A Meiby Video!

It's been too long

Meiby want to introduce you to her favorite monkey :)

Still Hip

modeling another knit hat for me and trying to lick it off of her head I think.

Meiby has a Licking Problem

Strange Dreams

How do I know I've got crochet on the brain?

The other night Meiby had been keyed up all day. Barking at every little noise (not usual for her) so this continued into the night. She sleeps in our bed so every time she thought she heard something she'd get up and bark and wake us up. I tried cuddling her in a way that would keep her calm - which surprisingly worked(!) - but then she got so relaxed that she was snoring extra loud and keeping me awake that way instead.

So I was carefully trying to wake her up enough to get her to stop snoring without startling her into barking. And since I was stuck in that dreamy between-sleep-and-awake state during this delicate process, I was dreaming of some way to crochet something (like a sling or something, I don't know) that would hold her in a position to keep her from snoring but would comfort her enough to keep her asleep so that I could sleep. Of course this would never work (haha) but it struck me as funny when I thought about the dream later.

As a side note, she's been sleeping better since then. Her allergies have been so bad this summer despite the daily Benedryl so we switched her to Claritin and we'll see how that goes. Yea, she's a princess.

2 years

Yesterday marked 2 years now that Meiby has been with us. On one hand, I can't believe she's almost 3! ...but on the other hand it seems like she's been a part of our family for so long. In the first year that we had her she changed so much as she got comfortable with us. The second year she was right at home. The only thing I can think of that changed is that she suddenly started sleeping like this:

She's finally so comfortable with us that she'll gladly get into this vulnerable position and LOVES to have her belly rubbed. Sometimes if I start rubbing her chest while she's sitting up, she'll just flop over onto her back. She certainly keeps us entertained! Happy Pugiversary Meiby :)

Pugs and Babies

This weekend I babysat a friend's 6 and 1 year old boys at my house. Meiby has not really ever been around small children and it was... interesting. Basically she thought the baby was a puppy and kept trying to play with him as if he was, pouncing and barking like a crazy pug. Luckily the baby was not upset by this at all. He loves dogs and wanted to play but Meiby was a bit too quick for him. Meiby's favorite part of the evening, of course, was feeding time! It's definitely good to have a dog around when you've got kids. Unfortunately I did not get any photos of this because I was busy trying to keep everyone calm. hehehe...
...but here she is hanging out in the new backyard with me and my plants this weekend.

New Home

Meiby adjusts to her new surroundings:


We moved into our new house this past weekend. Meiby was a little nervous for the first couple days. Probably mostly because we had to keep her locked up in strange rooms while we were moving. She was not thrilled about that but she's taking to it pretty well now. She's still afraid to go down the stairs though. Check out some photos of the new place over at Strand Over Fist.

cabin fever

Meiby has been so bored lately since it's too cold to spend much time outside. The other day I was sitting on the couch with my laptop and Meiby proceeded to get all 7 of her stuffed animals out, one by one, and spread them across the couch. She'd get one out, play with it for 10 minutes or so, then go get another one. I'd play fetch with her sporadically but she just didn't seem satisfied with any of her toys.


So I took her for a little night time romp in the snow :)

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 :)

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday 18

Wordless

Since this photo seems to be so popular on Flickr, I thought I'd share it here too!

Partypalooza 2009!

Emmitt is having a pug party... or rather, um, "obedience school" for pugs. Click to see who else is attending! See you at the party, Emmitt ;)

Carrots!

Meiby's favorite snack is baby carrots. If you ask her to "show me where the carrots are" she will jump up on the fridge. I finally captured the whole event including watching her eat the carrot, pug noises and all. Fair warning, this will probably be boring if you're not in love with pugs like we are :)

Wordless Wednesday 17

Wordless Wednesday 14

Something Clicked...

As is turns out, Meiby is now freaked out by all pictures of dogs. Something must have clicked in her little pug head this weekend and she now recognizes still photos of dogs. One night I sat and showed her different pictures of herself, all of which she barked at, and then started showing her pictures of other dogs. She got all worked up about it which is strange because she doesn't bark at other dogs in person. Maybe it's because they're in "her house." Then I showed her pictures of people... and she calmed down. What a strange little pug ;)

Scary Pug!

This is a poorly white balanced photo that I was going to delete but as I was looking at it Meiby started growling and cowering away. She often gets freaked out by mirrors and videos but I've never seen her react that way to a still photo before. For some reason she is terrified by this photo of herself.


She went and hid across the couch in Daddy's lap...

Someone's Been Naughty...

I told Meiby that she needs to be good so Santa will bring her treats... but she doesn't get it. It fact, I think she's grounded after yesterday. We've been leaving her loose while we're gone for short periods of time for several weeks now without incident. We'll leave a puppy pad out for her in case she needs it. We also close off the bedroom door (because, for some reason, she thinks the bedroom is a big litter box) and, generally she's very good on her own. She doesn't get into anything she shouldn't, etc.
Well, yesterday she pushed the pad upside-down and then pooped on the kitchen rug while we ran out to get some lunch. Then later, while I was at work, Nick left her loose for a couple hours while he went out to get some gifts. When he returned she had shredded the puppy pad and somehow gotten into the bedroom (must not have been properly latched and she pushed it open), pooped and peed on the carpet and then got into the garbage and shredded used kleenex all over the room. When Nick got home she was making a bunch of noise because she couldn't get out of the bedroom (the door shuts by itself and she has no nose to pry it open with.) I'm glad I wasn't there when he discovered what she had done. So after Nick cleaned up her mess he started wrapping presents and of course she's got to walk all over the paper and chase the scissors... but she's "helping" ...
I'm not at all surprised about any of this, though, except for the puppy pad shredding. I know she'll get into the bedroom garbage and poop in there any chance she gets, especially if she gets stuck in there, but she's never destroyed anything in the living room. I guess it's back to the crate for Meiby when we're gone... at least until after Xmas.