Our Vet loves us!

Hello all - Billa here :) I know I haven't updated in a while, but who could possibly keep up with posting blogs when so busy eating, sleeping, playing, napping, snuggling, and other such fun stuff we do as pugs?

A few weeks ago, mom took us to the Pet stuff store to stay for a nice, relaxing, fun weekend. Apparently mom and dad had big plans out of town and we weren't allowed to go, so we got to stay with other dogs and play. While we were there, they gave us a bath because they said we had flea things on us and wanted to wash them away.

Mom came and got us, and we went home all tired out and ready to sleep for a long time! The next day, on our morning walk, I got to feeling kinda shakey and then I couldn't stand up anymore. Mom got real scared and held me while I shook around for a while and then it stopped. I still couldn't walk or stand real well because it scared me so bad, so mom took me to the vet. They said I had a seizure thing, which I don't really know what that is, but it doesn't seem good because mom skipped work and school and stayed home and held me real tight for a long time.

A couple days later, I started to cough real bad. I sounded pretty terrible, so mom took me back to the vet to find out why I couldn't stop coughing. I felt like I couldn't breathe sometimes because I was coughing so much! The vet doctor said that I had kennel cough so they gave me and Tug some medicine so that I would get better and so he wouldn't get it from me.

A couple days later, Tug got real sick. He woke up one morning and didn't want to get out of bed. He was real real sick. He threw up all over mom, and would barely look at me, although I tried to play with him and he really didn't want to play. I got real worried and told mom to take him to the vet because she had made me all better, so I figured she could do the same for him. Mom told me that our vet wasn't around on Sundays, so she took Tug to the ER instead. She was gone for a really long time, and then when she came home finally, she was covered in throw up and showered, but I couldn't find Tug with her. I got real worried and looked all over in case he came home and was hiding, but I couldn't find him anywhere! Mom left again once she was clean, and then came back a long time later. I could smell Tug on her, but he wasn't with her! I was so upset and scared. Then dad came home, and he smelled like Tug, but didn't have him with him and I got even more scared. That night, Tug didn't come home. It made me really sad and I had to sleep all by myself with mom and dad. The next day, mom went to work and I waited and waited thinking maybe Tug would come home from work with her. And I was right! He came home with her when she came back from work! I was so excited to see him!!! He told me that they poked him and took pictures of him in a dark room, and that they shaved some cuffs on his arms and gave him lots of medicine. Mom was extra nice to both of us all week long - I think she know we had a rough week!

I like to hide under the covers early in the  morning when I don't feel good...

sleeping on the couch on the good medicines

Tug home from the ER curled up in bed

Tug's first order of business once he felt better - check on toys!

Now we are feeling much better - we had a good week with neither of us sick! I am so glad things are back to normal, I don't like being sick at all! We went back to the vet on Saturday though, just to check in and make sure we were doing okay. Everyone there knew our names, and mom's name - even people there that we hadn't met before! I feel so special to know that everyone at the vet knows who we are, I just hope we don't have to see them for a while unless it is because we are healthy!

I Don't Particularly Like the Vet

This morning, Tug and I were being very good. See, we were sitting in the office, watching mom work, and we were sitting so nicely. I have taught him so many things now - but the best thing I have taught him is how to sit like a good pug dog. So we are sitting in the office, looking at mom, and then she says, "Kids, we are going to the vet today."

Immediately, we both jumped up to where she was sitting, concerned by her use of the dreaded word, "vet." I tell Tug that he shouldn't worry, although he is the one that has the most problems recently, so he is the one who will have to see the "vet" while I will merely be going along for everyone to appreciate my beauty. At this he becomes very concerned, but I am feeling just wonderful, so I couldn't possibly have any reason to go to the "vet," other than for the "vet" to appreciate me for beautiful pug girl that I am.

When we get to the "vet" I make sure Tug knows that he must stay on the floor - only I am allowed up on the bench by Mom. Once the "vet" comes in though, Tug will have to get on the big tall table so they can examine him and make him all better. 

I make sure Tug is not too upset, but he keeps looking at me up on the bench by Mom, and then looking at the door, probably waiting for the "vet" to come and see him and poke him and hopefully make him better. Mom let him take his cone off while we were at the office so that he can run around and smell the room and make sure the room is safe for us to be in. 

