Merrylog

I have all kinds of fabulous Halloween shots littering my photo drives to show all of you over the next two weeks, but I had to share this one because it was just so cute, it made me laugh. She looks like she’s laughing at/with the bats, doesn’t she?

I love Halloween. I’d like to just rent a little kid or two for a few days so I could dress ‘em up, go nuts making monster cupcakes, get them to help decorate the house, take them trick-or-treating, and in general indulge in the holiday. ;)

Sidenote: Jessica K, please check your Junk Mail/Spam/Ugh folders and/or email us with your address and telephone number so we can get your winning print out to you!

I think this is one of my all-time favorite photos of the princess. We went for a nice long walk on Monday and ended up at one of the wee parks that litter our ‘hood; this one had a few kiddy playthings (slides, swings) but, surprisingly, no kiddies. We took advantage and posed the princess in a few places – in a swing (you’ll see that soon), up on the climbing contraption, and on the slide. When she dipped her head, I swooned and fell in love all over again.

Yeah, I love that little pug.

You would think that Merry lived in the filthiest house imaginable… if you judged by her toys. I don’t know WHAT is in pug saliva, but doesn’t matter if we’ve JUST mopped the floors to an inch of their life… give her a toy, let her run around the house with it for twenty minutes, it comes back sopping and brown. How is this possible? How is she finding dirt in a clean house?

Her balls are the worst offenders, because the rubber just gloms on to the dirt and won’t let go. We’ve tried scrubbing them. We’ve tried throwing them in the dishwasher. They never come up 100% clean, and two days later… they look like this again.

On the plus side, perhaps my floors are cleaner thanks to the pug’s diligence. :) Have a super weekend, everyone – it’s Thanksgiving up here in Canada, so I’m all about turkey and dressing and the best mashed potatoes, like, ever. (‘Course I’m biased. I make it all!)

Yes, princess, I think you really did help.

Today we got a really amazing email from a regular reader of the Merrylog. Her pug started “losing the ball” during playtime a few days ago and, remembering our story, got her pug into the vet and an eye doctor. A few days later, she’s found that while one eye is likely too far gone (and my heart squeezed for her there), the other is saveable with surgery.

Frankly, her email moved me to sniffles.

Folks, it’s been tough as heck watching the princess hesitate, walk into things, and walk right past balls thrown for her. But that hearing our story convinced even ONE pet owner to get into the eye doctor before it was too late has made up for a lot of the heartache.

I know a lot of our readers are pug or smoosh-faced pooch owners, and I’ll tell you what I do know: every pug I own from now on will be having yearly eye checkups with an opthamologist. I hope each of you will keep an eye on your pooch and keep the warning signs in mind (skittish in dark areas, barking more on night walks, losing the ball during fetch… to name a few).

To our friends R&B… all our best wishes for the surgery. Pugs are resilient little twerps. And I’ve found that their love of play and food and licking and people has little to do with how well they can see.

Fall is usually my favorite time of year… a little less so this year, since my love of photography means that I miss the long amazing light at 7 or at in the evening, but still, the wonderful wardrobe, crisp air, APPLES, and crunchy leaves are wonderful. I particularly love pulling out Merry’s fall clothing, since it’s so much more varied and fabulous than mine. Seen here: her charm sweater, coupled with her alligator leather collar and lead.

(Is it sad to admit that I wish I were as hip as my dog?)

The creative and evil genius of the pug, bent as always on world domination, once again foiled by Wonder Woman and her golden lasso.

Merry’s Grandma has been buying these “anemone” toys for the princess for years – wobbly and wiggly with little rubbery feet sticking out all over. Merry’s the funniest pug ever – she LICKS them. For hours. Just grabs her anemone between her paws and licks away!

Thanks to everyone for participating in our giveaway over the weekend! It’s given me lots of ideas for what to offer in the way of prints as I get the print-selling system all set up.

Now, on to the winner!
Using Random.org’s Integer Generator, here’s what we came up with:

Congratulations, Jessica K! I’ll be emailing you in a moment to get your info so I can ship your prize out to you.

Sometime in the next month or so I’m hoping to start offering photographic prints for sale through PamperedPuppy.com – starting with some of my own. And I’m looking for advice from you, faithful Merrylog readers, to help choose which shots you’d most love to see hanging on your wall.

All you have to do to enter this giveaway is leave a comment on this post – either letting me know the image Title, or the URL, to the photo you liked best from 2008! (If you want to start at the beginning of the year to start browsing, go here.) I’ll randomly choose a single comment and that person will win an 8×10 print of their photo choice.

Want to know which I like? Here are my top 12 (well, I tried to pick 12… but ended up with 25 anyway!):

1. princess of light
2. ahh! not the camera!
3. scramble
4. in my little girl’s eyes
5. you gotta problem with that?
6. runs like a rabbit
7. you are clearly disturbing my rest.
8. big head, big heart
9. pug power
10. sleepy sunny morning
11. puppy paws
12. playing in sunlight
13. angel
14. happy birthday sweetie girl
15. pile ‘o pugs **
16. you’re leaving me?
17. yay, we’re home
18. thank you
19. canning joy
20. shakeshakeshake (middle photo)
21. lazy days of summer
22. nobody likes a watery nose
23. blue
24. teef
25. sleeps sitting up

This giveaway is good until Monday, October 6th at 9am Eastern – so good luck!

** my favorite this year

Now that my mom is on the mend and will hopefully be released from the hospital this weekend, I was able to get home and see my gang. The princess in particular seemed very happy to see me – though probably not more than my fiance, who was a wonderful supportive partner through all of this. :) My thanks again to all of you for your words of support and hope – it’s been tremendous for my mom and dad, and me as well.