For What It's Worth


Thursday, May 24, 2012

Guest Post: Author Becky Banks

Today I’m welcoming author Becky Banks to the blog. We’re going a little off topic as Becky talks about her adorable pugs – Oilve & Al. You can probably tell from my header and Twitter handle (@teamsheltie) that I’m a big animal lover so this was a fun guest post.

Be sure to check out Becky’s offer for a FREE Kindle copy of her novel The Legend of Lady MacLaoch at the the end of this post!

Portrait of Princess Ekaterina Dmitrievna Golitsyna (credit: Wikipedia) by Louis-Michel van Loo (1759)
Moscow, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.
If the Labrador is a Noble in the Court of Dogs then the Pug is surely it's Jester. The Pug can trace its comedic and human loving ways all the way back to before 400 BCE where they graced royal laps in the Chinese Shang Dynasty. These days Pugs are gracing the laps of more than just courtesans, one set in particular share a house here in Portland, Oregon with my husband and I. Before I dive into this short and entertaining post on our two comedians I want to thank Karen for the invite to write this post today. I am the author of The Legend of Lady MacLaoch (info below) and this Sunday we're giving the novel away for free to all Kindle users to mark its one year anniversary. In the meantime let's talk Pugs!

My rascals, Olive and Al
Pugs, unlike any other dog breed (and between my husband and I we've owned labs, cattle dogs, poodles, beagle mixes and mutts in our lives) are so much more than just a dog. While they may be small - with the exception of ours, which stand knee height and are 25lbs each - but consider themselves the Goliaths of dogs, they act like cats sometimes babies and have a passion for food that is second to none. Seriously, our dog Olive has been caught bouncing off the side of the lower kitchen cabinet so that she can catch air as she sails toward the garbage can, like a food ninja. This is all in hopes of tackling the entire can to the ground and gorge on its contents. And there is still the mystery of how she and her brother got a COSTCO sized bag of rolls down off the counter along with an equal sized sum of hotdog buns.

Olive looking bee-coming in her Halloween costume
"I swear to god mom, I did NOT eat my stuffed animal. I am shocked and hurt that you would accuse me of such debauchery." - Olive the Pug
There have been several epic stories concerning food and our Pugs, which started when we adopted them from the Pacific Pug Rescue. The foster mother laughed as she handed them over saying that they were a little heavier because they'd had gotten on the counter that morning and ate an entire loaf of white bread. Yes, ONTO the counter (most likely levitated...). So it should be no surprise that we've been having bread incidents ever since. For example the COSTCO size bread bags I mention above is one of them.

Alvin being held in his favorite (like a baby) position by his aunt.

The COSTCO bun incident happened when we were prepping for a party and had done our shopping then stepped out for bit only to come back to a whirlwind of bags and crumbs. The Sherlock side of me looked at the counter where the buns had been, a seemingly impossible to get to position at the back of the counter. The counter, holds our mixer and other miscellaneous appliances below it on an open shelf. This means that to get anything off the counter above, it must have been a collaborative effort.

Happy Pugs!!
As in one smarty-pants puggy stands at the bottom then had her brother launch himself off her back to the edge of the counter to grab the bags, again with the food ninja moves. Most likely (I calculate this from the time that they were alone divided by the quantity of buns eaten) they did this run-at-it-like-a-gymnast jump routine a couple times before they were successful. Then dragged the carcass of their bakery catch into the living room to devour in bread-y splendor until we walked through the door.

Overall Pugs are a great city dog, made for sitting in laps and entertaining guests with their antics. And speaking of antics I'll leave you now with a cute YouTube video of some quirky Pugs readying for a waaaaalk, or maybe getting the maaaail?



Thanks for having me Karen and I hope everyone has a great weekend! Don't forget if you're into romance novels, on Sunday (May 27th) The Legend of Lady MacLaoch is up for free download for all Kindle users!

~Becky



Becky Banks is the author of The Legend of Lady MacLaoch an award winning romance story one woman's journey to Scotland to discover the answers to her bloodline questions. On Sunday, May 27th, Becky is offering up The Legend of Lady MacLaoch for free to all Kindle users as a one year celebration of its publication. The Legend of Lady MacLaoch can be found on Amazon.com.Fun extras:

Things that look like:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/freddiecampion/10-pugs-who-look-like-things-5vii

Battlepug Comic (it's being optioned by Dark Horse)
http://battlepug.com/2011/02/01/the-battlepug-is-nigh/

3 comments:

  1. A fun post indeed. More of a cat person myself but these dogs were pretty cute.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Story update: Olive succeeded in tackling the garbage can this week . . . let's just say flour, dog saliva and carpeting = paste of epic proportions!

    ~B

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am with Petty, I am more a cat person myself. But..yes certain dogs are cute ;)

    ReplyDelete