Now, I know what you might be thinking, Caroline, don't you own two pugs?
The answer to that is yes, yes I do.
Now, I'm part of a fair few pug groups and forums, and something I unfortunately see a lot of, is people going out and buying a pug, without doing any kind of research, only to find that they're not actually as easy to care for as you first might think.
*cue dramatic music*
I mean, sure, they have the big pitiful eyes and their squished up little faces seem almost impossible to resist, but, as with every breed of dog, they come with their downfalls, some of which are quite obvious, but others that you might not realise until after you've brought a pug home.
I've put together some pointers that future pug owners should take note of...
1. They shed their fur all year long
Especially fawn pugs. My fawn pug is double coated, which isn't uncommon for fawns, and whilst they might look like little fluff balls, that fluff eventually sheds and it's either all over you or all over your house, so get your lint rollers and vacuums at the ready because trust me... you're going to need them.
2. Acne!
Pugs are one of the only breeds of dog that are prone to acne, but there's a few things you can do to prevent it. Keeping their folds clean will help massively, along with adding coconut oil to their food. Steer clear of aluminium bowls too, as germs and bacteria can build up easily.
3. Think of the future health problems
I've had my fair share of health problems with both of my boys, and so far have maxed out insurance limits and parted with a fair bit of my own money after that. As with any pet, health isn't guaranteed and having the mindset that it'll never happen to you will do you no favours if and when it does, so be prepared and take out insurance!
4. They struggle in the heat
Badly. Really, really badly. Pugs struggle to regulate their own body temperature, and the heat can be anything but kind to them. I always make sure to stick to shady areas and I always take plenty of water for them. Little and often walks, opposed to one long walk, is probably for the best too, and it's important to remember to adjust their care and exercise routines according to the weather!
5. You'll never be alone
From the moment you step foot in your front door, to the moment you head to bed, you will have a furry friend forever attached to you. Remember, you're their human as much as they are your dog!
6. Little body, loud voice
Pugs are renowned for being a bit barky, and my two are no exception. I have to give one of mine the benefit of the doubt; he's usually very quiet until the other starts barking and sets him off too. Mine mainly bark at birds, or whenever there is any sudden movement outside, which again, is not fun (but is equally as funny watching them chase pigeons around the garden - to no success).
7. Potty training
I can't even begin to explain how frustrating potty training pugs is. They are known to be a bit slower on catching on to the idea of peeing outside, so make sure you have a mop and some room spray at the ready at all times. I used puppy pads with both of my boys, but the issue was, they would put their front paws on it, ~think~ they were on it, and pee just outside of it. Again, not the most fun I've ever had. But be persistent and they'll eventually get it, even when you think that day will never come.
8. Fold, folds and more folds
All those wrinkles are heaven on earth for bacteria, so cleaning them out daily is a must. I use either baby wipes or cotton wool and water, but here's the thing - they hate it. And I mean full on I-will-wrestle-you-to-the-death hate. So be prepared for what is the equivalent of fighting with your smaller - but surprisingly tough - sibling whilst trying to not accidentally poke them in they eye.
9. They are extremely greedy dogs
I've tried to teach them not to beg for food right from when they were puppies, and nothing gets through. Nothing. Be prepared to have them hover around you whilst staring into your soul with their pitiful eyes that almost look like you've told them that you don't love them anymore. It's a daily struggle, but pugs can get overweight so quickly, and I have to try to somewhat telepathically tell them that me not giving them the food they so desperately want is for their own benefit.
They are absolutely bonkers, and at times, they will drive you crazy, but if nothing else, you will have a loyal, funny and chaotic little best friend who will always be on hand to cheer you up.
Anyone who knows me, knows I love plants. I started building my houseplant collection about a year or so ago now and I have around 50-ish plants that I'm currently trying my hardest to keep alive.
When myself and my fiancee decided upon a day out at Leeds, which is a little over an hour's drive from where we live, we stumbled upon The Plant Point in the Corn Exchange, which is home to quirky and independent shops.
I was amazed by this place. Where I live, there aren't any dedicated houseplant shops, and typically, I rely on garden centres to buy my houseplants from. Discovering a shop that was dedicated solely to houseplants was an actual dream, and I spent far longer browsing through all the plants than I should have done!
