OH Frank! What's that you say? You are eager to celebrate Christmas with your new friends Ginger Man and Snow Man?

Actually, these are not new friends, they are, in fact, friends from last year that I thought to pack up; low and behold Frank thought that they were brand new this year. In celebration of Frank's Christmas friends I believe it is time to introduce you to his two very best year round friends. Below you will find a picture of Gentle Pig and a picture of Snack, a tiny fawn pugette, and the love of Frank's life:

Gentle Pig was Frank's first toy and every night before bed, or if he is feeling upset, he carries Gentle Pig around in his mouth. When he finally does lay down he gives Gentle Pig a tongue bath before drifting off to sleep. Frank's dad gets extremely upset when there is a wet dirty pig near us. I can't really blame him. Gentle Pig gets many baths in the washing machine, however because of this his internal oinker was destroyed. Now Frank has a mute gentle pig, which is actually quite nice for us humans in the household.

Snackler lives at the top of the hill on which we live at the bottom, however, as you can see above she is maybe the cutest thing ever and she and Frank really do deserve a separate post on their adventures - it is soon to come.

Oh, a wee bask in the sunshine...

And finally, a parting picture of Frank with some tense lips. I don't know why I find it so fascinating when he intensely watches my food and his lips get tense, but here you have it:

How Delightful

Oh yes, Frank does enjoy the Christmas season. There are usually a lot of people around, which Frank loves, and those same people are frequently eating rather large portions of food which they can't quite finish. Frank likes this even better. Below is the festive scene that greets the evening pedestrians as they stroll by our home:Oh Frank, you are such and intimidating figure all aglow.

One thing that Frank does not enjoy about the Holidays is the cold weather that frequently accompanies them. Occasionally the little guy feels a wee bit of trepidation about heading out for a walk. When this happens I simply say, "Shall we go to the coffee shop," at which point Frank runs and waits by the door, rain or shine. As you may have guessed, the coffee shop features a fine collection of friendly baristas who are very generous with their large tub of doggie biscuits. Mmm. Delicious. Here we see Frank eagerly waiting at what he thinks is the take out window -
it is actually a rather small gap between the counter and the muffins l into which he frequently thrusts his head, which in turn frequently gets stuck. This is where the treats come from, and the way that the pug runs down the hill to get one you would think that not only he was he not fed his breakfast less than an hour ago, but perhaps that he had been starving for the better part of a year.

Frank is very good at being focused when there is food involved.
Also featured in the above photo is another handy tool which has increased Frank's enjoyment of a chilly morning walk. It is his new waterproof down jacket! We love it! A Christmas gift from the beautiful Bianca Cree, who is the cat of Frank's dad's business partner and his lovely wife! But wait, there is more:

That's right! The jacket also features a waterproof hoodie! Now, you may think that a pug would not enjoy a hood, but it is actually quite the opposite in the case of Frank. Where as he would not previously set foot outside in the rain, with the hoodie keeping his head dry he seems doesn't even notice that it is wet out! Thank you Crees!

SNOWDAY!

Is there anything more exciting than a snow day?

Frank and I were enjoying some quality time together this weekend when all of a sudden I noticed that he was quite transfixed looking out the window.
OH my! What could that be?

Even though we live in a place where it rarely, if ever, snows, Frank has actually seen snow before. His grandparents live in Colorado and Frank spent his first Christmas there. It seems he has forgotten. Or maybe he actually never saw the snow since the blind bulgy eye and his cataract had not yet been removed...


The first thing to do, of course, was to examine the snow to see if it was at all tasty.


Hmm. Not so much.


It was then time to suit Frank up and head out to explore.






Why Frank! You are looking rather startled. Frank spent quite a moment being disconcerted
then, once he regained his pugly composure,
immediately headed for the one patch of dry ground in our yard:

Where's Frank?


Fortunately it was at this time that our neighbor came outside with Frank's friend Jake who was SO enthused about the snow that he flopped down and made doggie snow angels all over our yard.







Frank did not join in.













OH Frank, you are such a tough outdoorsy canine!














Hmm, or maybe not.

Sad Thanksgiving News...

Oh, hey. Hey,what's that you have there. Hmm, let me have a closer look...














Yes, let's see, maybe if I could just get my tongue in there I could have a little taste,














mmm... eggnog....

Well, I am sad to report that many of Frank's Thanksgiving pictures are not to be found. This may have to do with the fact that the camera, missing if you will recall for the last week, was in a place with quite a lot of children, so there were many pictures of little feet, but less of Frank. However, some have survived so allow me to present just a few highlights!

This is why Frank was especially pleased over the holiday:

his rule of thumb, the more the merrier. Frank's dad and I are currently in a smallish one bedroom, though it does have a yard that Frank rather enjoys, so the imminent arrival of his aunt required the purchasing of an aerobed. If only the picture of Frank standing on it while it was being inflated was not lost - please use your imagination here -. Frank was delighted to find that there was another bed to which he had access and as a token of his appreciation you can see that he left his new turkey toy (red and yellow tail sticking up) for our guests to enjoy. The turkey was quite slobbery and spent a lot of time gobbling as it seems to have short circuited a bit. Perhaps from the slobber.

Also pleasing to Frank was the addition of a new lap on which to lie down:

Here we see Frank enjoying the lap of Ben as Ben enjoys a glass of our favorite Mcrea wine, provided by Frank's grandfather to ensure that fun was had by all. Nothing pleases Frank more than when everyone is home enjoying some wine with him.

Well, we will make sure that there are more pictures for Christmas.
Oh Frank, you do enjoy a holiday.