"Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring - it was peace." - Milan Kundera (b. 1929) Czech author
5 minutes in Weasley has neither accepted, nor rejected cabbage as a food, refusing to eat it or spit it out.
10 minutes in a bit of cabbage is still visible
If you want a good cabbage recipe try this one for Rye Spaetzle Gratin from the New York Times its what we were making when Weasley picked his scrap of cabbage of the floor.
On Saturday we got a package from across the pond. All the way from our friends Dip-Dip, Bridgette, and Elliot. The package had a mini-me! A tiny little Weasley.
The mini-me even has a little Gryfyndor scarf to honor Weasley's name sack, Harry Potter character Ronald Weasley. The mini-me is now resting comfortably in mom's Harry Potter shrine:
For Norbert's 11th birthday we got him the coolest toy ever a giant snake, over five feet long. You can read about it in this post. Now Norbert likes his toy but its Weasley who loves the snake and battles with him every day. Size be damned.
Note: If you are not a Harry Potter fan you might not know that Nagini is the evil snake familiar of the Lord Voldermort. Since Weasley is named after Ron Weasley, Harry Potter's best friend and my vote for best character in the series, it seemed appropriate to name our snake Nagini.
PS-We appreciate every ones kind thoughts and well wishes for Ping's health. So far so good she is feeling absolutely fine and we are waiting to talk to the nutritionist and the University of Tennessee Veterinary school about starting a home made liver diet, hopefully we can get that done next week.
Now our mom is aware of her limitations, and she is not much of a dog trainer to be sure. I guess you would call her and dad a bit.....permissive. She does like to teach us some tricks though. Now Weasley liked to chase toys but was dead set against bringing them back, here is how mom taught him to fetch. (Yes many dogs fetch naturally, but not all of them). Supplies Needed: One energetic pug and one ball
One bag treats and one clicker
Step 1: Present the ball to the pug and when the pug looks at the ball click and treat.
Step 2 Place the ball on the ground and click and treat when the pug looks at it, approaches it, and finally touches it. Very gradually increase the difficulty requiring the pug to touch or mouth the ball before you click and treat. You can also start to roll the ball at this point. Remember work slowly and ensure success for your pug.
Step 4 Once your pug is consistently running towards the ball and touching it. You are ready to throw the ball. Click and treat when your pug runs to the ball and touches it. At this point they don't have to bring the ball back.
Step 5 As soon as your pug starts putting their mouth on the ball and picking it up click and treat big time, with a jack put ( a couple of little treats). Before long your pug will be chasing the ball and returning it to you. Fetch!
See the video below to see Weasley fetching away in our back lot.
It says: "Mischief Managed" and it is from Fetching Tags. They can make custom tags with a phrase as unique as your dog. Ping and Norbert already have tags with phrases that are special to me so Weasley was clearly next in line. Weasley's tag references the Harry Potter books that feature his name sake, Ron Weasley. The phrase "mischief managed" is used to conceal the Marauder's Map
a magical document that reveals the location of everyone inside the Hogwart's school grounds.
Of course Mischief Managed is also good phrase to describe a mischievous young pug as well. After all, Weasley manages plenty of Mischief!
We really like our Fetching Tags. Our communication with the company has always been great and the tags are sturdy and beautiful. Sure they cost a bit more then other tags, but a unique pet tag is a fun way to celebrate your dog's individuality.
This weekend was big, really BIG. On Saturday mom and dad woke up super early to walk of us. Then they took Weasley to Red Bank NJ for his photo shoot for 1000 pugs. It was awesome we met the lovely ladies of Southern Fried Pugs and Weasley got to pose for his photo. The photographer, Amanda, was super nice and Weasley loved his shoot. Here are some pictures of him getting his picture taken
On Saturday night mom and dad abandoned us, Boo!, to go see Frankenweenie, which they said was pretty cute but a bit too anti-cat for their tastes (we do have three camera shy feline siblings).
