365 Photo Project - Day 243 (From the Archives)

Taken: August 15, 2010

Location: Healdsburg, CA

I shot this image in the same session as this shot. This is my "old man" pug Louie, who we rescued in Los Angeles about five years ago. We think he's around 10 years old and he's now completely deaf and blind in one eye. He's the dog that started my love affair with pugs and he'll always have a special place in my heart. I love him madly. Hell, everyone who meets him does too.

365 Photo Project - Day 241

Taken: August 29, 2010

Location: Healdsburg, CA

It's been a remarkably temperate summer, not that I'm complaining. I think it got over 90 degrees maybe a half dozen times which compared to last summer is like Christmas in July. And August. The place we rent doesn't do well in extreme temps, especially the heat. My other pug, Chamuco, will park himself on the chaise lounge outside on the porch until well after sundown. It's almost always 10 degrees or more cooler out there than it is inside so it's hard to argue with him.

This shot of Louie was taken (with my iPhone) on one of those hot, hot days. If pugs know anything, it's how to get cool. And pressing every available area of your fur-covered body against a cold wood floor is about as cool as it gets. Smart dog.

365 Photo Project - Day 153

Taken June 2, 2010, 1 p.m.
Location: Healdsburg, Ca.

Having pets I've discovered is hard work. They take over your house, your world, your life. You begin to change simple things about your every day habits because the little creatures silently (or not so silently) demand it of you. Little stuff like changing from white comfort covers to hide all the hair and dirt and whatever else they leave on your bed. And Speaking of beds, it's not your bed anymore. Not even close. Once you let a pet sleep with you, it's over. You've lost. There's no instant reply or do-overs, no let's go to the video tape. You're done.

They regulate feeding time and going-out time and they tether you to your house. And what do you get in return? You might get loyalty but you'll definitely get some laughs, most of which will be at your expense. You might also get a pair of shoes chewed up or your favorite pair of glasses crunched into a pile of plastic, at least one chair or rug you love will get pissed on and certain times of the day you will be forced to walk through your house with a set of teeth clamped onto the ankle of your pants. That, my friends, is fun to them.

Oh you'll get love and here's the rub: you, will without, fail fall in love too. Hard. Because they don't just take over your life, they infect your heart. This is their whole plan. Resistance is futile because they are smarter then us. Earning your love and affection is all part of a larger agenda. Because sooner or later, they know you'll love them so much that that nipping at your pants thing? You will enjoy it as much as they do. Fair warning people.

365 Photo Project - Day 146

Taken: May 26, 2010, 2 p.m.
Location: Healdsburg, Ca

I've had several straight days where I've slept very well. I can't explain it. I've actually had a lot on my mind lately, more than usual which is saying a lot. I'm facing another TV staffing season and so far, not much is happening that makes me think a job is in my near future.  It's not over yet, though and I've got some meetings in LA coming up, but so far, it's been truly a bummer.

I'm also involved in a personal legal situation that's taxing my patience and my wallet. I'd rather have not pursued this course of action, but I felt I was left with no choice. It feels good to take action, though, and while I hope this will turn out in our favor (and believe objectively that it should) I didn't take this action without a lot of forethought. Sometimes you have stand up for yourself even if it's painful to do that.

My work has been generally going well and I'm beginning to see a true end to this novel I'm writing. I don't think I can go another fall and winter with it on my conscience so I'm feeling the pressure.  It's no wonder I was having trouble sleeping for so long but the last few days, I've gotten a lot of good Z's.

It's amazing what a little rest does to a person's general disposition and how easily I forget how important it is until I have a good stretch of sleepfull nights. Sometimes I think I should be more like my pugs. They sleep, they eat, they play, rinse and repeat. Work is good for the soul I know. I'm not kidding. It's good for you but if you take it too seriously, if you mistake the goal for the journey, you end up missing really important stuff -- like, um, life.

The best kind of "can't sleep" is the one that comes from anticipation. The good kind of anticipation, the "I can't wait for tomorrow because something big is going to happen" kind. The word "big" here has no particular meaning -- it should mean something different to each of us. I love nights like that because even if you don't get as much sleep as you want, when you finally do fall into dreamland, it's with a smile on your face and a beat and a half in your heart.

When I was a kid, I used to get into bed and concentrate really hard on the next day. The idea was to pick out something cool about tomorrow, something worth getting up for, something to anticipate. It was an exercise that helped me deal with some awkward and painful growing pains. And I used it many years into adulthood until somewhere along the way, I just stopped. I don't even remember when or why. I've been trying to start up again. In many ways it's like riding a bicycle, even to the point where it feels like you're exercising whole new muscles you haven't used in awhile.

But the feeling of anticipation and the wonderful lightness it brings with it hasn't changed. I remember it like it was yesterday and it still makes me smile.

365 Photo Project - Day 16

Taken: January 16, 2010, approx. 3:40 p.m.
Location: Healdsburg, CA

This wasn't a tough one today. I left my house late in the day after spending most of the morning and early afternoon hanging out with the pugs. Louie's not feeling great lately and he's been staying close. And let's face it, he's a dog. He loves the car. LOVES it. So anyway,  I got this look from Louie as I was leaving. And he didn't take his eyes off me as I turned my car around in the driveway. I actually took this shot through my front windshield. You wanna tell me that look doesn't say it all? I shot it with the K100D and the 50-200mm lens. Edited very lightly in Photoshop.

