Best In Show

Hello internets!

It's been a while hasn't it? I've been so busy running and sniffing and eating lamb and sleeping and exploring and sleeping and eating chicken and peeing and eating 'roo' and gardening and eating cow that I've been letting Opaka keep you updated on all our adventures.

'Cept for today!

Today started off cold. Very cold. It was even colder because the guy with the hot breath that lives in the roof doesn't seem to want to help us get warm at the moment so my Humans found another way to make sure we didn't turn into ice cubes: A sun in a box!

(We love the sun in a box.)

After a while of super-warm-zzz's our Humans came along with our going out gear and off we went in Echo for a drive. I love Echo - he has special little baskets for us to sit in so we can look out at things as they go whizzing by.

We arrived at a huge place *PACKED* full of pugs! Big pugs, small pugs, black pugs, white pugs, fat pugs, skinny pugs - pugs pugs pugs pugs!

We were in for another surprise, Miss Joanna and Rikki were also there with a bunch of pugs from Pug Rescue & Adoption Victoria. (The wonderful people who saved us from the place of The Yard.)

I nearly wagged my curly tail right off! Even my bro Toby was there!

I met a tonne of other pugs who are also looking for a Home, and one little lady called Cookie (who kinda looks a bit like Opaka did before she got better) with not very much fur thanks to those demodex bitey things and not enough love where she was before.

Cookie having a snuggle with Miss Joanna.

Opaka and I got some awesome cuddles from Rikki and I got to sniff butts with Toby and the rest of the gang.

It turns out that this place was actually an event to show pugs off that people think are extra special because they stand funny (like Opaka does when the grass is wet so she pees standing up) and are a bit fat.

My Guy said that I don't need to stand funny to be special and that he thinks Opaka and I are extra special perfect without having to have a choker chain put around our necks and made to walk in a circle. He also said that he likes us being able to run around and have lots of energy because we're healthy.

We did get to walk around the circle at the end of the day with our Humans and all the rest of our rescue crowd to help raise awareness for all the puggies still waiting to find a Home, and we got lots of claps going around by the people in suits with numbers tied to their arms.

The Loud Lady talked about some of the places these other pugs had been, places like a 'puppy farm' where they'd eaten rocks just to try and stop their tummy feeling so empty, or had never seen the sunlight with chains welded around their necks with 400 other pugs before being found.

I'm glad they all had couches to go home to like we do now.

We even got a shiny circle of metal once we'd walked around (our Humans had to wear it for us, it wasn't pug-sized) and stood in a big row with all of our other puggy brothers and sisters while the suity humans kept clapping for us.

We're very lucky now to be able to have a sun in a box and a couch to enjoy it from, but today really made me remember there are still so many of us out there with no couch to call their own, even when it's so very cold outside.

My Guy said we were all 'Best In Show' and looking down that line I think he is absolutely right. I gave him a big cuddle and lots of licks all the way home.

We recycled pugs really have a lot of love to give!

What's wrong with this picture?

Something is wrong in this picture...can you tell what it is?

That's right, somehow Miss Mel though it was okay for Kai to sit higher on her lap than me.  Well this is what I had to say about that.....

I've now explained to her that perching on her shoulder like a parrot is a far better compromise and in fact is more in recognition of my position in the house.

So my humans have been very slack about blogging for a long time.  A really long time.  Miss Mel says she is very sorry about that but she got very busy and then was so behind on all the blogs she didn't have time to catch up.  That made her feel guilty about posting anything and so nothing happened.  My response to this was a repeat of the photo above.

Let's not even bring up The Mr's excuses!

The good news is I've convinced to her to get going again today, but she said to say sorry to all those whose blog she reads and that she'll be passing through very soon.  I'd like to say thanks to those who stopped by in the meantime and especially to Tweedles for being concerned.

We're back!  More adventures will follow soon.

To help her feel better

The last couple of days Miss Mel hasn't been feeling well in her tummy.  So I've been helping her feel better by laying on it.  I was very concerned about her and I'm sure my laying here has helped her.  Plus she was laying on my couch, so I had to lay on her.  Today she is better and I'm sure it's all my special cuddles that did the trick.

Denied

 Today Miss Mel made this.  It's her chocolate cake with cream cheese icing.

But even though we looked at her like this and stayed in the kitchen the whole time, making sure we were near or under her feet the whole time to get her attention, she didn't share any with us.

The cake was to celebrate the ending of watching some tv show both our humans enjoyed.  They've been watching it for about as long as we've been with them.  All we really know about it is that we like to bark a lot at this guy:

I'm hoping the next show they watch has dogs in it, preferably pugs of course.  Though they make us bark too!  As long as there aren't any crying babies, that's the most important thing, they get me all upset.

Epic Australia Day!

Today when we got up Miss Mel was singing songs like this.

That's when we realised it must be the special day to celebrate Australia and being Australian.  So the humans went out and came back with a very special treat for us.

Kangaroo sausages!  Apparently they are gourmet ones and kangaroo is this super lean meat, so the humans were happy to give them to us.

We were desperate to have them and started using the orbs to make sure the humans didn't eat them for themselves.

 I'm not happy about the fact that Kai got more than me, he always gets more food than me.

 Whatevers with the sitting, just give us those sausages!

 Oh yeah they smelt sooooo good.

Nom nom nom!

Yes, I did try and get Kai's last sausage, but it's only fair, he got more than me!

After lunch the humans took us to a beach for dogs.  Dogs are allowed off their leash there but our humans aren't ready to let us go like that.  Apparently after the BBQ they want to be sure we'll listen when they call.  Plus there were some big dogs there and they weren't sure how'd we would react to them.

Today we tackled the water and I wasn't impressed.  I'm not having a bath, why am I getting wet?

Then the humans got out the treats and after that I couldn't care less about the water.  Water shomter, give me some of that liver!

We ran around in the water and I got nice and cool.  I hope we'll be going there again.  One of the humans there, that are not ours, said that lots of rescue dogs come there, so at least I'll know we'll have something in common with the others.

I had a great day, I hope your Australia day is just as fun!

(Note from Mel: No Ugg boots were hurt in the making of this blog post.)

(Second note from Mel: I'm nominating this as our new national anthem...Make sure you get to the rocking part!)

ossobuccoossobuccoossobucco

 Today the humans brought something new home for us to try for dinner.  It's called Osso Bucco, Kai and I went a little crazy over it.  The meat was so delicious but the best bit was the marrow.  Oh the marrow!  It was so lovely and squishy to lick from the bone.  So very tasty.  Then there was a lovely bone to chew on.  It was a three course meal!

The only problem now is that I want to sit on the couch with our humans, but there are still those wonderful bones outside that I want to chew on.  I keep trying to bring them inside to the couch and the humans throw them back out.  I don't understand why I can't have the two things I want at the same time.

My husband Kai

Kai (left) and Opaka (right)

Kai and I have been together for a long time.  He licks my ears, snuggles next to me on the cushion and pre-chews my bully-sticks for me.  While sometimes we do fight, really I'm very glad he's with me everyday.  When he's not there I know something isn't right and he feels the same about me.

I know the humans weren't sure what to call our relationship when we came to live with them.  I'm pretty sure they know now that we are just together, we're a unit and that's what really matters.  I suppose that makes him my husband.  I love that all four of us together are a family.

Sunshine musings on bathing

I'm sitting in the sun today to dry off after having a bath.  I'm really not sure about this bathing business.  It's great to feel clean and I get all energetic afterwards.  But while I'm in the water I'm not very comfortable.  I usually keep one paw up, at least if I can keep one from getting wet it isn't so bad.

The only true benefit I can tell is that I get heaps of cuddles afterwards.  My humans keep picking me up and hugging me, telling me how good I smell.  I get as much lap time as I want!

I'm going to consult the couch, but I'd like to know what you guys think too.

Underdogs

My human was watching this today about rescue dogs and it made her leak.  So I thought I'd share it with you all because she said it was the good kind of leaking not the bad kind.  Also I recognised someone in it, Joanna is the Pug lover lady who helped rescue us!  She really loves pugs and is a wonderful person to help so many of us.

They're ours!

When we got back from our big adventure our humans gave us these, they designed them on this website.

