Saturday we packed up the pugs and went to a new dog park that recently opened in our neighborhood. Luna actually went to the new dog park a week earlier to scope it out and see if it looked like fun before we took the whole crew. Based on Luna's report, we decided it would be fun for all the pugs.
Our mission on Saturday morning was to tire out the pugs, and that includes Solsey, because we knew we had a full day of decorating ahead of us.
We have actually had some trouble lately keeping Solsey from getting bored. She loves her walks, but she physically can't walk far enough to tire out her mind. So we thought a trip to the dog park might provide more of a mental adventure and not tire her out physically as much, as we figured she could find a nice spot to sit and watch the other dogs.
We were actually a little nervous to take Solsey to the park. We weren't sure if she was going to like being there with all the young, playful dogs or exactly how she would react. But we figured, if she didn't like it one of us would take her for a little walk around the dog park and then we could go home. We thought it surely wouldn't hurt to try it once.
When we arrived, the three fawns charged full steam ahead to the dog park entrance, and I stayed behind with Solsey who was taking in all the smells in the parking lot. The girl smells EVERYTHING! A few minutes later we made it to the dog park gate, where we could see the fawns making friends with the other small dogs. I took Sol off her leash & then opened the gate to the small dog area. She trotted in and a few dogs came over to greet her. She greeted them back and then stood there for a second surveying the park with her nose in the air, sniff, sniff, sniffing.
It didn't take her long to spot a bench with two people sitting on it. She made her way over to the bench and was promptly pet by the man on the end. He pet her for a few minutes and when he stopped she moved on down to the woman on the other end of the bench. She got a few more minutes of petting before she ventured out into the park to smell around.
Dogs would come up to her and she would smell them and then she would move on. She didn't seem to mind the dogs running around at all, but you could tell she wasn't there to see the dogs, she was there to see the people.
It wasn't long before she had a woman on the big dog side of the park petting her through the fence. Her experience consisted of smelling around for a bit and then bumping into someone to pet her. Lucky for Sol, dogs continued to arrive and most of them came with two owners. As each new person came to the park, Sol walked over and made sure she got pet.
She made so many friends that day and was so happy to be out doing two of her favorite things, smelling around and getting pet.
I have always known that Sol is pretty unflappable. I have yet to see her in a situation where she gets nervous or anxious, she always has such a calm about her. But, even I thought that the action of the dog park might be too much for her to handle. But she proved, once again, that she can handle pretty much anything. She got everything out of her dog park trip that she wanted. Was she the slowest dog there? By far, but none of that stopped her from enjoying all of her favorite things.
I was so busy watching Sol like a hawk to make sure none of the other dogs got too rough with her that I didn't get many pictures at all. I did get a short little video, and I mean short, of her sauntering around though.
Happy shopping day to everyone out there. I'm not much of a shopper at all, so black friday is a funny day to me. Getting up in the wee hours of the morning to brave swarms of shoppers to get bargains just doesn't sound like a good time to me. But I am very happy to be celebrating my first holiday season with Solsey. What do you think Santa should bring her?
During her last teeth cleaning, Sol had her last remaining canine tooth removed on the top. It was in such bad shape that it just had to be pulled. She doesn't seem to miss the tooth too much and the only noticeable difference is that her tongue peeks out from time to time.
Tongue lag, as my veterinarian calls it, was one of the most noted side effects of her jaw surgery and was a change that we were warned about in all the pre-surgery meetings. However, Sol did not experience any tongue lag after a part of her lower jaw was removed. The only noticeable difference was a little lip pout which isn't even noticeable from aftar. And while I am on the subject of her jaw surgery, I have been meaning to send a thank you card to her surgeon. Every veterinarian that has since looked at Sol's jaw has commented on what an excellent job the surgeon did. I agree 100% and while I can't rattle off a list of medical reasons on why it was such a good job, I think it was such a great job because the surgery hasn't slowed Sol down one bit. Her recovery was quick and it took very little time for her to adjust to her new mouth.
So from time to time, Solsey's little tongue will be sticking out. She rarely leaves it that way for long, but I think it just adds to her charm.
