Christmas 2008

I'm adding on to the beginning of my post to say that I'm semi-embarrassed about how this post turned out. It's all about Pugsly. I guess I have a better understanding of how proud parents are when they post about their kids and all the new things they've done. Oh, well. I hope you enjoy it anyway.

I don't have much to report since my last post, except that I had a great Christmas and New Years' holiday. Nate and I were gone for almost 2 weeks traveling around Ohio visiting one family member or another. Poor Pugsly, he got shuffled around from house to house and probably didn't know if he was coming or going. I think I enjoyed the holidays though. He seemed to recognize some family members and he got to meet a lot more. He stayed at my sister's house with me when I visited for a few days. My nephew, Tyler, just adored him. He called him "the best dog that he has" or something like that. Note, Tyler has no dogs. Pugsly took a liking to Tyler's little chair though and made himself quite comfortable after Tyler went to bed. 

I think my sister really liked having Pugsly there too. We all went to the Toledo Zoo one night (but not Pugsly so he wouldn't get eaten by a tiger) to see the holiday lights. That was fun, I enjoyed that. My sister and I went shopping, which is sort of a ritual for us, that's always great. :)

Pugsly got his first taste of a fenced in yard at Nate's sister's house. Wow, he loved to be free! He wouldn't run around outside if we weren't out there. I tried letting him out one time to go take care of business, but he just sat on the porch, looking in the window. I guess he would get used to it if we had a fence. He was so good when we were there, except that he was curious about Elliott's toys. He and Elliott seemed to really like each other though. 

Since being back, Pugsly has been great. He seems to be happy to be back and have his basket again. Though, it never seemed to phase him that we weren't at our house except when we left him alone at someone's house in his crate. Then he went nuts when we got home. I think he thought we'd left him for good. It's funny, he makes these cute little squeaking sounds when we come back. It sounds like he's crying, but his tail wags and he's so excited to see us. Another time that he makes noises is when he's out for a walk and smells or sees another dog. I don't know what he wants because he's afraid of the dogs that were at the rescue with him, but I guess he wants some companionship or something. This is a type of whining noise that's louder

 and sometimes really deep and guttural.  I managed to get a little video of this the other day. His actions aren't as exciting as his sound, so make sure your volume is turned up. Notice the wagging tail too.

Today, I had him tied him up outside while I was shoveling snow to get out of the garage. He's not used to being tied up, usually we just walk him since it's been cold since we got him. But I tied him up and he ran around trying to go where ever he wanted to. It took him about 10 minutes to realize that he was tied up and couldn't go as far as he wanted to. But I did capture a few good pictures of him in classic Pugsly pose and a video of him tromping through a snow drift. 

Notice how all the pictures above he has his leg up? That's pretty standard for Pugsly. If he's standing still, he has one of his front paws up. It's not always the same one, but it's so adorable! I tried to get a picture of it here, but sometimes he'll dig in the snow with his nose and when he comes out, his face is covered in snow. I could only get it when his nose had snow on it, but you can see how cute it is.

I posted a video a while ago of him hopping through the snow, but this one is a close-up. He always reminds me of a rabbit. Again, he's so adorable.

Enough about Pugsly... :) Nate attended a conference this week for campus ministers and even gave a talk. It went really well, according to his standards, so I'm proud of him for that. While he was gone, I realized that I could never live on my own. I did absolutely nothing. I cooked dinner for myself and went to the grocery store, but that's about it. Well, I did get enough energy to shower every day, but for the most part, none of the housework got done, even though I made out a schedule for myself. I did take Pugsly out, but that was out of necessity. :) It's probably because I've never lived by myself, but in a way, I'm glad that I never had to.

Let's see what other news?  Congratulations to my college friends L and P  on the birth of their 3rd baby! All of you in Portland, have fun with the snow if it's still around. I heard you had about 17 inches of snow on the ground at one point. So rare for Portland, but I bet it was kinda fun. :)