xiao_nu

Some of you may not know who I am (I can’t imagine WHY, but I think it’s possible.) so here is a brief introduction. I am Xiao Nu Huang. This may look confusing or difficult to say and, indeed, if you were going to be authentically Chinese it has some nuances. It is pronounce “Shou” (like “Shout” without the “t”), “New”, “Wha” (like “what” with out the “t”) As my primary human found out on a couple occasions this year, people who actually ARE Chinese, have several tones for “Nu” and often ask her which one it is. She, of course, speaks NO Chinese and doesn’t know. I have tried several times to tell them with a pug snort, but they never listen. My motto is what I’ve heard Aunt Thea say, “Call me whatever you want, but don’t call me late to dinner.” I seem to have a food theme.

My primary human is “mom” though human folks call her Kimberly. When I go to work with her, she is called “Ms. Medendorp” because she is in her 10th year as a middle school English teacher. She teaches human children to read and catch up in their skills. She also sometimes teaches me to read and thinks I only know the word “b-e-d” at this point. She spells stuff so I don’t know what she’s talking about. (But it’s usually about “t-r-e-a-t-s!”)

There are several stories to tell and I’ll use the pictures on the annual Christmas card to tell some of them. At the end of January, I had my 5th birthday!! It was GREAT. I had 6 other (human) pups over. We played games, had lunch (fire hydrant and bone-shaped jello, cookies, and grilled cheese sandwiches), and then invited over all my adults human friends for a great cake! It was a great time, but there were a lot of serious conversations because our friend Nancy had gotten sick. Nancy was living across the street, so I could see her coming whenever she would come across to say “hi.”

The next three months were FILLED with back to back company, even though they weren’t here to see me, I helped out as much as possible. My primary human and our AMAZING pack (Some folks call them “Urban Village”) took care of arranging meals for Nancy, caring for her family, organizing and running errands. It was great to have my pack because everyone pitched in to help, including taking me for walks. During that time (February), my primary human went with the-other-human-that-lives-with-us, Aunt Bea and Buster-the-cat’s-dad on a bike ride to raise money for The Wellness Community. (Christmas photo on the right) It was called “Breakaway from Cancer” and it was a moving event for all of them. In April, Nancy lost her fight with cancer and the community gathered for a memorial. I wasn’t invited, but I felt the sadness and spend as much lap time with my primary human as there was time for. The background photo of the Christmas picture is one example of how everyone did what they could. Buster-the-cat’s-dad came over to our lawn 5 minutes before we had a more private service to dedicate a TREE (great idea, but not mine) to Nancy. He mowed our lawn in RECORD time because he wanted it to look nice for everyone. The lawnmower drove me NUTS, but it was a nice gesture and the reason my human lives in community.

In June, I helped supervise the group chalk at the annual festival drawing. Most of my favorite humans were there. Cousin John (who calls me “doggie-dog”) actually took me over to supervise the work. It was great. I got there in time to be in all the pictures and help pick up our rewards. A couple years ago, I was the main subject of the drawing, so this year was much easier for me.
This summer, I was on my own a lot. Mom did some teaching and some traveling. She went to see Grandma in MI (photo second from the left) and they went for a day to Lake Michigan. In August, she went to see Molly in New York. She said it was VERY hot, but they did go to dinner at the famous Moosewood restaurant. I had lots of great time and treats with Aunt Bea and Aunt Thea. Aunt Bea calls out time together “fat camp” which means I do a lot of running for my food, but it’s exciting. I don’t understand why it’s a big deal. I’m always more fit and I drop a couple ounces.
Well, happy HOWLIDAYS to all of you. Let me know how you are and I’ll let my human know. I’ll post more when Mom lets me have the laptop again. (I wish she’d just leave it in my kennel!)

So there is this annual event that has GOT to be my new favorite event–it’s called Thanksgiving and the humans call it a howliday. It went on and on in my mind and boy did I need a two-day nap after.

On a Sunday a couple weeks before the howliday, my primary human cooked this HUGE turkey. She said it was for the church Thanksgiving potluck. Boy, did it smell delicious. She and Aunt Thea took all sorts of plates, tablecloths, etc and said they had to set and decorate a table. Guess what they chose for a theme? PUGS!!! Yes, I was the main attraction. There were many who said, “I want to sit at the pug table.” They made sugar cookies in the shape of bones and hydrants and made “puppy chow” for the humans. There were even pug salt and pepper shakers and a picture of me!! How great is that?

The day before the “real” Thanksgiving my human started cooking. She made homemade Chex Mix. got fruit ready, and made 2 big egg casseroles. Thanksgiving morning, she and Aunt Bea went with the-human-that-brings-good-things-to-drink-to-the-firepits on a bike ride. When they came back breakfast was almost cooked, thanks to my-secondary-local-human (she’s getting easier to understand, btw). Then EVERYONE came over for breakfast. Wow!! Most of my favorite people and lots and lots of options to help clean up!! I was pretty content, it had been a great day, but there was still more to come.

After brunch, there was a quick clean up and then the beginnings of more turkey. This time there were 2 turkeys in 2 different ovens. My-secondary-local-human had to go borrow that fire-dude’s oven because we were out of space!! Just after it got dark, we went over to Aunt Bea’s house–HOLY COW–even MORE food. I was going from one human to the next hoping they would be messy. Most of them did pretty good (bummer!), but I did get a couple tasty morsels.

After dinner the younger ones went outside for some sort of tradition–I couldn’t wait to see. It was like gifts from the Big Dog In the Sky, manna from heaven, you get the picture. They had a whipped cream fight, but they just left it ALL on the GROUND!!!! What a waste! Well, I’m not one to look a gift whipped cream can in the mouth–I’m just going to PUT it in my mouth. Every time there was a bit of room (one doesn’t want to get stepped on in some undignified manner) I ran right into the middle and began snacking. When they got to close, I’d retreat until the next safe moment. I tell you, I had doggy dreams about that for days and anytime someone let me out, I’d run down there hoping for more!! (We won’t talk about the doggy “time outs” I got for not listening about staying in my yard.)

I wish ALL howlidays were like that or that we just had Thanksgiving more than once a year!!!