Quick Snap Saturday: What A Good Sport!

 

What A Good Sport!

 

The decorating of a Simmie-boo-boo! Brad was busy updating his grip on his tennis racket. Simon came over to see what his daddy was up to. Piper soon toted along behind, without a doubt we wouldn't want curiosity to...I won't say it....the cat! Brad decided to decorate Simon with the clear plastic grip. If you look close you can see the grip going over his ear and looping around his head. Meanwhile Piper is investigating what is suddenly wrapped around her older brother.

Simon is such a good sport. He's clearly the most patient one in the bunch! He puts up with so much from his siblings.  Oh and his parents!  Simon the diamond, as his daddy calls him! He is a little diamond in the rough!

Rain, Rain, and More Rain!

Rain? What rain? It hasn't been raining here at all! We haven't wondered if we're going to make it through the night at all. We've had 3 completely calm furry kids in recent days/weeks.

Rain? Flooding? Booming thunder that shakes the entire building? Power outages?  What ever do you mean? Everything is A-Okay in big D!

In all seriousness it's been one crazy ride this May. This past week we have experienced the craziest! Last night was insane! The booming thunder had me question a few times whether or not the building would withstand it. There's been obvious flooding and other wind damage. There's also been collapsed roofs, the rain has saturated roofs so badly they are caving in.

We have a garage unit on the bottom floor which despite the closed garage door, water still got in.  We have yet to fully be able to assess that issue in our bottom level garage unit. I've lost count of how many times I've gone around resetting our clocks.  As for the pets, it's a tie between Cody and Piper as to whom is the bigger baby. Simon's bed is always completely full with the nervous two piled in around Simmie every morning lately.

Yep, it's been quite the experience this May! Devastating storms but we are better off than a lot of people in the area.  I'll be going through my closet and our pantry to find items to donate to organizations helping those that have lost everything. What will June bring?

Below are some pics from the local media outlets:

Quick Snap Saturday: "Okay That's Done, I Gave Cody His Medicine!"

"Okay that's done, I gave Cody his medicine!"

 

 

That sentence is precisely what I heard from my husband earlier this afternoon.

Cody has always been an allergy riddled little guy. Springtime is his biggest issue.  I think it's something in the grass but then again it might be some of the blossoming trees. Either way he needs a little Benadryl tablet every once in awhile to help control his sneezing and itching.

 

Here's how it all came about: 

I happened to say out loud that I needed to give Cody a Benadryl today. Brad quickly offered to go get Cody's Benadryl med and give it to him. I continued to do what I was doing. A few minutes later Brad says, "Okay that's done, I gave Cody his medicine." I soon come out of the bedroom to see what is pictured above. The Benadryl tablet laying on Cody's tongue. That was Brad's way of giving him his medicine. Now both pugs are great at taking meds but you do have to coax them into it a bit. Laying it on Simon's tongue would have worked but laying it on Cody's, not quite. Once I see this scene. Brad says, "He can see it's there. He'll eat it when he wants to right?" Wrong! Move aside allow me to "give Cody his medicine". 

 

The entire scene was so funny to me, I had to snap this pic before making Cody take the tablet.  It's still funny to me.  Brad's definition of "giving Cody his medicine" is slightly different than my definition! LOL!

A Conservation with Simon

Yes I frequently talk to the trio of furry kids in our home! That shouldn't surprise anyone at this point! Here is a conversation with Simon that occurred yesterday.




Me:  Simmie, step away from the toy box.

Simon: But I need my Kong.  You put my Kong away. Why do you always put my Kong away?

Me:  Because I like things to be neat and picked up. We don't need two Kongs out all the time as permanent fixtures on our floor.

Simon: Oh how I couldn't disagree more. Which reminds me, I have some things I need to talk about with you.

Me:  Like what little man? Life for you seems pretty good.

Simon:  It could be better if you'd leave my Kong alone or better yet if you'd fill it with peanut butter every day for me.

Me: It's always about food with you isn't it?

Simon:  Back to what I was wanting to talk to you about.  The other day you went out for some new shampoo for bath time.  And you came back with shampoo that makes me smell like a cupcake. Come on mom? A cupcake!!!!!  I'm a boy!!!! Not some foo-foo girly!!!!

Me:  So is that the problem, you smell like a cupcake but can't eat a cupcake?

