Monday Mischief-Attack of the Cutezilla!

This adorable Godzilla sweater with its detachable tail and hood is one Halloween costume we have gotten plenty of use out of.

 Tubby has worn it, Weasley has worn it, and when halloween is over we remove the tail and the hat portion and use it as a regular sweater.  Its one of the best dog clothing purchases I ever made, and I have bought a LOT of doggie clothing, and honestly the pugs really don't seem to mind wearing it all, its so soft and comfortable they actually like it (well maybe not the hood part).   Sadly the Etsy shop that made this adorable item, Bean Town Hand Made, is now defunct.  The good news is that the shops designer, Ann Burton, has a new book Patterns for Pooches

with the patterns for all of her adorable creations.  It retails on Amazon for $13.66.   Sadly its a crochet book, and I don't crochet (though I can knit a bit).  While I am dreaming of some day learning to crochet, mostly so I can make some of these patterns, I am definitely a bit too swamped now.  I know a lot of my fellow bloggers are crocheters though and I'm sure you would be happy with the patterns in this book and your pooches would be all the cuter for it.

Monday Mischief-Pumpkins, Pugs, and Bulldogs at Demarest Farms

October is by far my favorite month of the year.  I love the colors, the cool air, and Halloween.  One of my favorite parts of October is going to Demarest Farms 
 

with a few of the dogs to buy a pumpkin and eat their delicious apple cider donuts and potato pancakes.   This year we brought Tubby, Ping, Weasley, and Bob.   One of the nicest things about Demarest farms is every fall they have a play area set up with photo props for Halloween pictures, if you get there early in the morning like we did you have the section to yourself and can take some cute doggie pictures.

 The best part of a trip to Demarest farms is the food.  They have amazing apple cider donuts that just take like fall and delicious apple pancakes.  Since they have a lot of picnic tables its easy to sit with the dogs and have a nice breakfast.

Everyone got a taste.

After we ate our food we picked out our pumpkin:

The whole trip was a big success with every on good behavior and no mischief in sight until...............we walked back to our car and realized we had a flat.

Luckily Dad was able to change it quickly while the dogs waited in the car.  Mischief managed!

What The Well Dressed Pug is Wearing (Cafe Press Shirts)

Weasley Here:

Mom has written before about how much she LOVES Cafe Press dog t-shirts.   Whatever your obscure interests you can get a comfortable dog shirt that declares them to the world.  Mom has ordered us Star Trek shirts, X Files Shirts, Twin Peaks shirts, PG Wodehouse shirts, Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy shirts and so on.  Oone of the best things about Cafe Press is when you order from them they send you discount coupons, sometimes for as much as 50% off!, so its easy to get a massive t-shirt wardrobe on a budget.  Plus cafe press shirts fit pugs wide necks very well and come in a big range of sizes, the x large fits our bulldog brother Bob at 65 lbs very generously.  

Yesterday, I rocked a Cafe Press shirt that read Deep 13, a reference to Mystery Science Theatre 3000, one of mom and dad's all time favorite shows.   I looked so cool and ready to attract the attention of fellow in the know fans, MST3K is number 19 on Entertainment Weekly's 25 Best Cult Shows of All Time. They said it made "being a geek a communal experience" no wonder mom loves it (a bunch of mom's other favorite shows are on the list too: Buffy, X Files, Supernatural, and Twin Peaks, in fact mom doesn't really like any TV that isn't cult).  Anyway here are the picture of me in my shirt, I rocked it with a wrist  band from Ruff Ruff And Meow, very 80s cool and only 99 cents.   I also think the concrete car port in our back yard adds to the gritty urban reality of my photo shoot.

Here is one of our family's favorite MST3K clips (mom particularly loves the t-shirt on Frank and cafe press makes one of those for dogs too!)

(Note: The title of this post is a tribute to one of our other favorite cult figures, Bertie Wooster from the Jeeves and Wooster stories by PG Wodehouse, and the name sake of our blogger friend Bouncing Bertie, who authored the article What The Well Dressed Man is Wearing for his Aunt Dahlia's magazine).

Happy Birthday Babar

November marks the 80th anniversary celebration of the American publication of the classic Babar children's book.  



I loved these books when I was a kid.  Weasley and I stopped to check out the window display at Books of Wonder in Manhattan that celebrated the King of Elephants.

Sunday-De-Stress

"When you wake up in the morning, Pooh," said Piglet at last, "what's the first thing you say to yourself?"
"What's for breakfast? said Pooh. "What do you say, Piglet?"
"I say, I wonder what's going to happen exciting today?" said Piglet.
Pooh nodded thoughtfully.
"It's the same thing," he said. 

 The Tao of Pooh

Why did mom put this quote on the blog today?  It is because she needs to De-Stress and Winnie the Pooh is a great source for information de-stressing (plus mom agrees with Pooh on a good breakfast being all the excitement you need, particularly on a Sunday).

