It’s been a very busy year for us, but we’re ready to start posting again. We moved a couple of months ago, and Diego’s ready to show off his new digs…and his YARD. He’s super happy and excited and we’ll have some pictures up soon. Hope you all had a great summer!

Diego has been rowdier then usual lately. He wants to play with the cats way more then they want to play with him. Even Fork is getting tired of him. Diego and Fork will spend a small amount of time chasing each other around, and then playing on the bed. That’s all fine and good until Fork gets tired of it, and Diego doesn’t get the hint. He doesn’t know when to stop, and usually ends up bitten in the face by Fork. Of course, he doesn’t learn from this either because he keeps coming back for more. Our new plan is just to break them up in the beginning when they are still playing. If you can’t play nice, you can’t play at all. It’s harder then you would think. I feel bad for Diego every time I hear him yelp from being bitten, but then again, I can’t believe he keeps doing it. We’ve been trying to get him out for more walks, but that ends up being William’s job because my allergies are kicking right now, and I can’t really be out for much longer then 10 minutes. By the time my allergies go away, it’s going to be time for the heat to start. I just can’t win.

We’ve also started looking into doggie daycares. We are thinking about getting him in possibly once a week, or a couple of times a month. Especially days when we are working all day, and also have plans at night. We just can’t leave him in his crate that long. It’s just not right.

We found a daycare near our house that looks pretty nice, but they only have outside play areas for the dogs, and I am worried about Diego getting overheated in the summer. They say that they have a pug in the group already and that they monitor her, and don’t keep her outside for more then a half hour at a time, but the rest of the time, they are in crates, and he could be in a crate at home. I just don’t get it. I think I want to find one with inside play areas as well. The search goes on…

the cats discussing what to do with the bratty dog.

diego is suspicious

50 hours in a car (round trip) with a dog. Pretty fun.

Actually, Diego did really well. Aside from crying every time the car stopped. We all got to spend quality time with family that we never get to see. Grandma and Grandpa, and aunts and uncles and cousins. Good times!

ready for the trip

not so sure after all

glad to be at grandma's — he doesn't even mind the air mattress

christmas with the family

the way back home — stretching our legs and getting coffee

Diego bugged us to go to Dollywood, but we only drove up the street so he could see it. 50 bucks a ticket is pretty steep! I think he appreciated the effort all the same.

Diego loves Dolly!

All in all, it was a great, RELAXING time, and the kitties got a Diego break at home, filled with lots of visitors.

Every day Fork and Diego have an awesome chase/wrestling match. Fork usually wins. They start with Diego harrassing Fork, and then go into some great chases, and usually end with Fork biting Diego. Diego seems to get pretty worked up, and Fork is super chill. It’s pretty funny to watch, but can be hard on the ears at times. It’s all play, and no one ever gets hurt. Luckily for Diego Fork wear soft claws, or he could accidentally take an eye out.

ROUND 1:

ROUND 2:

ROUND 3:

Fork always wins.

Ahhh yes…the joys of summer…
The only time bearable outside is in the morning or evening. We don’t let the cats out most of the time, but sometimes they get a treat and are allowed to go outside to roll around on the front porch. This seems to work out well because eventually they seem to get freaked out and want to go back in anyways. It makes me feel better knowing that they are not dying to go outside all the time. Once we accidentally left Fork outside for a few hours, and we found him crouched under the table on the porch, wanting to come back in desperately.

Diego likes to go out there too. We’ll take him for an occasional walk here and there early in the morning if it’s cool enough, but it is usually really early because it heats up fast. So we also get out on the front porch to hang out in short spurts. We know that we can duck inside when we see the tongue come out he really starts to pant. I feel so bad for him, because he loves to be outside. We are counting down the days until it cools down and we can start going on walks again.

Yay! Holidays are for resting. We really need a break around here, so we’re going to take it easy this weekend. Of course the cats and Diego take it pretty easy most days. They pull their weight by lovin’ on us. They are our therapy when we come home from working long hours. We almost don’t know what to do with ourselves! It feels like we’ve been on the go for months.

It didn’t take William and the boys long to figure out what to do with the time off…

We’re definitely looking forward to more of this.

Pugs and heat just don’t mix well. I think that’s a well known fact. Living in an extra warm climate may not be great idea, but we manage to get by.

The other night however, we met our match with summer. Our ac totally went out, and we had to spend the night trying to keep cool. Poor Diego. We had to keep spraying him with cool water and parking him in front of the fan. It was a long, long night…

This is definitely a new experience, but could prove to be useful when we’re out and about. Phone blogging is pretty cool. The photos seems to  upload a little differently, but beggers can’t be choosers. At least it’ll get us blogging when otherwise we wouldn’t be.

We’re going to be driving across country in December, and you’ll be seeing plenty of these posts along the way. We’re taking Diego with us (but no kitties of course). It should prove to be a fun trip.

This past weekend we went to William’s sister’s anniversary party and it’s about a three hour drive, so we decided to stay over. We brought diego with us. He did really well. We were very proud of him. He even hung out with Bunny, William’s brother’s black lab, and they got along really well.

Here’s a few photos from our hotel room. This hotel is awesome and pet friendly. And our room had Saltillo tile, our favorite!

We love Diego. We feel bad for Willow however. She still is having problems adjusting to him. Milton and Fork seem to be ok with having him around most days, but Willow can’t deal. We’re really not sure how best to deal with this situation. For now, we let Willow hang out in the tub. It’s her favorite spot in the house, and usually Diego isn’t in the bathroom to harass her. It’s her happy place, her safe place.

Being around Diego gives her agita, and thus as a person who just wants everyone in the family to get along…it gives me agita as well.

Diego just wants her to play with him…but she’s not interested in playing with dogs so our next plan of action is just to try to get him to stop trying to play with her at all. That’s a tall order for a 6 month old pug.

How could you hate anything with a face like that?

One thing I’ve learned from all of this.

Pugs love to LICK and EAT everything. That’s why Diego constantly has some sort of bug. Right now he’s battling E-coli. This is the third or fourth time he’s been on antibiotics as well.

Awesome.

I seriously wish he could be a little more discriminating on what he decides to devour. I am forever pulling horrible things out of his mouth. One of the worst ones was a bee. I am super freaked out by bees, and I had no idea what I was pulling out of his mouth. I nearly had a heart attack.

I know that he’s still a puppy, and I really hope he grows out of this sometime soon. We love our vet, but we don’t need to be visiting him every week.