Pug Life

Jaden walking to school with his first ever pug, Ita

My son had always wanted a dog. When he was 5 he got a dog book from his kinder teacher. Out of all the breeds in the book, he pointed to the pug and said I want one of those! We said after we make the move to Japan we can get a dog. 

Sometimes little boys forget things (or so I thought) but when we finally made it to Japan, he was still adamant on his pug. We looked around at the local pet shops and saw the price was way out of our league. For a puppy, depending on the breed, most started at $1000 plus. It actually turns out being alot more because we have to pay in yen! So buying him a puppy was no longer an option.....until....

We visited the adoption place called "Karing Kennels". It's a place where stray dogs and cats are taken and also where people leave their animals if they are PCSing (changing duty station off-island). It was quite an emotional experience, so many dogs in so many cages barking and pacing.. But to our surprise..we found...

 A PUG!

We asked to take her out of her cage into a secluded larger cage where we could interact better with her. To our dismay.. she seemed uninterested in us! She was so interested in the other dogs in that facility- we decided to think a little more about the big decision to adopt, so that day we left without a dog.

After sleeping on it, I woke up and told my husband.. we have to get that dog.. we have to get her!

This was part of my "island fever" (I'll explain exactly what I mean by island fever a little later) kicking in because I realized if we don't adopt her, someone else will! As soon as we could, we went back hoping she was still there. She was! Yippee! They were unable to tell us her age. But the vet said from the looks of her teeth she was about 3-4 years old. That was our beginning of our pug love and it has only grown since. Ita is the fawn colored female. She is a total sweetheart. She really thinks she is a princess, doesn't like to be told what to do, and loves to cuddle. She hates for her feet to be touched but loves her belly to be rubbed.

She loves car-rides!

A few months later I was looking at the local Craigslist called Okinawayardsales.com and I saw someone posted a pic of a black pug they were selling because he didn't "fit in to" their family as they expected. With no intention of adding another pug family, I showed the pic to my husband Rick. He said "Call them!" Oh-no! What had I done.... 

Shadow and his bottle of "beer"

We went from zero dogs to two in just a few months! We bought Shadow (the black male pug). He is the most active pug, loves to play and is usually very hyper.. except for nap times of course. He loves to go on walks and prances the sidewalk like he is some warrior stallion. He loves treats too in case you can't tell.

Both Ita and Shadow now respond to the words: "potty", "treat", and "bed." And if we ask Shadow for his "toy" he starts looking for it all over the house. If we ask Ita if she's a "princess" she starts pawing us.

My poor pugs... we are getting ready to leave this island and decided to go ahead with the pugs surgeries. In case you aren't familiar with pugs, they struggle to breath due to their flat faces.. causing heavy snoring! Shadow (left) and Ita (right) both underwent soft palate reconstruction, and nasal passage opening.. if it sounds painful.. it was.. they literally got their poor little nostrils cut out (since there was only a small slit of an opening before restricting air) and Ita also got spayed... yippee 

They aren't too happy.. this was the day of surgery... poor babies!

This was taken a week after their surgery.. they were doing much better and are almost acting their normal selves again!

I took a pic of their stitched nostrils which they got removed 2 weeks later.