365 Photo Project - Day 14

Taken: January 14, 2010, approx. 11:30 a.m.
Location: Healdsburg, CA

You have to trust me when I tell you I never thought I’d be one of those people who showed pictures of her dogs to strangers.  I wasn't. Not really. I am now.

This is the face that did it. A half-blind, almost deaf pug that my husband and I got from a Los Angeles-based pug rescue in 2005. Little did we know how much it would cost to keep him healthy (we’re talking five figures no lie) but more than that, how easily he was able to thread his way into our hearts. I mean there's my life pre-Louie and now and I never want to go back.

Maybe it’s because we’re childless (by choice) or maybe because when he came into our lives we were going through a particularly difficult time in our lives and our relationship. Whatever it was, it’s almost like there is no “us” without Louie the Pug, our Louie, King of All Pugs.

He’s not the world’s sweetest dog by any means. He keeps to himself mostly and he doesn’t like to be cuddled and he sleeps half the day away. Like most pugs, he’s stubborn as hell and there’s his medical bills, which have been enormous. And yet ... he is such a big part of my heart, I can't imagine not having him around me.

I just can’t describe the lightness and joy he gives me, especially at the moment (nearly every day) when he “loses” me in the house and searches in every room until he finds me. And when he does, it’s with tail wagging and I swear to God, a twinkle in his one good eye. 

He’s one tough guy, a dog that clearly loves his life and wants to stick around as long as he can function. And he does function -- even half blind and now completely deaf. He was on the streets for several years before he got rescued and since we've had him, he's gone through a number of surgeries – all attempts to rid him of a nasty bone infection in his inner ear. The most recent operation left him with a chronic gagging cough that won’t go away. We’re scheduled to go back to UC Davis VMTH for the sixth time in 10 weeks to have yet another procedure to see what’s causing his latest ailment. This one will require anesthesia, which is always scary with flat-faced dogs but we've got no choice.  He's up half the night coughing -- I swear it's like living with a newborn.

I have faith in Louie and I know for certain he'll let me know when he's had enough. For now, we're doing the best we can, both of us.

In honor of my pal, my buddy, my pug Louie, he's my subject for today’s photo. Taken with my K100D in the great morning light of a brilliant sunny day (the calm before the storm that we hear is coming next week). Edited in Photoshop where turned it to black and white.

365 Photo Project - Day Three

Taken: January 3, 2010, approx 3:00 p.m.
Location: Healdsburg, CA

This good-looking fellow is one of my two pug dogs. If you've followed me in the past, you know about Louie and his trials (described in part here) which we're still battling, unfortunately. This guy's name is Chamuco, which in Mexico is a slang for "Little Devil." He has earned his monicker for sure, but he's also a very sweet dog who loves people. He came to us by chance and through the good graces of a wonderful pug rescue in Sacramento called Pug Savers. Chamuco was 14 months old and even had his papers -- he's from a wonderful, highly respected pug breeder in Canada. Every day we wonder how any person could have given away such a handsome and loving pet. Our luck I guess.

As for this image, I've been home all day and I put off taking any photos in part because nothing seemed photo-worthy.  I saw Chamuco hanging out on the deck getting some sun. I was trying to get him to look at the camera and he did. But this was the best shot.

I take a lot of photos of my dogs but I'll try not to burden you with too many of them here (I have a usual outlet for that :-D ). They are a large part of my life so there's no doubt they'll get their mugs into more than one shot over the next, what is it?, 362 days though. I used my Pentax K100D again, minimal editing using iPhoto.

Why I Love Pugs

Reason No. 4: When they're bad dogs, they're very, very bad dogs.

Please note: no pugs inhaled in the taking of this photo.

Why I Love Pugs

Reason no. 3: they'll sleep with anyone.

(Hat tip to my pug friend, Sara in Las Vegas and her great shot of one of her three pugs and her cat).

Why I Love Pugs

Reason no. 2: They make great writing partners.

Take Down on Pug Mountain

My first pug, Louie, has had a tough go of it lately. He's coming off his third operation in three years -- for the same ailment, an infection in a bone in his ear -- and this time, the recovery has been slow. For awhile there, we were worried he wasn't going to get better. But he's turning the corner. He's only 7 or 8 years old, only middle age for a pug, and he's a tough guy, perhaps from his years living on the streets of L.A., where he was found before he came to us.

Our new pug, Chamuco, whose name means "Little Devil" is full of piss and vinegar and wants nothing more than to follow his big bro around the house except when he wants to "play". This means biting Louie's legs and neck and trying to get his dander up. More often than not, it becomes two pugs rolling around the carpet. This is what puppies do. But mature dogs don't always like it too much. Louie puts up with it mostly. Sometimes he hides under the table to get away from the devil.

But every once in awhile, he fights back. Here is one such moment, captured on my husband's iPhone.


I feel so proud.