The Pug Stalker

On Christmas Eve, Vince, Oliver, me, and my bump bundled up and drove to my in-laws' house to have dinner and open gifts. At some point in the evening, we noticed that Tyler, Vince's 10-month-old nephew, had developed a rather alarming pug obsession. Everywhere the pug went, Tyler wanted to be. Now, pugs are not known for being fast-moving creatures. I think the average pug's mean speed falls somewhere between that of an overweight hamster and that of algae. But on Christmas Eve, we discovered that one creature couldn't keep up with even the pug's slow pace, and it drove him absolutely mad. Oliver would wander across the room, and Tyler would try in vain to crawl to where he was. After watching this go on for a while, I just grabbed the pug and held him still.

As you can see, Oliver's indifference to Tyler's loving ministrations did not go over well at all.

Christmas Day was spent relaxing and doing the things we each love best. For me, that meant baking a chocolate mint torte for dinner that evening. For Vince, that meant playing eight straight hours of online Risk. For Oliver, that meant sleeping. And sleeping. And sleeping some more. It seemed the poor pug was especially sluggish, probably due to his stalker-dodging maneuvers the night before. Or maybe he was just trying to enjoy some peace before the arrival of a potential permanent stalker in his home.

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