he just keeps running from me. Now I chase him and want him to chase me but he just won’t. I love to play and so does he but right he won’t play with me. What can I do….

Oh, AJ has a special name for me, Wigglebutt Barkiebaby, I think that means he really loves me but just don’t want to let it show. I know I love him and my forever moms & daddy.

Moms said I should ask you for advice on how to help AJ realize how much he really loves me too. I will watch for you advise and remain AJ’s, cute, cuddly baby sissyfur,

Jelli The Bean

What Time Is It? Check the Pug Clock!

My husband and I have been toying with the idea of tossing out all our clocks. Not such a big thing to some people, but Tom seems to have collected a stash of time pieces over the nearly 4 decades we have been together.

There is at least one clock in every room of our home and possibly as many as three or four. Twice a year I have to hear his litany of the "Changing of Time," Spring Forward, Fall Back, but that is not a reason to rid ourselves of a mean of measuring the passage of the day.

For the past 20 months our lives have been blessed by AJ our Pug. He is the Pug Extraordinair, who has tried to teach his humans some form of table etiquette with a certain amount of success. He has also been laboring to teach us how to properly tell time.

In case you did not realize, as we had not, there is our time (human time) and there is Pug Time... and Pug Time is always the right time. Somewhere inside his trim, muscular physic, perhaps stuck tightly within the curls of his tail beats his "puggy clock."

With just seconds to spare, each morning he is ready to announce that our alarms will soon begin to spill early morning news and traffic reports into our sleep filled ears. With the patience of Buddha, he allows a time for us to do our personal morning things, before his puggy clock sounds the alarm that it is now his turn to greet and do his morning rounds of the neighborhood.

He also gives us the, "Do Not Disturb the Pug"look when it is puggy nap time. Allowing the proper amount of rest between activities such as dining, walking neighborhood patrol, and naps, he does manage to squeeze in "play ball time", along with "Hey, it's treat time!"

Precisely at 9 p.m. Central Time, (Daylight Saving Time as well) he begins to announce it is time to prepare to retire for the day. His Pug Clock has never been off or wrong. He knows that we will scowl and beg that "it is too early yet," but he continues his prodding none the less.

On evenings when he is somewhat more tolerant of our behavior, or sensing the baseball game has not yet ended, he has allowed us another ninety minutes of "play/snack time."

We have come to accept that without fail, this Pug Clock is far more accurate and attuned to not only his needs but ours.

Pugs seem to need a great amount of restorative time. I was even told that Pugs sleep nearly 18 hours a day. I can not prove that true, but I know if I were to follow closely my personal Pug Clock I would more likely feel far more rested and ready to meet life's challenges.

We can tell you this, we would save a ton of cash on batteries along with the frustration twice a year of setting or resetting each timepiece we have if we just would learn to rely on the self winding Pug Clock, who keeps waggin', lickin' & waggin'.

Which by the way the perfect way to begin and end each day is with ... Pug Hugs and Kisses ....