September and October update

Happy Halloween, y'all!

*the pumpkin's original artwork is a sketch by the talented funaek, slightly edited, redrawn and painted by me*

My, it's been a long time since I've posted! We've been so busy lately, the main thing being WE MOVED! And you guys, I totally don't recommend this moving thing at ALL. It sucked. However, it looks like we'll be at our current apartment for about 16 months, then we'll move again. I'm already dreading it but! we love our new place!
We're no longer in a small studio apartment. We have things like DOORS and our own furniture! It's kind of amazing. (Live in only your living room for 3 years, 1 1/2 years with a guy and 2 dogs and you'll understand my amazement) Which brings me to my next point: y'all, I feel like an adult now. I've slept on a mattress on the floor for 3 years. My dad bought Mike and me an actual bed with nightstands, I sanded down an refinished a 40-50 year old dresser, and we have the world's biggest couch along with the world's coolest coffee table. (The thing is made of driftwood). We accomplished all of this in the month of September and moved on October 3. I spent the rest of October cleaning the old apartment (there were things in there that needed to be removed that weren't my property), working, and unpacking.
I really do think Ares and Luna love the new space although the new bed is so high that Luna can't get on the bed by herself anymore. She pops her head up and stares at me until I pick her up. She has me trained - she doesn't even bother going to Mike's side if I'm in bed. She also knows if she wants to bring a toy up there with her, all she has to do is hold it while she's staring at me then drop it, I'll pick it up and put it on the bed before putting her on the bed. I'm wrapped around that curly little tail of hers but I wouldn't have it any other way.
Ares was very apprehensive during the packing and unpacking process. I think it was just a lot of confusion and mess for him and he had a hard time figuring out where he belonged/what was going on. He got a lot of cuddles from Mike, Luna, and me.
The actual moving day, since we only moved about 30 minutes from our old apartment, we chose to put them in daycare all day. They were there for about 11 hours and completely approved of that decision. Unfortunately, we are now far enough away that the daycare they went to (which is also where they go to get their nails trimmed) and their dog park isn't really a logical option for regular visits. I've already found an awesome new place for them to go to get their nails trimmed and teeth brushed for less than $20/month and I'm working on the dog park dilemma. I know of one pretty close by which they've been to in the past but it's always empty. We tried a new one on Wednesday which I really liked but I've heard conflicting reports on how easy it is to pay to get in (it's in a neighboring city and while their signs and website say they just have to have a city tag for where they live, I've heard from people that they have to have a tag for the city where the park is located but somehow it's possible to get one? I really have no clue but I suspect that it's going to be a major headache). The other dog parks in our city aren't really anywhere near us so there's that. It's upsetting to me only because, as much as I love where I live, it was my second choice. It was Mike's first choice and he absolutely HATED my first choice so I gave in. The best thing about my first choice was that the complex had its own little dog park. The complex we're in now doesn't have anywhere where the dogs can be off leash so while there's more room inside for everyone to move around, they don't get the exercise they need outside. And I have to pick up poop. I haaaate picking up poop.

But that's why I've been MIA. I hope to have my October BarkBox review up in the next few days. We got it nice and early in October but I didn't give them anything from it for a few days and didn't take any pictures until a few days after that! We got September's BarkBox but with moving and all of that, I didn't even bother trying to do anything with that aside from giving them their treats and toy.

And as for Pawalla: In case you missed it on my instagram, Pawalla went out of business at the end of August (hence my lack of Pawalla review since July). They did a very classy thing and decided that everyone who still had a subscription left wouldn't get their money back but instead would get all of their boxes at once. I got 6 boxes in less than 2 weeks. It was leftover inventory from past boxes I had received. There were only 2 or 3 new items and one of the new items was a spray shampoo that leaked all over the box. Like, the post office gave it to me and it was wet and smelling like blueberries. That was fun. Anyway, I'm really sorry for anyone who purchased from Pawalla based off of my reviews and ran across the same problem that I did. I'm still completely bummed about their stunt and will never endorse nor purchase from them again (if they ever get up and running again).
As for our BarkBox subscription, it is getting renewed in 2 days and I can't wait to continue getting more boxes. I did make a slight change on it and I'm going to try getting the small boxes for the next few months instead of the medium boxes to see if I like one size better than the other (I've been mostly happy with the medium treats and toys but sometimes, they get toys which are completely out of Ares' and Luna's size range).
Stick with me, y'all and I'll be posting regularly again soon!

