quick update

Meiby has been doing very well for the past 10 days or so. We switched her to Wellness CORE food and she loves it! Seems to be treating her well. We still don't know exactly what happened with her though.

cooking with tofu

On a whim, I picked up some tofu at the grocery store the other day. We're not exactly vegetarians over here but we definitely enjoy lots of veg. cuisine. Plus, I don't love dealing with raw meat. So anyway, I found this recipe over at Yeah, That "Vegan" Shit (originally from 101cookbooks) and, because I also just happened to have Brussels sprouts in the fridge, decided to try it out. It was delicious! My first successful attempt at cooking with tofu... and Nick LOVED it, too. Besides the chopping it was really quick and easy so I may just have to make it again. So here it is: Caramelized Tofu and Brussels Sprouts (served with leftover cilantro lime basmati rice)




And here's Meiby helping in the kitchen again. She looks pissed but really she was just mid-blink:


She's been doing much better the last few days. The vet says to give it a little time and if she continues to have problems we can switch her to a very bland or prescription food. For now we're back to a normal twice a day feeding schedule with half rice/cottage cheese and half high-quality kibble. We had been feeding her just rice/cheese 4 times a day and I think that was overkill. So, we'll see how this goes...

Wordless Wednesday

health update

not a pretty story so skip this one if you're squeamish...

Well Friday we started feeding Meiby a diet of rice and cottage cheese. She was keeping it down but started to refuse to eat it which is very strange for her (though she did eventually eat everything). By Sunday night we were starting to worry about the fact that she wasn't pooping regularly so we started mixing in a little kibble (of a completely new food) to her bland diet hoping that might help intending to call the vet on Monday morning. In the morning she had pooped so we thought maybe she was starting to digest properly. Until Monday night when she threw up pretty much everything she had eaten in the past 4 days. So this morning I didn't feed her and Nick will call the vet to see what to do now. She's acting pretty normal and is clearly hungry. She keeps going into the kitchen and staring at her bag of food. So, we have no idea what's going on with her but hopefully the vet can offer some advice...

sick again

Poor Meiby! I'm still not sure exactly why but starting Tuesday night she started regurgitating her meals. We weren't too worried at first because it's happened before but we kept an eye on her Wednesday and she continued to puke everything she ate. I looked around and checked all of her toys for missing chunks to see if maybe she ate something she shouldn't have. I found nothing.

So Thursday morning Nick took her to the vet, they took x-rays and didn't find anything. They gave her a shot to prevent vomiting and told us not to give her any food or water until Friday afternoon. Starting today at lunch we have to feed her only rice and cottage cheese for a week and then we'll probably switch her to a different food. We're not sure if she developed an allergy to her food or what. (BTW, we were feeding her Nutro Naturals Lamb and Rice which is apparently not great quality.)

Anyway, we feel so bad for poor Meiby. She's been extra sweet and we still can't give her any food. She seems very tired (see photo above) and confused (um, excuse me, what happened to dinner? Did I miss it?)

Happy Pugiversary!

One year ago today we first brought Meiby home with us. She was very shy at first but immediately became a member of the family. She has changed quite a bit since then but we couldn't have asked for a better pup.

Her first 2 days with us she wouldn't eat - now she lives for food and will eat anything you give her without question.

For the first 2 weeks we had a "no dogs on the couch" rule - that quickly went out the window when we realized it was just sad to have a lap dog that you have to sit on the floor to cuddle with.

She was scared to death of her first squeaky toy.

It took us a week to work out a sleeping arrangement that worked for all of us. Having her sleep in her crate in our bedroom worked for about 8 months until she figured out that the earlier she wakes me up with her whining, the earlier she gets food. Now that we trust her loose in the house, she just sleeps out in the living room.

One of the first toys I bought for Meiby was a Nylabone Dental Chew. She wouldn't even look at it for months and then all of a sudden it was her favorite thing ever. We've replaced it 5 times now and moved up to a bigger size. It's become her comfort bone.

We kept Meiby crated whenever we were gone for the first 6 months or so. We experimented with leaving her loose for short periods of time until we finally trusted her enough to leave her loose. Now she's a full time free range pug!

We had an extremely cold and snowy winter this past year and while Meiby loves the snow, she's no fan of the sub-zero temperatures. Because of this we trained her to use puppy pads when needed and this is, for better or worse, still in effect.

On January 3rd she was a year old. We switched her to adult food and had taught her lots of tricks.

This summer I took Meiby to obedience classes and she is much more observant now. She'll now wait for us to tell her to eat rather than diving into her food. She will also "come" on command pretty consistently and "get off" of me or the couch when I tell her to. She's still begs like crazy though... perhaps because someone spoils her ;)

It has been just wonderful having Meiby around for the past year. We're so lucky to have such a sweet little pug around! We loves you Meibs :)