Have you welcomed a puppy into your family? One of the first things they need to learn is how to wear a collar and walk with a leash.
There’s nothing better than watching an adorable puppy learn, play, and grow, but when they get big enough to go on walks outside, a well-fitted collar and leash is crucial to keeping them by your side and safe.
Its been a long and interesting Winter/Spring here at Mimi Green. Professor Chicken fell in love, and I mean IN LOVE, with one of our employees, Hilary. Everyone was super sad in March when Hilary moved to France to take care of her grandpa, Chicken was especially hurt. Although we admired what she was doing, we have all taken her move really hard. We've all joked about mailing ourselves to France to see Hilary, but Chicken seems to be taking it seriously.
Mimi Green had some exciting news this Spring too. We were honored by being featured by In the Company of Dogs catalogue! They took some awesome photos of our embroidered personalized webbing collars, and the collars have had great reception. It is so exciting to see our work in print, especially with a company as cool as In the Company of Dogs!
Other than that, we have just been super busy filling orders — so busy I have again been neglecting my blog! But hopefully that will change this month because on May 21 I am going to be lucky enough to get to stay home half days with Augustine.
He is getting gigantic (and really scary!) and I am feeling a bit nostalgic about when he was a baby and I got to hang with him all day.
He will be 4 this year — I can't believe it since I started Mimi Green when he couldn't even sit up on his own yet! I figure I don't have much time left till Kindergarten and I have my whole life to work 😉 Good thing I have such an awesome, supportive husband that is willing to work twice as hard to cover for me!
Anyway, Auggie and I are planning super fun stuff to do with each other (and the doggies) so I will have lots to blog about.
I better run for now, goodnight from everyone here at MG, especially sleepy Chupa!
And he says, "My name is Chicken and I love dog collars. Doesn't make me less of a cat ;)"
Summer Velvet Dog Collars are coming very, very soon… stay tunned, there are some sweet new, bright colors! In the mean time, check out the super cool velvet collars up on the site right now!
So we got a new worker here at Mimi Green and he's really smart, a professor in fact. Dan and I looked and looked for a kitty, we must have met 20 cats. This little (well, he's kind of big for a cat, 12 lbs or so) Russian Blue we met on the first day of looking just stole our hearts and no other cat compared.
His name at the shelter was Emmitt, but Auggie was insistent that the cat's name was Professor Chicken.
The Professor loves being at the office, mostly he supervises and helps Hilary on her machine.
And Chicken helps me take product photos, which Lord knows I need!
I never thought that I liked cats, I am a BIG dog person, but this cat has totally changed my mind. His purring is so soothing, it is hard to have a bad day with his sweetness around. I read that cat's purring helps relieve stress and aids in general healing. I don't know if I would have believed all that before Chicken, but just look at him, how can it be denied!
(Yes, I did put pink claw clovers on his nails. FYI, real men wear pink;)
I should have mentioned in my Easter post what products helped Chupa's skin so much. Her skin had turned elephant-like in many areas so hair wouldn't grow there. Paula started using Canine Earth Aweseome Apple Paw Balm on her and it softened her skin right up! Nothing else seemed to work — not the prescribed shampoo, not antibiotics. But after a few weeks of using the Paw Balm, Chup's skin not only softened but the hair started to grow back!
The natural balm also works really good on Piggie's dry nose and its natural antiseptic properties totally healed an infection Chup got in between her toes and between her puggie wrinkles.
A little shout out to Canine Earth, "Canine Earth products are formulated with 95-100% USDA Certified Organic ingredients and have a pH to complement canine skin and coats. The same way human skin can be negatively affected by soaps with high pH and chemical ingredients, the same problems can affect your pet."
So far all of the Canine Earth products have totally impressed me. They also make natural, organic dog shampoo and conditioners.
The Mango is my fav, it smells like heaven but isn't too perfumy.
Chup is my fav too. How can you not love that puggie face!
(**Disclaimer: I promise to never push products on you I haven't tried and don't adore. We love what we sell and we sell what we love — Mimi Green is truly a labor of love. xoxo **)
Easter was super fun for the humans around here, but I think that Paula's pug Chupa had the most fun of all!
She loved the ears and all the attention she was getting because of them 😉 Chup ran around with the kids and hunted eggs. See my uncle's dog Maya in the back? She was sure Chupa was an alien.
The coolest part about watching her have so much fun is that it was all a first for her. Chupa grew up in a puppy mill in AK and lived in a cage for 6 years. She was a baby maker and nothing else. They fed her such bad food that she lost every single one of her teeth, she was never allowed to walk around so she literally could't walk, her fur was falling off her body due to a skin infection, and the bad food also caused her to go blind and develop a thyroid problem.