Now Weasley looks all calm and sweet and de-stressful in the above picture but  he caused some major excitement (not the good kind) and stress Sunday morning.  Mom and Dad had us all suited up in our harnesses for our morning walk and presto Weasley managed to slip right out of his and was standing naked on the sidewalk in front of our  house which is not far from a busy street.  Now mom was totally flipping out, Dad was calmer thank goodness.  Even in her fear though mom remembered what to do she sat down on the ground and called Weasley to her calmly (never ever chase a loose dog) and then she turned around and walked  into the house.  Weasley followed and by the time we got to the door he got close enough for Dad to pick him up.  Mom was shaking like a leaf.

The culprit seemed to be Weasley's harness

which had loosened a bit from being put over a sweater.  Dad tightened it and mom and dad tested it multiple times to make sure it couldn't slide over a pug head and then we went on our walk.

After all that stressful excitement, mom needed a nice calming breakfast.  Delicious simple buttermilk pancakes (and she even slipped some to us).

Plain and Simple Buttermilk Pancakes form Food 52

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups well shaken buttermilk (you can make your own buttermilk by adding 2 tbsp of white vinegar to the plain whole milk if you don't have any buttermilk and letting the mixture sit for five minutes).

2 eggs 

2 tbsp melted butter (plus more for frying the pancakes)

Its really important to let all the wet ingredients come to room temperature for this recipe so when you get up in the morning take out the eggs and the buttermilk and let them sit out on the counter (you can do this while you walk your dogs, just try to prevent any stressful leash malfunctions).   

Measure the dry ingredients into a large bowl and stir well with a fork.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.

In a smaller bowl beat the wet ingredients together until well combined.   Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients by pouring them into the center well in the dry ingredients.  Mix well with a wooden spoon.  Let the batter sit, covered, for half an hour.

Put a large pot with 4 inches of water in it on to simmer and cover with a plate.  You will use this to keep your cook pancakes warm.

Heat a griddle skillet over medium high heat until a drop of water sizzles nicely.  Add a tsp of butter and coat the pan well.  Ladle the batter in by 1/4 cup amounts.  Cook the pancake until bubbles are forming in the middle (it should be bubbling quite a bit) flip the pancake and cook 1-2 minutes until nicely browned.  As you finish pancakes put them on the plate over the simmering water to keep warm.  This works better then warming pancakes in the oven which will dry them out.

Serve with maple syrup and maybe some bacon, you'll feel much better.

Belated Monday Mischief-We are Back!

Our power turned on today!  Yeah!.   So we will be doing some posting over the next few days.   We were so lucky to be safe and not experience the devastating damages of so many.  We were also so lucky to have our pajamas from Rebel Wag on Etsy.  They kept us warm even with no heat!  Finally I could prove to the hounds dad that doggie pjs are practical!

 

Monday Mischief-Simple Project Book Frames

Hurricane Sandy rained out our Sunday Pug-O-Ween party and closed the NYC public schools and trains, meaning a day at home with mom and dad.  A nice day for a craft.  Mom has been wanting to make book frames from some of our old books for a while and she decided to start yesterday. There are lots of techniques on like and mom decided to use this one . Being sloppy and an ameture crafter mom wisely decided to try the simplest technique first.

Book Frames

Materials: 

• Old hard cover books
• x-acto knife or box cutter, or both
• pencil
• ruler
• card stock or card board
• photos 
• tape

Procedure

1) Place the picture on the book and trace around it with a pencil

2) Use the x-acto knife or box cutter to cut through the cover along the traced lines.  (This takes a bit of work, I started scoring with the x-acto knife and then switched to the box cutter when I was nearly through).

3) Pop out the cut of part of the cover and try clean up any hanging, frayed bits of cover with your knife.

 4) (I didn't photograph this) Cut a piece of card stock a bit smaller then the book cover and tape or glue your picture to it, being careful to center it carefully.  Check the line up by putting the picture against the book frame.   When you have it like you want it, tape the card stock with the atatched picture to the inside of the book cover.

  

I made 3 frames in about an hour, and a better crafter could definitely do it faster.   I used a copy of the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, one of my favorite books, and two dog focused books.  The first was the Monks of New Skete's training manual How To Be Your Dog's Best Friend, which was a gift from someone and does not espouse a training philosophy I believe in, but the title seemed to suit a dog picture.

 For this frame I used some dog themed scrapbooking paper for the backing.

The last frame was my favorite, I used Susan Orlean's Rin Tin Tin: The Life and the Legend to frame a picture of my husband and Ping bike riding on the Brooklyn Bridge.   I really like the cover of he book so I wanted to keep that in tact.  I traced the picture on the back cover and first cut the opening in the paper cover and then in the actual book.  After cutting through the book I secured the paper cover on with tape and framed the picture the same as with the other books.

 

The best thing about this project is that you can still read the books after making the frame, as only the cover has been altered.   You can use up old books you have lying around like I did or have fun shopping for vintage books that compliment your photos.  I'm sure with greater craft know how there are lots of ways you could improve on these frames as well.