They said that these mean we officially are a family together.  They are ours and we are theirs.  On the back it has all their contact details incase we get lost.

They also gave us new harnesses to match.  They're very comfortable.  Miss Mel says she's been wanting one for her pugs one day in the future ever since she saw Archie wearing one when he was a puppy.  She ordered them specially because they're hard to get in Australia.  Do you think we look good?

The HUGE Adventure

For our first Christmas our humans took us on a big adventure.  Before we got in the car they did a lot of things around the house.  I kept following them around hoping they'd sit down for cuddles but it didn't happen.  Next thing I knew they put on our harnesses and put us in the car.  Nothing strange about that, we love a good car trip.  But this car trip went on and on and on.  It even got dark outside.  It was really tough sitting in the pug seat for that long.  Kai and I both couldn't lay down properly and I didn't sleep well without Kai next to me.

Eventually our humans figured it out though and luckily they had our comfy cushion right underneath the pug seats.  They finally got the hint when Kai jumped out of his seat and laid down promptly going to sleep.  So we got to spend the rest of the day sleeping, thank goodness.  Really it felt like sleeping on the couch at home, just this one moved.

They did insist on us still having us tied down though so we couldn't jump in the front, such a shame it looked like it had a great view!  We tried very hard to sweet talk them, bark at them and orb them to get in the front but no luck.

It took two days of driving to get where we going and at the other end we found The Nan!  We also met The Pop and lots of other dogs and people.  There were so many others we didn't know what to do.  We kept trying to find our humans and felt happiest when we were with them.  Santi Paws came to visit all us dogs and we got pig ears to eat for Christmas.  They were so yummy.  Such a shame that Ginger the pug x chihuahua stole them all and hid them in the garden.

Ages later (Human note: a week and half) the humans start to do a lot of things again.  We got worried that they were going to leave without us, but luckily they put us in the car too.  It was two days again driving home, but we were a lot more comfortable this time.  On the way back the humans made a big deal about this Dish that we saw on the way back.  From what I could understand it has something to do with humans being on the moon, that the video of the first people landing on the moon came through there.  Honestly it sounds like fantasy to me, who would want to put enough energy in to get to the moon?  I think a far better use for this dish is to fill it with Bully Sticks and let me eat them!

When we arrived home we had lots of Christmas cards from pug friends around the globe so wanted to say a big thanks to them all.  *pug licks*

From Kai and Opaka...

It's so wonderful having so many puggy friends.  Thank you for coming to visit us and leaving us wonderful comments.  It makes us and our humans very happy!

*licks* and puggy snuggles.

Pug Rescue Christmas BBQ

Food?

This weekend we finally had a successful outing.  The Rescue group that had us threw a Christmas BBQ and we took our humans!  It was a lot of fun and we got to run around with other pugs off lead for the first time.  Unfortunately some pugs didn't know how to respect my boundaries and I had to let them know it wasn't okay.  I might have gone a little overboard though and that's how I ended up back on my lead.  Kai however was have a great time exploring and he must have explored a little too far and that's how he ended up back on his lead.

We really regretted that when they bought the sausages out.  Oh how heavenly they smelled.  All the pugs were gathering around as they were cooking but we couldn't get close.  Luckily that's when my humans got out the liver treats and that brought all the pugs back to us.

We're up the back of this picture, those are our humans legs though.
(Thanks to the Pug Rescue group for this photo.)

I was really happy to see the people who helped rescue me, they gave me a lot of pats and took pictures of me.  I also got to meet a lot of other pugs, both rescues and not.  My favourite was Boomer, he's a rescue from a puppy mill.  Apparently the owner wanted to get rid of him because he was too lazy to breed.  He certainly seemed interested in me though!  I'm sure we could be good friends once he gets fixed.

I had to make sure all the pugs there knew that my humans were mine though, Kai helped out.  Anytime a pug tried to sit on my humans laps I pushed them right off and took my rightful position.  I must say that Miss Mel looked particularly interested in some of the puppies but I'm sure she knows all she needs is me.

There's a fine line between pleasure and pain...

Do I want the treat THAT much?

