Welcome back to Ask OBP. I needed to revisit the ask from last week. I realized after the fact that the part about peep #1 also having pets as children somehow got edited out. Peep #1 had pets growing up. A cat who lived 25 years and was the show & tell subject of peep #1's kindergarten class and a Yorkie came to the family during the 4th grade year. The cat, of course was the boss and the dog was a diva. Again, sorry, that somehow got missed in last week's blog.
Jude, presented another question. It is a real brain teaser! Which pug has a personality most like the OBP peeps. Since the boys were given family names, our quick answer would be that Benjamin would most be like peep #1 and Henry would be most like peep #2. And while it may be true that the boys were named appropriately in the fact that they hold family traits, on an individual level, there are traits that could be shown to be opposite of that. For example, Henry is more of thinker and subdued. While that is not really a trait of either family tree, per se, this trait is more a trait of Peep #1. Benjamin was a quick acting, get it done now kind of guy and that is more like peep #2. But Benny was also a super lover and that romantic mindset belongs more to Peep #1. Henry, the logic minded guy is like peep #2. Neither OBPer is like either of the girls. Neither peep is a diva or so extra demanding so that would rule out either both Sol or Luna being like a specific peep. BUT both peeps can have bursts of impatience which is very like Luna!
So, I think the real answer, Jude, is that each of the pugs and their peeps share some common traits. And just like with children who are a blend of both their parents, the pugs have taken characteristics of each of their peeps (and some familial traits that their peeps may not even realize they, too, possess). We cannot say Benny is like 1 or Henry is just like 2. But what we can say is that when we are altogether that it is clear that we are family and cut from the same cloth. When we add extended family to that, it becomes more clear that they pugs could not be more our children had we bore them ourselves. LOL!!!
While there is no real story behind this photo, I just thought it was a nice one. On his nightly rides, Henry obviously likes to keep his head out the car window. With the time change, the sun sets earlier. This means he goes into sundowning a little earlier, too. But now that we keep a lot of lights on he is doing better with that. Maybe sometime soon on one of our rides, Elton John's "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" will play for him in the background. Henry's always loved the sun and even with no vision he still knows if it sunny are dark out.
When we go to the dog beach, we typically go to the Ponce Inlet dog beach. There is another dog beach, however, in New Smyrna Beach. Both beaches actually flank the same body of water and while you can see each beach from the opposite side, it is not like you can swim there. The drive to New Smyrna is a lot longer. So our quick beach trips are normally to Ponce Inlet.
Since a recent storm washed away a lot of the access to the Ponce Inlet beach, we opted to go to the New Smyrna dog beach. Sadly, when we got there, we realized it was much too hot for a pug beach day.
At our house it was warm, but did not seem to hot for Henry. By the time we got to the beach, though, the sun was really beating down. It is a longish walk to the beach from the car, too and with each step it just kept getting hotter and hotter. We considered that maybe once we actually got to the shoreline, though, perhaps there would be a breeze and the water would cool Henry and take the edge off the now blazing heat.
But when we got to the beach, there was absolutely no breeze, the sand was still warm and the ocean was still as warm as bathwater. Poor Henry was a panting mess. And somehow, on one of the few steps Henry even took walking to the beach, he stepped on sand briers. 3 of them! And two of them were really big and super sharp. Immediately Henry started limping and and tried to walk on 3 paws simply because he could not walk on 2! He had two briers lodged in one foot and a third stuck in another.
All around the trip to the beach was simply a fail. There were 2 good points, though. Henry enjoyed his car ride and we didn't get stuck waiting for the drawbridge either way.
With the onset of cooler weather, upped meds and just general pug appetite, Henry cannot lay off the desire to eat and follow smells.
When he could see, Henry never considered that his food bowl came from the fridge. But now that he is driven by his nose and not his eyes, he realizes that his food is stored there. And even if is not time to eat, if he is nearby when the fridge door opens, he needs to poke his little nose in there. Following his nose, however, is the whole rest of his body. This makes it tough to close the fridge door when he has inserted himself in there once the door is open. He reminds me of a teenager coming home from school with the munchies trying to decide what he is going to snack on.
There was a moment in the video where you may notice that he gets a little off track. When this happens we will put our hand in front of his nose so that he can again pick our scent and keep forward progress. This trick almost always works. If it doesn't work, its usually because he is off track for a different reason. When there is "some other reason" then it is usually an indication that he needs to be picked up and redirected or picked up and carried. In any event, Henry may not have gone through war, but that is not to say that he has not fought some tough battles in his day.
To all those who have served our country, we appreciate you giving of yourselves so that the rest of us can have our lves, freedom and civil liberties. OBP supports vets!
Today's ASK OBP questions come from Christie, who asks why the name "Owned by Pugs" and from Martha who asked if the OBP peeps had dogs growing up and if we were always dog lovers.
The name Owned by Pugs came about as sort of a play on the pets as property view. We're not big believers that pets are property, they are family to us. Playing off that idea, we thought that if anyone owned anyone in that situation it was most likely the pug. After all, pugs seems to have a way of making "owners" putty in their paws, so it seems funny to flip that idea around and say "I'm owned by pugs", rather than "I own pugs".
Peep 2, also had a couple cats and a dog as a very small child. By kindergarten, however, the dog was already blind and elderly and was lost in a car accident. The cats lived another few years but after that Peep 2 was petless until college when Peep 2 rescued a cat (who sadly did not live very long). It was shortly after that when the OBPS became a family with Lou C the rabbit, Cupid the Cat, the boys ( Benjamin & Henry) then Luna and Sol.
While as children, we both would consider ourselves pet people (and probably more dog than cat people) but without parental consent, we would not be permitted to actually attain an animal. (Although peep 2 did try to be a pet rescuer as a young child without parental consent once in a while).
Our morning, pre-work ritual always includes driving Henry somewhere to take a short walk. This helps tire him out and ensures that he will most likely sleep all morning until Grammy comes to visit him.
For a while, we had been driving to City Center and walking there. But after a few months of doing this every weekday, Henry quickly grew tired of City Center and he was no longer motivated to walk. I guess he had smelled all the smells.
So, we changed things up and started taking him to the Pavilion each morning for his walk instead. The Pavilion isn't so much of a park as it is an open air shopping mall. It's a bunch of shops, but there is also a walking path that is just under a mile in length.
And the good thing about this walking path is it is full of motivation for an aging, blind pug. A steakhouse is at one end. And once you pass the steakhouse, you are headed towards the smells of movie theater popcorn. After that there is an overwhelming burger smell from the two dueling burger places.
While this seemed like a perfect way to get Henry to walk, the only hitch in the plan is that none of these places are open in the wee hours of the morning when we go there. Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty of smells, but they aren't quite as motivating to Henry as they would be during prime business hours.
But there is one place that get Henry no matter what time of day it is and if they are open or not. Its the ice cream shop! No matter where we park at the Pavilion, Henry always find his way to the ice cream shop and stands at their front door. I never knew it, but he must have quite the sweet tooth!
The only thing that can top a long stroll, smelling all the smells near the ice cream shop, is if the trash guy comes. There have been numerous occasions where Henry has stood safely on the side and "watched" the trash man empty a dumpster into the trash truck. His nose goes a mile a minute! The trash guy turns all the smells upside down and its just one of Henry's absolute favorite things!