(Stay safe in the Hurricane!)

Walk in The Woods with Ticks-Oh No!

On Sunday morning we decided to take the Weasley, Bob, and Tubby for a hike on the Hackenberry Trail  about an hour drive from our home.  It was a very pretty walk with lovely views of the foliage.

The walk was nice and isolated, we didn't see another person or dog the entire time, and the dogs had a great time smelling all the trees and leaves.  The trouble began when we got back to the car.  See the woods where apparently filled with a major mischief maker, this guy:

  
The American deer tick, the pesky little bugger who carries Lyme disease.  They love to hang out in woods, tall grass, and leaves.  With rising global temperatures they are around more of the year and are becoming a bigger problem.  These days its not unusual to get ticks walking in a city park, but the biggest risk comes from walking in the woods.  So while walking through the woods of Norther New Jersey it is no surprise that we ran into plenty of them.



  The dogs where covered, and I mean covered, with ticks.  I have hard that ticks are becoming immune to Frontline and after today's experience I am definitely agree   When we got home we spent at least an hour taking ticks of the dogs, thankfully none where engorged, so perhaps the Frontline is doing something.    

Here is the best method for removing Ticks:

Removing Ticks that are Not Engorged:

1) Fill a jar with a lid with rubbing alcohol.
2) Comb the dog and check carefully for any ticks that are walking around the body.  Pick them off and immediately put them in the jar.  You can not crush a tick and kill it, you must drown it in the jar.  Seal the lid on the jar tightly to prevent escape.
3) Make sure to check yourself as well, if there are lots of ticks on your dog there are probably ticks on you.


Removing Ticks that are Engorged

1) At this point you need a tick key.
2) The tick will  usually look like a shiny lump or skin tag. 

Here is the You Tube video showing how to remove the tick

If you find an engorged tick on your dog and you live in one of the areas where Lyme Disease is prevalent (In NJ about 50% of deer ticks are positive for Lyme) I would recommend taking your dog to the vet for a test. (If the ticks are not engorged you don't have to worry).   The tests do not actually determine if your dog has an active Lyme disease infection, but they will see if your dog has antibodies to it.  Remember if your dog has had the vaccine he will always test positive.  In my opinion  the vaccine in not the way to go as it is not a 100% effective but makes the test moot and evidence indicates that we are over vaccinating our dogs anyway.   Not every dog exposed to Lyme and with a positive test gets an active Lyme disease infection, but it is still a good idea to treat with antibiotics because Lyme has been linked to kidney failure and lameness,  as well as other health problems.   Once a dog has been exposed to Lyme even if they are successfully treated their antibody titer may remain high for the rest of their life.   I monitor Norbert's antibody levels yearly and they stay above normal.  However, they went down by more then 50% after his initial treatment with antibiotics so now we just watch for an increase.  If the levels go up again we will treat with more antibiotics.

Below is a map of the areas in the US most heavily effected by Lyme disease (though it says human risk, where there is risk to human their is risk to dogs, and actually more risk since dogs are lower to the ground, have hair, and love running through grass, leaves, and bushes.

Monday Mischief Managed-Weasley and The Plastic Bag Vs. Mom

The mischief maker: Weasley, who always knows when his Mom and Dad have treats on hand.

The mischief: Plastic Bag thievery 

The weapons:  Power Patties Tripe Treats treats and sealed containers to stash them in.

The Plan:  Stash the treat containers stashed around the house

give Weasley the drop it command and reward him with a tripe treat taken from one of the secret (to Weasley) locations and do this about twenty times a day.

The Results: A pug who will drop a plastic bag on command!

Mischief Managed!

Puggie Hipsters

 WE ARE BACK!!!!!

Our mom loves to shop for us, hence our bottomless wardrobes.  Her last purchase: two retro tee's from the great pug friendly shop For the Love of Pug, your peeps have gotta check this place out.  Our tees started life as children's wear before being re-cycled (or up-cycled) into doggie shirts.  Our internet research leads us to believe that Hipsters (such as the Brooklyn based human hipsters pictured here):



consider ironic retro tees an essential wardrobe component.   Now, that we have our own retro tees we figure we are hipsters too and are ready to hang out with the cool folks in Brooklyn (not too many hipster's in Jersey City.)  What do you guys think, are we too cool for school? 

Tubby's shirt pictures Batman (particularly hipster appropriate considering the current pro 99% percenter Batman movie) and reads Hangin' with a Hero

Weasley's shirt reads I Do My Own Stunts, apparently Ping gets the joke (or else she finally sees the upside of her cone of shame: she can't wear any shirts until it comes off).

Weasley has really perfect a surly adolescent James Deany gaze, very hipster appropriate.

 On a very happy, but un-related note Ping's test results came back and every lump was B-9!   Woo hoo!   We are keeping our paws crossed that Scooter and Norbert's senior wellness exams and tests come back with good results and then we will be on easy street (except mom and dad are out 2 grand for the surgery and the senior exams, growing old ain't cheap!)