Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Tales of Puck - Part 5

Puck may be a royal pain-in-the-you-know-what, but he is the happiest guy you'll ever meet. He always has a big grin on his face, he lives every moment to the fullest, and he never gets mad. Even when I attack him for no reason, he just looks at mom and smiles.

Puck Story #5:

One of mom's favorite holidays is St. Patrick's Day. Wearing green, drinking beer, celebrating the Irish - what's not to love. One year she decided to let Puck celebrate the holiday too. She was going to an agility trial that happened to be on March 17. So she decided to dye him green.

She wasn't sure what to use to dye him, but someone suggested green kool-aid. So she got 10 or so packets of kool-aid, and took Puck into the shower. She wasn't sure how well it would work, or if it would even make him green. But she thought she'd experiment. 

She soaked him down, then sprinkled the powder all over him. She rubbed it in, then let it soak in. She rinsed him off, dried him off, then took him outside to see her handiwork.

He was green all right. Bright green. Glowing green. Every inch of him was green. It showed up, that's for sure.

She took him to that trial, and he was the hit of the weekend. People she barely knew had to pet the green dog. The judge had to take off his glasses to make sure he was really seeing what he thought he saw. And Puck ate it up. He thought he was a rockstar, and couldn't believe his luck - everybody loved him!

How long did it last? Let's just say he was still green on Memorial Day. 

She dyed him green for the next few years. Then green kool-aid got hard to find, and Puck was semi-retired. Even years later, people still asked her about the green dog, and a few told her they'd heard about him from other people.

Levi was showing at the time, but he never was dyed. Like mom says, Puck has a great sense of humor, but Levi has none.

She has some pictures, somewhere. She'll try and find on and post it next week.

Tales of Puck - Part 4

It was a dark and stormy night. No really, it was. Which leads us to:

Puck Story #4

It was the weekend of the 1000 Pugs photoshoot. Suki and her mom were staying with us. Payton and her parents were at the house, eating and drinking. Puck and Levi were outside taking care of their business. We have a small fenced yard, off the dog room, where we can sniff and watch the world go by.

 The rest of the yard can't be completely fenced because we have this running through the middle:

On this night, the weather was so awful, Puck and Levi were taking their sweet time outside. When dad went out to bring them inside, Puck was gone! Where could he have gone? The fence is way taller than he is. It's pouring rain - what would be the motivation? Puck is 15 years old, and couldn't jump the fence. The fence was intact, but he was nowhere to be found.

Dad started scouring the yard, when he found the escape artist - in the culvert! There was tons of water running through it, and there was Puck, romping and splashing in the water. Never mind that he had to scramble down an embankment, then JUMP off a 2 foot concrete edge - he was going swimming, darn it. 

He was having so much fun in the water, he never heard or saw dad. Yup, dad had to wade in and rescue him. 

He figured out how to climb over the fence. He might look innocent, but he's not.

Tales of Puck - Part 3

Yup, embarrassing mom was a full time job for Puck. And he took that job very seriously.

Puck Story #3:

Mom was showing Puck in agility. She played with him outside the ring, and gave him treats to get his attention for the 60 seconds he would be in the ring. When it was time to go into the ring, she put his bait bag on the score table. They walked into the ring, and she took off his leash. She stood up and took off running. So did Puck.

In the opposite direction.

He ran out the gate, straight to the score table, and jumped right up on to the table. "Hi, scorekeepers. I'm just here to get my treats. Oh, there they are. Thank you, I have to go run agility now."

Back into the ring he went, bait bag in his mouth.

Tales of Puck - Part 2

By now you've gotten a feel for the kind of guy Puck is. Impulsive. No respect for authority. You get the picture. On to....

Puck Story #2:

Mom was walking along the beach in Oregon. Puck loved to walk on the beach. He would race down the sand, chasing little birds as he ran. Then he would loop around, run past mom, and chase birds in the other directions. Hours and hours and hours, he would run.

One day, he was running really fast down the beach when something caught his eye. What was that? A person in a kayak, way out to sea? Well, Puck just HAD to go see that person. So he dove into the waves, and started swimming out to see the person in the boat. Except the person was REALLY far out there.

No matter. Puck kept swimming faster and harder. Mom had to wade out to sea after him, and he finally heard her screaming his name (note to future pet owners: do NOT name your dog "Puck" if you plan on screaming his name in public on a regular basis. Go ahead. Say his name out loud. There you go.).

He finally gave up chasing the kayak, and swam back to mom. Was he remorseful? Ha. Not even close.

Tales of Puck - Part 1

My Pug-mix big brother Puck is a goofball. He's brilliant, devious, energetic, ADD, toy and food driven, and an escape artist. He's the happiest dog you'll ever meet. And he's 15 years old.

Mom got him when he was 1 year old. He'd lived his whole life chained to a house, until a really rainy winter convinced his owners to give him to rescue. She offered to foster him, to teach him some manners. It's been 14 years, and she's almost accomplished that task. LOL

She showed him for a long time in agility, and he was awesome. But a challenge. His exuberance and silliness sent mom back to the drawing board over and over again. When he was good, he was very, very good. When he was bad, he was horrid.

Never should have named him Puck.

She's decided to spend this week sharing her favorite "Puck Stories". There's a lot of them, so narrowing it down to 5 will be a challenge.

Puck Story #1

Puck had an orange stuffed ball that was his FAVORITE. He saw one at a show, became obsessed, so mom bought if for him. He loved that toy until it almost fell apart.

She was showing him at an agility trial, and they played with the ball. Before going into the ring, she put the ball into the toy bucket that was hanging from the canopy at ringside. They raced around the ring, and as they were coming into the home stretch, a line of 4 or 5 jumps to the exit, Puck took off. He jumped all the jumps, ran out of the ring, ran into the ring across the aisle, and body slammed the Australian Shepherd that was playing in that ring (the ring was empty). The Aussie went flying. Mom was in hot pursuit, when she realized that Puck had knocked the toy out of the Aussie's mouth, and was retrieving it. He grabbed the toy, turned tail, and ran right back to mom, with a huge smile on his face. When she took the toy from him, and grabbed his collar, she realized the toy was his orange ball.

Apparently, the ball was knocked from the bucket. The Aussie saw it, and started playing with it. Puck was having NONE of that, and took matters into his own hands. He never growled or got angry. He just got his ball the best way he knew how, and brought it back for his "after run play time".

The judge offered to let mom run again, since the Aussie caused Puck to become distracted. But Puck was so proud of himself for getting his toy, she didn't have the heart to take it away from him.

Mom still has the ball. It will go into Puck's memory box after he's gone. It's in tatters, and covered in dirt and slobber. But every time mom sees it, she'll remember the fun times they had playing agility.