Also how appropriate for today with Hurricane Earl sweeping in.....

I f*cking LOVE the power of this song. Especially the opening and the refrain.

and I love how Scorsese used it in the Departed.

Happy long holiday weekend!!

You can probably guess where I stand on the issue.

Happy little deltoids are standing tall, much to my surprise!

How exciting that all the hard work I've been doing for the past 2 months is finally starting to show, and baby biceps are beginning to emerge.

I am also loving my home gym, not only the convenience of it but the fact that I am saving $80 a month that I was paying in my old gym membership fees. *Giddy*. Now I can put that $80 towards Plummy expenses AND she gets to plop herself down and watch me work out. Some personal trainer she is....yawning and pouting at me from the floor.....and we won't get into the time she peed on my yoga mat.

Before I always worked lower weight and did higher reps but now I am doing the opposite - working heavier weights and lower reps. I also used to rush through my bicep curls, tricep extensions, and chest presses.... but now I have learned to take my time and do each one carefully and slowly... so there is almost an exaggerated burn you feel. It's made all the difference in toning.

So ladies don't be afraid to increase your weight, it won't make you bulk up and look bigger....that is just an urban myth. Lift as much as you can to feel the burn for as long as you can. Be consistent and you'll see results. That is the formula.

It's a little accomplishment in my world but it serves as big motivation. Now seeing even the smallest definition makes me wonder with persistent effort, what else I can make my body do?

If you have posted a comment recently and didn't see it appear it is most likely because it got lost in the minutia of crap I had to sift through from my inbox, MT account, and server and got accidentally deleted.

I had to do something so I decided to implement a spam blocker called Captcha.

How it affects you: Now when you go to post a comment on my blog you have to type in some letters that you will see at the bottom of the comment form [I'm sure you've seen this before] or your comment won't go through.. It helps keep the bulk of automated / robot spammers away.

It's a little bit of a pain but it was either this or shut the blog down.

Take THAT, you dirty rotten spammers!!!

After a full year of trying to rehabilitate I now believe from so many years of neglect in her past that her poor little insides have just suffered too much damage for her to ever be 100% right. It's all about day by day with her and managing each condition as best we can.

Still - she is awake and alive and she wants to love and be loved. She wants to fill that sad place in my heart with cuddles and snorts and a soft furry body under the covers - and I in turn want nothing more than to give her the best remainder of life that she can have.

Our dynamic is totally different than the one I had with Pugsley. We have a different kind of bond. I am her rescuer and she is my poor little old gal who I'd do anything to help. I have no idea what happened to her for the first 10 years of her life or what she was like as a puppy. Sometimes I catch her in a rare spunky mood and I can see a little glimpse into how precious she must have been as a once healthy young puglet.

On the anniversary of Sausage's passing (sometimes life can be ironic and cruel all at once) I found out Plummy may be in early stage kidney failure. I don't know yet for sure because she is currently battling a UTI w/ blood in urine so the kidney testing has been put on hold until the infection clears, otherwise results would be skewed.

We will do what we can to keep her happy and comfortable and not compromise the quality of her life. I feel that she has suffered enough. I am looking into holistic treatment, nothing toxic or unnatural. The poor old gal has fought long and hard and I still believe she isn't done fighting. What amazes me most about Plummy is for how fragile she seems, she always surprises me by becoming this strong little warrior princess. In retrospect I suppose I should have named her Xena.

Curly Tail Pug Rescue just launched a new program called "Forever Fosters". These are dogs that are deemed unadoptable or simply have too many issues to be adopted out and so they are placed in permanent foster care. This enables Curly Tail to provide veterinary care for these dogs and the foster families provide the love and home.

I have received emails from some of you asking how you could make a donation to help with Plum's care. I'm happy to report that her Chip In has been activated.

Here is a breakdown of her monthly supplies (does not include vet care) any money collected via Plum's chip in will go directly here:
Homecooked Diet: 10 lbs of chicken every two weeks: $30/ x 2 /month = $60
Organic baby food + Bone Meal: $30
Seventh Generation hypoallergenic wipes: $10
Benadryl = $15
Medicated shampoos: Oxydex (anti bacterial), Malesab (antifungal), Resicourt (anti inflammatory): $50
Urine testing: - once per month $52
Natural supplements: Quercetin for allergies, Uromax for UTI: $20
Antibiotic / Probiotic: 1 month supply: $85
Wee pads: $20

Plummy has been added as a Curly Tail Forever Foster, you can check out the page here.The Forever Foster program allows you to help support Plum and other pugs like her. Thank you so much for your support!

Curly Tail has assigned volunteers whose job it is to wade through the pages of Craigslist in our area, trying to save as many pugs like these, as we can.

---

Late on Friday night Curly Tail received a frantic email from a woman who had just purchased two Pugs off of Craigslist. As she put it, she and her family had been "taken on a very expensive ride."

They replied to an ad stating that the owner of two Pugs had no place to live and needed to find a place for her two pugs immediately or else she was going to leave them behind. The well intentioned purchaser received very misleading photos of Mugsy and Carly. The Craigslist seller met her family with Carly and Mugsy in a parking lot. It was explained to us that "once she (the seller) got our money, she jumped in her car and took off."

