Pugsitting

In the past month, Benjamin has grown strong enough to be able to sit up and look around for brief periods of time. Guess what he usually looks for? Oliver. The pug has become the object of Benjamin's affection, often to the point where he'll even ignore me - his own mother! - when Oliver is in sight.

Unfortunately, Benjamin's newfound pug love doesn't extend to all pugs. I discovered recently that Benjamin is absolutely terrified of my friend Deb's pug, Kevin. This was a source of great consternation to me, because Kevin and Oliver are identical in all respects except for one: Oliver is fawn-colored, and Kevin is black. Then I realized that Benjamin was probably hurt because he thought that Oliver was trying to avoid him by cloaking himself in a clever disguise.

Hurt feelings aside, Benjamin's pug obsession has one very big benefit: pugsitting. No, I don't actually leave Benjamin and a list of emergency numbers at home with Oliver while I go out drinking with friends. What I do do, however, is leave Benjamin in a place where he can see Oliver and be sufficiently distracted enough to let me accomplish certain tasks that would be otherwise impossible. These tasks include fixing myself breakfast, reading the paper, cooking dinner, and - of course - working on my blog.

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I'm not sure if it's Oliver's hog-like snorting sounds, his curly tail, or his ginormous shiny eyeballs that Benjamin finds so entrancing. But who cares? The hubby hasn't had an excuse to bring home Panda Express in nearly three weeks.