New Mexico Pug Rescue drove to AK in October and brought home Chupa and 20 some of other pugs from the puppy mill. The man who was going to foster Chup was overwhelmed at her needs and returned her to the rescue less than 24 hours after he picked her up. Somehow I convinced my sister, who didn't even like pugs, to let Chup stay with her.
Not to say Paula wasn't overwhelmed too. The first night she called us crying because she didn't know what to do. The dog smelled so badly, it was like a clump of skin and bones — no muscle tone, couldn't walk on her own, and clearly couldn't see. She looked like the Chupacabra, hence her name, Chupa ;) I have to say that this was the worst case of animal abuse I have ever seen. I already didn't like puppy mills, but this made me hate them.
Within a month Chup was walking, it was so cool, like watching a baby learn to walk. Her fur started to grow back soon after that. Fast forward 6 months and you can hardly what bad shape she was in. I mean, she will never have teeth again and she is on 3 different meds for the rest of her life, but she has a spark to her now, her life finally has a meaning. My mom says Chupa is in love with Paula, I think she sees Paula as her savior. And Paula finally admits to liking pugs now.
See how happy she is with her momma now! Paula adopted her last month which made me so happy because I have become super attached to Chup. She comes with Paula to work everyday at Mimi Green, its like she is out little pug mascot 😉
So that's my story of resurrection, pug style, for this fine Easter day. I hope your day was as special as ours was.
xoxo, Amanda
I love to bake but sadly I am the only one in the house who ever eats sweets. In an effort to trim up for summer, I am going turn this boat around and put my energies to baking my dogs yummy treats (because they totally don't care about their waste lines ;)
I'm going to try and bake the most healthy treats I can find for them though and will share my recipes on my blog weekly.
I don't know about you, but I am one of those dog moms that will not give my dog treats unless the package says "natural" or "organic" and if I can't pronounce the indigents then they aren't getting them. I love making the dogs treats because then I KNOW for sure each and every ingredient that goes into them is totally natural and organic (if I can get it).
So even though these Molasses Chip Dog Treats have a lot of sugar in them, I think these treats are way more healthy than any you can buy the grocery store as they are preservative free and don't contain chemicals!
So here's to week one: Molasses Chip Doggie Treat Recipe
3 c flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 c molasses
1 c canola oil
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon pure organic vanilla extract
1 12-ounce package carob chips (you can get these at Whole Foods)
Preheat oven to 350 F
Then grab a small bowl and mix the baking powder and flour together and set aside.
In a larger bowl, whisk together the molasses and oil. Then whisk in the eggs and vanilla.
Combine the wet and dry ingredients and stir in the carob chips.
Next drop the dough in round shapes onto the cookie sheet. I used a small ice cream scoop and that worked well because the batter is VERY wet and sticky.
Then bake 12-14 minutes. The smell is awesome, it got me in the mood to eat cookies too!
Cool the cookies on a rack…
Then dig in right on your mom's white carpet!
Good thing my friend Tracy likes me and her pugs so much or she might have cried. Her carpets had just been cleaned and her pug Zack just couldn't wait to chomp his cookie ;) Now if that isn't a testament to how good these treats turned out, then I don't know what is.
Happy Dog Treat Baking!
I wanted these new bow ties to be for boys, to be really masculine, but I have to say — Piggie looks pretty darn cute wearing it!
We are going to launch these soon, just a few colors at first to see how they do.
Here it is in the green. I am thinking of doing a blue and red too.
I think she knows how darn cute she is! Look at her posing for the camera;)
Today marks one year since Piggie, (aka Olive) came to live with us!
She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, I am so in love with this pug. Check out those beautiful eyes!
She got a new collar as her present for making our lives so awesome this year and touching our hearts more than any other dog I have ever had. Tomorrow we are going to celebrate with a doggie cake, I can't wait to see her dig in!
Poor Piggie had it really rough the first 2 years of her life and at this point you would never know. It took her 9 months to start to warm up to Dan but now she is madly in love with him (and what woman wouldn't be really, he's a cutie ;)
The first day I had her I wanted to give her back because she wouldn't even let me touch her. That would have been such a huge mistake. I called my friend Tracy to come over and see what a mess of a pug I brought home and she totally convinced me to give it some time because she could tell how sweet Piggie was. Boy was she right!
So Happy Anniversary Piggie. I can't imagine my life without you!!
To die for right? Everyone at Pugtober Fest was asking if this pug was up for adoption. There were lots of sad people when they found out he wasn't 😉
