The story of a young pug

Abby is two!

2008-02-07T07:21:00.000-08:00

Today is Abby's second birthday! Hurray!

Here is a picture of her at Xmas with daddy (or as I call him, Chris).

As always, pictures of Abby can be found in my 'Abby' Flickr set!

:)

Cottage pug

2007-09-05T18:21:00.000-07:00

We visited a friend's cottage in Muskoka for the labour day long weekend. Abby had so much fun. She swam like a fish, we had a hard time getting her out of the lake!

Pictures for now, videos later!

Abby video

2007-07-28T14:23:00.000-07:00

Chasing and digging for rocks at the beach last month.

Vacation in New Brunswick

2007-07-18T15:16:00.000-07:00

We went to New Brunswick last month and took Abby along. She had a great time at my parents' all week and was spoiled rotten. Here are some pictures!

She loved the beach

With me

We met another pug from Ontario there, it was kind of weird. His name was Boris and he was from Kingston. A real cutie.

That's all for now!
:-)

Park and outdoor bath

2007-05-27T10:40:00.001-07:00

Abby was quite busy yesterday. I took her to the park and then to an outdoor dog washing clinic, it was great! I was held by our pet store, Critter Jungle and was only $10! Sweet deal!

Here are some pictures:

Park

Doggy bath

Charity work

2007-05-08T07:55:00.001-07:00

Abby and I raised money for and participated in a local charity walkathon last weekend. It was for BARK, a local dog rescue.

Here are some pictures of her:

"Just happy to be here"

"Must... resist... sniffing... every other dog's butt!"

After the 3 km walk

Also, more pictures from the walkathon and the previous day's Ottawa pug meetup at my Flickr account.

Abby 2.0

2007-04-25T07:32:00.000-07:00

We're revamping Abby.

Tonight she starts a 10 week obedience class. She's overall doing very well in that regard, but there are mainly 2 things that we haven't been able to teach her: come and don't jump. It's rather embarrassing. We take her to an off-leash park and when it comes time to pack up and go home, she just won't have it. When she was a puppy we could outrun and outsmart her to catch her and bring her home, but now she knows our tricks. She's on a park hiatus until we finish the obedience training, or until she learns to come.

Also, I've started feeding new food. After all the craziness with the pet food recalls, I started reading up on pet food a lot more. I know it's lame that it takes such a drastic situation for me to clue in, but it's better late than never, no? Anywho, upon reading this LJ post, I went out and purchased Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food. The first day I started reading it I started feeling horrible for having been feeding Abby mass-produced commercial pet food for over a year. I won't go into all the disgusting details, but let's just say that horrible horrible things go into the making of commercial pet food. I had been feeding Abby this stuff, which contains exactly the same ingredients as Iams, so I thought I was doing pretty well. Sure, the stuff is exactly like Iams, in fact most pet foods come from the same processing plants, as we've all been able to witness from the recent recalls. Doesn't matter if you charge $20 or $50 for the bag, it's the same crap. The book suggests a home-cooked diet, which I'm sorry, but I have no intention of ever doing. It also lists some good all-natural human-grade commercial alternatives. So I've chosen Innova Evo by Natura Pet Products, a human-grade product containing fresh fruit, vegetables, dairy products and meat. No meat by-products (you don't even want to know what this can legally contain), no remains from human food processing, no nastiness. Abby simply loves it. She never used to scarf down her old food - sometimes she wouldn't eat her bowl for a few days (she's surprisingly not very food-driven), but this stuff - wow, she just inhales it! For the first few days she had some constipation and then a bit of diarrhea and was a bit gassy (so nasty!), but now her stomach has seemed to have settled. The new food is obviously pricier, but it's still not that bad. Around $70 for a huge bag that would probably last her about 2 months. I mean, that's way less than we spend on food, why would I lower my standards for my little puppy love? She means way more than that to me.

I highly recommend Food Pets Die For: Shocking Facts About Pet Food to anyone with a cat/dog they care dearly about. Of course the book's to be taken with a grain of salt, but most of it is well researched and provides an eye-opening look into the commercial mass-produced pet food industry.

Abby on YouTube

2007-04-09T15:09:00.001-07:00

Long time no blog again...

No news is good news 'cause we're doing fine and dandy.

Abby is glad to be having some nice weather once again, she was not a fan of winter at all!

I thought I'd share this funny video of Abby that Chris recorded last week while he was preparing to wrap up and store some unused furniture around the house. Essentially, it's Abby flipping out and running around on a tarp.

Also, you can check out Abby's photoset on my Flickr account for some more recent pictures of her:
Abby on Vero's Flickr!

:-)
Vero and Abby

1 year old!

2007-02-07T07:13:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABBY!

Pictures of birthday celebration to follow...

Nicknames

2007-02-05T08:45:00.000-08:00

I'm sure everybody has tons of nicknames for their pet(s). Here are some of Abby's:

Poopie (or Poopie McPooperson), Puppers (again, Puppers McPupperson), Abby Wabby, Licky, Pups, Fatty.

Abby's big birthday is coming up this Wednesday. I'm making dog-friendly birthday cookies for the occasion. They grow up so fast...!

Here's a picture of Abby around Xmas time that I forgot to post:

She was so confused!

New digicam!

2007-01-28T18:30:00.000-08:00

= new Abby picture!

Glamour shots!

2006-12-09T12:17:00.000-08:00

80's glamour shot! She's even got the twinkle in her eye!

Jabba the hutt much??

We're not dead!

2006-11-18T14:56:00.000-08:00

Just really lazy (read: busy!) bloggers!

Here is Halloween Abby!

She was a bat!

Spay pictures

2006-08-13T18:34:00.000-07:00

Random pictures of Abby the night she got spayed:

ALL BETTER!!

:)

And she's doing great!

2006-08-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

Abby's surgery went swimmingly well. She's already back to her normal rambunctious self.

Wednesday night she was kind of drowsy but didn't appear to be in any pain. She slept most of the evening and the night. I took a few funny pictures of her that night. I'll upload them sometime this weekend.

Thursday morning she seemed to be totally fine. The vet had however suggested carrying her up and down the stairs for a few days, just so that she doesn't pull on her insition site too much. When I got home from work last night she was as excited and playful as she normally is. You really couldn't tell that she had had surgery the previous day.

This morning I let her go up and down the stairs by herself and let her roam free in the house. Looks like the worst part's over. In fact, I think what hurt the most in all of this is my wallet. I love my vet and all, but they are really expensive, it cost me $403 for the procedure. Ouch!

But of course it's all worth it for my little Abby!

:-)

Wish her luck!

2006-08-09T06:43:00.000-07:00

I just dropped Abby off at her vet at 7:30 this morning. She's scheduled to haver her surgery around 11 or so this morning. I'll be picking her up after work today.

Poor little baby.

Lazy blogger, right here!

2006-08-08T06:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, for being so lazy. Truth is, I tend to stay as far away from my computer while at home in the summer - it's bad enough I have to spend 8 hours a day staring at this thing at work 5 days a week.

Abby is doing great. Yesterday was her 6 month birthday - you all know what that means... SPAY SURGERY SOON! In fact, it's tomorrow!

I don't really have many pictures to upload at this moment - just two. They're from when we took Abby camping about 3 weeks ago.

< non-pug >
Oh yeah, I should mention that we were able to go camping because I BOUGHT A CAR! Yay! My very first car! It's a 2002 VW Passat:

< /non-pug >

We are actually planning on going camping again in 2 weeks - but this time a little further - in New Hampshire! We'll be meeting Chris' family down there and of course, bringing Abby! Willow and Belle... whereabouts in NH do you live?! We're going to be in the White Mountains Forest area - at Dolly Copp campground.

Again, sorry for being a lazy blogger - I blame it all on the crazy hot weather we've been having - last week with the humidity it reached 48 degrees Celsius here in Ottawa - that's 118.4 degrees Fahrenheit for you South of the border! Luckily we have air conditionning in our bedroom and things seem to have cooled down a bit this week.

Gotta go, but I'll try and update more... maybe :P

Bath time + random pictures

2006-06-27T18:47:00.000-07:00

Abby in her downstairs bed - it's actually a sofa bed! What a spoiled little girl.

Hanging out with mom on the futon.

Sleeeeeeepy!

"C'mon mom.... let's play!"

Sleeping!

Bath time!

Before the bath with mommy. Smelly pup!

Exhibit A - bathtub

"What's going on?"

"Guys, can I drink this water?"

Wetting the puppy.

"Ahhh! Shampoo!"

Abby feeling violated...

Rinsing is important!

Rinse, rinse, rinse!

Squeezing out the excess water! Hehehehe...

Drying with mommy.

Abby vs. the BLOW DRYER!

ALL CLEAN! :)

Abby Wabby

2006-06-22T19:57:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of Abby from a few weeks back

We're all still doing very well. Abby is growing so fast. She's so great, we're so lucky to have her.

Picture follow-up

2006-06-06T18:25:00.000-07:00

Abby not happy because I had woken her up

Me and Abby, awww!

I bought Abby a velour hoodie, she is not impressed.

Pug perfection

Still not impressed with the hoodie...

Sad Abby :(

hhehehe...

Mission accomplished

2006-06-06T11:38:00.000-07:00

I'm glad to report that for all intents and purposes, Abby is housetrained.

The websites from which I had been documenting myself before Abby's arrival had prepared me for a long hard road to housetraining, but it was a lot simpler than anticipated.

The only thing we still need to work on is to get her to make some kind of a noise to warn us that she's asking for the door. Right now she just bolts downstairs and waits a bit, and if we have the misfortune of not seeing her, she poos on the floor. Bah, it's okay, we still love her!

We didn't make it out to the pugnic 2 weeks ago because I've been really sick for the past 2 weekends. It's really annoying.

But we still make it out to the park a few nights a week. Abby is a PRO at fetching - I've never seen anything like it! She LOVES it! Abby also socializes lots at the park, mostly with dogs bigger than her. She's so brave. She has a boyfriend who's a bulldog named Decker, he's really sweet. I think they like each other because they sound the same. What a snortfest!

Next weekend I'm meeting my parents in Quebec city for my sister's convocation, and then they're coming to visit Chris, Abby and I in Ottawa. Abby gets to meet her grandparents, haahah.

I don't have any pictures right now because I'm at work. I have a few on my camera that I'll try and upload sometime this week. Later!

Abby and her toys

2006-05-20T06:31:00.000-07:00

Long time no blog!

We're all really busy here, Chris and I with work, and Abby with... whatever it is that she does... oh yes! SLEEP!

First of all we want to say a big hello to Ken & Julie, Abby's breeders who apparently love to read this thing and are happy that they get to see what Abby's up to. It should not be them thanking me for blogging, but rather me thanking them for giving me my little bundle of snorty puggy goodness! Thank you Ken & Julie!

Now here's what you obviously all came here for: some Abby!

"HI!"

Here she is sitting on my boyfriend Chris:

Here is a sad picture, this is a toy that Chris' mom, a.k.a. The Easter Bunny, bought for Abby. I'm afraid he's going on his last days. For some reason, Abby seems to have attacked the crotch more than other areas, what a vicious pup!

Last night was marked by yet another trip to Ikea... and you know what that means! Another weird toy for Abby! They're not actually dog toys, they're for kids, but they're great for dogs because they don't have beady eyes or any plastic/metal in them.

Abby LOVES IT!

Ok, sleep time now!

Next weekend is the Ottawa Pugnic!, should be quite exciting!

Later!

Abby's 3rd/4th week with us

2006-05-06T14:23:00.000-07:00

As promised, pictures of my little pugly Abby.

Abby loves to sit on my old laptop, I think she likes the warmth, it reminds her of people

Sitting like a good girl

She loves the computer so much that she sleeps on it

Here is Abby and I. She still loves to sleep on top of the couch, silly pugly!

Here she is looking pretty behind my boyfriend, Chris.

Showing us some tongue!

I took this picture this morning when Abby was sleeping with me in the papasan chair

Sleeping beauty :)

No pictures, sorry!

2006-05-03T06:21:00.000-07:00

Just though I'd provide an update on Abby even though I can't upload any pictures right now (I'm at work - shhhh!). Hahaha, as if none of my coworkers read this :/

Abby's doing pretty awesome. We taught her how to climb stairs last weekend, and yesterday she went DOWN the stairs by herself - it was pretty impressive! This will definitely help out a lot in her potty training - you know... she'll be able to actually get downstairs to ask for the door now!

Abby also went to the vet this week. She got her 12 week shots. She was very good and very brave. She also walked all the way there (last time I had to carry her some) AND all the way back! She weighs 6.8 pounds. What a porker!

We've been meeting all of the dogs in our new neighbourhood. There are probably like over 10 pugs in a 5 block radius. So far we've met Jellybean, Elvis, Bella and Puccini. Abby also made fiends with a cute little Jack Russell terrier puppy named Holmes who is the same age as her. Last night when I took her out to pee she annoyed the crap out of a 5 year old poodle. She's such a bully.

All in all, she's doing very well. I'll be in Montreal for the next 2 days but I'll try to post some pictures this weekend when I come back.

Later!

Rain, rain, go away.

2006-04-23T20:03:00.000-07:00

It's been rainy and gross all weekend so Abby didn't get to play outside too much - just a little walk today and some random pee breaks throughout the day. Abby's doing ok at potty training. She pees outside and it seems that as soon as we're inside she has to pee again, so she goes on the puppy pad. It's ok and all - but just a little frustrating. I have to keep in mind that her bladder is probably the size of a golf ball :S

My friend Val came to see our new house yesterday (even though it's still a huge mess!). She also came to see Madame Abby, here they are together in my new papasan chair:

Other than that - she's just been puppin' around. Last week while we were buying some things for our new house at Ikea, we bought Abby a stuffed children's toy. At first I didn't think she was going to like it, I thought it was going to be too big, but boy was I ever wrong. It's a HUGE stuffed RAT. She loves it! You should see her running with it. She looks soooo ridiculous!

Here is Abby looking oh so pretty!

Abby is not much of a blogger, she just looks at pictures of pugs and imitates them...

Abby sits really weirdly. I guess you could say she's just weird in general.

Long time no post

2006-04-19T19:57:00.000-07:00

As many of you know we moved last weekend. That's why I haven't been able to update, we've been SUPER busy! Plus we haven't received our modem from our new ISP yet, so I'm just mooching off of someone's wireless network right now.

But anywho enough about us, more aout Abby! Abby is doing very well, despite all of the changes she's had to go through in her first week with us, she's remained upbeat and great.

I took her to the vet on Monday and she came out with a clean bill of health. I got a deworming treatment for her and the vet suggested putting some lubricant in her eyes a few times a day because her eyes dont' close completely. We're going back in 2 weeks for more puppy shots.

Anywho, enough rambling, here are some pictures :)
Abby sleeping, she does a lot of that.

Abby sleeping with Chris' sister Rachel the day we were moving.

More.

Again...

Sleep...

I see some sort of a trend...

Abby curled up in my sweater on the day we moved. Sorry about the crappy colour.

Sleeping stretched out, what a funny puggy!

Sleeping... She sleeps in the weirdest positions!

Cutie Abby!

Something she seems to NEVER DO! SLEEP! *rolls eyes*

I will try to update more now that we're getting more settled in and that my exams are almost over. Yay!

Abby loves the top of our couch

2006-04-13T11:21:00.000-07:00

For some reason Abby always seems to want to climb on top of our heads or something - my neck is all scratched from her clawing at me, hehe. She's really taken a liking to hanging out on top of our couch. Of course we only let her do it when we're sitting on the couch, otherwise it would be too dangerous.

Here she is just chilling out -

Here she is all curled up around my neck - a rather comfy neck pillow!

Here's what her butt in my face looks like - nevermind my face - kinda hard to take a picture of yourself with a sleeping puppy on your neck!

:)

ABBY IS FINALLY HERE!

2006-04-12T20:05:00.000-07:00

Abby got here at around 6 tonight with Chris' family. She seems to be doing very well. I just love her, she's the sweetest thing. Noisy but sweet :P

TOMORROW'S THE BIG DAY!

2006-04-11T18:24:00.000-07:00

We're getting Abby tomorrow. We're also moving this weekend - so it's going to be hectic. I've set up Abby's night pen in the powder room in my bedroom already - I'm just too excited.

I know it's in a bathroom but rest assured, I've scrubed it clean! Nothing but the best for my little princess!

YAY TOMORROW!

:D

2 days!

2006-04-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd mention that I called Abby's breeder tonight (two of his dogs had litters in February so you can imagine he has many little puppies running around) and he was like "which dog is yours again?" and I replied "Abby - the only fawn-coloured female of your two litters" to which he quickly said - "ooohhh yeah, the bully!".

My dog is a bully O_o

Apparently since Abby is from the older litter she's been picking on the runt of the younger litter - what a jerk! Heehehe.

I'm going to have to teach that little pup some manners!

10 080 minutes

2006-04-05T19:13:00.000-07:00

In exactly a week I'll be holding my little Abby in my arms. This is so unbelievable. Chris' parents are picking her up in Beauharnois, Qc. on their way over from New Brunswick. My own puppy to hold and love -- so excited!

All I have left to do is go over to Pretoria pet hospital to see if they can take Abby as a "patient". I want to make sure to bring her in during the first week that I have her to get her checked out. She will have her shots and be dewormed, but I still want to bring her in for an initial appointment. I'm pretty sure that I'll get her microchiped too after having read Bosley's sad story.

Earlier this week I mailed Abby's breeders the rest of the payment and also a permission letter to allow them to relase Abby to Chris' parents.

Only a week - I CANNOT believe it!

I think I've got everything.

2006-03-26T19:39:00.000-08:00

Here's an awesome rug I found at Mrs Tiggy Winkle's (a toy/knick-knack store here in the city):

I'm still not sure if it'll go inside the house in the vestibule or outside on our little front porch. Chris thinks that if we leave it out it will more than likely get stolen. Very probable.

We also stopped in at PetSmart on Friday and I got Abby some shampoo and found some wipes for her tiny puppy face wrinkles. We got the shampoo that seemed to be best suited for pugs: shed control! It smells like coconuts and other various tropical fruits, mmm!

I really think the only things I'm missing are puppy training pads, a gate to keep her out of the living room when we're out and, of course, puppy food! I'm going to e-mail Abby's breeder this week to arrange for the final payment and to find out what type of food he'll have her started on so that I can pick some up for her. 17 more days! So soon!

Abby's bowl is ready!

2006-03-22T20:43:00.000-08:00

I painted Abby's bowl on Monday and Tuesday night (it needed 2 coats).

I had this very specific idea of what I wanted and the closest one I could find was blue. So Monday I made a trip to the hardware store between classes and picked up some glossy red paint.

I really like how it came out! Perfect!

We also picked up a bottle of bubbles for Abby to chase around outside in the park this summer while at the grocery store this afternoon. Teehee.

24 days...

2006-03-19T21:14:00.000-08:00

I got a call from Abby's breeder Ken today. I think he was calling all of his adopting families to try and schedule the "release" of all of his puppies (two of his dogs had litters). He told me that Abby would be ready to go April 7th and asked me if I still needed him to deliver her to Ottawa (he's in Montreal). I asked him if it would be ok if Chris' (my boyfriend) parents picked her up on April 12th on their way here to help us move that weekend. He said ok so... so far that's the plan.

I know some of you are probably thinking "why not just pick her up yourselves"? Well, we don't have a car. I know, I know, "how can you properly take care of a dog without a car to drive it to the vet and such?". I'm not irresponsible - I've figured this all out.

I've been wanting to get a dog for such a long time now - but I had been restraining myself because I knew I would not be able to provide for it financially and time-wise and that my housing situation was probably not the best for a dog (high-rise apartments). But now I finally can.

Even though I'm not done my degree yet (one more semester next fall!), I have a steady well-paying job and we're finally moving to a townhouse downtown next month. Being downtown, Abby's vet and groomer (for her nails - I ain't cutting 'em!) will be within walking distance. If ever she needs emergency vet care, there are "pet taxis" in the city or I have an aunt and an uncle who are dog lovers in the area that I'm sure would get up in the middle of the night with me to save a little doggie! They will also be great for babysitting Abby if/when we want to go away for the weekend.

With Chris and I both still being in school for about the first year of Abby's life - we'll be home a lot more with her during the day than if we were both working day jobs. So I really think this is one of the best times for me puppy-wise.

Only 24 more days until I get my precious puppy!

This weekend I sewed a cover for Abby's bed. I found this insanely cute fabric at Fabricland. The sewing is a little shoddy - I did my best because I didn't have a pattern. It's not like Abby's going to know or anything so who cares!

Here it is:

Here's the bed with the fleece blanket I got for Abby at Ikea on Friday:

The blanket will be mostly for cuddling with her and to put under her when she lies on furniture.

I also found feeding bowls like wanted for her this weekend - but I need to paint them. I only found them in blue and... well... that just won't do. I'll post pictures once I paint them red.

38 days old Abby

2006-03-17T21:04:00.000-08:00

Yay! New pictures of lazy Abby (her breeders have given her that name, well the "lazy" part)!

I got a really nice pink fleece blanket at Ikea for her tonight too.
:-)

I get her in 26 days!!

No new pictures yet.

2006-03-12T21:47:00.000-08:00

Well I'll be getting Abby in less than a month now, I'm so freaking excited!

Since I haven't received pictures of Abby in almost 2 weeks, here are some pictures of some of the things I've gotten for her over the last few weeks:

I finally found a bed - I'm really picky. I found it at Petcetera - it was my first time there, I found they had really nice things. I'm not too keen on the leopard print, I mainly got it because it's the perfect size and... it was only $15! I think I'm going to buy fabric and make a cover for it - that way it'll be easier to clean and last longer. I can also make it match my red kitchen/dining room (that's where most of Abby's things will be).

Here's a funny mouse toy I got at Wal*Mart a few weeks ago. It has a squeaker in the body and one in the tail.

Here's a toy I just had to buy - too funny!

Here Abby's KONG and a bottle of special peanut-butter flavoured KONG stuff'n I got at Petcetera. I've heard nothing but great things about KONGs, hopefully she'll like hers.

GREATEST THING EVER! A hand pooper scooper that permits the user to not touch the poo with their hands through the bag. This was definitely my best find.

And last but not least - some tiny puppy chew bones. Every dog I've ever owned loved these.

That's all for now. Hopefully I'll have new pictures soon.
Maybe of her walking? ^_^

More pictures - 20 days old.

2006-02-27T17:21:00.000-08:00

Abby turned 20 today! 20 days old that is.

We got 4 pictures from the breeders - here they are:

In that last pic she's obviously the one that's spread eagle and sticking her tongue out!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE that she already sticks out her tongue, she's the cutest!

More things for Abby.

2006-02-26T09:24:00.000-08:00

We bought this book for Abby while at Chapters on Friday night:

It's really neat, I can't wait to bake her some doggy bones :)

We also got her some thing from Wal*Mart. As much as I hate that place, they have pretty decent prices on pet supplies, so I might have to resort to shopping there more often.

We got a Kong chew toy:

We also got her a rubber brush for short-haired dogs, a funny looking mouse squeeky toy and some beef jerky treats.

New pictures! 15 days old.

2006-02-22T18:36:00.001-08:00

I received new pictures from the breeders tonight. They've been really great - giving us updates with pictures every week.

I can't believe how big she's getting - and cute also! :)

Look who can look, hehe

2006-02-17T15:32:00.000-08:00

Abby opened her eyes! She's 10 days old today.

The lady says that she moves so much - that's why the picture's so blurry.
Hehehehe.

She looks so pretty, I'm excited!!
<3 <3 <3

Pictures of the litter

2006-02-12T23:03:00.000-08:00

New pictures of the puppies!

I think she's the predominant fawn-coloured one in this picture:

I have no clue which one she is here:

I hope she won't miss them too much when she comes to live with us :/
I'll have to give her lots of lovin' and keep her really busy so that she doesn't get too depressed!

Shopping for puppy!

2006-02-11T13:36:00.000-08:00

We went out last night and Chris got me some things for Abby at PetSmart as my Valentine's day present.

Here's Abby's first collar:

Here is the matching leash we got her:

And here is her first toy - a fuzzy pink squeeky ball!

Hope she likes them!

Here's Abby!

2006-02-10T08:28:00.000-08:00

This is my new baby Abby's new blog.

Abby was born this week, Tuesday February 7th.

Here she is with her mommy the day she was born:

And here she is at two days old:

The breeders say that her eyes will only open after 7 or 8 days. Her nose is pink but it will get darker in the next weeks. Her fur is also darker than it will be when she's older. She'll probably look something like her mom does in the first picture.

Yay!