Pugs will do almost anything for ham

Will high-five for ham

Tonka in position on the bricks, Arliss not on the bricks and not in position

On Sunday morning we packed the camera and some Charlie Bear treats and we were off to photograph the pugs with the ducklings for our holiday card. When we arrived there were only a few people in the park, so I thought that we would be done in just a few minutes. Joe would be the pug wrangler and I would shoot the pictures. What I didn't take into account were the the freezing cold bricks that the duckling sculptures are fastened to. The temperature was pretty mild for November, but at 8:30AM the sun hadn't had enough time to warm the bricks enough for Arliss to want to sit on them. We tried the treats but the Charlie Bears were not tasty enough to make Arliss or Tonka stay put, so we took a break and Joe took a walk in search of a better treat. He returned after 10 minutes with some sliced ham. After a few minutes, it became clear that Arliss wouldn't be sitting on the cold bricks, not even for ham. Tonka on the other hand, gladly sat on the cold bricks. In fact, he was so mesmerized by the ham, he was giving Joe multiple sets of alternating paw high-fives. He knows that we love that trick so he pulled out all of the stops and it worked. Joe became a human ham dispenser. Sadly, even if Arliss could have tolerated the cold bricks on his tender pug butt, a good together picture proved to be impossible. The problem was that while Joe stood off to the side, swinging ham in the air to make the pugs remain in their "stay" command, they were unable to stare at anything besides the ham. They were actually stretching their necks up to get a better view. So most pictures make them look like little turtles craning their necks toward the sun! No card worthy pictures but they are definitely blog worthy!