For the last few months with Sol we have been having fun trying to find a food that she likes that also does not upset her tummy. She liked our home-cooked meal, well she liked the turkey in our home-cooked meal, but the pumpkin & veggies didn't sit too well with her. So we transitioned her to Wellness. She liked the Wellness OK, but it was a bit much for her stomach. So we are now onto California Natural. In talking with our vet, he recommended a fish or turkey based food & recommended that chicken be a last resort. Well guess what? Of all the California Natural flavors we have tried, Salmon & Sweet Potato, Duck, Turkey and Chicken & Brown Rice, guess which one is the only one she will eat? The chicken & brown rice flavor! She turns her nose up at all the other flavors. And to make it worse, she doesn't just walk away, she sniffs the food in her bowl and then comes and stares at you, like, "I know you have something better. Come on. Give it to me."
So we have started mixing in some of the other flavors with the chicken & brown rice food. But that is a very tricky game. Every bit of hearing that pug must have had at one point in her life, must have went straight to her nose, because if you don't get the ratio of what she likes and what she doesn't like just right, she will refuse to eat. Plus, if you don't mix the food well enough you will find only the flavor she doesn't like still sitting in her bowl when she is finished. Oh, and don't even try to slip a pill in her bowl. She will find it every time! And she doesn't just eat around it, she will refuse to eat any more of her meal, after she has found the pill, like we have tried to poison her and now the rest of the meal may be tainted.
And the little girl gets 3 pills a day. In the morning she gets a pill for her arthritis and a pill to help her breathing, which she also gets in the evenings. So we have to sneak the pills in a treat. And get this, so far, we haven't found a treat that she will eat for more than two weeks. She gets bored and just refuses to eat the treat anymore, with or without a pill in it. In the beginning, we did the 'ole peanut butter trick. That worked like a charm, but she soon tired of the peanut butter. Then we moved on to hiding the pill in a puperoni. That worked for about a week and a half and then we moved on to hiding the pill in canned cheese (gross). Right now, we are using lunch meat and we have about a week left to come up with what we will use next.
The other bad part is that Sol does not like anything remotely healthy. I'm sure she would be happiest if we just went into Walmart and bought the cheapest dog food they sold. Heck, she had us feeding her canned cheese for awhile there! She sure does keep us on our toes.
The tile floor in our house gives new meaning to the phrase slippery when wet. If you get a half a drop of water on the floor and are unfortunate enough to hit it in full stride while strolling through the kitchen you will find yourself on the ground in about 2 seconds flat. I can not tell you how many times I have slipped and all out fallen. With four messy pugs drinking from the water bowl, there always seems to be a drop of water on the floor somewhere. And when you have a pug with only half a lower jaw, there is always a trail of water from the water bowl to her next destination.
Since no one has gotten hurt it has been all fun and games up until this point. Someone will walk into the kitchen and the next thing you know, poof they're on the floor and it is all giggles.
So the other day, while I was working, I took a short break and made a cup of hot tea. Solsey, alway eager to get a treat, was standing just outside the kitchen peering around the corner keeping an eye on what I was doing. I took the tea bag out of my mug and took a step backwards to throw it away in the trash can that was behind me. As I stepped back, my foot slipped and I was about to do a full split in the kitchen. To catch myself, I took a step back with my left foot. I had one of those classic falling moments where I almost caught my balance, but when my left foot came down on the edge of a dog food bowl any hope of catching myself was all over. I believe I spun around somewhere in my descent to the floor and the spoon in my hand flew out and skidded across the kitchen. I took the brunt of the impact on my elbow, although I did smack my head pretty hard on the floor. As I am laying there on my back, I look over to my left where Solsey is standing and I see her running over to me. I think to myself, "Oh, how sweet she is coming to see if I am OK." But, when she gets about a foot away from me, I realize she is not coming to check on me, she is running over to the food bowl that is now spinning on its side in the middle of the floor. She stops it with her paw and smells around to see if there is any food in it. After seeing it is still empty, she just stands there looking at me like, "Walk it off Mom, and while your up why don't you grab me a treat."
