“Compassionate toward yourself, you reconcile all beings in the world.” - Lao-Tzu

One of the things I’ve learned since having Elvis with us is that pugs really do live more in the moment, in total awareness of the moment and nothing but the moment, than humans do, or at least more than I do.  I have been a Zen follower for a while, and although I can have my moments of awareness, I am by no means enlightened.  I think this is one of many blessings that Elvis has brought into my life.   Before Elvis, I had transferred a lot of my own feelings and thoughts to Kojak, never really observing Kojak for the natural being that he is.  I figured if I felt a certain way, then so must Kojak.  Elvis is enlightening me to the Tao of Pugs!

Elvis’ latest lesson for me has been in the way he perceives himself or his body image.  Of course, body image is a totally unenlightened human concept.  Why should we have to buy books and DVDs and self-help courses to accept ourselves as we are?   For all of these self image improvement techniques that I have read or viewed or listened to, Elvis managed to show me this just by being a pug.

Since we’ve had Elvis, he’s put on a bit of weight.  I believe it is because of the amitryptoline that he takes to calm him down a bit.  We’re not feeding him any more than we have since the first.  He loves having healthy vegetable snacks, especially baby carrots.  So, it has to be the medication that has caused us to have to let out his harness a good two inches over the months.  The excess girth has caused a few minor glitches in his routine, though.  For instance, he will attempt a jump onto my lap and fall just short, and  I’ll catch him and help him scramble up.  I know the weight is the problem.  He is jumping with the same effort he’s always jumped; he’s just heavier now, and the law of physics requires that he put more effort into the jump, but he doesn’t perceive that he weighs any more than he always has.  When he misses, he seems truly surprised and looks at me as if I pushed him back or something.  Also, I’ve witnessed him trying to get through spaces he used to be able to, but now he can’t.  Just this morning, he was trying to squeeze between my leg and the computer desk to get under there.  Kojak loves to do that, and Elvis used to be able to just squeeze right in there, sending Kojak out the other side.  This morning, he made the same move he’s made many times before, but he thudded to a halt because he was too wide to get through.  Again, he looked up at me as if I had stopped him.  I just patted him and called him my chubby puppy and moved my leg over so he could make it through. 

Now, I have had that same experience before.  I might walk between parked cars at the grocery store and be shocked when my hips brush up against a dirty car door.  Surely, I think to myself, I am not that wide!  So, I become immediately self conscious about my hip size and look around to see if anyone is laughing at the fat lady who can’t squeeze between cars.  So, when I first saw Elvis having these encounters with small spaces himself, I wanted to project my own body image issues onto him.  The important thing that I have learned from him is that he doesn’t need to have his feelings protected with my, “It’s okay, my chubby puppy,” nonsense.  He just wants to get through the opening.  And he doesn’t even suspect that his own size has anything to do with the problem.  Surely, it must be me holding him back!  This teaches me that when I brush up against a car in the parking lot, I should be looking to see how closely the owners of the cars have parked to the lines separating the parks, not looking around to see who is laughing at how fat I am!

Although Elvis is indeed far more enlightened than I am, he does have a bit of “human-like” naughtiness in him on occasion.  When Kojak, Elvis, and I were on our way to the kitchen for breakfast the other day, we formed our usual conga line to the food.  Elvis often lets Kojak run ahead of us because he needs a running start to make it up the step into the kitchen.  This natural order of things has resulted over time.  At first, Elvis wanted to be first.  Then, he realized that I am the head dog after all, and he let me go first, his nose bumping me along from behind to make sure I get there as fast as I can.  Neither Kojak nor Elvis can understand why I don’t gallop into the kitchen to the food the way they do.  Finally, though, Elvis has learned to back off when we step down into the den and let Kojak get ahead of both of us.  This is very magnanimous of Elvis since he does have the more dominant personality of the pack, or so I would put the human spin on it.  I believe the truth is that Elvis is just looking out for the welfare of the other pack member. 

That particular morning, though,  I took an unexpected detour to the laundry room, which set both pugs off their pace.  Kojak came running back to see why we weren’t right behind him, and Elvis had missed a beat, but successfully made the turn and was on my heels to stop off for my shirt.  While I was slipping into my shirt, the pugs circled and twirled, waiting for me to get back on the course to the kitchen, and when I started off again, both pugs made a mad dash after me.  I was in the kitchen and getting some water when it occurred to me that I was missing Kojak circling me as he does until I feed them.  Elvis never circles, but heads straight to his spot where he is fed and waits, seated, until I bring him his dish.  He is the perfect little gentleman when it’s time to eat!  I looked to see where the dogs were, and I noticed that Elvis was standing in the den at the kitchen step.  Kojak was behind him, moving first to the left to try to get around him, and then to the right.  Elvis was impassable on either side, his wide body successfully blocking Kojak’s path.  I just looked on in amusement as I waited for Elvis to jump up the step and let Kojak by.  Only he didn’t.  He just stood there.  Kojak was now going from left to right, whimpering and trying to find a way to squeeze past Elvis.  Elvis didn’t move.  Finally, Kojak barked at Elvis!  I laughed outloud when he did that because Kojak has always assumed the subservient position in the pack, but when Elvis was in the way of his path to his breakfast, Kojak didn’t mind asserting himself.  The funniest part of the situation was that Elvis still did not move when Kojak barked.  He did look back at him to see if  it was really true that Kojak was telling him to move out of the way, but he stood firm in his position.  I swear I could hear Elvis chuckling to himself!  Another few barks, and Elvis went ahead and jumped up the step, allowing Kojak entrance. 

Now I may be transferring human thought to the pugs again and assuming that Elvis was relishing his new girth that blocked the path.  I don’t think so, though.  I think Elvis was having a moment of awareness that his difficult size, which keeps him out of places he wants to go, could also have its advantages.  For just a moment, he was large and in charge and loving it.