Simon:  Well that is a problem but not the real problem.

Me: Okay the real problem is....?

Simon:  I SMELL LIKE A CUPCAKE! You bathed me in that crap.....

Me: (interrupting)Watch your language little sir!

Simon: You bathed me in that stuff and I had to walk around smelling like a cupcake. I got two words for you: street credit! I need to keep my street credit.  Walking around like some vanilla cupcake doesn't help my street credit. I'm a bad dude! People fear me!

Me: (laughing) People fear you?

Simon: Hey, I've stared people down to the point they've gotten off the elevator sooner than they wanted to. People fear me, I'm a force to be reckoned with.

Me:  (still laughing) You certainly are a force.  What kind of force I'm not sure?  A crazy little pug force! 

Simon: Hey remember the other day when daddy admitted he used to be a little scared of me.

Me:  He didn't say he was scared of you. He said he recognized he had to work harder to win you over versus Cody.

Simon:  Oh Cody, that dude is everyone's friend. I'm not like that. I'm an observer. I like to watch peoples every move. I'm not a wimp like Cody either. The dude gets a hangnail and he cries. He cries more than Piper and she's still kind of a baby.

Me:  Okay, enough little man. How do you like having a little sister by the way?

Simon:  Man, she's nuts! I mean, I keep to myself but she likes to come up to me. And she kisses me every morning. I don't believe that's necessary but she does it anyway. Oh the horror!

Me:  (laughing again) Oh yes, the horror of being so darn kissable! That is the strange thing about you. You are such a little tyrant when on your leash. You are the protector, the defender. But inside the house you're a softy!

Simon:  Who me? A softy? No way! I'm hardcore all day everyday!

Me: Well, think what you want to think! I think there's two Simon's. The softy Simmie and the defender Simmie.  

Simon:  Oh geez!  I'm not a softy! And please don't use that cupcake shampoo on me anymore. I need my street credit to stay intact! Thank goodness you stopped using that pink towel on me. Geesh! What people would say if they knew I was once wrapped up in a pink towel.  All my hard work of earning street credit gone in a flash. 

Me: Lucky for you the pink towel is gone. But the vanilla cupcake shampoo is brand new. You'll have to suffer through an entire bottle of it. I promise to rinse it off well.  And dry you with a stinky towel!

Simon: Perhaps, that is a good compromise. I'll think about it.

Me: It's all I'm offering so deal with it my little puggie-boo.

Simon: Mom, please don't let people hear you call me little puggie-boo.  Street credit! Street credit!

Me: Whatever, puggie-wuggie!

Simon: (buries his head in his paws)

Quick Snap Saturday: Dude, Could You Take Up Any More Space?

Dude, Could You Take Up Any More Space?

 

 

See what Cody has to put up with! LOL! A little brother taking up more than his share of space.  Move over little dude is likely what he was thinking. The funny part was watching Cody size up the situation as he determined where he should try to lay down for the night. Piper was in the background watching the entire scene play out. Cody walked to one side then to the other side. Soon he carefully figured out he had somewhat enough room on the right side of Simon next to the water bowl, his preferred spot. By the way, Simon remained fast asleep during this entire situation.

 

I'm actually surprised Cody was so docile and accepting of his little brother taking up so much space. Lately Cody is quite into flexing his big brother muscles! Reminding his siblings he is the OLDEST! Move over and roll out the red carpet cause Cody is on the scene. This particular moment though he was being a sweet boy, simply trying to figure out where to lay down for the night!

TGIF?

I think I'm supposed to always say thank goodness it's Friday! I think Friday night's are designed to be one of the most relaxing evenings during the week. Followed up by Saturday night! However, the Friday night I/we had last night wasn't exactly what we planned.

My Friday took a turn to the not so good side of things about 45 minutes before Brad arrived home. I was putting laundry away when I returned to the living room I noticed something wasn't right. Specifically, something wasn't right with Simon. He was trying to walk from one area to another but he kept falling over then dogging paddling to get back up. I looked him over. His eyes were twitching at a high rate side to side. He was disoriented and confused. I was doing the best I could to calm him and myself as well as our two other furry-kids. After 5 to 10 minutes he seemed to be a little better. I soon decided to take him outside as it was time for their typical early evening walk. He fell over a twice while walking and certainly struggled with his balance for most of the walk. But he has no quit in him, he wanted to go on that walk! I would never force one of the boys to go for a walk if they clearly didn't feel up to it. By the time the walk was done his eyes were back to normal, no more twitching. He was still a little wobbly on his feet. Overall he was better, the "episode" had passed.