They have pretty much everything there, from the more common houseplants such as spider plants and pothtos, to the more rare, hard-to-find-in-the-north-east plants, such as variegated monstera and all different types of hoyas.
They had a vast selection of cacti and succulents too, if that's your thing.
I wanted to buy so much more than what I did, but carrying them around Leeds all day and getting them home just wasn't an easy option. I settled with a small cacti and a monstera adansonii.
The staff were super helpful and knowledgeable too, and I spoke to one guy fir about 30 minutes just chatting about different houseplants and which ones we've both struggled to keep alive!
I absolutely loved this place, and the next time I'm in Leeds I'm definitely going to pop back in there!
One of books I picked up in that offer was The Wolves Of Winter by Tyrell Johnson; his debut book (and currently his only published book).
The blurb;
"In the wake of nuclear war and the deadly epidemic that followed, Lynn McBride has built a life in the snow-covered Canadian wilderness. Blocking out every memory of the world that came before, she learned to hunt and kill to survive.
But danger is on the horizon. A group of strangers, including the enigmatic Jax, have found her tiny community.
Now, the time has come for Lynn to decide who to trust - and the stakes couldn't be higher. Because, in this cold new world, trusting the wrong person tends to be the last thing you do."
So, as it goes, we follow the story of Gwendolynn - or just simply Lynn - who is originally from Chicago but who fled with her family to small-town Alaska when she was 12 after trying to escape devastating nuclear wars and the deadly Asian flu pandemic.
Four years later, after suspicious men claiming to government disease agents (Immunity) knock on their door, they snuck across the Canadian boarder into the Yukon, where a now 23 year old Lynn and her remaining family live in total isolation and hunt whatever animals they can in order to survive.
Seven years after they cross the Canadian boarder, they come across another human for the first time; Jax and his pet dog, Wolf. Jax brings his own issues with him; after being experimented on as a child by Immunity and escaping their evil grasps, they are now on the hunt for him, as he is not just immune to the Asain flu, but their experiments on him have given him superhuman strengths and abilities... he can run extremely fast and doesn't need as much sleep as the average humans and he is stronger than the other men... he is their ideal fighting weapon.
What Lynn doesn't know, is that her deceased father (a former employee of Immunity) injected her with one of his potions when she was just a child and dying of the Asain flu herself... and not only did it completely heal her, but it gave her the ability of healing other people sick with the flu... something Immunity and Lynn find out when they capture her.
Lynne escapes and rejoins Jax and her family, where they plan to escape and get rid of the Immunity gang that are following her around and trying to track her and Jax down.
So, what did I make of Tyrell Johnson's debut novel?
Well, it's a short book and a lot happens in it, which makes the book fast paced. There's rarely a meh chapter in it, and it certainly doesn't drag out in any sense of the word.
Having said that, this book has been heavily criticised for having an alarming likeness to The Hunger Games; a strong, independent young woman with a bow and arrow in hand, trying to fight back at the realms of an evil government... hello Katniss Everdeen.
To give Johnson credit, he does build up the post-apocalyptic setting very well; stunning visual descriptions that I can only hope to see on the big screen one day.
He also builds Lynn up as a brilliant female protagonist; she is strong and tough, and we see this from the very start with her encounter with Conrad, a burly bloke who lives on his own in their tiny community in the sticks of nowhere. But every hero needs their vulnerabilities, which I think Johnson portrays very well with her curiosity of Jax and the rest of the unknown world that she imagines one day exploring and seeing what it has become whilst she has been tucked away in the white, snow-filled walls of the Yukon.
Now, the bits I didn't overly enjoy too much.
The dialog. It feels too contrived at times, okay in others, and some parts and just downright so bad that it's hilarious. You could argue that the dialog lacks due to the characters being shut off from the world for so long, having no element of social skills for such a prolonged period of time, but overall, the dialog is just a bit naff.
If Johnson were to rewrite The Wolves Of Winter again, the one thing I would hope for, is more character development for Jax. He is a very interesting character in the book with a good, solid backstory, but we don't know enough of him or hear enough about his upbringing. The whole book is based around him stumbling across their little log cabins in the middle of nowhere... yet he is one of the most under-developed characters in the book. He also adds an element of supernatural to the book; something else I don't think we get hear enough of.
If you liked The Hunger Games, you won't hate The Wolves Of Winter. It's a good debut with room for improvement, and hopefully Tyrell Johnson can build on existing characters in future instalments.
