This week's ask question comes from Martha. Martha wants to know what the deal is with pug paws! Why do pugs seem to be so offended, scared, sensitive on their feet? While we have no good answer for her, we will admit that we were warned when the boys were young pups that we should touch their feet all the time in order to get them used to it and that we would mightily regret it if we did not get them used to it. While we probably did not do our best to heed this warning, we also did not ignore it. The feet of our pugs has varied.
We had Benny who truly did hate to have his feet touched and toenails clipped or filed. Henry was not quite as bad and was way better with the grinder than the clippers. Sol who did not love it and by the looks of her toenails when she came to us, toenail trimming was completely foreign to her. Luna was the worst though. She would literally run and try to hide when she realized it was toenail time. Eventually she got to be ok with the clippers but would tremble with fear if the deed was done using grinders. So later in life (after discovering that the clippers were her preference) it was only the clippers for her.
Pug paws in your neck of the woods....feedback please. What have you found?
Near the play place where Henry met a fake, but yet friendly frog, there is a small bridge on which young children play. Even though it was kind of a sick sense of humor thing to do, we decided to get his photo on the bridge with the caveat that if/when we share it, it is with the clear understanding that this in no way intended to be compared to the Rainbow Bridge. This is a little mini bridge that we feel has represented 2014 for Henry and now that he can cross this little bridge demonstrates his fortitude!
So merely a little visual analogy in Henry's life. He's crossed many a bridge, but fortunately we feel we are still far the final one. #HenryStrong HenryStrongIn2016
Well, we are still working on getting Henry back to his schedule. We had a big staycation over the holidays! G'Ma and G'Pa were here for a bit. And the peeps were off most of that time and thru January 4th, too. While we tried to keep Henry on some sort of schedule, the fact is that someone was always with Henry during that time. And now he has to tough it out home alone for a few hours each day. Let's just say that is not the lifestyle he has become accustomed to living. So, we are back to the old grind and working him back into an uncomfortable state of affairs. He is trying hard, though. The first few days were pretty rough (and I must say very sad to watch on the camera as he raced around the house "looking" for anyone to be home, barking with some panic at the sofa for someone to be there to pet him and them grumbling with displeasure as he realized that no one was in the office chair either.
You could literally see the lightbulb go off in his head when he not only realized that he was (cue the theme music---dunt dun dun) ALONE! It was somewhat relieving, however, to also see him work on his problem solving and coping skills. He went to the laundry room door where he knows Grammy pops up when she gets there. He raced to the front door to try to catch the reflections of light that he depends upon to alert him to someone coming in the driveway/garage. So, back and forth he went. He was indeed somewhat frantic the first day (or 4) but I write with the knowledge that we see each day getting better and the faith that he will continue to progress back to his old routine in a short while. In the meantime, stay strong Henry! You've got this buddy. #HenryStrong
Over the long holiday vacation Henry got to visit his eye vet. We had noticed that Henry's eye has been a little irritated lately. (Uh....obviously it is from him hanging his head out the window and getting his smells on! None of this is vet approved, of course!) The proof was in the pudding, sadly. We did earn a sideways thumb (not a thumbs up or a thumbs down) for Henry's eye health. Henry did not have any "problem" seemingly from his car rides but his cornea was not in tip top condition. The vet does think that this may actually be a side effect of one of his meds and directed us to change up his eye drop schedule a bit.
So, we will adjust his eye meds for the next few weeks and take another trip back to the eye vet and see if the change in meds helped. (In the mean time, we are looking into doggy goggles for him so as to do a better job protecting the one eye that Henry has left) We once had goggles for him but there was no real need for them then. Henry was not quite the head out the window dog back then. (Benny would have had cardiac arrest watching Henry hang out the window! Henry respected Benny's needs for both of their own safety. But now, no Benny, no window worries for H!) In any event, we will be exerting a little more due diligence as related to Henry's eye safety.
We are still catching up from the holiday madness and by the end of this week, we hope to have some posts with a some teeth! But for now, here is a post that just shows off Henry's teefers. Aw! Little pug teeth are just the cutest, eh?
Welcome back to Ask OBP. We think we are up to date on the questions thus far. So, the most recent question that has come in is as follows: Lori asked if the pugs ever did or do now lick their feet a lot.
Yes, Lori. We went through a spell where Benjamin, in particular, would tenaciously lick his feet. We discovered that it was a seasonal allergy thing. The others were occasional feet lickers, too, but not as much as Benny. Overall we discovered that a little Benadryl for the Benny boy during the peak of the allergy season would take the edge off the persistent licking. That was a good question! You may want to consult with your vet about Gracie's licking. Sometimes it is a behavioral issue and not a medical issue. And we never pretend to be vets here at OBP, but we sure do share some mixed up medical stuff! Good luck with Gracie and her tootsies.
While we were not able to catch the actual rising of the moon on Christmas night, we did catch Looney bright in the sky with her most appropriate glowing halo. The night after Christmas, however, we went down to the beach and caught Luna in our first ever actual moon rising. We have tried to witness Luna rising on the ocean several times before but have never seemed to have good enough timing or good enough weather. Well, this time we had both. Hooray! Here is our time laps of the moon rise on 12/26/2015.
While we saw the moon rise at the beach, in real life, it was always a challenge to get our true Luna to rise and shine. She was always one to be a late sleeper and getting her to get out of bed was difficult but fun. Here is a flashback clip of us trying to get Luna to rise and shine.
