With the result of the poll and careful consideration, I have decided to merge Axel's blog to my personal blog. So for latest stories on Axel, please head to my other blog fishdiary resurrection and click the "Axel the pug" label on the side bar.
Hi guys,
As some of you know, I have another personal blog titled "fishdiary resurrection". I find it hard sometimes to maintain 2 blogs.
So I am thinking whether I should "merge" Axel's blog to my personal blog. What this means is that I will stop updating Axel's news in "Axel the Pug" blog but will instead post them in my personal blog. I will still leave "Axel the Pug" as it is.
Do tell me what you think... I have prepared a poll on the side bar. Hope to get your feedback so that I know what I should do.
Thanks
Alex & Axel
The duel begins....
I was going through the pictures I have on my laptop and saw Axel's baby pics. He looked so cute...how nice if he could remain a puppy forever (hehe...don't think I am supposed to say things like that!).
Anyway, here are some of them:
Axel gets his bath and grooming every week.... well, almost every week. ;-) He doesn't like them and everytime he sees me bringing out his bathing "kit", he would run far far away from me. I would have to resort to playing hide and seek to get him into the bathroom. This trick works almost everytime! For those times it didn't, I would chase him down. A pretty good workout for me.
I always start off the bathing ritual with cleaning the fold under his nose with a small towel. Then I would wet him with the shower and apply the shampoo onto his body. He usually would be still throughout the process except sometimes to drink from the shower itself. After shampooing, I would leave him for a while and at this time, he would shake the water and bubbles off his body rigorously onto my whole bathroom and of course, me! Then it's rinsing off time and semi-drying with the big towel.
When I opened the bathroom's door, he would dash out to where I placed my hair dryer and would sit there waiting for me. The drying ritual is usually not easy as he would get impatient and started to struggle. I have to shout at him a few times to get him to settle down.
Then comes the hardest part of the whole process.... nail cutting! Again, he would be running away upon seeing his grooming kit in place.
Nail cutting is really difficult cos I would hold him like a baby, his paw in one hand and the clipper in another. He would be struggling for a while and when he gets tired, he would give in.... and so I thought. His hind legs would still be kicking my hand when I start to clip. Last time, I always drew blood when clipping his nails...but after a while, I am getting more skillful in that. Well...worse come to worse, I have the antiseptic powder ready to stop the bleeding, hehehe.
After the nails, I would clean his ears. Most of the time, he enjoys getting his ears clean. Like us, digging into the ears can be rather pleasurable at times, eh?? The last of the ritual is to trim his whiskers with a small scissors.... and of course, a treat!
So after all are done, I have this sparkling dog which will last for....mm...3 days before he starts to smell again...
I finally got Axel back from his "vacation" yesterday. We always referred him going to Gan's home as a "vacation" cos he gets so much freedom and attention there. He sort of has his own fan base over there. Gan's mom and sister always refer to him as "handsome boy". ;-)
I just read a very sad news from a fellow pug blogger last night. Their pug passed away 2 days ago due to Urinary Tract Infection (UTI). Although I do not know them personally, I have followed their journey together from their blog.
It is such a sad event. As a pet lover myself, I could imagine the kind of pain they are going through. Upon reading their blog, I thought to myself on how I would be if Axel is no longer around ...and a big amount of pain just hit me like a big wave. If that happened to me by just imagining, I am sure Nicejellybean and Coolboy would be experiencing worse and my heart went out to them.
Nicejellybean and Coolboy, if you are reading this...I am very very sorry to hear about Donut. I am sure Donut is in a better place now, and hope that you guys will be able to recover soon.
No no no....it's not the extreme makeover for Axel or for myself. I guess without Axel around, I just got too bored and decided to do an extreme makeover of "Axel the Pug" blog. Hope you guys like this better. I certainly do.....
Gan's mom and sister missed Axel and asked me to bring him over to their place for a week or two. So last weekend I brought him there and left him with them. I will only be collecting him back at the end of this week.
My apartment seems to be so "cold" without him. Usually when I sit on my couch in front of the TV, he would be there lying at my feet. When he got bored lying there, he would go and get his favourite toy (a rubber wheel) and nudge me to play fetch. If I get up to go anywhere, he would without fail tail me around.
It's just not the same when he is away. Feels kinda strange...is this what you call as the "pugless" syndrome?
Recently I checked out this pug blog titled "A day in the life of our Pugs" by Manda Girl. You can find the link in my Favourite Pug Blogs.
There hasn't been any action taken by my apartment's management since they posted a notice forbidding us from keeping pets in our units. Although I still hear dogs barking from other units, the frequency of that is less nowadays. I guess other owners must have either took heed of the notice and relocated their pooches, or they have taught their dogs to quiet down.
Life is as usual for Axel and me. Let the sleeping dogs lie.....
In Malaysia, there is a rule against keeping pets in apartments or condominiums. Some apartments are stricter while some just keep one eye shut. So far, there wasn't any notice issued regarding this from my apartment's management.... until a few days ago. I have always fear this ever since I got Axel. I thought as long as I keep him quiet, it would be okay. Too bad that not all owners realise that. I guess there must be some dogs which made too much noise and caused some neighbours to complain...hence the management had to take such action. My nightmare just came true!!
Recently I came across a National Geographic series titled "Dog Whisperer". This show was about how a dog psychologist, Cesar Millan came to the rescue for dog owners with "unbalanced" pooches. He always used the term "unbalanced" to describe problematic dogs. It was just so incredible seeing how he dealt with all these dogs. As a dog owner, there were lots of advices and tips on how to "balance" your dog too! I searched the net and found his website -> http://www.dogpsychologycenter.com
I remembered one of the advice he gave was to always keep your dog in a relaxed mood. Lets have a look at Axel's relaxing moments:
