mmm...Artichoke!

mmm...Artichoke!, originally uploaded by Olive the pug.

I loooove to chew and I looove my cousins' artichoke toy! Ahooooo!

Guess what?!?!

We're moving!

And I thought I'd help with all the packing my moms have been doing. (That's why they haven't been helping me blog very much lately. Gee thanks.)

We are only moving just down the street, basically. We are moving into the apartment of the new building that my Aunt Bri owns. All sorts of craziness in that place, but nonetheless a great improvement on our current home. I think Mom will like not having to pick so much trash out of my mouth in the new neighborhood...hehee. Oh, also, unlimited playtime with my cousins Lexie and Gertie. I could never get tired of them!! (Mom's note: and laundry in the building, lower rent, and uh, my new nephew who will only be downstairs after he is BORN in 12 weeks or so!!!!!) So, stay tuned for more news on my adventures throughout the move and this beee-utiful Memorial Day weekend (whatever that is) leading up to the move full of nice weather in NYC and.....

packing!

Toodles!

She's crazy, I tell you

Olive barking loudly

Nat, looking at Olive: Did you just fart and then bark about it?

Jess-nutt: Did you really just ask her that?

Oh, how I'm going to miss her...

I am at work after dropping little Olive off at her Aunt and Uncle's house for the weekend. The Jess-ter and I are going back to Sm!th for their graduation festivities. I can't believe we were only doing that ourselves last year. Whoa. How time flies. Anyway, we dropped Olive off and she played with her cousins as energetically as she did last night so I'm not too worried about her(we decided on a third preliminary meeting with the cousins Lexie and Gertie last night), but it breaks my heart to be away from her. How do all of you ever part from your little one? It is going to be tough, but only 2 nights away from her.

We say weird things to dogs

Nat and I will occasionally talk to Olive in a more articulate way than she can probably understand. Often, Nat will try to rationalize with her, for example, and I often talk to her with overly detailed explanation. Seems like we're not alone, though. Lots of people talk to their dogs as if they were talking to another person, though not necessarily in more sophisticated language:

• Large black man to tiny dog with hacking cough: I told you three times already: Calm yo'self! --Cunningham Park, Queens
• Woman to her two dogs: Sit down... And don't steal anything. --Pet store, Park Slope
• Woman to dog barking at passerby: No, that's not appropriate. --70th & Amsterdam
• Toothless man on bike to Shih Tzu: You gotta watch out! Have some human food. Eat at a Chinese restaurant. You a classy dog! --10th & 6th

Even more.

"Quick! Gimme that jerky!" image by tanakawho.

White Wonder in Brooklyn

We've never seen one of these during our walks in Prospect Park:
Olive would go nuts over a white squirrel!

Don't cha just love PINK?!?!!

Hi everydoggy! Mom finally let me out of my jail cell to blog. I got ahold of the blog and made some adjustments, as you can see. Mommy helped me design my very own header and THEN I was left to my own devices. This is what I came up with. Teehee.

I also have some really LAME pictures no thanks to her. (What? It was Mother's Day already...I don't have to be nice to her anymore. Though, I did send her a card. In the MAIL. Bet most doggies my age can't do that.)

Anywhoo, we went to the park a lot this weekend.I got to meet my Auntie Beth. I put on my best face for her. I ate a lot of my Kong this weekend too. Mom embarrassed me and put up these pictures with it smeared all over my face.
I had a lot of naps this weekend.
Other than that, my mommies had to help at/enjoy the Brooklyn Design Show for Lexie Lew. Here is Brooklyn, where I live. Mommy took this picture when they were there.

Look at their booth! My "brother," Pimento, who looks like me but just sleeps all day and snores when you put his "batteries" in (whatever those are) , attracted a lot of visitors to the booth as he snored away in one of the beautiful dog beds at right.

Today's word of the day is:

Bothersome.

That's what Mommy says I am, and now that I've used "the google" to look it up, I can't say it is the nicest thing, MOM. Well, the Jesster thought of it too soooooo... I guess I have two mean ol' mommies!! (Hah, yeah right, Olive)

My curiosity and extreme excitement to meet every doggy shouldn't be a bad thing. Anywhoooo, I love going to the park for that very reason. Except for the super wet grass. That is a new thing I do not like about the park. But no matter, I still go to the park everyday and get to explore the neighborhood on the way there as well as some other habitats within it.Ahooo!

I really want to get mommy a fancy camera so she can take pictures of me like Merrylog's blog. But, we'd have to do something called "save." Whatever that means. It could be a great hobby for the two of us and I do like posing. I guess I'd have to get used to the costumes and dress up, though. Hm. Maybe I should re-think this encouragement.

Puggy kisses, Olive

And now the one traditional portrait of Olive at a pug meetup...

ta-dah!

