Greybeard and Redbeard

As Frank approaches his fifth birthday, he has started to take on more than a grey hair or two...

Oh Frank! What a distinguished older gentleman you have become!
Though Frank does look quite debonair, I would be lying if I said that the appearance of anything aging my handsome pug does less than seize me with panic.

And on the other end of the age spectrum... Bean ate something bad. Bad and plastic. The result being that we climbed into the bathtub and I shot a tablespoon of hydrogen peroxide down his throat in an attempt to bring said plastic thing back up. Or so I thought. Turns out, most of it went under his neck causing a rather trashy red dye job...

Bean. Little Bean. Please stop with the indiscriminate ingestion....

But What Do You MEAN???

I'm not invited?

Oh, such forlornness...

Frank was rather displeased when he saw the suitcase come out without the accompaniment of this travel house. Bean is of course too young to know what this means. Frank's dad and I are off for a week in lake country in Minnesota! To be quite fair, the pugs were in fact invited by the grandparents Herriott, but the resort was not as inviting. Very sad. Who doesn't feel that their vacation would be enhanced by the appearance of one very handsome and one very mischievous pug? Surely I cannot imagine anyone feeling otherwise!

So, this was the scene for about an hour:

Stoic ignoring, with a guilty look thrown in every 5 minutes or so.
Fear not Frank, you and Bean will be well cared for in our absence by the delightful pug sitter, and we will be home before you know it!

Road Trip

Having decided that if we waited to go on an adventure until the sun came out we would never go, the pugs and I loaded up the car in order to go and investigate a new park that we had heard about.

Here we see the pugs happily settled, or so I had hoped, in their rather new, rather expensive car seat (to which their harnesses attach so as to hold them in should an accident occur). Apologies for the glare...

It turns out that they were not settled at all. Here are my views from the drive:

View #1

Bean trying to get out of the car seat into my lap.

View #2

Frank trying to get out of the car seat and into my lap.

Now, if you rotate View #1 and View #2 about 13 times, plus add in some growling, nipping, and whining, you will be able to mentally experience the 30 minute ride to the trail head...

We walked about 5 minutes in, Frank avoiding the puddles, Bean going right through them, until 2 things happened. First, we ran into a notice that an "unidentified male" had been exposing himself along the trail. Second, and sadly, my camera died so that I could not take a picture of the notice. Needless to say, fearsome as my companions were, we turned about.

I would venture to say that Frank was rather disappointed by the whole excursion and spent the rest of the afternoon here...

alternately glaring at me and ignoring me, I believe as a result of forcing upon him the indignity of having to share a car seat for 30 minutes for a paltry 5 minute walk.

Bean was displeased for other reasons...

Oh Bean! Frank will tell you that this is what happens when you don't avoid the puddles! And yes, he did stand like that for the whole bath - perhaps he should audition for Cirque du Soliel! Very fancy indeed! Oh Frank, what a talented and traumatized brother you have!