Spring 2010… An update on Panda!

In the year since my last post, we and Panda have experienced lots and lots of excitement and changes.  I’ve neglected to update our little puggy’s blog, so here’s an update!  Eric & I have been quite busy with home ownership and improvement, my now thriving business, and life as usual.

So here are some of the images we’ve captured of our adorable little puglet over the past twelve and a half months!  Enjoy!

Here is a photo of Panda hanging out with me while as I shoveled our driveway in March of 2009. 

Here’s Eric holding the little puglet up to our freshly painted living room walls.  We chose a neutral color scheme to match our little pug.  Well, not really…but it’s nice that she matches anyway!

In the early summer 2009, I did a food photo shoot for a neighbor.  We photographed some of the amazingly yummy flan that she bakes regularly.  Panda thought it looked pretty yummy, too!  It’s too bad that flan isn’t for puggies.

The following are a few action shots of Panda and her sister Fifi playing in one of the first snowfalls of 2009.  They really enjoyed the snowy backyard together!

Here are Panda, Fifi, and Maddie peeking outside while we hosted 2009 Thanksgiving dinner at our home.

Panda’s “Auntie” Mariah loves her (and Fifi!) very much!

2009 Christmas time!  We got Panda & Fifi adorable little matching t-shirts:

They really didn’t want to pose for a family photo together…

Here’s Panda and her cousin Spunky…waiting for crumbs to fall from the counter!

As we sat down to exchange gifts, Panda made herself comfy next to her daddy.

Sadly, this past March we had to bring the adorable french bulldog, Fifi, to my parents’ house in Wauksha to live there with her “cousins” Spunky & Maddie.  Eric’s allergies were too sensitive to Fifi for us to keep her in our family.  Panda and Fifi are able to visit together regularly, and Fifi is enjoying a spoiled & luxurious lifestyle in Waukesha!  Here she is visiting for Easter!

Panda just adores the sunshine.  Here she is supervising some yardwork on one of the first beautiful spring days of 2010!

When I get new camera equipment, Panda is always my little test subject.  She had to endure this impromptu shoot when I received my new Canon 7D and 50mm 1.2 lens!

So, everyone, there you go…  A very brief update on the last year in Panda the Pug’s comfortable life in Fitchburg, Wisconsin.  I will do my best to update a little more often as 2010 progresses!

Panda and her New Sister, FiFi!

Last month, we brough home our new little family member, FiFi the French Bulldog!  It took a little adjustment, but Fifi is now very housebroken and has taken the position of Panda’s new best friend.  These little buddies love hanging out together in their fluffy bed in our computer room, bounding around their new backyard together, and trying to beat one another to whtever scrap of food is in available.    Not much time to post, but here are a few pics!

Coming Soon!

Lots of new developments have occurred in our little Panda’s life, in the form of a NEW HOME!

That is right, we have taken advantage of the great market and purchased our first house.  Our new house, located in Fitchburg, WI, has a great big yard with lots of gardens for Panda to explore, as well as neighbor doggies and a cozy fireplace to curl up in front of.  She is still afraid of the big staircase and won’t go up or down it by herself, but I think she will eventually get used to it just like she got used to the shorter flights of stairs in our current apartment.

Panda spent this past weekend a little confused about why we spent so much time on ladders smearing weird colored stuff on the walls of this empty, box-like place that was far from her food dishes and the familiar smells of home.  She’ll get it soon enough!  I’m sure it was a very boring weekend for her without TV-dogs or apartment parking lot traffic to bark at.

Another development in Panda’s life that is coming soon is a new sister or brother!  Of the canine persuasion, of course.  No, we are not about to have babies- the pitter patter of little paws is enough for us for now.  And it is quite the pitter patter on the new laminate floors!  We have decided that without the restrictions of the apartment lease, it is time to expand our family to a new little pup.  We are currently considering an adorable little French bulldog about an hour outside of town.  We’ll be sure to update when a decision is made and a furry little bundle is brought home. 

We’ll post pictures soon!  For now, we haven’t spent much time at all in front of our computers.

Thanks for checking in on the little puglet!

Should puggies eat apples?

I turned around to see what all the noise was tonight and here was my hubby feeding my puggy the remainders of his apple.  Now I know dogs aren’t supposed to eat grapes…but are apples OK?  I’ll have to look it up, because she was enjoying it so much I just couldn’t stop her from enjoying her treat!

Playing in the snow…

Well, Wisconsin is covered in snow as is appropriate for December.  Last night Panda did the cutest thing!  Her front paws got a little cold as she was standing in front of the snow-blanketed lawn trying to decide whether to bound into the great white abyss, so she picked up her front paws and balanced back on her hind legs like a little kangaroo!  It was so cute, but of course it was a sign of too much cold, so we brought our little kangaroo into the house and warmed her up.  Too bad it would be cruel to try and get her to reenact it!  But enjoy the cute, panda-friendly pictures below instead.

Panda Sits Pretty in Our New Bed

Well, we finally got around to giving ourselves a grown-up bedroom, and we picked out this bedspread set that I just love.  I was so excited to get everything in order that I plopped the little pug down in the middle of the bed and she bashfully let me capture a few cute shots of her in her favorite place- where she sleeps right between her two favorite humans.

She’s still just adorable!

Panda loves her peanut butter bone…

Every once in a while, Eric has found that our little pug just loves to lick a dollop of peanut butter out of her old bone.  We find this much less disgusting than what naturally comes inside the bone…so it works for us.    Today I took some photos while she enjoyed away.  She’s been camera shy lately, so it’s been harder and harder to get fun photos of her.  Since she was occupied with yumminess, though, she let me snap away.

Panda plays in the snow…

On Friday night we had a teeeny tiiiny bit of snowfall that stuck to the ground for at least a couple hours.  My good friend Charlie was visiting and we went out to take some pictures.  The little pug tagged along, sniffing at the ground happily.  I got a couple fun shots of her, and I love the shot that Charlie took of me carrying her like a little baby.  Her ears flop backwards and she snorts and she’s just happy as can be!

Attack of the Walleye!

I’ve been waiting and saving to buy a fish eye lens for my camera for a long time now- and tonight I finally splurged!  A friend of mine totally cracked me up once when he asked (trying to remember what the lens I wanted was called, I think) if I was going to get “one of those walleye lenses?”  So I have to name this lens the Walleye.  Panda is normally a very sweet model, but tonight…she was a little afraid of the new toy. 

Panda’s Honeymoon Adventures

While I’m sure Panda would have loved the Hawaii experience, we had to leave the little peanut home while we enjoyed our much-deserved honeymoon on Oahu.  My mom (I won’t refer to her as Panda’s “Gramma,” she doesn’t like that!) took care of our little girl while we were away.  She had lots of fun playing with her doggy family members.  Maddy is my mom’s chihuahua-jack russel mix, and Spunky is the karan terrier.  They sure loved the company!

While I’m sure Panda had lots of fun being spoiled by Mom and Auntie Terri, she was certainly happy to be home with us again.

Mom took lots of pictures to share!  Enjoy!

* She is way too cute.

** I know puggies should not have rawhide chewies, but now I need to inform my mother as well…

*** No, Panda did not actually drink any MGD on her vacation with Mom.