Enter Larry!

Meet Larry!

Larry the Pug entered our life quite unexpectedly the evening of June 20, 2012, also our 4-month wedding anniversary. My friend Cindy (also our dog-walker, dog-sitter and dog fairy godmother) is always rescuing animals and finding them new homes. I absolutely LOVE dogs, so I've always told her that if she found a pug that needed a home just to drop him or her off at our house. She's "found" pugs before, but it has never worked out...either the pug had just been given away to someone else, the owners were trying to sell it for a large sum of money, or they had changed their mind. A few months ago, she had mentioned that Larry's owner needed to find him a new home. I asked Mike what he thought, he said it was ok, so I told Cindy that we were interested. We didn't hear anything more, so we figured he had changed his mind.

Three weeks ago (June 20th), I was working at home, when Cindy called me at around 2:30 in the afternoon. "Are you still interested in Larry?" she asked. When I said "yes", she said that Larry's owner would drop him off at dinner time. This was a little unexpected, since we had never even seen Larry at this point and he hadn't been introduced to Romeo and Elvis to see if they would get along. I called Mike at work to let him know that Larry would be joining us for dinner.


Larry is three years old. He looks a lot like Romeo, although he has a black spot on his head, more teeth and his tail is only a single curl. He spent the first few days with us beating up Romeo and Elvis incessantly. I kept having to give him a time out and put him in "pug jail" (behind the baby gate in the dining room). He'd smile at me winningly and I'd let him out only to have him launch himself right back at Elvis.  He wouldn't eat (very unusual for a Pug) and he didn't want to play with any of the dog toys. He would also whip himself into a frenzy, chase his tail and snap at us. It was a little off-putting, but underneath it all, we've discovered that Larry is a charmer. He is adjusting well to his new home and his big brothers. Larry loves to play with all the stuffed animals or one of his chewy toys. He runs around off-leash with Romeo and Elvis in the park. He is gentle with children and likes all of Romeo and Elvis' dog friends. He enjoys swimming in the pool at play group.

It is very hard to try and get a photo of all three pugs!

Waiting for Mike to dish out dinner!

I will not deny that it is a lot of work to own three dogs. Mike has firmly stated that we are at pug capacity! The main feature of our dining room is now the three dog crates all in a row, kind of like a doggy condominium. But we saved Larry from a bad situation and he is a real sweetie. In the morning when I go down to take them for a walk, I am just swarmed with pug love! Larry watches Romeo and Elvis avidly and is learning good manners from them.

Elvis and Larry have become buddies and have started a pug wrestling team. Elvis usually wins because he will sit on Larry! They kept me company in my home office today and Larry and Elvis shared the little dog bed, while Romeo slept in the large dog bed by himself.

I've told the neighbors that we're opening a pug petting zoo! I call the three boys, the Pug Pack!