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.