Wordy Wednesday (caution: highly charged emotions...)

I just got done reading Kelly's blog (aka The Misadventures of Pug(s) and Bugg). We are pug owners and our pugs are not perfect dogs, at least in the minds of non-pug owners. But they are wonderful, loving creatures and they are full of personality. People have called us crazy for having so many pugs (even when we only had 3) and some people have just shook their heads and given the look that says "You're an idiot". Worse yet, people have given us grief because Pippin is a bit, well, fat. I get really irritated when people criticize when they don't know what the other's situation is. We get it a lot not just with the pugs but also with our son. We adopted Sam 3 years ago. He came to live with us right after his 12th birthday. He was taken into foster care when he was 6 and his mom was arrested. Not only was she a drug user, but she didn't send him to school. He went to a few foster homes before ending up in a "therapeutic" group home where he stayed for 2 years before we found him. So now he's approaching 15 and he's sitting in the living room crying his eyes out because he was an ass to me and lied to me. He's not crying because he feels bad about what he did, but because he got in trouble for it. Believe it or not, this is improved behavior from when we got him. A few weeks before we went to court to make the adoption legal, he had a major temper tantrum after he got home from school and Denny wasn't home yet. He went out into the garage and took a tennis racquet and started beating up my washer and dryer. When I went out there to try to stop him, he acted like he would swing it at me. I stepped in to take it and got the racquet, but he slapped me in the face with his bare hand. He then grabbed a baseball bat and really pounded at the washer and dryer and threatened me. I had no choice but to call the police. They took him to juvie and from there we took him to the psychiatric hospital where he stayed for a week. I got my very first migraine that night. Denny and I then had some very serious conversations about whether or not we would go through with the adoption. Obviously we did. Sam could barely read when he came here, now he's up to about a 6th grade level. He's a whiz at math if he focuses and uses his brain. He's actually learning things. He's still failing all his classes, but that's because we can't seem to get him to care about his grades. Ok, so what is my point, you ask? Don't judge people without knowing what they're going through. We went through years of fertility treatments that included one pregnancy with twins that I miscarried. It was so difficult to decide to adopt, and we felt it was important for us to adopt a child from foster care since there are so many kids in foster care who need loving, stable homes. But people, including family (ESPECIALLY family), criticize our parenting. I see them give him dirty looks when he acts up in public, but they scold us for trying to correct his bad manners. "Don't be so hard on him." "He's a teenage boy, that's how they are." Now I know for a fact that none of my parents' kids swung a baseball hat at their heads. They never had to call the police on us or have us admitted to a psych hospital. They never had to take us to therapy (although maybe they should have). I know it's not quite the same thing as Kelly's situation with her pugs, but it's just as infuriating. I know Denny and I don't have a lot of parenting experience and we jumped into it at full speed, but don't criticize us when you haven't been through anything even somewhat close to what we're going through. We know we're doing the right thing and it's not for anyone else to judge.

Ok, sorry for going on a major rant there. I read Kelly's blog then we had the Sam episode and I really needed to get some of that out. I so appreciate my blogger buddies here and I hope you all bear with me through this. Everyone offered the nicest words when I posted about my mother-in-law's death and I want you all to know how much your comments meant to me. And Kelly, WE know what wonderful pug parents you and Brian are! I think you are such great people to have rescued the three amigos. I know what it's like to "save" another living creature, be it pug or human. You've met Sam, you know how weird he can be, but he has a stable, loving home now, just like Sophie, Dixie, and Harley do.

That being said, here are some cute pug pictures...
Thank you to everyone for enduring this post!
Pug hugs and kisses!
Vikki and the entire Pug Posse

P.S. Kelly: Pippin loves Sophie :-)