Brad arrived home minutes later and quickly noticed Simon was still a bit wobbly. I told him what had occurred. I told him I thought Simon had likely just suffered a mini stroke or seizure. After it was all over with I was leaning more towards the thought he had suffered a seizure. Brad agreed it was likely a seizure. We did a little research and it appears based on what Simon's symptoms were he likely had a seizure.

 A very similar incident happened with Simon about 6 or 7 weeks ago. But him and Cody were wrestling around at the time and I thought he had gotten injured by Cody. I didn't think seizure at that particular time. So yes, it appears as Simon ages he is now suffering mini seizures. Heart-breaking for his mommie. But I kept it together well!

As our Friday evening continued we were sitting on the couch enjoying a little NBA action when all of a sudden the fire alarm in the building begins blaring. I mean, BLARING! It is a sound like none I can describe! Complete terror strikes the pets every time the fire alarm goes off. In a building as large as the one we live in there's been quite a few false alarms. I honestly don't get too worried when it goes off as long as I don't hear firemen rushing down our hall. Brad soon decided since the alarm wasn't stopping we should at least go into the stairwell to look out at the front area of the complex(our apartment overlooks the pool and is very closed in, have to go to the stairwell if we want to see the REAL outdoors). So we walk out our apartment and across the hall to the nearest stairwell doors. We look out the large window in the stairwell to see lots of police and lots of flashing lights. I didn't see fire trucks from my vantage point though just reflections of flashing lights and police cars with their lights flashing. Brad decides lets go back, get the pets, and get out. Within minutes we're heading down the stairs with the pets. There we stood with numerous other residents out in front of our building on the large grassy mound watching smoke billowing out of the parking garage area. Not a false alarm this time! We along with everyone else out there were concerned about our vehicles. I knew what floor our SUV was parked on but Brad couldn't remember where he parked his sports car. Oh here's the difference in our pugs....Simon is sniffing the ground in all directions not a care in the world. To him, he was outside for an extra expedition. Whereas Cody is the nosey one. He watched every puff of smoke, every firefighter, every policeman rushing about. He absorbed the entire event. Around midnight we were given the okay to re-enter our homes. Once we got back inside Piper was rather terrified. That was quite the experience for her. 

We wrapped up the evening soon after getting back inside because Brad had a super early tennis match. We called all furry-kids to bed. One furry kid...Two furry-kids....Three furry-kids? Wait, where's the third furry-kid? Piper was missing in action. She's excellent at going to bed when we tell her to, just like her brothers. It was odd she wasn't responding to me calling her. Brad comes out of the bedroom to help me look for her. We soon hear a whimpering noise coming from a corner in the kitchen. Likely due to her fear from the events that had occurred she crawled into one of her fave hiding spots she used as a small kitty. There we were trying to coax a cat out of a tiny crawl space under our kitchen cabinets. It started to approach 1:00 AM. Brad had to get to bed. So there I was at 1:00 AM doing my best to coax our cat out of her hiding place. I believe she thought she was stuck. She wasn't stuck but she had zero confidence to get herself out. She couldn't grip the flooring to pull herself out due to the fact she doesn't have front claws anymore. Maybe she hasn't used that hiding space since she had claws? Not sure! So with a calm voice and a small dollop of whipped cream I began luring her out. She was whimpering and I had to physically assist in pulling her out because she couldn't do it by herself. After I got her out, I loved on her for a little bit then put her to bed next to her brothers.

Whew! I was kind of glad to go to bed and get that particular Friday night over with! From a seizure suffering pug to a fire in our building to a cat stuck in a small entry space under our cabinet. Man, what a night! 

Rain, Play-Offs, and Cupcakes!

Rain, rain, and more rain! Cody recently asked me if we had been suddenly transported to Seattle.  I reminded him that Dallas gets its fair share of rain too. Rain doesn't fall only in the Pacific Northwest. At the beginning of this week I looked at the weather forecast and all 7 days featured a storm cloud on it.  Today has given us on-again/off-again downpours.  At one point I started to take the boys outside, got to the door that leads to the outside only to QUICKLY determine the rain was coming down too fast for us.  We would've been drenched, back upstairs we went. Yes, it caught me a little off guard, I had looked outside before leashing up the boys but something happened between my glance outside and our walk then ride down the elevator to actually get outside. The skies opened up during that short time.

