September 22, 2008 at 12:09 pm · Show more about: oopsy, Pug
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Meet Oopsy. She is a nearly three year old pug, which means that she was born right after Hurricane Katrina and lived as a very young puppy in Pug City (and here). Her mother is Ipsy (who was on a Jones Soda Bottle), and her father is Gonnie, who is Gizmo and Gadget’s brother. That means that G&G are her uncles!
Oopsy is going to live with us either temporarily or permanently, it’s not entirely clear yet. However, for the time that she is here, we wanted to have her stay with us for a few reasons. First, she’s very little. She’s half the size of Gadget, easily. That means that we now have a “little pug” for our “little girl” (Martine).
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Second, Oopsy is very active. She runs around and and plays a lot. Gadget does not run around and play. He’s totally laid back. Gizmo, on the other hand, does like to play. However, it’s hard for a Pug to play when only one Pug wants to play. Having Oopsy around means that Gizmo now has someone to chase.
There’s lots more to say about Oopsy, and I’ll get to it in time. So, for now, we’re living with three pugs, all of whom want to sleep in the bed that only has so much room.
September 8, 2008 at 8:08 pm · Show more about: Pug
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Ok, where to start? Just after arriving back home from living in Baton Rouge for 6 weeks, we immediately turned around and visited Tricia’s parents in Hilton Head. However, this time, we did something different — we took G&G with us! It was Gizmo and Gadget’s first REAL road trip! We drove through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Of course, they’ve been to shows before, but they’ve been retired champions since 8 months (Gadget) and 9 months (Gizmo), so they really haven’t been on any trips for as long as they can remember.
Since Tricia’s parents live near the beach, this picture is of Gizmo, Gadget, and Martine together on the beach. Also, you can click here to see an entire album of pictures from the trip. There are some of Gizmo running around, and a few good shots of them with my new camera (Digital Rebel XSi).
After we got back from that trip, we recovered for a day, and then I started school (my 3rd year in law school). After a few days of school, the whole city had to evacuate because of Hurricane Gustav. However, we had already planned to go to New York for a wedding that weekend, and our flight was supposed to return us last Monday (Labor Day). We decided to go on the trip, and we left Gizmo and Gadget with my parents, who evacuated to Baton Rouge.
We ended up having to stay in New York and Philadelphia for a few days, while Gizmo and Gadget had to rough it in Baton Rouge without any power (or air conditioning). Fortunately, it wasn’t as hot as it could have been, and they managed to stay out of the heat.
Oh! One more thing, and it’s very important — We have a NEW ADDITION. However, you’ll have to check back later to see what (who?) it is.
September 1, 2008 at 8:51 am · Show more about: Pug
This is just a quick update. Gizmo and Gadget are safely evacuated to Baton Rouge. However, Tricia, Martine, and I went to a wedding in New York for the weekend, and our flight back to New Orleans is, of course, canceled. So … we’re stuck up north for the time being.
Today’s Pug is Jade, from New Hampshire. She’s five years old and is a rescue who came to live with her current family after her parents passed away. Now, Jade lives with Jennifer and Corey, who Jade charmed immediately just by cocking her head to the side! Jennifer says that Corey and Jade belong to a “Synchronized Snoring Team”, and she thinks they will be taking a top medal in this summer’s Olympic games!!
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The picture above is of Jade dressed up in her party dress, with bows, and the picture to the left is of jade wearing her pink Doggles. I really think it’s cute to have black pugs wear pink (girls, of course) because the contrast of pink and black looks really nice.
Anyway, Jade loves to play “bunny” fetch and tug and eat carrots, and she hasn’t met a vegetable she doesn’t like. (Note – Gizmo and Gadget love veggies too, especially broccoli stems) Jade’s also had two litters of puppies, and Jade even gets to visit one of her puppies, Mickey. Also, Jennifer has sent us several pictures of Jade and her son, Mickey, which I have posted Jade’s Gallery. Click the link to go see all of her pictures.
We’re just a few weeks away from crawling, and things are going to get very … interesting … once Martine becomes mobile. However, right now, she’s still learning to lift her head and look around, which is exactly what she’s doing here. She just happened to be on the bed next to Gizmo, who was in a very similar position.
Martine started doing it, and Tricia just about exploded it was so cute. So, I ran downstairs and picked up the camera to grab a shot. Fortunately, there was enough time to get a good shot in before she got tired and moved on to a slightly less cute activity.
Gizmo and Gadget are getting used to living in Baton Rouge, though they like their “real” home better. The past few weeks have been extremely busy with little to no time for anything fun like taking pictures and posting to urban pug. However, we’re going to be starting to get back into the swing of things soon, so expect more pictures coming soon!
