The Story of Pug & Bugg

Since the Stuffy Appreciation Day post, everyone has been a little shocked about Sophie and Dixie's less than stellar collection of stuffies, and the story about how they first didn't know what they were. So I thought I'd bring you all up to date with the story of how we adopted them!

On December 1st, 2007, Brian and I were doing a normal transport for KPR. There were three pugs, we were told, two black and one fawn. We met at a house near Brian's mom's, where the first pug (black male) was being dropped off at his foster home. We arrived just after the pugs did- and the male pug had just pee-mailed on his FOSTER MOM and then made a big #2 and was kicking- the foster kids LOVED IT! Sophie and Dixie (they didn't have their names yet, though) then jumped out of the car and I got to pick her up. The first thing I noticed was how it was obvious she had been bread many, many times- poor thing. She was SO TINY! I had never seen a full-grown pug so small.

Then I saw Dixie, and thought she MUST be a mixed breed, because she didn't look all pug. (Further investigation would prove her Bugg status.) Brian started petting her. We then got them in the car, and the woman who drove the first leg warned us that they were wild!

After a few miles, the girls settled down. I sat in the back with them while Brian drove. Dixie fell fast asleep on my lap right away. Sophie sat at attention, looking out the window and towards Brian the whole way. They were amazing- so loving, such truthful eyes. Something inside of us said that these pugs wanted us. They felt comfortable with us.

We got to the gas station where we were handing them over to the woman driving the third leg. It was so hard! They were stinky, and underweight, but we loved them. Later, we found out that they were going to two separate foster homes- we were concerned, since they were obviously a bonded pair. We contacted KPR to tell them that we thought they should be together, and that we would be interested in adopting them when/if our house purchase went through. The adoption form says it may take a few weeks/months to hear back- we heard back that night that we could get them!!!


The two foster mothers named the girls- Sophie's given name was Sophie, which we decided to keep. Dixie's given name was Grindle, presumably because she is a brindle bugg. "Shockingly" (sarcasm noted) we decided to change her name to Dixie. Then we waited! Our home visit with Annie from KPR was on Christmas Eve, and we were approved!

The girls came to us December 27th, 2007. They walked in and promptly pooped and peed everywhere. It took a few days to cure them of that habit! That night, we wanted to keep them in the kitchen with a gate. Spiderpug (aka Sophie) climbed the gate every time, crying and crying to be with us! It was sad because our vet said she learned to climb probably while trying to escape things in her cage at the puppy mill. That night they got to sleep in our bed. That night, and that night ONLY!


Poor Sophie had a bad foster situation- her foster mom had two very old foster dogs and treated her as such- even putting her in a diaper. She said she would not get potty trained- well look at her now! Dixie's foster mom didn't do anything at all- she sent no paperwork, no "likes" or "dislikes," and didn't even take her to the vet. We were glad to get them to a proper loving home.

The next day the girls got a crate for sleeping. It was days before we left them alone (we were on Christmas break.) The first time was two hours, the next was a little longer, until we were all ready for a full day's work.

And that brings us to the present! We love them more every single day and are so lucky to have them in our lives! Even if their stuffy collection is not yet up to par!