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Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Fred and Ethel, the pugs


6 years ago tomorrow, Christmas Day, two pugs were abandoned outside of the Converse Animal Shelter near San Antonio in a small plastic cat carrier on a cold night right after they closed. The lady working there went back to get her coat when she found them and saved them from being there all night by asking Debbi from the San Antonio Pug Rescue to come get them.

Two weeks later, I decided to put my foot down. I was getting a dog! I remember like it was yesterday. I told my friends at work that Friday that I was going to have a dog by Monday and I wasn't taking no for an answer anymore. I grew up with a dog and didn't have one in college or the apartment we lived in before we bought our house, but we had been in our house with a fenced yard for nearly a year. Brad had promised that once we got settled into the house, we could get a dog. It was time.

We looked at the dogs at the Humane Society and I was willing to take any dog home. Every dog we played with was acceptable. "Let's take this one! No? Ok, this one! No? OMG Seriously, Brad?" Even the puppy who peed on the floor in front of me would have been fine with me. It's cool. What do you expect from a puppy?" Then we went to the Animal Defense League and the same thing happened. I was fine with almost ANY DOG and Brad was super picky. We had done some research to watch for aggression, so I made a point to mess with the dogs' ears and faces a little bit. Not enough, to hurt them, obviously, but enough to see how they handle it. If they pass that test, let's take them home!

I was upset. Brad was being difficult and I would never get him to agree to a dog. Then he said that he really liked pugs and he had been reading about them, and they're gentle with kids (we knew we'd have kids in the dog's lifetime, so that was an issue). He found a pug rescue organization in San Antonio online and showed me their website. "OMG LET'S CALL THEM RIGHT NOW!" So we did. It was Sunday afternoon and they let us come over to look at their pugs RIGHT NOW. I was super excited and not very patient. :)

When we got there,  all the pugs were snorting and sniffling. I was concerned that there was something wrong, but the pug ladies (Kathleen and Debbi) assured me that it's normal pug behavior. There were pugs everywhere, and I was ready to play with them all and pick one out. There was a puggle (beagle/pug) named Emerson. I felt bad for him because he was not like the others and wanted to take him home. Brad didn't go for it. Of course, not, he's Brad, so he's being difficult.

Then something happened. Fred came and played with me as Ethel went and played with Brad. Kathleen and Debbi told us their Christmas story and warned us that they need to be adopted together because they were abandoned together and bonded to each other, so separating them was not an option. When I looked at Brad's face as he played with Ethel I knew that we weren't getting a dog. We were getting 2 dogs. CAN WE TAKE THEM HOME RIGHT NOW? Fred still needed some shots, so we had to wait a few days. This worked out because we had some shopping and learning to do. Neither one of us knew much about taking care of dogs. My parents always did all the work and Brad never had a dog.

Kathleen and Debbi sat with us and wrote out a list of what we needed to buy, and we bought it all before we went home that day.

We have no idea what their names were before they were abandoned or what their lives were like. All we know is that the vet who examined them 6 years ago guessed they were about 2. It makes me sad when people ask if they're brother and sister or when their birthday is because I have no idea, but I do know that they are very well loved today.