Puppy mills are no bueno

Didn't know I was a bilingual pug, did ya?

I don't remember much about my life before my human rescued me. She was told that I was probably used as a breeding dog before I was thrown out into the country to fend for myself. Apparently I have the maternal look about me. Just think, there could be dozens of mini Emmys running around. It's too adorable to think about, really.

As you can probably tell by now, my human is big on animal advocacy and helping needy dogs in any way she can. If money were no object she run her own animal rescue. She would be out in the world saving as many animal lives as she could. I told her that she has a perfectly good animal at home that needs all her undivided attention. Not sure if she listens to me, but I try.

Hey human, you listening to me?

The idea that I might have been used as a breeding pup got me thinking about puppy mills. My human let me borrow her thumbs and I did some digging and "googling" around. It didn't take me long to find a lot of information on puppy mills. I sort of wish I had just turned off the computer and taken a long nap. Nasty stuff.

According to the article C.D. Watson wrote for www.petadvisor.com, puppy mills are beyond horrible and unimaginable. In his article a “puppy mill” is defined as “a dog breeding operation in which the health of the dogs is disregarded in order to maintain a low overhead and maximize profits.” And in 2012 there was an estimated 4,000 places that churn out puppies for profit like this. The environments these breeding dogs are forced to live in are disgusting. They are kept in dirty cages 24/7 with no love, vet care or human interaction.  Needless to say many of the puppies born in these conditions are sick. And instead of getting the health care they so desperately need, they are shipped to pet stores and sold to humans who may not be aware of the conditions they lived in. Many of these doggies die soon after going home to their new humans. It's just really sad. And unnecessary!

So, what’s the moral of the story? Do not buy puppies from pet stores! Adopt a dog from your local animal rescue or shelter. You could wind up with a cool blogging dog like me! And how cool would that be? (Pretty darn cool, I say.)

An epiphany

I don't like when one of those ASPCA ads comes onto my television. I like to tell them to go away (nicely, of course) when they do:

That Sarah McLachlan sure knows how to tug at the heart strings. Or so my human tells me. All I see are animals in MY home that do not belong here. When those ads do come on the TV, and I start barking like crazy, my human grabs me and gives me a big hug and says, "don't bark, sissy, you were once a dog like them." Um, excuuussseeee me?

It's true, my friends. Before this posh life I have now, I was a shelter dog. My mom adopted me from Second Chance Animal Rescue in Clinton, Missouri, where I was found roaming around in the country. Miss Shannon at Second Chance took me in, nursed me back to health and helped me find my human.

And it hit me! All humans can help shelters like Second Chance Animal Rescue. My human likes to donate money to the ASPCA (I think it's so she can change the channel when Ms. McLachlan starts singing sad songs without feeling guilty, but don't tell her I told you that.) but she also likes to support a wonderful company called BOGO Bowl. It's a simple concept, buy a bag of dog food and BOGO Bowl donates a bag to an animal shelter. They support a lot of rescues and shelters all over the U.S., giving them quality dog food so the rescue can reserve funds for other things like vet visits (yuck!) You should help other great dogs like me by supporting BOGO Bowl. Just tell 'em the cute pug sent ya.

Want to win some stuff?

Happy Monday, friends! I tried to come up with a great April Fool's joke to play on you... but all that thinking wore me out so I took a nap instead.

I don't know about you guys, but my human LOVES Pinterest. I think she loves it more than me sometimes.

See? That's her. On the Pinterest. I give my best "please show me some attention or I might roll over and die" look but it rarely works. Priorities I guess. Anyway, if your human loves Pinterest even a smidge (is that a word?) as much as mine does, you should look into BOGO Bowl's Pinterest contest. You can win gift cards, dog food, all sorts of fabulous stuff.

Short and sweet, I'm giving the human her thumbs back now. Happy pinning!

Hello, World.

Hi everyone. My name is Emmy and I've been told I'm pretty smart for a pug. My human says she learns a lot about life from me and I told her I would like to start imparting my wisdom on others. You know, do good stuff in between my hectic napping schedule. 

Because I don't have thumbs my human has been kind enough to post my teachings on my behalf. I'm not sure how she will find the time between work, grad school, her busy "social" calendar and everyday life in general, but that's her problem, not mine.

Along the way I also hope to make you smile, maybe make you laugh and perhaps make you say "awwww". (I get that all the time.) 

Short lesson for today? Seize the moment. Like when your human takes you outside to do "business." You shouldn't just stop to smell the roses or nearby fire hydrant, you should seize the great opportunity given to you. So when your moment comes to do your "business" (whatever that may mean for you), grab it like a chew toy and run with it. Because you don't know when the next great opportunity will come your way. And I really wish I had seized my "business" opportunity this morning.

But for now, I'm going to give my human her thumbs back. I'm exhausted and require several naps to make sure I've built up the stamina needed to be brillant for my next lesson.