10/14/2012
10/14/2012
10/14/2012
10/15/2012
10/15/2012
10/27/2012
10/27/2012
10/27/2012
10/27/2012
10/31/2012: Little Red Riding Hood & the Big Bad Wolf
10/31/2012
10/31/2012
10/31/2012
September 2012
9/3/2012
9/9/2012
9/9/2012
9/9/2012
9/9/2012
9/9/2012
9/10/2012
9/10/2012
9/10/2012
9/15/2012
9/15/2012
9/16/2012
July/August 2012
7/7/2012
7/8/2012
7/8/2012
7/8/2012
7/15/2012
7/15/2012
7/15/2012
7/31/2012
7/31/2012
7/31/2012
7/31/2012
7/31/2012
7/31/2012
7/31/2012
7/31/2012
8/5/2012
8/19/2012
June 2012, part 2
6/19/2012
6/19/2012
6/19/2012
6/19/2012
6/19/2012
6/24/2012
6/24/2012
6/24/2012
6/24/2012
6/24/2012
6/24/2012
6/24/2012
6/24/2012
6/29/2012
6/29/2012
June 2012, part 1
6/3/2012
6/3/2012
6/4/2012
6/5/2012
6/6/2012
6/6/2012
6/7/2012
6/7/2012
6/8/2012
6/9/2012
6/10/2012
6/11/2012
6/11/2012
6/12/2012
6/12/2012
6/12/2012
6/13/2012
6/13/2012
Starting a New Chapter
I guess it's pretty obvious at this point that I've decided to start a blog. I've been a professional photographer for over ten years now but I honestly can't remember the last time I worked on a personal project. But, it's time to change that. Kevin and I have been given a rare and wonderful opportunity here; these next few years will be the precious time we always wished we had with Peaches and Pugsly. I want to remember all of it, and I can't think of a better way to do that than to start a visual diary of our lives together.
My goal is to post new photos every month, and I hope you enjoy watching them grow as much as Kevin and I surely will.
Taking the Puppy Plunge
Oscar and Ollie
We knew we'd eventually get another dog, but first we needed to take some time to lick our wounds. In the months that followed Pugsly's death, we slowly put our lives back together and got used to living in a dog-less house. It was lonely, but it was necessary.
From time to time we'd discuss getting another dog; first we'd both say we weren't ready, followed by the inevitable "but when we are..." There were three things we were certain of: we were staying with pugs, we wanted another pair, and most importantly, they had to be young.
I will say that it feels a bit weird to admit to that last part; since I adopted P&P when they were in their senior years, I will always hold the geriatrics close to my heart. Case in point: I was at a shelter a few years ago that had just taken in two twelve-year-old Westie Terrier sisters; their owner had just died, one of them was blind, and the other had a baseball sized tumor sticking out of her side. I almost took them both home, literally - I was texting Kevin and snapping photos and videos with my cell phone. And this was a breed I know absolutely nothing about.
So it's without question that I'll eventually adopt another pair of old guys, but I have to be honest with myself; I just don't have the emotional stamina to do it again right away. We loved P&P with all our hearts and it killed us to lose them after such a short period of time; we know people who have gotten to spend 15 years or more with their dogs, and oh, how we longed for that.
Not long into our search, we learned about four two-day-old pug puppies who were rescued from a North Carolina puppy mill by The Humane Society of the United States. Following their rescue in March, the puppies and their momma were all placed into foster care and were made available for adoption at the end of May.
3/14/2012: Photo by Kathy Milani/The Humane Society of the United States
Of course, our interest was piqued. Kevin and I hadn't talked about getting puppies; we knew we wanted young dogs, but that young? Were we completely out of our minds for considering it? Quite possibly, but we also knew what a very rare opportunity this was. We watched P&P suffer with so many medical issues for so long, many of which were caused by the improper care they had received for most of their lives.
Adopting puppies would give us the chance to care for them the right way from the very beginning, and maybe, just maybe, we'd get a decent number of healthy happy years with them before they start getting old and sick. Because let's be honest; they all do eventually.