Verdict: ★★★
I don't usually have a tonne of books ready and waiting to be read, otherwise I just feel overwhelmed and don't know where to start, so I end up just not reading anything (the IRONY), instead, I like to keep my list short and manageable so that my brain can somewhat not freak out.
Caraval, Legendary and Finale by Stephanie Garber
A trilogy I've been wanting to read for a short while now. I've heard this is beginner level fantasy reading, which is something I've been trying to get into for a while but never found a book that sounded appealing enough to warrant picking it up.
The Choice by Edith Eger
My favourite all time reads are basically anything to do with Auschwitz (my all time favourite being The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris). This is one that I've bean meaning to pick up for a while now but for one reason or another, just haven't gotten around to doing so but it's definitely up there with my top picks.
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
I downloaded this on my Kindle over a year ago and still haven't got around to reading it, so this year, I'm making it a top priority because I have heard RAVE reviews. If I'm honest, I don't necessarily love reading on my Kindle, I'd much rather have a physical copy of a book to hand, so perhaps this is the reason I've put it off for so long.
Still Me by Jojo Moyes
I'm currently reading After You by Jojo Moyes, which is the second book to this trilogy (you may have noticed at this point that I'm partial to a good trilogy). I've got the third book sitting on my shelf waiting to be read, and I can't wait to see how the story and the characters pan out because ~spoiler alert~ I loved the first book but I sadly can't say the same so far for the second so I'm hoping the third book redeems the trilogy.
The Last of the Bowmans by J. Paul Henderson
If you read this post, you'll know that I often pick books up in the 3 for £5 deal at The Works. I picked up this (and the next book on my TBR list for that matter) in that deal. It sounds like an easy read, and I'm hoping it will be a fun and entertaining one because I haven't read something genuinely funny in a long, long time and I'm just READY for a lighthearted read.
The White Road by Sarah Lotz
And finally, the last book on my list, is also the last book I picked up in the 3 for £5 deal. This sounds like an interesting concept and doesn't sound much like anything I've ever read before. I'm not a huge thriller fan if I'm honest, but something about the blurb to this one caught my attention and I couldn't help pick it up seeing as it was so inexpensive (I'm a bit partial to a 'go on then' moment)
The last time I published a blog post, was around February of last year; I was on maternity leave and had a 3 month old baby who slept A LOT, so I had a fair bit of spare time on my hands to keep up with typing up posts and taking photos. Then, as it so happens, one of my tweets went viral and off the back of that, a few trolls (to call them politely) found my Instagram through my blog link that was in my Twitter profile, and starting sending me some rather questionable DM's; some of them were so cringy they were funny, and some of them just down right weird. But then one of them left a comment on a photo of my 3 month old daughter, and I decided it was enough. I set my Instagram profile to private, deleted the tweet, and took my blog offline. And that was pretty much it. I went a bit quiet on social media and kinda just forgot about the blog.
But seeing everyone on Twitter talk about refreshing their blogs and buying new themes has kinda reminded me how much I missed it, so here I am giving it another go. I've blogged on and off for the past 5ish years now; what started as part of a university assignment, soon turned into a hobby and I developed a love for writing that I never really knew I had. Throughout the last 5 years, I kept my blog on the quiet side in terms of real life family and friends and I'm not really too sure why. I guess it's to do with the fact that if you do anything even remotely outside of the norm where I live, you're seen as a bit weird, like as-if-she-has-a-blog kinda weird, does that make sense? I tweeted the other day about how I wanted to start this blog up again, not fully remembering that people I know and work with follow me on Twitter (when does baby brain go away???) and I actually had such an encouraging response from people who told me to just go for it. So you know what I did? I bought a new blog theme, bought a new domain, had a meltdown about how to go about setting said new domain and theme up, and I'm completely starting from scratch again.
I've completely rebranded my blog. Our Little Plant House seemed like a fitting name, because, well, if you saw my house you would just know. Some people might find it super cringy, some people might not "get it", but it doesn't matter. I'm not even too sure what I'm going to be blogging about (lol probably my dogs, my kid and my 60 odd plants), I just know that blogging makes me happy and if anyone doesn't quite get it, that's okay, they don't need to.
Right, I'm off to go and PUBLICLY publish a link to this blog on Twitter. Wish me luck!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Social Icons