To Do

Keeping busy here... lots to do!! I made this pictorial to do list:

Mow the lawn. (Also, get lawn mower.)

Move leaf bags off front porch. (Also, finish picking them up from the yard! And then fix paint on front porch.)

Go to the dump.

Clean up the garden.

Fill the bird feeder.

A pug's work is never done.

My eye is getting better, slowly. Still wearing my cone. Here are some pictures of us resting while mom and dad work.




Hope my American friends have a great long weekend! We had ours last weekend... So it's back to actual work tomorrow here...

Koal

Sorry for my delay! Here are two pics of my new baby cousin, Koal. Please note the Bad Cuz I gave her - it is a mini size!



And if you know lambie toys, that one is a mini too!



Koal is tiiiiny!

Big Weekend Ahead

My grandparents are coming to visit, AND I am getting a new cousin! Actually it will be my half-sister, but since her new mommy will be my Aunt Jenni, the puppy will be my cousin. My sister-cousin then. :)

She is the puppy on the top of this picture:



We are so excited!! I will be back on Tuesday - we have a long weekend in Canada! Happy Victoria Day to my Canadian bloggy friends!

Allergies

* This is a long post - if you don't really want to read about my allergies and how they will be prevented and treated, you can skip on down to a picture of me from yesterday. :)


I went for allergy testing a few weeks ago, which was kind of expensive, but my parents think it was worth it to have some answers!! The test checked my sensitivity to 21 common food ingredients, so we still don't know all the foods I am sensitive to, but at least the common ones. And it tested a bunch of indoor and outdoor allergens too. Ready for the list?

The Big Ones (very sensitive to these things):
- Fish
- Soy Beans
- Grass (all 9 types that were tested)
- Mold
- Black ants (??)

Borderline Positive (my blood had what they call a borderline positive reaction to these):
- Beef
- Oats
- Potato
- Sweet Potato
- Elm tree
- Hickory tree
- Weeds: Dock Mix, Sheep Sorrel & Russian Thistle

Borderline (these ones were almost "borderline positive" which means I am sensitive to them, so I should avoid them, but they may not necessarily cause strong reactions like the items above):
- Corn
- Egg
- Peanuts (noooooo peanut butter!!)
- Birch tree
- Poplar tree
- More weeds: Lambsquarters, Marsh Elder
- More types of mold
- House fly
- Cotton linters
- House dust
- Wool

And my mom wants to point out that I did not have normal "neutral" numbers when it came to human skin and cats... the numbers were elevated but not high enough to be "borderline". My dad always used to joke that maybe I am allergic to humans - he wasn't too far off!!

Anyway, what does that all mean? Well, we can control the food allergies (hopefully) and some of the other things too by staying away from them. But some things like grasses and molds are not very easy to stay away from. (Horray for moving from a yard with no grass or trees to a yard with 7 acres with lots of grass, trees and weeds! Haha!!)

We can take extra steps to keep my allergies at bay, like a weekly bath (perfect, right?) and we have medicated shampoo for when my skin is inflamed; getting my paws and belly wiped off when I come in from walks; walking in less grassy areas (we can go up the dirt road, or through the trails in the back - not too much grass in there); keeping the house clean and dust free (my parents probably wanted to do that one anyway, BOL!); etc. So in the summer time and during typical allergy season, I might need some medication to keep my allergies under control. Hopefully we can stick with low doses of benedryl for that. I am currently taking a low-dose of a steroid medication which is just bringing my allergies under control right now, since I had a big flare up that wouldn't calm down. But steroids can have long-term effects that are not good, so hopefully I will be getting off those soon and then not going back on them!

Ok, I think I will stop there for now. If you have any questions about any of these things, or if you want to share any allergy stories or tips, please feel free to leave me a message here, or get in touch with my mom! :)

I will leave you a picture of me with my bone caught in my cone. That is definitely the worst part about wearing this silly thing...

Thank you!!

Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes! They really made my day. Do you know what my family did for my birthday? Nothing.

So here is a picture of me on my first birthday with a special treat:



This year: no cake, no special treat, no singing, no party hats, nothing!!

I am going to move in with Auntie Punchy. They have real birthday parties there.


P.S. Note from mom: I do feel like a terrible puggy mama, but we will "surprise" Clover on Wednesday night with a birthday surprise.

I am 3 Today!!!

And as a gift, I get to wear a CONE for 4 weeks. I have pretty severe allergies (more on that in a later post) and my parents and vet think I accidentally scratched my cornea this week. I had a sad-looking eye for most of the week (infected-looking), and my parents were on the phone with my amazing vet every day with updates. I had to get drops in my eye to clear up the infection. On Saturday my eye seemed worse, and my mom was horrified to notice what appeared to be a chunk missing from my eye. My dad got on the phone to Dr. Andrew, and then away we went in the car. Dr. Andrew stayed at the clinic after they were closed and waited for us. Luckily I only scratched the first layer of the cornea - it would have been really bad if it was any deeper. So with my diagnosis of "ulcer in the left cornea", some new eye goop and a lovely cone, we headed back home. Here are some pics if you want to see my eye:

Here is another new friend...

A woodpecker! You will have to click the picture so you can see him on the side of the house just beyond the windows.

Sometimes we hear him (or maybe his friend?) pecking on the wood shed roof, which is made of tin. I am not sure how smart of a woodpecker he is...

But he sure likes our house. We found these little holes all over the outside of the house!!

New Purchases

We recently made an order from Pawhaus Pet Boutique. Look what came in the mail!



You can see us modelling the collars here (if you can see under Chewy's neck fat, BOL!)



The leashes are super cool and adjustable - Mom and Dad can change the length, or walk us "hands free" ... it's pawesome. Thank you Amanda!!

We also ordered a nightlight for the hallway outside the bathroom from Pugnotes. We love it!



Doesn't it look like Chewy?!

Thanks Melissa!

A new friend!

Meet Farley. He likes to visit our bird feeder. You can see our other friend Robin in the background! You should click on this picture to get the full effect. :)

Warning... These pictures are really cute.

P.S. We do have several other beds, all of them bigger than this one. We just choose to squish into this one together.

Other happenings...

Edited to clarify that we had to paint the old rented apartment back to white before our lease was up! :)

Painting the old apartment back to white...

Before and After (old place) - Living room:






Before and After (old place) - Bedroom:






Breaking down walls at the new house...


Finding flowers in the yard....








These pictures are actually more of an indicator of what is left to do. Lots of yard work! Lots of renovations! The estimate is 6 months for completion of everything. Fun stuff!