Finally, Tug comes and talks to Mom, and lets her know that he is just fine, that he feels good, and doesn't need to see the "vet." Mom tells him that he is just here for a re-check, but that we are here because of Billa. But wait! That's me! Why are we here because of me, I wonder? Apparently my wrinkles are infected, which makes since because they itch every now and then. The "vet" comes in, and checks us both out and tells mom we will be okay and gives her some medicine. Mom says its a good thing she loves us so much because we are so expensive, but who wouldn't love us with our stunning good looks and amazing personalities? After a good long visit to the vet, it is home we go, all fixed and better!

Dis was a vewy exciting weeken!

Dis is me an my bone. I haven't figured out how to holds it yet witout my tongue sticking out of my mouth. Dat is my daddy in de backgwound. Him and my mommy were bot twying to take my loverly picture at de same time. 

Dis is me an my bone again. Sister was twying to take it fwom me. But I towld her it was mine an kept it in my mouth to pwotect it.

What do you tink of dis angle? I tink it makes me look vewy manely an awesome.

I got tired of walking awound wit de bone in my mouth an decided to sit down and chew on it for a wittle while. Dis is me as a vewy happy pug dog.

Dis is me on my morning walk. I like to twy to hide fwom my mommy an sister. I like to woll awound in dees gwasses because dey feel so good. Can you find me?

What about now? I tink I am hiding better in dis one. Dis is my favowite ting to do on my morning walk!

Dis is sister on our morning walk. She is cwazy. She likes to woll awound in de gwass dat is short. She goes to de same spot in de gwass evewy morning and wolls awound like a cwazy pug dog.

Look at how handsome I am! I am such a good boy on a leash! Mommy says I am a vewy good boy evewy time we go for a walk. 

Daddy thought dat his towel would look good on me. But I didn't like it so much so I just sat down an looked at mommy to take de towel off of me. Mommy tells me I have vewy pwetty eyes.

Now to de vewy exciting news of dis weekend! We had a visitor. My mommy's mommy an daddy an sister came to town and bwought dis weenie dog with dim. Her name is Rosie. I call her Wosie. She does not have a pug smash-face like me an Billa. 

Dis is de twee of us playing wit our toys. Dis was vewy fun and I weally weally like wosie. She is pwetty cool. Billa weally likes her too. She is very nice an we had a good time pwaying together.

Dis is me an my mommy's daddy. He scwatched my tummy for me an I liked it vewy much. I was a vewy good pug dog an let him wub my tummy as much as he wanted.

Dis is me at de end of dis vewy exciting weekend. I was vewy tired an worn out by de time I got to rest. I was a vewy busy boy dis weekend an I had a good time. I am weally liking my life here - notice I don't have dat awful cone on my head anymore! Mommy put it back on me today, but dat is because I was scwatching at my head last night an messed up my skin again. But it was itchy so I had to scwatch it. I don't like my cone, but it does make me not swatch and dat is good. 

Playing Nice

Hello all, this is Billa, and let me just say, Tug looks mighty funny in his plastic cone. He is super pathetic and mopes around the house when he has to wear it. He is doing much better now, he seems to like things around here pretty well. Mom had to spank him last night because he tried to take my bone and I didn't want him to have it, and then he chased me around trying to bite me to take it away and it wasn't very nice. Anyway, he got in trouble and this is him pouting in his cone. Mom spent some time giving him kisses later and I got jealous, but I guess that's okay because he was feeling pretty sad that he got in trouble. 

Now, on to my exciting story of today! In light of the events of last night, I have decided it is my job, my duty, my obligation as a good sister, to teach Tug how to play nicely. 

Step One: Find favorite toy and make sure to let everyone know how special it is. This is me with one of my favorites, Mr. Green Dinosaur, and this is how I make sure to show it is mine and that I love it - I stick my side tooth out. Mom always tells me, "PUT THAT TOOTH BACK IN YOUR MOUTH YOUNG LADY" which is silly because I like to show my beautiful teeth off, especially to my favorite toys!