Anyone else watching the NBA play-offs? We tune in nightly despite the fact there's only 1 Texas team still in it. We don't watch every moment of it but we look in and watch here and there. I'm happy to see the NBA has turned a corner! What I mean by that is...the teams that made it to the play-offs this year are some new-comers. Finally times are changing. Miami and the Lakers are sitting at home as well as the Celtics.  New headliners are on the scene!  So move over Kobe, Wade, and Garnett.  LeBron James is still in the mix but that's okay at least he's back with Cleveland and not with Miami. This season has held my interest more than the last few have, because there's finally teams emerging to contend with the teams I'm so tired of.  Vancouver actually made the play-offs, as well as Memphis and Washington!

We're also keeping tabs on the hockey play-offs. We've liked seeing so many Canadian teams in the NHL play-offs this year. There's some up and comers entering the hockey scene too. Nice to see!

This morning when Brad left for work he asked if I'd photographed this upcoming Saturday's cupcakes yet. Yes, indeed I had.  He quickly said, "Good, people have been asking for more cupcakes." I handed him the new set of cupcakes and off he went.  I must say I enjoyed hearing that people have been asking for more cupcakes.  Nice way to start my day! Yes, for the food website I work on the So Sweet Saturday edition 1 week in advance. That way if the cupcakes(or whatever I happen to be presenting) do not turn out I have plenty of time to make something else. It's only the So Sweet Saturday edition that gets made a week in advance like that. Good portions of my weekends especially my Sunday's are spent making new recipes for the upcoming week. I don't want to work on things too far in advance, I think my posts are more authentic if we have just enjoyed whatever food item I'm presenting. Tune in to Never A Dull Bite on Saturday to see the cupcakes Brad took to work with him today!

Quick Snap Saturday: One of Those Days!

 

One Of Those Days!

 

Sometimes a pug just has one of those days where he can't catch a break.  His older brother is a punk to him. His pesky sister tries to kiss him more times than he can count. To make matters even worse the weather outside doesn't cooperate. 

 

It was a rain soaked day and one bed just wasn't enough for Simmie. He climbed into the stacked beds that were supposed to be going into the washer. Since he looked so comfortable, not to mention cute I had to delay the beds being washed a bit. I let him snooze in the very comfortable double stacked bed situation!

The Missed Feeding Time

Cody, Simon, and Piper(our fur-kids trio) are all used to getting fed at certain times each and every day, without fail!  Or mostly without fail.  There are times when we get home late which makes the fur kids trio's dinner late as well as our own.  One of those slip ups in getting the food into the pet bowls for the trio occurred the other night. Here's the story told through the eyes of the trio.  I think it's best told by them!

