Living in Pug Heaven - "Holy Shit!"

Here's to hoping that today's posting goes a little bit faster and is typed a little better, seeing as how we are using the fully functioning Taylor Moore PC!

In this picture you will find pugs doing what pugs do best - and that is "helping". A pugs way of helping means standing where you need to be, sitting where you need to clean, and falling asleep where the next object goes. It is embedded somewhere in the pug mind that this is how life is supposed to be, so pugs do it very well.

Toni came down to help me with quite the undertaking today. We disassembled the Crate Wall, washed each and every crate, cleaned the platform, moved it out, and then washed all the bedding and all of the pugs. In this photo (taken by Toni), you will see quite a few pugs "helping" her clean the floor / crate platform. Cow pug in the one standing so triumphantly in the middle (seeing as how she is nicknamed COW PUG one could assume that she was of absolutely no "help" at all), Mac sitting in front of the vacuum, a few curious pugs, and Lara the attention whore posing for her close-up.

The Crate Wall houses a total of fifteen crates, ranging in size and shape. On the bottom there are 4 wire crates and a smaller blue crate, then there are medium size crates on top of the wire crates, and small crates on top of the medium crates. These are all placed on top of a platform that I would assume Kim the Genius Man built, and each pug has their own place that they belong. Some crates have name tags, some don't. Toni and I started an assembly line, which really means that Toni did the majority of the work, and I love her for it. :) She vacuumed out each of the crates and carried them out to the deck, where I hosed them off and scrubbed them with bleach water. I then sprayed them down once more and we left them in the sun to dry. As I finished washing Toni cleaned the platform, pulled it away from the wall and started cleaning underneath the platform, which was a decent mess all on it's own.

We then took to bathing all of the pugs - which consumed quite a bit of water and clogged the drain all too much. To bathe 18 pugs in quite the task, and I most definitely could not have done it alone. We set up two stations - the first was in the tub where the pugs were soaked, scrubbed, and washed clean. After a good squeezing out of the wrinkles the pugs were lifted to the top of the washer, where Toni quickly threw a towel over the top of the pugs to shield herself from the incoming shake. Once the pugs were rubbed down and dried they got their nose wrinkles cleaned out and off they went. We ended up bathing all of the pugs, my french bulldog Dot, and Sir Winston as he was picked up this afternoon. Mister Howie also got to visit, and he got doused in cool water just for the heck of it.

By some miraculous act of who-knows-what, I remembered how each crate was placed when I reassembled the Crate Wall. In my mind I could picture that Peanut had the small red crate, which was above her arch nemesis, Wahini, who was above Cow Pug. Hula's crate was above Vanna's, and Star above that. The difference a good clean crate makes is in-cred-ible. HUGE shout out to Toni for working with me today, and another shout out to the ever shy but oh-so-willing to help, Diane Bates who offered to help Toni and I, should we fall short. Our escapades today took about 5 hours, with a lunch break included. Funny story - Toni thanked ME for letting HER come HELP. Seems kind of backwards, but I was more than willing. :)

Things are just as hilarious as usual here at the house - I assume that some of you were expecting another post about pinecones and pug poop with the title... I have no new stories about pug poop, but I did learn today that pinecones float, as there is one floating delicately in the water dish next to the pool. How it got in there? One could only guess. Our title today comes from a conversation I had with Cathy - it was actually the first time that I got to speak to her since before her surgery Monday. I called Kim's cell phone because Suzy had left a message on the house phone inquiring about Winston, and Cathy picked up.

C: Well how ARE you?!
A: Me? How are YOU?
C: I heard you gave some pug baths today.
A: Toni just left, we bathed ALL the pugs.
C: Holy shit.
A: And we cleaned all their crates.
C: HOLY SHIT.

I love Cathy. :)

It was definitely nice to talk to her - she seemed to be in good spirits, which is nice to know. She informed me that she was not all worried about the on-goings here at the house, which was a relief to me. I find it funny because even my own mom worries when I pug-sit. Cathy also informed me that because it was closer to work, and because I used less gas that I was just going to have to move in! Now, this isn't the first time that Cathy has tried to adopt me in some way. She always tries to steal me right from under my mom's nose, and she also offered to let me take her last name once when I went through a rough patch with my father. Alecia Moore - Not too shabby!

I look forward to the week ahead - Miss Cypress was returned to us after her weekend in Portland, and I can already tell that she is glad to be home. She is currently hanging over an arm of the couch. It is about 10:30 now and I still need to clean up the kitchen before I can even think about sleep.