Step Two: Take toy to mom or dad. This is best done when they are busy doing something else. Even better is if they already have something in their lap or hands. Put the toy in their lap so they know you want to play. If they push it away or tell you they don't want to play right now, pick up the toy and put it in their lap again. This is especially effective when mom is reading one of her big books or dad is playing with that control thing with the tv - put the toy directly on top of whatever they have in their hands. This is how to let them know you are serious about playing. If you keep putting it on top of their hands they will eventually throw it for you!

Step Three: Get very excited when mom or dad picks the toy up. You have to be entirely on your guard because you never know when or where they will throw the toy. So make sure you keep your eyes directly on the toy at all times. 

See what a good teacher I am? There we are, waiting on mom to throw the toy (I did steps 1-3 on my own and then let Tug jump in on this step since he is still learning)

Step Four: When mom or dad takes the toy and winds back to throw, run in the direction that it looks like they will throw. Be sure to turn around in time to see where they actually throw it. They have a tendency to be tricky and act like they will throw it one way and then they will actually throw it somewhere totally different. But it always helps to start your run for the toy early.

Step Five: Race me to see who gets the toy first. I will always win this battle, but you can always try to take the toy away from me. But please, Tug, no biting, and no being mean like you were last night. This is called tug of war. We can pull the toy back and forth and see who is stronger. But you have to be nice and only pull on the toy and not be mean to me when you do this. Also, please don't pull so hard that Mr. Green Dinosaur breaks. 

I taught him so well! Look at how nice he is playing with me!!

After our lesson, Tug took Mr. Green Dinosaur. I tried to take it back, but he thought that since he got it away from me, he should get to play with it.

I guess I will let him play with Mr. Green Dinosaur for a little while since he did so well in our playing lesson today. I like teaching him how to play since I like to play so much and I think he likes it too - he just has to learn how to play nice. 

Evewyting is diffewent

Well, Dis is me. I is a lil pug boy an my name is Tug. I got hit on da head an I dont rememer much about wat happeneded befow dat. All I know is dat I was walking awound on da street an some nice people came an gots me. Then I went to dis scary place where dey took away some of my special boy parts an den dey took away some of my hairs on my head. Den I went to dis house wit a nice lady and she was nice. De next day I went to a place where der were lots of oder pug boys an pug gurls an we were all togeder for a while. Den dis cwazy gurl pug wanted to pway wit me an I don't weally know about hers. She is kinda cwazy. She likes to get up in my face and she barks at me a lots. She has a nice person who was nice and wubbed my tummy. Den de nice lady wit de cwazy pug gurl took me away. We gots to her home, but der were stairs an I dont like de stairs vewy much, but I have gotten much more better at jumping up dem.

Dis is me an the cwazy pug gurl. Her name is Billa Grace Steen. She doesn't look like it in dis picture, but she is vewy vewy cwazy an likes to wun awound like she is cwazy! Her person put me on de couch which is vewy soft and happy. But Billa told me that de couch is her spot an kept pushing me off da couch. I don't know about dat.

Dis is me and Billa. It was vewy early in da morning when dis happened. See how tired we look? Billa's person keeps saying dat we are brudder and sister and dat she is my new mommy and de oder person is my new daddy. I guess that means maybe dey is my people now too. Dat is vewy exciting to me!

Mommy and Daddy took me to de scawy place again. Dis time dey took away all de hairs on my head, an dey stuck me wit de pokie sticks and dey scratchded my skins under de hairs dey took away an den dey put dis ugly awful ding on my head. look at how patetic I looks! Dis ding on my head is weally vewy awful. I can't eat or dwink an I run into evewything! My neck an head itches an I wants to scwatch it an I can't do it! Mommy and Daddy let me take it off to eat and dwink now an to go outside to do my man business, but den dey put it back on an I don't like it much at all.

So faw, evewything is diffewent in dis new place. But my mommy and my daddy dey are vewy nice an my new sister is not so cwazy now dat we have spent some times togeder. She doesn't like it when I steps on her in her sleep, but she sleeps under de covers an I don't know where she is an den I step on her an she gwowls at me. But oder dan dat, I am pretty happy here, an I can't wait to get dis awful ding off my head so I can pway again. 