July pug meet ups

This month, we were lucky enough to have TWO pug meet ups to go to! There's always one on the first Saturday of every month at a random, local, outdoor dog park, and this time, there was one in the middle of the month at a doggy daycare (read: INSIDE!)

Ares and Luna had a blast, as always at the outdoor meet up, although there weren't as many pugs as usual and those that did come didn't stay very long because as you can tell from Luna's face, it was so incredibly HOT. Luckily, this dog park just got a water system put in so I didn't have to bring any water for them (but I did anyway. Because I like to be prepared at all times).

This bugger admiring Luna's tushy is Toby. He's roughly the same age as Luna and is an absolute DOLL!

It's an apricot pug y'all! I have a better picture of her face further down, but this picture really shows her color. I'd never realized how different apricot pugs are in color!

Ares found the perfect mixture of sun and shade. He was in heaven.

 I think Ares was worried that I would bring home the chug that's up for adoption. (He should be worried, I'd bring her home in a heartbeat if I knew my husband wouldn't kill me!)

 And the rest of the pictures are from the indoor meet up. It was a fun facility with a store, grooming, boarding, and a day care. We had one large indoor area that connects to the outdoor area where pools and such were set up all to ourselves. A lot of pugs came to this one.

 Luna's so independent. She strutted around like she owned that place!

Ares has been a little strange at meet ups lately and likes to be held. If I'm not holding him, he's jumping into a stranger's lap. I think he was overwhelmed my a new environment and so many dogs running around.

A pug-impostor cheme to for a visit. It was an adorable frenchie though so I really can't complain!

My favorite part about this middle of the month meet up is that they did free nail trims for all of the pugs! YAY! I had to hide and let Mike handle Ares when he was getting his nails trimmed because he does worse when I'm around. I do know all of the tips to keep him calm though so I let the groomer know before she started. Luna handled it like a champ.

Pugsitting picture overload

Mike gets so mad at how many pictures I take regularly of Ares and Luna. I do it because I don't want to forget anything that they do. The week of petsitting was no different with Annabelle and Maximus around. I tried to send their owners regular updates with pictures of Annabelle and Maximus because I knew that I would want that if I was on vacation. (When I went to Arkansas to meet Mike's parents last August, my sister sent me a daily Ares picture upon my request.) They went home on March 9th but I miss them oh-so-much! (That is, until Sunday when I'll be petsitting a little French Bulldog for 6 days! Her name is Ginger and she is best friends with Ares and Luna).

Here's just a small snippet of all of the pictures that I took while I had these crazy dogs.

And of course, life isn't complete without a video of their antics. (Again, look for the collars to tell whether it's my pug or not! Ares and Luna aren't wearing their collars)

dog park

I have a love/hate relationship with dog parks. In general, I love them and love the idea behind them. Ares was about 9 months old when we started going but I started taking Luna the day I got her. Of course, she wasn't playing with the dogs right away - in the beginning she would walk with us over and then sleep in my arms while Ares played and then when she started playing, we went to the other side of the park.
Because our dog park has two sides to it - the under 30 pounds side and the over 30 pounds side. Everyone always plays in the over 30 pounds side unless for some reason they want to separate their dog(s) from the  group, in which case they'll hang out on the other side. It's been used by me to get Luna used to all of the dogs without playing with them directly, by an Italian Mastiff owner when their dog didn't get along with a black lab, and by a woman whose dog tore his ACL and just got the okay to play but was still recovering.
The key for me is that I let them play - Ares and Luna know where I am and that I'm always going to be there for them if they need me and I will pick them up if they decide that they need a moment away from all of the dogs, but I don't hover over them and baby them. As a result, they are very independent at the park and even Luna can easily hold her own against all of the dogs.

