As I take Henry every morning to City Center, I try to make each trip a little different than the one before. He, too, tries to "make them his own". Some days he walks wonderfully and is happy to be there, other days he is groggy or confused or just not thrilled to be out and about.On occasion, he will even just hop out of the car, pee and walk right back to the door as though I took him 2 miles from home just to go potty!
Well, on a less productive visit to City Center, I needed to document how far we walked. Or should I say, how far we did not walk? Henry walked about 5-6 parking spaces and landed on the up arrow in the road. And there he stopped. Just stared off vision-less into the distance. No matter which way I coaxed him to go, he just wanted to stand on the painted arrow. So, there we stood and then we went home. I took the long way home so that he could have some sniffortunities and get some stimulation in that way. Some days are a success, other days, you just stand on a painted arrow, staring off in a different direction, refusing to obey the direction the arrow tells you you should be headed.
Welcome back to answers to your questions! Without even knowing it, Gina has asked a very personal questions about how the pugs got their names and if there is a significance to their names. This is a good question, Gina and we are happy to answer. I will share this in an out of order fashion, though. Gina mentioned that she already knew how Cupid got her name (short recap: she was sprung form the pound on Valentine's Day). But it is true, we have never really shared the story behind the names of the pugs.
I will begin with Luna. Luna came to us as Luna. That is what her name was in her original home and the rescue group left it as Luna. We actually were not in love with that name initially, but did not want to change it since it had been her name for 2 years. If we adopted a 2 year old child, we probably wouldn't change the child's name. You grow and learn your name and we wouldn't have wanted our own name to be changed, so we left her name as Luna. The reality was, though, Luna did not know her own name. We totally could have changed it. And in a sense, we did. Luna grew into knowing her name as being Looney (and only when spoken at a certain pitch). She never really learned her "proper" name of Luna. And even though we did not love the name Luna at first, we grew to love the name because of how much we grew to love Luna herself. With Luna, we embraced that she was the moon (which is Luna in Spanish) since we already had the boys as our stars, we knew once we got her, we had it all. Or we thought we did.
Enter Sol. Sol came to be name Sol as Luna's complement. Adding Sol to our mix, that is when we realized that NOW we had it all. The Sun, the Moon and the Stars. Since Sol means sun in Spanish, it was a natural fit. She also fit that name. She lit up our world like the sun lit the sky. Her name was also a play on words. She was not only Sol but she was an old soul and very soulful. So, Sol it was. For the blooper tape, I will share that our second choice for a name for her was Vada. Can you even imagine? That name now seems ridiculously unfitting.
Now the boys, Benjamin and Henry. From the "man on the street" we used to get a lot of questions about the names of the pugs. It did not make sense to many folks that we had 2 people names and 2 pet names. Well, that is because the boys are indeed named after "people" in a sense. It is a coincidence that both Grammy and G'Ma have boy maiden names. Grammy's maiden name is Henry. G'Ma's maiden name is Benjamin. Hence, the boys were given family names.
The irony of this is that the boys so lived by those family traits that even if they were grown from our own genes, they could not more have been more like the familial side they were named after. From personalities to health issues, to life span, they fit each side of the family for which they were named. We got Benjamin one day before Henry and without seeing Henry first, we gambled and gave Benjamin his name. Henry, by default, would just be Henry. We nailed it. They were perfectly named. We often wonder if we had named them the opposite way if we would have been able to find family traits that made the names fit the other way around. Of course in our convoluted heads we probably could but we are glad that we don't have to do so. To us, their names fit them like a family glove. The naming of the pugs would not have made the blog other than the Ask OBP since it is more about the peeps than pugs, but it interesting story. (At least to us! Ha!)
Another question came from Sandra B. She asked about Sol and if her fur was often shed all over our fawn colored home. And what was so weird about Solsey, was that she barely shed. She had a coat like a sheep! It was a few layers yet never seemed to shed. It was very unpuglike that she barely shed. So, while it would have made sense that black fur would have been all over the various shades of fawn, there were only a few stray black hairs around the house. And truthfully, those could have come from Henry! In his younger years, he had a fair amount of black hairs tucked within his fawn coat. Good question, though, Sandra!
Terry and Christie also had questions but I am going to store those until NEXT week! Sorry to leave you hanging but since I have been playing Dear Abby so well and answering all the questions early that I'd better leave a couple in the hopper! Sorry to delay your answers to what are all really good questions! See us in Ask #10, though and they will be answered.
