All Hallow's Dogs

Candy, Candy Everywhere...

Tonight is Halloween. That means that I wear my pumpkin costume and try to sneak candy out of the bowl. Just a few minutes ago, a found a wrapper and tried to eat it. It took two humans to corner me and force it out of my mouth. Such is my dedication to eating things.

All night children have been coming to the house and leaving with candy. They have big bags full of it. But my favorite thing about children is that they pet me and tell me I am cute. Sometimes they are more interested in petting me than they are interested in getting candy. Whenever they knock on the door, I get excited and rush to greet them. My tail wags the whole time.

Home Again

I am home after spending almost an entire week with my grandparents. While I was at my grandparents' I was spoiled. They bought me lots of new toys, all of which I loved to play with. My mommy even detected Greenies on my breath. The only thing I didn't like was going to the groomer. True, I did get a pretty bow and get to play with the nice people there, but at the groomer I have to get a bath. I, Poppy, do not like baths.

When my mommy came to pick me up today, I showed her all of my new toys. Then I got to go for a ride in the car.

When we got home, the little girl from down the block was waiting for me. I greeted her. She gave me a pet. She laughed. She said she liked my tail.

I was happy to see the boys when I got home. All of us went to the school yard to play as a celebration of my homecoming. Duncan chased his ball until he got stiff and Daddy had to take it away from him. I ran after Duncan. I love to run through the grass.

Later, after we had our snack and Mommy and Daddy had their dinner, Mommy gave us the drippings from the pan. We ate with relish.

Announcing My Facebook Page

I, Poppy, now have a page on Facebook. I invite you to friend me. I like being friends. Facebook is also good for when you want to see what I am Up To At Any Given Time.

The other day one of my fans suggested that I might just be the smartest pug ever. Though I thank that fan for his faith in my abilities, my opinion of myself differs.

In fact, I really do not have an opinion of myself. That would require self-awareness, which, most of the time I do not have. I might have it at times in the morning when I have not yet been fed. However, I have a feeling that my awareness of my hunger is just instinct and that what I really am aware of at 5:30am is that you have not yet fed me. So what I am really aware of is that I am small and lacking thumbs and need some one of the primate persuasion to open the food bin for me.

But back to the issue of my intelligence, or lack thereof. It is true that I, Poppy, am a sophisticated, liberated pug who leads a charmed life even though I live in Highlands now and no longer in Cherry Creek. I would say that even though I keep a blog and am politically aware, I am not the most intelligent put ever. Indeed, my grandma says that, like Pooh, I am a pug of very little brain*, and another fan of mine has called pugs, "Brain stems on legs." (This last assessment may be a little neocortex-centric as I am a mammal and have a mammalian brain). At this point, I should say that I am smarter than the pug who lives on the corner with the McCain/Palin signs on his lawn. Any pug who is for McCain is not looking out for his own security.

It is true that I am virtually untrainable, that when you tell me to sit I just bark at you. It is true that when I am outside I sometimes and without thinking chew on random leaves and vines.

My curiosity is my strong point. I am a very curious pug. If you are doing something, I want to be right there with you when you are doing it. I want to see what you are doing, and smell the tools you are using to do it. I want to see what everything tastes like. I want to sniff at every part of the garden, and every corner of the house. I want to look inside spaces I'm not allowed. I want to go into your brief case and pull out your pens and your headphones and stuff my nose right down into the seams so that I can tell if there is anything in there that would be yummy for me.

So curious? Yes. Smart? Not so much.

*Yes, I know that Pooh is a bear. So does my grandma.

Me, at the table

As a pug, I am always trying to find the highest spot in the room. We also like food. We are very busy dogs, always looking for crumbs.

I have recently made it a habit of climbing up on the chairs and sitting, as if I were a human child waiting for a meal.

Wrapper

Sometimes food comes in wrappers. I, Poppy, have seen the ones with thumbs eat food from wrappers. I have stolen the wrappers from the trash can.

Food in wrappers can be found in Mommy's handbag. There was some food in wrappers in there the other day, but I found it difficult to open the handbag with my teeth. I chewed on it a little and then gave up.

Again the other day, when I was up on the table where I am not supposed to be, I found wrapper with something in it. I tore open the wrapper. I shredded the wrapper. But there was nothing in the wrapper. Just a printer cartridge.