Mom, why won't he play with me!?

First, let me introduce myself. I am Miss Billa Grace Steen. I am a beautiful Brindle Pug, and I am a year and a half old. I have two lovely people in my home that I take care of, Mom and Dad. They take up most of my time during the day when they are around and I'm not busy sleeping. They are a lot of work. They are always making me sit, or shake, or go run errands with them, but they do bring me nice toys to play with and that's always a good surprise.

This is my beautiful self.

Today, Mom told me we were going on a trip to go find a brother. I wasn't really sure what this brother thing was, but she usually takes me to do pretty fun things, and she did mention something about playing with puppies which means making new friends, so I was okay with whatever we were doing. We drove for a while, which was cool since I love to ride in the car, and then we stopped and mom put me on my leash, which meant I knew I was getting to go somewhere.

It looked like we were going to the pet store, which I LOVE because I always get to pick out a new toy!! But then we went through the door and there were lots of dogs in cages that looked like me!! (I have a pretty little face, but sometimes people call it a smash-face, and not all dogs are lucky enough to look like me). I love meeting other dogs that look like me! So mom started to talking to all the other people there, and I of course had to walk around and jump up to say hi to everyone. Then I went and introduced myself to all the other smash-faced dogs in the pens! I really really wanted to play with them, but there was a fence in the way! I think Mom could tell how much I wanted to play, because the nice lady she was talking to got one of the  puppies out of the pen and brought it out to play with me!

We went around the corner and I got right up in this dogs face. I introduced myself very politely, by licking all over his face, jumping around him, and wagging my tail wildly around while I bobbed around him. He introduced himself back - his name was Tug, and he told me to check out his awesome scars on his head. I decided to check them out and WOW, he really did have some pretty awful looking scratches on his head. He said he was basically just a bad ass, because not even he knew how he got them! We sniffed back and forth for a while, and I jumped around trying to get him to play, but he just sat down and let Mom rub his belly. Mom kept asking him if he would make a good brother (still not sure what that means), and she said she thought he would. Then she went and got another dog to come play but he would not play with me at all! He was much more preoccupied sniffy around the store, and wouldn't even say hello to me! Mom said she didn't think he would make a good brother. Then we went and stood around for a while, Mom talked to some people, and then all of a sudden, she had Tug on a leash like mine and was saying it was time to go! Why was he going with us!? If Mom thought I was going to share my spot in the car, she was in for a surprise!

Well, we finally got situation in the car, and Tug was sitting in MY seat! No really, Mom actually calls it MY seat every time we get in the car and she tells me to get in MY seat!!! Well, I wasn't really okay with this, but it also meant I got to sit in the air conditioner on the floor, so I wasn't going to make too big of a deal. Tug was a little confused about everything, so he laid down on the seat and asked me what was going on. I told him that in our family, we get taken everywhere by Mom, and that road trips are always fun because we get toys, or treats, or to play with the cold air coming out of the vents! He seemed to be okay with that, and we were off!

Well, we got back home, which I knew immediately. Tug wasn't so sure about it, but I told him it was okay to get out and walk around. Mom let us do what we needed in the yard, and then I was up the stairs ready to show Tug around my home. Well, the little guy wasn't so sure about the stairs, and just sat down at the bottom of the steps. I tried to convince him to walk up them, but he wasn't having it. Mom just picked him up and told him he would get it eventually but I just called him a scaredy-dog and walked to the door.

I showed him all around my home, where the toys are kept, where the water is, where the food is, and where we go when we want a treat and how to cry annoyingly so Mom will come give us one. I showed him how to take a bath, which I love, and then Mom gave him one too (he wasn't as excited as I was about the bath). Then we just hung out and chewed on some bones for the rest of the day. Mom kept calling him "Brother" so I guess he is that thing called a brother... I wonder how long he will be staying in my home since he seems to be getting pretty comfortable with Mom. I can't wait for Dad to get home - I bet he will take my side on things!

Tug at the pet store meeting Mom. See all the fun dogs in the pen behind him? Why can't I play with all of them?

I don't know why those smash-face dog people thought his name was Krash. Mom calls him Brother, but he told me his name is Tug... Look at that spot on his head - what a badass!