I’ve been working with a digital point and shoot for years now, and I think it’s time to upgrade to a better camera. Unfortunately, they’re expensive!!!
Do you use a digital camera? What kind? I would really like to know if anyone has any recommendations for a good camera.
Last week, Gizmo cracked one of his nails, and it was really deep. We noticed when there was blood on his paw and we had to figure out how it got there. As soon as we noticed, we cleaned him up a bit, and Tricia put some antibacterial stuff on his nail. However, we’ve really just had to deal with pain this week. He hasn’t been running around as much, and he’s walked with a limp, not wanting to put pressure on his paw
Because he hasn’t been walking as much, it’s been just me and Gadget on walks in the morning this week, and Gadget has totally loved the extra attention he gets. I think he feels “special” getting to be the only pug on the walk. In the mornings, he’s actually been getting up and wanting to go out, rather than staying in bed like he usually does. It’s really kinda cute that he likes going alone so much.
Anyway, Gizmo’s nail is healing well, and he actually did go on a walk this morning. It still looks kinda gross, and it probably will hurt when I try to trim his nail later, but I really don’t think there was much we could do for him. Well, besides keep it clean (which he does a good job of himself, actually) and try to keep his nails trimmed (in order to keep this from happening again).
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Actually, if you want to trim your pug’s nails, I recommend a Dremel tool for the job. They even make a “pet” version of it. Dremel tools will give you a better looking end result than just a regular old nail clipper.
Also, here is a picture of Gadget and Martine, sleeping together. She really loves them, and they get excited to see her when we’ve been out. They totally think of her as one of the family, which we think is great. We’ve been really busy for the past few weeks, and it’s not going to let up anytime soon, but I really hope to get more pictures up. We keep taking them, and they continue to be cute. We just need to get the time to SHARE them!
This first picture is of everyone in bed early in the morning. You can see Gadget and Martine next to each other — she’d just been playing with him. And, you can also see Gizmo over on the right still zonked out in his most recent ridiculous place — between the pillows, half stuck between the headboard and Tricia. He loves being up there sleeping on Tricia’s head, and I think he got into this position when she woke up and sat up in bed, kinda sliding underneath the pillows as she propped herself up on an extra pillow.
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Anyway, Martine continues to grow and learn about the world around her, including the pugs! Whenever they walk by her, she now smiles really big at them, and she will also reach out at them. If one of them (usually Gadget) sits down right next to her, she will kinda-sorta try to pet them. It’s really, really cute when she does it. But, I just haven’t been able capture a candid moment like that on video, just yet.
A few weeks ago, we went on vacation to Hilton Head Island, SC to visit Tricia’s dad, hit the beach, and hit the outlets. We also visited with his pugs. The one in these pictures is Outy – He reminds us a lot of G&G because, well, he’s almost like another version of them. Very similar looking, except Tricia’s dad keeps him on a very strict diet, so he’s much skinnier than Gadget!
Anyway, the one very unique thing about Outy is his tail. Instead of the relatively more common “one and a half twists,” Outy’s tail has “two and a half twists.” You don’t quite notice it at first, but if you go down and look at it, it really does twist another turn, and it looks EXACTLY LIKE SOFT SERVE ICE CREAM!!!
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On top of visiting, we took the pugs to the beach a few times, as Tricia’s dad lives a short walk from the beach. When we went, the weather was really nice, so the pugs could run around quite a bit and not get too hot.
Here’s one of the videos we took on the beach. The smaller pug is Oopsy, and she’s a little brat! She’s very tiny – full grown and her head is half the size of Gadget’s head. She’s light too, as she required less effort to pick up than Martine — I’d guess oopsy is between 10 and 12 pounds. However, she’s completely full of energy. Tricia wanted to bring her home, so Martine could have her own dog — and she’d give G&G another pug to play with (G&G are laid back, Oopsy is not!)
Last thursday, I finished finals. I’m taking a week off before clerking this summer, so we’re spending the week in Hilton Head, SC to visit Tricia’s dad (and hang out at the beach!)
At any rate, here is a close up photo of Martine and Gizmo I took before we left for vacation. Martine does not mind letting her brother use her head as a chin rest. We think this picture is really cute, and we really want to get some fun comments on this one. So, everyone, here’s a question for you to answer — “What do you think Gizmo is saying in this picture?”
I think he’s saying, “I’m totally the cute one in this picture!!!” Post what you think in the comments.
April 26, 2008 at 4:42 pm · Show more about: collar, Pug
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Seersucker is a fabric that’s commonly worn in the South between Easter and Labor Day. Generally, you see older men wearing Seersucker suits in the summer. It’s also common to make children’s clothing from seersucker. Indeed, we have several small dresses for Martine that are made of the fabric. However, I couldn’t find anything for Gizmo and Gadget.
