p u g . p i c n i c

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When Josh and I first met, we quickly discovered that we had a freakish number of things in common: we share a hometown, have friends in common and both have family pugs. That's my family's guy up there, Charlie. Josh's family has two: Hank, whose tongue perpetually hangs out of his mouth in the most adorable way possible, and Charlotte, a brindled botson terrier-pug mix. There's something enderaring about pugs (mainly their plump little bodies, scrunched up noses and lust for snacks).

Charlie is infamous in my family for his cunning when it comes to food. For example, once he pushed a chair up to the kitchen table, jumped up and ate an entire pizza that had been left unatteded there (although legend has it that he left one perfect slice, sans cheese, untouched). I can personally vouch for his voracious appetite: another time, Charlie dove face first into my bowl of noodles and scarfed down the majority of them with a passionate fury until I yanked him out. Everyone in my family knows to a) never leave food unattended within dog reach and b) never wrap food-based gifts and leave them under the Christmas tree. Although he's getting on in years now, he's practically a puppy, slender and spry and still in love with his munchies. Indeed, Charlie is invincible; he even once ate a box of Jack Daniels chocolates (I know, I know).

Josh's pugs love their treats just as much; they nosh on cheese and steak (lucky pooches). So naturally, when we stumbled upon a little place in Stratford called The Barkery (yes!), Josh and I had to step inside. There were a bunch of excellent cookies for dogs, but we settled on little pseudo hotdogs to take home to the puppies (or jujes, as Josh calls them).

Hank and Char seemed a little underwhelmed by their cookies; Hank carried his over to the couch where he sat beside it scowling, tongue out. Char nibbled away for a while, bringing her hotdog to different locations, chewing and dropping and picking it back up. This all made me laugh; I told Josh that I thought his pugs were broken (pugs not wolfing down food? what?). As predicted, Charlie inhaled his biscuit within seconds and seemed to enjoy it. (I have to admit, I took a taste as well before giving the cookies to the dogs and they were pretty good!).