Confessions of a Pug's Mom

So, as of like 9 last night, I was gonna write an entry about how very very much I adored Smeagol and how she was so perfect and how people love her. I'll start with that. When people see her, they go mental. When they find out her name is 'Smeagol' they go even mental-er. Etc. Oh boy, I have several threads I want to go with here, so this is gonna be another one of those jumbled, train-of-thought things. I can't seem to write any other way, sorry! Okay, so as an aside - A few weeks ago at a family dinner, I was raving about Smeagol and they asked why she was named that. It hit me that they think that the Lord of the Rings books/movies are 'inappropriate' for Christians, so they had never heard of 'Smeagol'. I tried to describe it, but when you have never seen or read anything in the fantasy genre, its a bit tough. So, I did my best and said 'well, Smeagol was this funny, little...creature, who..." and I was cut off, by my mom, who said 'why do people these days need to read about creatures, instead of people!! Aren't people good enough?!". The rest of the family nodded in agreement. This is what I'm up against.

ANYWAY, so I adore Shmeg, but last night as we were preparing for bed, I went to straighten the covers and found puke on the sheets. So, I stripped them and brought them to the washer, as I was emptying the hamper, I discovered some dried poop in the bottom. I loaded the laundry into the washer, wiped down the hamper with chemicals and then sat down on the couch for a minute, annoyed at having to clean up so many of Shmeg's orifice droppings. She could tell that I was annoyed so she came up and rubbed her head against my arm. When she left, I noticed my arm felt wet, so I looked and there was a trail of ? eye boogers, nose boogers, who knows? I was a full time nanny for a little one from the age of 6 months to like 2 years, and I SWEAR, Smeagol is more work. So, I grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and rubbed her nose in the puke and she was horribly chastised. She slunk (slinked?) around for a while and of course I felt terrible after like 5 minutes cause I'm sure that she was probably ill, otherwise she would have never let loose in the bed, she knows better. So, I felt awful.

But then, this morning I realized something. She loves it when I sing. She follows me around, like a, well, puppy! And when I stop singing, she paws at my lips, its really cute. So, like you do for a child, I tend to sing a lot when we are alone, because it makes her happy. This is, to the best of my recollection, the song that I caught myself singing to her today as I cleaned. (Sung to the tune of Camptown Ladies/Races, whatever its called, doo-dah) "Who's the cutest girl I know? Smeagol, Smeagol. Who's the cutest girl, I know? It's Smeagol (last name). Even when I pick up her poop! Even when I wipe up her puke! Even when she wipes her boogers on my arm, I still love her so-OH!" How much of a problem do I have?

I'll write yet about my trip here, but I don't feel like it now.