So that was it, we decided to take the plunge. Off to North Carolina we went to adopt our new family members, Oscar and Ollie.
6/1/2012: Foster parents Brian and Tracie (left). Adoptive parents Kevin and Michelle (right).
First Things First: A Tribute to the Original
Peaches and Pugsly
I grew up with rescued dogs, and after two years away at college I started getting the itch for a four-legged companion I could call my own. I was 19 years old at the time and decided to research what type of dog might be best for me. I took some personality tests online and arrived at a breed that sounded like a perfect fit for me.
Pugs are friendly, loyal, eager to please, a bit stubborn, and most importantly of all, they are low activity creatures that love to cuddle and give kisses. I was convinced, and wanted to get one right away. Besides, who can resist their adorable squished faces and curly-q tails?!
However, given the reality of a 19-year-old kid's lifestyle, getting a dog when I was in college was not going to be a good idea for anyone involved. So, I promised myself that when I graduated, the first thing I was going to do was get myself a pug; a rescued one, of course.
Fast forward to the spring of 2004. I knew it would probably take a couple months to find a dog, so I started looking as soon as the spring quarter began in March. I was going to school in Rochester, New York, so the first places I went were the local pug rescue groups. It didn't take long for me to stumble upon the Pug Rescue of Central New York (PRoCNY), located in Syracuse. Since this would be my first dog as an adult, I knew I couldn't get a puppy. I needed a grown dog that was already housebroken and didn't require too much training, because let's face it; I had no idea what I was doing.
Two dogs, Peaches and Pugsly, were listed as being available on PRoCNY's website, so I called the rescue group to get some more information. They were 7 and 9 years old, and Ronnie, the woman who ran the rescue, said they were healthy, housebroken, and crate trained. I knew I wanted them within the first five minutes of the call. I originally only wanted one, but Ronnie said they were very bonded to each other and had to be adopted together. So, two dogs it was.
Two weeks later, myself and my boyfriend at the time, Kevin, who is now my husband, drove to Syracuse to pick them up. And so began our lives together.
We had Peaches for five and a half years and Pugsly for seven and a half. They were the most wonderfully loving and loyal dogs anyone could have ever asked for. They always made us laugh, and they got us through hard times with lots of kissing and cuddling. But they had many of their own hard times; for most of the years we had them, they were constantly faced with very serious and complicated medical issues.
Peaches was a hermaphrodite (yes, a boy/girl) and she battled with skin infections, cancerous tumors, and a growth in her spine that was slowly crippling her. She eventually experienced a complete loss of bladder control and died of kidney failure at 13 years old.
Pugsly dealt with bladder stones, a thyroid condition, a severe case of inflammatory bowel disease, and a severe allergy to both white rice and steroid drugs that nearly killed him in 2006. He also went blind and deaf, developed a pretty bad case of arthritis in his back, and eventually died at 16 of cognitive onset disease, which is a technical way of saying he had dementia and basically lost his mind.
Between the two of them, we easily dispensed 30 pills a day. When Peaches lost control of her bladder, we learned how to express it ourselves. When her kidneys started to fail, we administered sub-q fluids at home three times a day until it just didn't work anymore. When Pugsly's arthritis started affecting his ability to walk, we took him to the vet three times a week for non-invasive laser therapy. And when he had a hard time standing in front of his food bowl, Kevin made him a little stand out of wood and covered with foam, just for our special handicapped dog.
Needless-to-say, it was a very difficult few years, but neither Kevin nor I regret a single moment of it; we were the lucky ones to have had them in our lives. It broke our hearts to watch them struggle with so many medical issues, though it always amazed us that they never seemed phased by any of it; they were both happy up until the very end.
We lost Peaches in November of 2009 and Pugsly in October of 2011. Not a single day goes by where we don't miss them, and they will stay in our hearts forever as the original pugs of the Riley/Roehner household.
Peaches: April 9, 2004 - November 30, 2009; 13 years old
Pugsly: April 9, 2004 - October 12, 2011; 16 years old