Ever since I've come to live at this new house I've been giving my humans a hard time about cleaning my nose wrinkle.  What pug doesn't?  I squirm and I struggle and I cry.  All of which I know works on her soft human heart.  Then I really like to confuse her and let her rub and massage my wrinkle when we're cuddling, as long as she doesn't come near me with the cloth.  Does she really think she can fool me?

Yesterday she decided treats were the way to get me to behave.  I must admit it worked.  Once I smelt that dried liver nothing could make me go away.  I still wasn't happy when she wiped my wrinkle, but I kept coming back for the treats.  She got me, and she got me good.  *puggy pout*

What do you like to eat?

The rescue group put Kai and I on a special diet called BARF and my human has continued us on that.  I like it very much but sometimes I feel like I want more food.  Well I always want more food, but I mean that I'm really hungry, especially in the mornings.  Miss Mel didn't like us not getting breakfast so she came up with a solution.  We get fruit!  I think it surprised her that we'd eat fruit but honestly I just want something in my tummy!

Opaka eating banana. 

Kai chowing down on banana.

First try of apple, it took us a little bit to get use to the crunch.

But once we got into it my human had to go cut up a second one.

The Nan

Sorry we've been away for a about a week, we've been having fun with The Nan.  She is my human's mother and was here for a week.  She came to see the new house, do some Christmas shopping and most importantly, meet Kai and I!  We welcomed her by sitting on her every chance we got.  Well it's our couch after all.

So we're very behind in visiting everyone's blog, but we'll be back as soon as we can.

May the couch be with you all.

First Outing

Today our humans decided to take us for our first big outing.  There is a wetlands park near our house they've been wanting to explore and though it would be a great place to go with the both of us.  Sadly it turned out that there are no dogs (or cats) allowed at this park, not even on a leash!  So mostly we just did this....

Kai in his car seat, he kept bopping up and down.

Me in my car seat, I kept very still.

I like our new car seats, they make me feel a lot more comfortable in the car, but still I was looking forward to getting out.

Eventually we stopped and walked around an ordinary park, but I could tell the humans were disappointed.  I heard them mention something about a "beach" for next time, but I'm not sure what that is.

Bully Stick Heaven

My human said she's been reading in blogs about pugs eating bully sticks for ages.  So I suggested it might be a good idea if we got to try some.  She seemed to be of the opinion that they didn't exist in Australia.  How wrong she was.

We may not have had Thanks Giving but we gave thanks for Bully!

Solving problems with the couch

Things have been very different at our new home, and most of it I like. The bit that I'm confused about the humans call "stairs". The stairs are strange, they go up high and I can't understand why anyone would want to do that.

The reason I want to go up them is to follow my humans and Kai. They all go upstairs and then I'm alone. I don't like being alone. So I keep trying to go up, but I don't get far.

I decided I needed to spend time with my couch to come to terms with this. So I laid on the comfy cushions here at my new home and envisioned my couch until I felt very relaxed. Then I thought about going up the stairs, I saw myself conquering each step all the way to the top.

It took a few tries but today I did it, I got all the way to the top of the stairs. I was with my humans and Kai. It was a good day.

It's a shame I didn't envision myself going down the stairs as well, Miss Mel had to carry me down because they're even more scary from the top!

All is the Couch

When I was little my mother taught me about the most important things for a pug. She told me about food, and our great desire for it. She also told me about needing companionship. Most of all though she talked about the Couch.

She said the Couch was different for us all, and we had to work hard to discover our personal Couch. I've always tried to be true to what I learnt in that short time with my mother.

I was quite shocked to discover at my home that I didn't have a couch at all, let alone my Couch. I was in a backyard with nothing as glorious as a couch. I knew that this wasn't what my mother was talking about and that somehow, someday things would get better.

Meanwhile I started working towards building my ideal Couch, it became a focus for me and I tried to teach Kai to do the same when he came to live with me. Together we have meditated for long hours on the Couch and what it means to us. I believe it is that concentration that has brought us here.

Today we arrived at a new home, our forever home. Here there is a couch and our new humans welcome us on it with them. I will continue to develop my vision of Couch and what it means to me though at this place where I'm starting to feel content. That is my life journey.