Tag Archives: pets

Merry Christmas Greetings from Me and Ming Ming!

Wishing all of you many blessings this holiday season and the year to come! May your year be filled with happiness, health and peace even through the challenges life brings us all. My wish for you is that you grow day to day and are showered with abundance and gratitude! Ming Ming is excited to have everyone chilling out more, because it means there are more laps to sit in, plus she loves the holiday bling! 🙂

merry-christmas

Warmly,

Sam and Ming Ming

Ming Gets Ready for Santa

Ming loves holidays! This year marks her fourth Christmas! On her first Christmas she was the gift that arrived under the tree, and the holidays without her would be like Christmas without cookies.

Ming gets ready

Although she is not a fan of dog sweaters like her little sister Lily (who loves them), she doesn’t mind a loose T-shirt.

I completely understand the power of comfortable cotton over a bulky, hot and possibly itchy sweater. She also has a double coat, as all fawn pugs do. So, when she does wear a extra coat of clothing, it is to go outdoors for a walk in brisk weather, or to please a human family member, who wants her to look “nice”. 🙂

Elf in Training

There is one blaring signal she wants it off. If you try out a new fashion accessory on her and she is displeased with it, she will promptly go to a corner and sit, refusing to budge, until the offending object is removed restoring her to her original good humor.

Nonetheless, she is a good spirit when it comes to Christmas. I am sure if she had the opportunity to be an Elf in Training she would embrace it with enthusiasm. There would be all those bright colorful toys, soft stuffed objects, and other gifts in the making to feast her eyes upon, and maybe chew, roll or lay on when Santa wasn’t looking.

But seriously, how can I tell Ming loves the holidays other than having more opportunities to bark at delivery people? She loves the excitement of the bustling home, kitchen smells, and extra company. It gives her more opportunities for scratches, hugs, tricks, conversation, and treats, and what self-respecting pug wouldn’t love that?

 

Ming Ming Looks Out…..

Ming Ming Looks Over the Horizon

Ming Ming Looks Out

Ming adores cool weather. She was with us in Northern Michigan this Summer enjoying all of nature’s pure beauty and the fresh, crisp air.  She likes to take a dip in the lake, and this year especially she drank an abundance of clean, clear water from the lakes and rivers. I often wonder what she is thinking as she gazes off into the distance like this. Here she is looking over Lake Charlevoix on a beautiful evening after a swim.

I imagine she is thinking, “Summer is coming to an end, and we will soon be going home. I will really miss being outdoors so much during the day. The ducks, loons, geese, swans and little minks are wonderful to watch, even though I cannot catch them.  The fresh smell of water and an abundance of extra oxygen in my nose gives me so much energy”.

Enjoy your Labor Day Weekend!

Sandra

Ming Hibernates

Ming Hibernates

Ming Hibernates

I know dogs technically don’t hibernate, and people don’t either, but sometimes we kinda do.  With the shorter days of winter and colder weather here on the East Coast, Ming sleeps a lot more. She likes to find a patch of sunlight coming in through a window and camp out in the sunshine. Maybe she innately knows she needs her Vitamin D. She has a favorite blanket also. It is this red one. It came with her as a puppy. Did I mention she was a Christmas gift from my husband Doug? She is the first pet gift I had ever received. I can’t imagine not having Ming Ming, she has become such an important part of our family.

Ming does quite a few tricks now, but never if you don’t have a treat in your hand. She will sit, shake, lie down, roll over and dance! Often, this is in succession in a wild frenetic attempt to obtain her treat. You have to see her dance! I have tried to fool her into thinking I have a treat in my hand and get her to do tricks, but she is too smart, I can’t fool her. You see, the way to Ming’s heart is through food, although she also enjoys a good scratch and a warm lap to sit in. That is not the way with all dogs, or pugs, even though they are known to be gluts. Our black pug, Lily, responds to praise and body contact. She will press against you tightly and close her eyes in ecstasy, no food involved. But for Ming, it is food. That is her love language.

So Ming continues to enjoy a relaxing winter, with a daily walk outside, good food to eat, good company, a patch of sunshine, and her blanket. Spring will be here soon. We will Spring ahead in a few weeks, and she will come out of her hibernation mode.

Ming Turns Three!

Time has flown by with Ming. She is my first small dog, and she is more wonderful than I could have imagined. We have had all sizes of dogs in our immediate and extended families, and each one is so individual in their personalities, likes and dislikes. My daughter had a teacher once who told the class “dogs do not have emotions”. I don’t know the basis of her statement, but she couldn’t be more wrong.

Ming Turn Three!

Ming Turns Three!

Some of the emotions and feelings of dogs I know are , Lucy a black lab, who is afraid of thunderstorms, she also smiles and talks at her favorite people. Leila, a golden retriever, who gets upset when left alone and gives the cold shoulder upon her owner’s return, and Lily, the black pug at the left. Ming’s sister. Lily is jealous in this photo because Ming is getting extra attention on her birthday. Lily gets to share the strawberries and dog presents too, but she can’t help being jealous a lot, which also makes her bossy of Ming. Ming tolerates Lily’s jealousy most of the time, because she loves Lily and is also confident in her place in the family. Lily was five months old when she became part of our family and had lacked attention the first five months, spending most of her time in a cage. She is a lovely, tail wagging girl who presses her body against you because she craves physical contact.

Baby Ming

Baby Ming

Here is Ming when she was a bitty baby pug that fit in the palm of my hand. She was a Christmas gift from my husband. He came into the house with her tucked into his coat two days before Christmas, and said, “reach inside my coat for a surprise”. She was a fluffy warm ball of fur.

Happy Birthday Ming, Ming. You have brought me three years of joy, extra love, cuddles and laughter!

 

 

Ming is Almost Pure Angel!

She really is!  I have always loved dogs.  All that unconditional love they are so good at lavishing on humans.  Ming was a Christmas gift two years ago.  She was a tiny, fluffy, little butterball that fit in the palm of my hand.  She is the first dog that was mine, and I am her person. I have never been a dog’s person before.  We have had dogs in our family, but Ming, Ming adores Me.  She follows me around the house, and in the evening when people are lounging around, it is my lap she seeks.  I love her snortle breathing, her cute wrinkly face, her antics, and her love of food.  Since finding this cute little collar tag this summer, whenever Ming, Ming is less than angelic, my family comments, “I guess her one percent is coming out!”  I feel so lucky to be Ming’s person and that she is a part of my life. She really is an angel, even when she isn’t!

Angel Pug - Almost 100%

Angel Pug – Almost 100%

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