The distraught email we received said this pair had to be moved immediately because the new owner could clearly see they were in desperate need for major medical care and this was not what she was expecting. She was hoping to purchase 2 healthy pugs and was in for the shock of her life.
This is a classic example of the dangers of purchasing pets from Craigslist! Ads are misleading and you simply never know whom you are really dealing with!

3 year old Carly is sadly in far worse shape than Mugsy. We are pleased that she does not have mange however, what was described as "sensitive skin" is actually a very serious skin issue. This is the result of long time neglect & horrific living conditions. Carly's skin is literally peeling off with infection. She is covered in open sores & oozing wounds from infection. She has elephant skin covering her ears, stomach and limbs. Her whole body is swelled from inflammation and her ears & eyes are oozing with infection as well.

In addition to Carly's "skin issues" (at the time thought to be mange), both dogs had "crust and green goo" coming out of their eyes and it was suspected that Carly recently had a litter of puppies. Both were infested with fleas and their nails were so long they couldn't walk properly.

For the full story on Carly and Mugsy and to find out how you can help, visit the Curly Tail Pug Rescue website today.

My goal was to have about 17 songs to fill up the CD but the problem is I have only been able to come up with 12.

So I'm hoping my dog loving readers will be able to step in and offer a few suggestions, for the good of the pugs.

The theme of the CD is "Pug Party Rescue Remix" so the songs can't be anything sad or slow or depressing. It Is an adult CD so kiddie songs like "How much is that doggy in the window", etc. won't really work for the format.

We are looking for upbeat songs that are danceable and / or can be rocked out to. The song can be about dogs (or wolves), contain the word dog in it, or better yet if you can hear dogs barking in the song. The song can also just convey the work we do in rescue for the dogs.

Here are the tracks I've chosen so far:

01. I Will Survive - Frank from the Men In Black movie
02. Atomic Dog - George Clinton
03. Who Let the Dogs Out? - Baha Men
04. Woof! There it is! - Shaggy Dog soundtrack
05. Been Caught Stealin' - Jane's Addiction
06. Black Dog - Led Zeppelin
07. Lil' Red Riding Hood - Sam the Sham and the Pharoah's
08. Hound Dog - Elvis Presley
09. Born to be Wild - Steppenwolf
10. Every Dog Has his Day - Shaggy Dog Soundtrack
11. It's a Dog - Shaggy Dog Soundtrack
12. Rescue Me - Fontella Bass

C'mon guys I know I am missing some good ones that just aren't coming up in my iTunes search - I just need 5 or so more if you have any to recommend.

I thank you, and the pugs thank you.

:)

It wasn't all that hard to make the right decision. The Two Step Cherry Pet Stairs was exactly the piece of pet furniture we've been missing here at the pug farm.

Plummy isn't able to jump up on the couch and quite frankly it's a little taxing to have to pick her up all the time, only to have her jump down when she hears a noise then I'll be in the middle of eating or something and I'll have to stop to lift her back up b/c she starts whimpering. I don't know about you but a pug making whimpering noises is not something I can handle.

From the time I ordered my Pet Stairs to the time it was delivered was only a couple of days. The shipping was completely free if I chose ground. And to my pleasant surprise I received an email from their customer service notifying me that they were upgrading my shipping to fed ex priority, AT NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE. This is just one of the ways CSN Stores maintains such a good reputation for top notch customer service. The driver even made sure to leave the box under my carport in case it rained that day and I wasn't home to take it in.

The next pleasant surprise I received was how easy the pet stairs were to assemble. In fact I did it all myself without any help from the menfolk in my life. I felt very proud following the step by step instructions. Each piece of wood was lettered so you knew which piece to connect where, and there was no tricky hardware to get annoyed with. Just glue and dowels.

A scant 12 hours later after the glue dried, I positioned the stepper onto Plummy's side of the couch and voila...she started using it right away!

Both human and dog are happy at the freedom the pet stairs offer. I no longer have to be interrupted when she wants to come onto the couch and she doesn't have to sit and wait to be lifted. Now Plummy can just come and go as she pleases!

Now if I can just teach her to stop stealing my spot every time I get up...

All things considered: shipping, customer service, the ease of assembly, and attractiveness of the piece, I give it two thumbs up and a pug snort.

If you haven't checked out CSN Stores yet, visit them today. They truly have something for everyone.

We are now offering a nice selection of Curly Tail merchandise including: Baseball caps, T-shirts, Glasses, Mugs, Tote Bags, and more!

Most importantly 100% of the proceeds from the Curly Store cover our product costs & the rest goes directly towards the medical needs of our rescued pugs.

Now you can be styling this fall in some cool Curly Gear ....and help a little puggie out too!

Come check us out!

"Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it."

"I want God to play in my bloodstream the way sunlight amuses itself on the water."

