Tonight on the eve of Halloween as the rain fell heavy outside, I decided to carve my Halloween pumpkin with my pugs. I purchased the pumpkin a few weeks ago on a lazy Sunday afternoon spent with my sister-in-law Gretchin. We visited a local pottery studio, snapped some photos and went in search of the perfect pumpkin for me to use as a prop for photographs with my niece Ellie and the pugs.
I didn't really have plans to carve it, but then tonight when I was in a foul mood from stress and work and was surfing Facebook, checking out the carvings of my nieces and nephews, I decided why not join in the Halloween fun. I grabbed my pumpkin from the back stoop, spread out a trash bag and carved away. I tried to make a pug, but ended up creating something that looked closer to a cat if anything, but still I was pleased with the result.
I lit it and placed it on the floor so the pugs could see. Waffles especially was enamored with it. She even tried to eat it at one point, but in any case returned to it again and again. Alfie, as is her nature, was more cautious. She pranced around on the outskirts of the endeavor, bone sticking out the corner of her mouth like an old stogie. Finally, I took the Jack O' Lantern outside on the backstep where she finally decided to check it out herself. Not sure that she was impressed, but I think Waffles may have been, she kept returning. In the end, I think it lifted all our moods. Pugs, like other dogs, sense our energy and seem to respond. They were excited by my excitement, the newness of the activity, their natural curiosity.
The three of us sat for awhile around our Jack O' Lantern. Waffles in my lap, Alfie resting her head on my thigh as she gnawed away at her bone. Together, we basked in its glow.