Here are some videos of some of the dog park regulars playing with Ares and Luna. As you can see, Ares loves playing with Zooey (the black lab) and Trudy (brown and white collie mix). I can always count on those two to wear Ares out.

Unfortunately, as with anywhere where people can have strong, differing opinions, especially about their animals, there's a lot of drama at the dog park. The funny part is that I'm usually the youngest person there, especially among the regulars. I could be the child of most everyone there and I get along with all of them. But it's really easy to get on their bad side and I don't understand what people are thinking sometimes when they come to the dog park.

One person yells at any of the new people who forget to close one gate before opening another (dogs have definitely gotten lose before and it's no fun) and there's always the person who will watch their dog poop but make no move to clean it up.

The other big issue for any dog park is aggression between dogs. One of the reasons why I love my park is that you have to register and pay through the town in order to come to the dog park so people are usually really committed to coming. There's always going to be incidents that occasionally happen between the dogs but everyone always jumps in and stops their dog and checks to make sure the other dogs are okay. We know and care about each others dogs. I understand incidents happen and for the most part, people are concerned and embarrassed if their dog takes part in it.

But there's been a few things that have happened recently that actually made me reconsider bringing my dogs to the park. One is that one day when I was walking to the park in the afternoon, about 20 minutes before all of the regulars come, there was a man in with his dog, Lucky. I entered the first gate and started taking the harnesses off of my dogs while Lucky barked her head off at me. He met me at the gate and told me that I shouldn't come in the park because our dogs might fight. I pointed out that my dogs wouldn't be aggressive with his, but would his be aggressive with mine? and he stated that it was a possibility. When I stated that he shouldn't be bringing aggressive dogs to the park, he told me that when he signed up for the dog park, they told him that you enter at your own risk. I obviously didn't go into the dog park with him, but I did go into the other side until he left. I later called in a complaint against the man although nothing could be done because I didn't get his name.

The other huge issue is a woman who comes in with her Springer Spaniel. This dog is not super friendly, to the point where even she says he's a grumpy old dog. He's had several incidents with dogs and one time when another woman brought in her toddler, the dog went after and nipped at the toddler for no reason. The woman went up to the mother and made sure the girl was okay then said to the girl "Just don't mess with that grouchy old dog." The mother and I were both quick to point out that the girl did absolutely nothing except walk by him. It really bugs me that the woman knows that her dog can show aggression towards people and other dogs, yet she continues not only to bring him, but to let him do what he wants without stopping the behavior. It's gotten to the point where I usually leave shortly after she gets there because it's simply not worth it to me to risk the chance of either of my dogs getting injured by this dog.

I still love my dog park, though and for the most part, I love the dogs and people that come. It's a tight group of people AND dogs and I really appreciate the sense of family.

And now, a dog park picture dump to end this post on a happy note:

Pug Meet Up

It's not a secret that I absolutely love taking the dogs to the dog park. Lately, I've been trying to branch out though so that they can go to different parks and see different dogs. One of the things I've been attempting is to take them to the pug meet ups in our area. Someone picks a different dog park every month and everyone takes their pugs to play together on the first Saturday of every month. Ares and Luna usually play with really big dogs at our normal park so it's great to see them play with "their own kind" and to meet and talk to all of the other pug lovers in my area. One guy comes every month with his 5(!) pugs.
I like to take a lot of pictures of all of the pugs interacting. They love going from person to person for lots of love and Ares gets to taunt so many dogs into chasing him around the park! Luna spent most of her time eating mulch and greeting people.
Here's a really cute video of Ares and Luna playing with some other pugs. Ares is wearing the blue collar and Luna is wearing a pink collar.

And an obligatory picture dump: