Olympic Mania!

Hi Every puggy,
First off Mum says we won't change the Valentine background until the Olympics is over. She says cuz it is red and white our Flag colours! Oh Mum!)

Well today was the days! I went into Vancouver to see the Olympic stuff.

Mum gots me up early, she had a bit of trouble getting me outta bed!

Once I was up we got in the car and drove into the city. We found parking in an area called "Gastown". We walked around the city checking things out.

The first stop was the steam clock in Gastown. This is a very popular tourist attraction so Mum had to have me pose in front of the clock.

We then walked down to the Olympic Cauldron. Mum keeps calling it the "torch"!

Here is me with my flag. I am a proud Canadian Pug!

Looks at the cauldron! There it is!

Here is Mum and me in front of the fence.

One thing I should tell you is that I sure draw a crowd. So many people wanted to takes my picture! They thought I was cutes. We decided I had to leave the cauldron area as I was drawing too much attention that a crowd was blocking the viewing area!!! Here I am in the crowd.

We then headed up to Robson Square and the Art Gallery area where some of the venues were being held. There is a zip line there and large TV screens and an ice rink.

Here I am on the street heading up to the square.

We stopped at the Art Gallery for some photos and to see the Official Count Down Clock.

The Art Gallery

Me on the steps of the Gallery.

The Count Down Clock. It is now counting down til the start of the Paralympics.

Then we went around the corner to Robson Square

Here is the zip line that you can ride for free if you want to stand in the 7 hour line up!!!

Mum thought these steps were cool!

Me and Dad waiting in the Square (waiting for Mum - bathroom!)

close up of me!

Mum liked this too! A building downtown.

We then walked down Granville Street which was closed to traffic. This is the major street downtown and has lots of shops on it.

Me on Granville St.

(this was taken just before we met Anna Olsen the lady with the cooking show on TV,

her husband tooks a picture of me. They used to have pugs too.)

Mum liked this sign! Whatever!

Here are some shots Mum tooks of the waterfront near the cauldron.

Looks to the left of the picture just beside the building.... you can just see the Olympic Rings that are situated out on the water.

I was so tired for the excitement of all the attention I gots that I was ready to go home after 2 hours.

Mum took this just before I gots back into the car.

Here I am in the car on the way home.

Now I am just hanging at home relaxing and thinking of Tuni!

I am exhausted but I had so much funs!

A Birthday, Olympics coverage and the Medical problem solved!

Hello every puggy! I have lots to cover todays so it is a long posts!

Today I needs to tell you about Dickens. Yesterday was his birthday. He turned 8. I nows tell him he is a member of the "8 ball club" BOL. We had great birthday celebrations.

It started with a walk at Deer Lake with our Burnaby Pug Group. Of course I am growly mad at Mum as she was too, and I mean way too over excited, about the 2 little 3 month old pug puppies that came out (brother and sister) that Mum forgot to take pictures of us on our walkies! PFT, add a puppy to the group and Mum looses her focus! We do however have pictures of the party that happened afterwards.

(Penny, you will be happy to hear we had our party at Starbucks! I had whip creams!)

Here are the pictures! Oh yeah and I had to explain to Dickens why Sequoia wasn't there! He didn't realize that Tuni and Sequoia lives so far aways.

Here it is.... the liver birthday cake!

Dickens making a wish.... probably wishing for Sequoia!

Me having my cake.... yummy!

Looks at my tongue sticking outs.... kinda like Tuni!

Dickens having his cake

Ah the after meal sleepiness! Here I am sitting with Dickens' Mum, she is wonderful I likes her lots

Ok so on to some olympic stats.

Every Puggy must check out Steve and Kat and Wilbur. They have their Olympic competitions going on, you should vote! They also came up to Vancouver to check out the Olympics. They posted pics on their blog.

So far Canada has 8 medals! 4 Golds, 3 Silvers and 1 Bronze. Yeahs!

And Mum and I mailed out the Olympic postcards (again Mum was too excited and forgot to take pictures of me mailing thems)

I have decided that the Winter Olympics just isn't for me, too colds and I don't like ice. I have decided to take up a sport in the Summer Olympics. Here I am practicing for the short distance dash!

Ok mum now you can have your turns! PFT she is a nag sometimes!

The medical issue resolved! Interdigital furuncles.

Thank you for all your comments in regards to this, we found them helpful. After some persistent searching on the internet that was triggered based on what Gen and the Foo suggested we found out what it is. I have attached links to a couple of sites. I am certain now this problem is caused from excessive digging and will have to watch him when he goes over board with his digging.

Merrick Vet Manual website

Frogdog Blog

Ok Mum are you dones, and I don't goes overboard with digging! How embarrassing is this!

Well I just want to add .... happy Sunday Tuni, my luvs!

Thanks for stopping by every puggy!

Some Medical Help?

I interrupt Winston's Olympic posts to ask a question of all Pug owners out there. Take a look at these photos of Winston's paws.

He gets what I call these "flare ups" between his toes on the top area. It starts with him limping then a blister bulge appears and after a few days the blisters weep and bleed a little. He licks them, and licks them then they burst and disappear. 

He has been getting this occasionally for some years now. We took him to a Vet who just wrapped it up and monitored it but we got no real answer to it. He hasn't had one for a while but just the other day we developed two. One on each paw. This happens only on the front paws and never on the back. 

Things I have noticed is he does not like to walk on gravel surfaces at all at any time. With or without these "flare ups". He does dig in sand and on grass but I am not sure this is what is causing this. He has no known food allergies and there is no real incident or action that is consistent when these occur.

Has anyone else seen or heard of this???

Help!

Ok.... what is going on behind my fence?

Hi Every Puggy,

Well we went out to investigates what all the noise was behind my yard. It isn't anything excitings really. You see I lives right behind this campus..... BC Institute of Technology. (This is the front of the Institute.)

They have a huge parking lot and this parking lot is across the street from my yard. About a month agos I was out in the yard doing this.... chewing on my little tennis ball when I heard lots of banging and peoples across the street.

Mum tooks a picture from the yard.

Through the trees you can see the parking lot and some kind of building, a log house being built.

Well late in the nights a week later, we gotten woken up from talking and cars as people were out there doing something. Mum said it was directing car traffic training. I barked and barked but they did not stops. It was 3am and Mum was a little upset about the noise.

Mum discovered that the parking lot is being used as a transportation hub for busing people to Whistler for the Olympics. Cars are not allowed to drive into Whistler as this area is very smalls for all those cars. If you want to takes a car you need a special permit. There are lots of people in the parking lot now that the Olympics have started.

The other morning I went over to the campus for my usual walkies on the trail there and we ran into trouble at one of the exits to the trail!

Here is me approaching the end of the trail. We did the short trail this day as Mum needed to get home for her coffee. When I gots to the exit I couldn't goes anywhere!

See.... this was blocking my exit!!! I was super upsets about this.

Mum said not to worry we would just turn around and walk back the way we came. Here are some pictures from the trail.

I usually likes to stop here and get a drink on hot days. It is nice cool running water.

Here is the duck pond. Mum likes to stop and watch them in the spring when the ducklings are just hatched. I really am not interested but I always wait patiently for her while she looks at the ducks.

Here I am waiting patiently. See the parking lot in the background. It was starting to fill up with tourists. I don't know if you can see that person standing in the parking lot but she was super nice. She came running up to me very excited to see me. She said she luved pugs and wants to get one some day. Of course I was a true gentle pug and let her pets me forever. Mum had to apologize for my sheddings though! BOL.

Here is the log house that was built. It is an information booth for tourists waiting to load the buses.

I have to be super careful walking over here for the next little while until the Olympics ends. Lots of peoples, cars and buses. Here I ams heading across the street back to my house.

And one last picture of me on the trail!

I luvs this trail it is nice and quiet and a good place to place "chuck-it" ball.

Now on another subject, Mum is mailing outs the Olympic Post Cards tomorrow. We wrote them last nights! We just need stamps. And this morning Mum went into Vancouver to check out the venues for the Olympics. She is going to take me downtown to see the Olympic Flame. She left early this morning to beat the rush of people. I was doing this when she lefts.

Now this last part is for my Tuni. Looks on the table above me.... see it? I gots your picture and Mum framed it for me. We will post on our Valentine Cards a little later. I luvs my picture! Thank you Tuni.