I looked all around, and I couldn’t find anything out there. So, I eventually made my way over to Etsy.com, which is a site that’s all about hand made crafts. I used their “Alchemy” feature, which allows you to request custom items to be made, and various craft makers bid on what you want created. I used this, and eventually found someone who had a track record of making good dog collars to make one using Seersucker for me.
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Everything was fine, except for the fact that the seller lives outside of the South, and there was no seersucker to be found! We really wanted these collars, so I went to a local store and found some fabric, bought a small amount, and sent it to the maker. Don’t worry, though, we arranged it so that the price was fair in light of my providing some of the materials.
The whole process of looking for Seersucker collars took a while, but once I got the materials to the maker, making them was very fast. So after a while of working on this project (but only a little time waiting for the collars to be made), I finally got them, and they look great! Really cute, and we like the way they look on G&G.
We had a green and white collar made for Gizmo and a blue and white one made for Gadget. Now, we’ll be able to take a picture of Gizmo, Gadget, and Martine all in their seersucker outfits!
The seller is Nomorenekkiddogs on Etsy.com. If you have a special fabric or design, you can get a custom collar too! I highly recommend using Etsy.com for this kind of thing, AND they have all sorts of really well-made crafts that make great gifts.
Martine is 11 weeks old, and she’s becoming more aware of the world every day. Those in the world, specifically her brothers, are also becoming more and more aware of her every day. Gadget is really shy, but he’s also extremely loving, and licking is one of his ways of expressing that. He’s started to want to snuggle more with Martine, and he’s started licking her feet whenever he gets the chance! He’s learning more about her, and he’s showing that he treats her just like he treats his parents.
Gizmo, on the other hand, does not lick. He’s a bit more possessive than Gadget, as he thinks he’s higher up on the totem pole. He knows that I’m number one, but he’s right up there in the #2 spot, with everyone else in the house below him.
When we go places, sometimes, he will “mark” Tricia, signalling that she is his, and those other pugs best be stepping away from her. Well, when we got home last night, Gizmo “marked” Martine. Ack!
Well, it actually wasn’t that bad. She was in her car seat still, and nothing got on that, just on the floor. We’ll be a bit more careful next time.
April 17, 2008 at 10:33 pm · Show more about: Pug, sofa
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We’ve had bad luck with sofas. In fact, I have a whole website that spawned from my misfortune at having acquired a Microfiber Sofa. You see, the problem with microfiber is that while it looks great, it has a really hard time holding up to spills and dogs. Some microfiber sofas are better than others, but the one we got is especially difficult to care for.
We also “inherited” a sofa when Tricia’s dad moved to Hilton Head. Unfortunately, that sofa had lived in a house with lots of pugs — and their smell. Gizmo and Gadget got into the habit of marking the corner of that sofa, and even with repeated cleanings, we couldn’t break the habit. Making it worse is that cleaning the fabric on an upholstered sofa is especially difficult, so I don’t think we ever got the smell out, entirely.
So, our solution was to get a leather sofa. There’s no fabric to soak up smells or spills, and it can be cleaned with a washcloth. So far, it seems to be holding up fairly well, but only time will tell.
Pictured is Gizmo on the new sofa, next to one of our Pug Pillows featuring Lt. Otto Von Puglish. I can’t remember where Tricia’s mom got them, but I did find a few on amazon click here, here, and here.
We’ve had excellent cool spring weather this week, and Gizmo and Gadget have been enjoying spending some time lounging in the yard outside. It won’t be long before summer comes along and the heat is way too much for them to handle outside for very long. So, they’re getting their fill of the really nice weather while they still can.
This picture is of Gadget (with Gizmo in the background) just chillin in the grass.
April 6, 2008 at 9:17 pm · Show more about: martine, Pug
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Whenever we arrive home after leaving Gizmo and Gadget alone, they get very excited and act a certain way. They also act the same way whenever one of us arrives home. For example, whenever I get home from school, the dogs get excited, they run and will act happy / excited for a little while. They run up to me and essentially are saying, “Hello! I missed you! Pet me!”
Well, I’ve noticed that they now will also say “hi” to martine when we get home. Our arriving home generally consists of me putting her carseat on the floor while I go outside and get other things from the car. While her carseat is on the floor, Gizmo and Gadget can hop right up, sniff her feet, and say hello.
I think it’s interesting because it’s another example of how they’re treating her just like they treat any other member of the family.
. They work great!
are great for cleaning up messes, and are reusable.