Mommy is just not very skilled when it comes to capturing the action I provide at the pug meetups, but oh well. Here I am during a minute of stillness at the meetup on Saturday. I must admit, I am a good subway traveller. I only whined once as long as Mommy held a ziggie for me to chew on while I rode in my bag. It is officially too small for me, also. It got a bit cramped in there after a while, actually.

The meetup was in a tiny area that was called a "small dog run", but really it was meant for rabbits, not 12 puggies plus other small dogs that were there anyway! So, there was not as much running as last time, but I did meet about 3 different boy pugs who were around my age and size and we wrestled like crazy. They didn't try any nasty stuff, though. They knew who was in charge. Heh. Like they'd even have a chance.

After the disappointing meetup, we went home and they gave me a bath. It wasn't so bad, but I really tricked them and continued smelling despite the shampoo! Here I am getting in mommy's face to make her smell my stinky wet dog smell:It was okay that the meetup wasn't a lot of exercise since I had already gone to the park that morning. That's right, every doggy. I got to go to the park twice in one day!! My mommies love me and are so nice.

On Sunday, I played with my cousin Lexie and learned how to use their backyard to piddle. I am going to be staying with them in 2 weeks, so we had to get in some practice time before Mommy leaves me along with my crazy dog and kitty cousins! I never get tired of playing with Lexie!

And now some other pictures of me from this weekend. Including one from this morning! You know how I love those early mornings!

Dogs & the cabbies that stop for them

From Overheard:

"Young woman: Thank you so much for picking me up with my dog! No one would stop for me.
Cabbie: People who love animals love humans. If you can't clean up the shit of a dog, how are you going to clean up the shit of humanity?
Young woman: Wow, that's deep. I totally agree.

--18th & 3rd"

I love mornings!

I like to wake up really early and get a good start on the day, ya know?

Here is what usually happens:

I wake up Mommy by whining at 5 or so when I have to piddle. I can hold it most of the night, but not the entire night yet since I'm still too little. If I do not get let out of my crate, I won't pee in it, I will simply make so much noise that the neighbors would think there had been an attack in our apartment! I play with my toys and rest for a little longer in the crate until 6. At 6, Mommy and the Jess-ter get all dressed, caffeinated (to go), and loaded up with "gear" for me. I get so excited at this point because I KNOW we are getting ready to go to the park. When I see my harness, I jump up and down excitedly! When they are FINALLY ready, we walk up the hill to Prospect Park. It is about a 15 min. walk so it is a nice workout to get the playing started. I usually cannot control my excitement and tug the whole way. If I'm not tugging, I'm trying to eat garbage, leaves, flowers, or anything else from the ground. (see green thing in my mouth...) My mommies do not like when I do this. Sometimes, there are these really smelly things, and I always want to carry them in my mouth, but mom always says "Don't disappoint your mother" in a tone that is so scary about these particular "butts." I think I heard her tell me that cigarettes are bad and they are the worst things to quit, but I'm still curious and don't understand what that has to do with anything! (Mom's note: it really is terrible to fish out cigarette butts from your dogs mouth when you are a recovering smoker...and they are EVERYWHERE and perfectly Olive sized. BOO.) When we finally get there, I walk on the leash for a little while to get to the meadow. This is where all the doggies get to run off leash until 9 in the morning. On the weekends, it really is like a giant dog run, but on the weekdays, at such an early hour, there are just a few others. (Mom's note: I think it would get a little too intense if it was like the weekends so early in the morning before work! I wouldn't be able to handle it!)

In the park we play with my ball. I play for a couple of throws, bringing it back to them each time, but then I get tired. I just had that big walk, remember? And I am a little pug. That is when I eat the grass and look for good sticks to chew on. Sometimes, if I see another doggy playing a more fun game, I will run over to them and chase them as fast as I can, which isn't much considering they are always big dogs that I am chasing. After a while, we go home, but we never get to stay long enough. Even on the weekends, we have to go back on our leash at 9 so the playing abruptly stops. Today I was soooo interested in a "Frisbee," whatever that is. I had never seen anything like that fly in such a magnificent way! Too bad my moms had to go to work, otherwise I might have gotten that other dog to let me play with her Frisbee.

We walk the 15 mins. back home and then it is BREAKFAST! My favorite meal of the day, of course. It is only superior to dinner because I manage to eat it faster. Then, I play in my crate while they shower and then I lick their legs dry because that is one of my chores to pay my keep. I then lounge around on my bed, usually, until it is time for them to go to work and I have to go back into the crate. I don't mind at this point because I am ready for a nap after all of our early morning activities! Yay mornings!

Olive XXI

at the park this morning in the early dawn

We finally got her AKC registration and for some reason every time it says her name "XXI" is printed after. I didn't give her a middle or last name, but they decided that she had to have that on the end. Does this mean she is the 21st Olive in AKC history, ever, making it seem very royal and grand? Or, does it mean she is the 21st Olive THE PUG?? Hm... And, also, what if I don't WANT her name to be "Olive the 21st." It makes her sound like a new century-robot or something. New and improved: Olive the 21st.