New beginning

Hello dear friends! I am so sorry for our absence. It has been a really difficult year so far. As most of you know by now, we lost our beloved Jasmine in June and sweet Bernice in July. I am still heartbroken over the losses of my precious girls, but there's nothing we can do to bring them back, so we have to just move on. That being said, there have been a lot of changes in the Posse since January. You may recall that we added Romeo in January. He is such a sweet fuzzy pug. He reminds me of a lop-eared bunny but with short ears and a curly tail! He is mostly blind and only has 3 teeth, but he eats just fine and he is a very happy pug. Here is the Romey boy...

Eli is still the best kisser! I have been thinking of retiring him from the contest and letting someone else win for a change, but we may have one more go at Pugtoberfest next month.

Not long after Romeo came to live with us, we agreed to take in Pudge and Pugsley, a bonded pair. They are brothers (from the same litter) and had to be given up due to a child's allergy in the house. The night Jasmine crossed to the Bridge, Denny looked at me and said "They're not going anywhere!" And that is fine because they fit in just fine. Pugsley is a bit of a loner, but he loves human attention and he is the softest pug I have ever known! We call him the Velveteen Pug which has evolved into Vel-Vito! This is Pugsley enjoying the lap of Yoda and Brutus' mom, Cindy.And this is Pudge. We call him Bubba Pudge :-)

So then I got an e-mail a couple of months ago about pugs needing foster homes. There was a "bonded" pair in a shelter, both girls. Since I was so mising my girls, I thought taking them in might help ease some pain. Well, then we found out that one of them was retrieved by the owner, but the other still needed a home. Ok, that's fine, I'll take her. She was at Indianapolis Animal Care and Control. Ugh, that place is awful. I know it is necessary, but it was so horribly depressing. Anyway, our contact at IACC took me back to see her. I knew that she was 10 years old and a pug mix (we still haven't figured out the other part of her). And she has a few minor medical conditions, like she is missing one eye and the back half of her had no hair! When I finally got to meet her, I was asked "So do you still want to take her?" She was a hot mess, but I couldn't say no. There was no way anyone would have adopted her and she would have been euthanized! So she is now being fostered in our house and she has blossomed! She has put on some weight and her hair is growing back! And she has the craziest little personality! She loves to bark at me to get my attention and she loves giving kisses. Oh, and her name is Rosie.

And then there is Gus. He is still caught in the eternal struggle with his tail...always chasing it, but never able to get it...
So you might think that the insanity stops there, but you would be wrong. About 3 weeks ago I fell for another "Need foster homes" e-mail. Another pug in the shelter, IACC again. An older black male. He was picked up as a stray and estimated to be 14 years old. I don't think he's that old, but I would say he's at least 10. His eyes are a mess, so he is mostly blind, and he doesn't hear very well. We tried a few names out on him before settling for Tucker. He is such a sweetheart. His chances of being adopted are pretty low since he is old and blind, so he will probably be staying with us for good. But who could resist this face? Ernie, Pippin, and Eddie are still as handsome as can be and enjoying meeting the new pugs...
But the best part is that a little over a week ago I was told about a black female pug that I might be interested in. We went to meet her at her foster home on Labor Day and I brought her home last Friday. She had obviously recently (very recently by the look of it) had puppies and was discarded on the side of the road with a fawn male. She looks like she is a puppy herself! Of course she can't tell us what happened, but our theory is that maybe her puppies were "defective", so she was considered not good for breeding and was tossed out. She is about Bernice's size and she is so, so sweet! We have named her Isabella and I already love her! She already follows me around, whines when she can't see me, and gives me sweet little kisses :-) Isn't she beautiful?

She is so wonderful!

Beautiful little baby Bella!

So that's my recap of this year's Posse news so far. I promise I will blog more often, especially since we are going to be visited by some of our blogger friends in a couple of weeks! I can't wait for the big meetup!!!

Pug hugs and kisses!

Vikki and the Pug Pose