Cody says, "Simon, what time you got?"  Simon responds, "It's about thirty minutes until our feeding time."! Piper chimes in, "Yippee, not too much longer." Simon, "Oh isn't her innocence cute? Thirty minutes is longer than you think young one." Cody states, "Wake me when it's time to eat." Piper says, "Wait a minute, what's mommie doing?" Simon looks over to survey things then tells his siblings, "I'm not sure, but something is off a bit. Cody, what do you think is going on?" The trio has now gathered a few feet from the questionable activity as they watch every move.  Simon again states, "This doesn't look good for us!" Cody questions things, "What is she doing? She does know what time is approaching right?" Simon responds, "She usually watches the clock almost as much as me." Piper speaks up to say, "Does anyone know what she's doing yet?" Simon continues to watfch the questionable activity then states, "Oh no, NOOOOOOOOO! Don't lay down on the couch!" Cody says, "She clearly doesn't know it's almost time to feed us, she's laying down. Is she going to take a nap? If she naps like daddy we'll never get fed tonight." Simon responds, "She never naps like daddy, she's usually very aware of us. I trained her well! I haven't spent 13 years training this human only to now start taking a backseat to naptime! This is the worst moment of my life!" Piper adds, "Think about how I feel, it's the worst moment of my life and I'm only 18 months old, at least you made it until 13 before you had to take a backseat to naptime." Cody reprimands, "Would the two of you stop! Come on it's just a nap. We don't even know if she's really going to nap or not. She might not fall asleep." Simon interrupts, "Quick, think of something we can do to keep her awake until dinnertime." Piper stands up then says, "I'm on it!". She begins to meow in a high pitched fashion as she circles the coffee table in front of the couch. Simon adds, "Finally having a cat as a pesky little sister is paying off, with that irritating noise no one can fall asleep." Cody interrupts, "Umm, I don't think it's working, I think she's asleep." Simon replies with, "I'm speechless, how could that annoying meowing not keep this human awake?" Cody looks on the bright side, "Well at least she's not daddy, at least she doesn't sleep as long as him. She'll wake up soon." Simon in a disgruntled voice says, "But my hunger pangs are kicking into turbo gear. I'm not like you, I don't skip meals. I eat everything that doesn't eat me first!" Piper agrees with Simon, "I'm like Simon, I need food too!" Simon questions, "What do we do now?" Cody reasons with his siblings, "We wait! What else can we do? The cat hasn't learned to open doors like the previous cat we had." Simon's response, "Like I stated before, the worst day of my life!" Piper, hangs her head and says, "Oh man! What a night!....wait maybe daddy will come home soon?" Simon happily perks his head up, "Oh yeah, that's what could happen? Maybe the big guy will come home and he'll feed us." Cody informs his siblings of the plan, "Let's stay alert! Piper you watch the door. Simon, you and I will watch mommie sleep." Piper loudly states, "I'm on door duty! Simon adds, "I haven't broken my gaze on mommie since she laid down I'm not about to look away until she gets up!" A long forty-five minutes in the world of the fur-kids passes. Simon and Cody together, "She's awake! She's waking up!" Piper ecstatically says, "Yippee!" Simon thankfully states, "We're going to survive after all!" As he excitedly leads his mommie to the pet food closet.  Crisis over!    

Quick Snap Saturday!

Dig The Hat!

 

See this is what happens when I take Brad to the mall with me! He tries to make me laugh by trying on funny hats! LOL! I'm just kidding, I love going to the mall with my husband! We can have some ridiculous fun and spend hardly anything. We're expert browsers!

 

This hat and the look definitely made me laugh. He commented that he needs this hat for his fishing expeditions.  Because you know he's always going on fishing expeditions! He does fish and would like to go fishing soon as we have plenty of lakes and rivers near us. But frequent big time fishing expeditions aren't really Brad's cup of tea, so to speak. He likes more action....that's why he plays tennis! 

 

He was simply kidding about actually buying this hat. It is a cute look! Kind of reminds me of a few hats my uncle used to have back when he coached football. He liked wide brim hats that went all the way around similar to this. Thanks for being a good sport to pose for the pic honey! 

 

 

Oh The Differences!

I'm learning about cats.  I've been in a high-level study session for about 18 months now.  It's called the School Of Pipey! Previously I only had a few crash courses courtesy of Professor Stormer-boo!

Why the fascination with birds?  Does anyone have an answer? Piper's favorite pastime is bird watching.  I am now quick to raise our blinds up in the living room so she can look out all day long. Not that she looks out all day long but she keeps current on the daily bird scene!  She's finally tall enough to sit and look out the window. Before she had to raise up on her back legs and place her front legs on the window seal or she opted to sit inside the blinds.  She treated the blinds like a hammock!

Yesterday I accidentally stepped on her tail, she let out quite the squeal then went racing off in the opposite direction as me.  When I went to see if she was okay her tail was puffed up.  You know how in cartoons when a cat gets scared of something they draw the poor thing with a massively puffy tail, like 4 or 5 times bigger than it is in the rest of the cartoon.  Well that really happens to cats.  So crazy! Her tail was puffy for about 5 minutes.

She may not have the ability to bark but she can likely be considered our loudest pet at times. I actually might consider her to take top honors now as the loudest!  The boys bark yes, but they bark when they hear a knock at the door.  Their barking is infrequent, her meowing is frequent! Its especially frequent and high pitched if it's feeding time at this zoo.

Oh yes, the differences.  It is fun having a cat-daughter.  She's teaching me a lot.  Just as Brad never saw himself as being a pug owner, I certainly never saw a cat in my future.  I sure am glad we opened our home up to her though! She's a vital part of our pet trio, she compliments her pug-brothers well. She's doing her best to keep them young and on their toes!