"So I stood up and did a handstand on my Guru's roof, to celebrate the notion of liberation. I felt the dusty tiles under my hands. I felt my own strength and balance. I felt the easy night breeze on the palms of my bare feet. This kind of thing -- a spontaneous handstand--isn't something a disembodied cool blue soul can do, but a human being can do it. We have hands; we can stand on them if we want to. That's our privilege. That's the joy of a mortal body. And that's why God needs us. Because God loves to feel things through our hands. "

"A true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that's holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake. But to live with a soul mate forever. Nah. Too painful. Soul mates, they come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave. And thank God for it."

"There is so much about my fate that I cannot control, but other things do fall under the jurisdiction. I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I can select what I can read and eat and study. I can choose how I'm going to regard unfortunate circumstances in my life-whether I will see them as curses or opportunities. I can choose my words and the tone of voice in which I speak to others. And most of all, I can choose my thoughts."

"As smoking is to the lungs, so is resentment to the soul; even one puff is bad for you."

"People always fall in love with the most perfect aspects of each other's personalities. Who wouldn't? Anybody can love the most wonderful parts of another person. But that's not the clever trick. The really clever trick is this: Can you accept the flaws? Can you look at your partner's faults honestly and say, 'I can work around that. I can make something out of it.'? Because the good stuff is always going to be there, and it's always going to pretty and sparkly, but the crap underneath can ruin you."

"That's the thing about a human life. There's no control group, no way to ever know how any of us would have turned out if any variables had been changed."

"When I get lonely these days, I think: So BE lonely. Learn your way around loneliness. Make a map of it. Sit with it, for once in your life. Welcome to the human experience. But never again use another person's body or emotions as a scratching post for your own unfulfilled yearnings."

"Groceries, you need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select what clothes you're gonna wear every day. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on the mind. That's the only thing you should be trying to control. Drop everything else but that. Because if you can't learn to master your thinking, you're in deep trouble forever."

"There's a crack in everyone...that's how the light of God gets in."

-- Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)

----

Those are some of my favorite passages from the book, Eat. Pray. Love. If you haven't read it yet I recommend you do. I may reread it a 2nd time too, just to remind myself of a few important lessons that I'd lost sight of.

I got a chance to check out the movie this weekend. Of course the watered down Hollywood version was no where near as profound and insightful as the book, but I do think it did the book justice in that it stayed true to the spirit of the story, for what they were able to squeeze in 2 hours. It's worth checking out, in my opinion. Especially if you go see it with your best girlfriends like I did!

Beer and baby food. These were the only two items in my shopping cart.

The checkout girl was looking me up and down like I was some kind of low rent Scallywag.

I could literally feel her passing judgment on me. She was probably imagining me sitting home in a ratty old house-robe spooning pureed peas and carrots into the baby's mouth with my left hand and sucking down a cold Budweiser with my right.

the funny thing is then she carded me for the beer!

I'd never felt so condemned and complimented at the same time.

In her defense I should point out that the Yoga mat is the same color as her wee pads and she is battling some kidney problems right now (always defending the pugs).

Anyway I quickly grabbed the rubber Yoga mat and ran it outside to the garden hose before the ammonia had a chance to seep in...it was on my way to the hose that I stepped on a giant leopard slug and it went squish all over the place, DISGUSTING!! Thank God I was wearing sneakers because if it squished between my toes that would have done me in...

I started noticing the slugs on day 4 of living in the new house. It seems the pug farm is home to this freakishly giant mutant strain of leopard slugs. Up until this point they haven't bothered me all that much. They only come out at night when it has rained and they for the most part keep out of my way and I keep out of theirs.

Then I came home late Saturday night this weekend - of course I had left early in the afternoon and did not leave the outside light on for myself...it was dark when I approached my door so I didn't notice anything out of place.

I went inside and there was Plummy curled up in her cuddle bed which I placed under the breakfast nook in the kitchen, that's where she likes to lay sometimes when I'm not around..

It wasn't until I went inside and flipped the light on to let her out to pee that I noticed.....2 giant slugs suctioned to my glass door like leeches! And slug-slime everywhere..

It had become clear now that the slugs were trying to attack me and exact revenge for killing their leader the other day. So the war is now on. I didn't want to have to hurt the slugs, I wanted to coexist in peace with them...but never in all my years of living in the northeast have I seen slugs climb...like they are trying to get me!! Clearly they have not come in peace.

I am told that leaving out saucers of beer is the best way to get rid of them. Less cruel than dousing them with salt (I don't' need any more bad slug karma). They die happy this way.

I will be picking up a six pack of beer today.....If it doesn't work....I might have to move.

Story developing...

And if so what do you do with them during um, er....relations with your partner?

I mean do you let them sit there and watch? Do you push them to the foot of the bed? Do you make them wait on the floor until you're done?

These are the kind of things that keep me up at night wondering..what is right and what is wrong?

This is awesome and makes me want to give a big SHOUT to all the soldiers out there! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

I thought of you today, but that is nothing new.

I thought about you yesterday, and days before that too.

I think of you in silence, I often speak your name.

All I have are memories, and pictures in a frame.

If tears could build a stairway, and memories a lane,

I would walk right up to Heaven and bring you back again.