The questions just keep getting better. So, thanks for asking! We love answering them and we always wonder what stone have we left unturned that you simply had to ask. Until next week, feel free to ask.
Henry has always been an off roading kind of guy. He would be the one to lead the pack off the beaten path. And sometimes he would simply fly solo and leave Benny and Luna behind. This worried Benjamin terribly. He would stand at the edge of the trail, see his brother bounce off into the wilderness and panic from the assumption that he was gone for good. When Henry would bounce back to Baby Benny and Ben would meet him with a loving nudge and a bonus face bite so as if to say, "Stop that stuff! It scares me when I think you are never coming back!
While Henry's risk taking days are mostly behind him, he still likes to live on the edge sometimes. And you can see in the photos, we mean that literally. In a recent post thundershower walk, we took Henry to a spot near the Halifax River and he promptly went right the edge. He gets so stubborn about where he wants to be that he just pulls and pulls on the leash, happily taking the mile after the inch you just gave him. Without his vision, however, I doubt he really realizes just how much danger he can put himself in.
In any case, while Henry still can make our hearts jump, it is nice to know that he still has his love for exploring. We would prefer if he could explore a little less close to the spot of sharp drop offs! #CrazyPug #HenryTheStuntman
Rain or shine we take Henry out each morning and each night. A well exercised pug makes for a less anxious pug. Well, the other night the skies, while gray did not appear too ominous. However, about half way through the full loop at Memorial Park, the clouds unloaded on us. It poured. Bucket loads. Oh man did it pour! We were all drenched. (Of course we did not bring an umbrella or wear raincoats. We are too smart for that!) Henry, however, never seems to notice the rain. And if he does, it has the opposite effect on him. He rather enjoys it. He was just plodding along in the rain with not a care in the world. He'd even stop to be offered his tasty beverage when his thirst hit.
Cars were driving by and I am sure the drivers and passengers must have thought we were insane. But we just kept on trucking. By the time we got to the Chinese curve, though, Henry could still sniff out the yumminess from across the street. Even though everything was soaking wet, it did not dampen the unique smell of the Chinese food. He took his own sweet time around that bend and then it was on to the home stretch. About 1/3 of the way into the glorious home stretch, Henry crapped out. He was done. It wasn't from being wet, it was from the long and winding walk. He gave us the "will you pick me up face?" and of course we obliged. Carrying his furry wet body back to the car in the continuous down pour was not my idea of a dream date but knowing Henry loved his walky and his puddles so much didn't make it as much of a bummer as one would expect. (Not until we got to the car, anyway. The car is typically loaded with towels but we had recently done a purge and wash but the fresh towels had not made their way back to the car. So home we went. Soaking the car seats and dripping wetness all over everything. Henry reminded us that Henrys don't melt and that we needed to suck it up, Buttercup!
And that we did. Once home, we were able to dry off and get back to some sort of normalcy. #HenryStrong #HenryIsSweetButNotMadeOfSugar #WetDogsRule
On a recent trip to Grammy's to help pill her kitty, We plopped Henry on one of the cat perches that Grammy has for her kitties. If Henry could see, he would know that this is quite a nice picture window to be enjoyed. However, he only stayed there for a short time and then he wanted to get down. Cats and dogs. Both cute, but oh so different in their likes and dislikes.
Often after I get home from work, I take Henry up to his Grammy's house. Grammy has a kitty cat that needs to get a pill each day and with all the experience we have pilling animals, we volunteer for this task. Henry is often in tow on this adventure. He gets a nice little treat at Grammy's and a few bonus minutes of Grammy time. I usually stop on the way home from this quick jaunt to get the mail. Henry, however, has not been very patient with this task, however. So, one day, I decided that he knew the way home (blind or not) and I locked his leash and let him go!
Don't panic. We live on a super quiet street and I had my eye on him and on traffic AND I could catch him if I needed too. But I wanted to share the video and the back story since sometimes now, if you watch him, he does not seem blind. He is truly smart and has learned his way around places and can navigate so much better than ever before. He is one good boy that Henry the pug!
So....there were no questions last week and we have been diligent about answering all that have come in previously. With that, we will simply share photos from past years but on this day (September 15th). Enjoy!
