Pug with Me

You're all going to have to bear with me on my next couple of pug-heavy posts. As I have no friends, no out-of-home job, and no Alan (an hour at dinner and sleeping next to him hardly count), Marti provides my entertainment a lot of days. Lucky for me, the darn pug is hilarious.

The dog park that we go to almost daily is just a short walk away; it probably takes us 3 minutes to get there. It's really funny how God dropped us right into this little neighborhood. He must have known that I was one of those people with no social outlets who depend on the other dog park people for their human interaction. I take Marti almost every day at 5 o'clock to the park. She now knows what's coming (dogs, yipppeeee!) and tries to pull me into traffic to get there more quickly.

Each and every day on this walk to the dog park we deal with The Grouchiest Dog Ever. He hears us coming and is on red alert to bark at us while we pass, and while we wait for the light to turn. The fence curves around to a gate, so even if we think the coast is clear he might just be out of our sight, at the gate, waiting to attack. Marti, of course, quickly learned that The Grouchiest Dog Ever is stuck behind bars. Where he can't reach her.* This allows her to run up to the fence and bark her little heart out at him, while I'm dragging her along, trying to calm the whole situation. The Grouchiest Dog Ever, stuck behind bars. Until...

One day we're walking back home, for pass number two by Grouchy. We get to the gate, and OUT COMES THE GROUCHIEST DOG EVER. Out from behind bars. Barking like a mad dog. At me. And Marti. My heart jumped through my throat. Marti started barking. And TGDE headed back in the gate because he knew Mommy would be mad if he was caught out barking at passersby. Scared me to death.

A couple of trips later, Alan was along for the dog park fun. He decided to pick Marti up as we walked by so that her jingling collar wouldn't attract his attention. He picked her up, but Grouch must have a keen sense of smell. Alan was holding her, but Grouch started barking anyway. At the ground. Where Marti should be, but not where she was. We realized that The Grouchiest Dog Ever is actually The Blindest Dog Ever, and now we feel bad that he was our nemesis for so long. It makes me want to take him under my wing and take him to the dog park with us, but then, the next time I walk by and he's flashing his fangs at me--or what he thinks is an evil monster out to get him--I kinda change my mind.

Here he is in all of his blind ferocious glory.**



The picture is a little blurry, but you get the idea. It's kind of hard to take a quality picture when your picture-taking hand is shaking in fear and your pug is dragging you the other direction while trying to attack The Blindest Dog Ever.

*I've always just assumed it was a "he," although I just realized I don't actually know. We're not that good of friends, you see.
**The fuzziness of the picture makes him look sweeter and more cuddly than he really is. He's really mean looking.