Then on Sunday after another early morning walk the pugs and mom and dad headed into Manhattan in the rain to meet up with some other pug bloggers. We met Sid of Pug Slope and his mom and dad and his lovely girl friend Timothy Buttonsm, and Payton of Pugnacious P's mom and dad. There were lots of other adorable pugs there and we were a bit sad we had to go home before Wilma the pug got there, but mom and dad didn't want to neglect the big guys at home. It was rainy but fun!
Mom is so happy that there are other people out there as crazy about their dogs as she and dad are! We hope your weekend was equally awesome!
All summer and fall the Williamsburg waterfront is host to a big food truck gathering where there are tons of tasty things to eat. We have been there twice in the summer sans dogs, its where we discovered Grady's Cold Brew which you can now buy at Whole Foods. Now that the weather is cooler we wanted to bring Weasley along.
Weasley got to sample smoked brisket:
and he smelled all the tasty smells.
He met my friend Sara.
and posed by a stand caused the Fat Beagle.
On the way home we visited the dog park and he played with a very friend German Shepherd.
The pugs at Urban Hounds have impressive wardrobes for sure....coats, PJs, t-shirts, but there is one clothing item they, (or really mom reaches for again and again) Sweater Vests! Specifically the adorable sweater vests from Life is Art blogger Melissa and her adorable pug Archie. They sell their vests at their Etsy shop Pug Notes. Tubby and Ping already have 3 vests apiece and the late, lamented Dr. Z had several as well. Obviously, Weasley had some catching up to do. So I ordered him two vests about a month ago and the weather has finally turned crisp enough for him to wear them. You can see that Weasley was very eager to try on his vests
Plus they came wrapped in his favorite thing...a plastic bag (see this post). I even made a video of Weasley unwrapping the sweaters (please excuse production quality as I am no film maker)
The sweaters sure look great on Weasley and they compliment his hats from All You Need is Pug perfectly. One sweater is a pretty dark and light brown with a black collar. Its like a chocolate chip cookie and it goes very nicely with Weasley's black cat hat. Now Weasley can look like his favorite animal, the cat. See he loves our cats Baby, Scooter, and Ernie but the feeling is not mutual.
Now perhaps the cats will enjoy playing with me.
The other sweater is a lovely Burgandy Red and Gold sweater the colors of Gryffindor house, just like Weasley's fictional name sake!
and it matches his Gryffindor Hat.
Now our Weasley is totally ready to play Quidditch on the house team(if only he had a flying broom).
See Weasley would fit right in that empty seat on left, next to the real Ron.
The sweater really must have made Weasley feel pretty magical because as soon as he put it on and I gave him my Ron Weasley wand, a thoughtful gift from my friend Pat who visited the Harry Potter amusement park (because even I would not spend my money on a wand, that money is for pug clothes), he took off around the yard. Perhaps on the look out for dark wizards?
We know Weasley is going to be enjoying his sweaters for years to come. If you have a pug or other small dog get them a sweater vest, you won't be disappointed.
Over our staycation in August we decided to take Weasley to First Run, AKA The Tompkins Square Park Dog Run, this was the first dog run established in the city and last time Weasley visited (link here) he was too young to go in. Since we all love food before we decided to visit a sandwich shop, Mile End, that has gotten some good reviews (they have out posts in Brooklyn and Manhattan).
Weasley did a great job waiting patiently with mom while his dad got our foodables. We tried Poutine, a Montreal specialty apparently, that consists of fries, cheese curds, and gravy and at Mile End some really amazing smoked meat. OMP (oh my pug) was it ever good. We at it at the park and shared a bit with Weasley.
He would have liked more but we felt it was a bit rich for a pug (or as Weasley suspects we just didn't want to share). After our lunch we took Weasley into the small dog run which sadly was pretty empty and most of the dogs were not interested in playing with a young whippersnapper. Then, horrors, we saw a rat in the dog run. Eeeeek!!!! So we left pronto. We did get this picture of Weasley getting a hug from his Dad.
After the dog run rat debacle we decided to go for a walk. We passed this cool coffee shop with a canine friendly sign and decided to get some iced coffees there.
We decided Weasley deserved a treat too and luckily we passed a pet store with a dog friendly treat dispenser outside.
For 25 cents we got Weasley two liver biscotti. He so wants one of these in the living room, then he says we can make some real use of our change jar.
