Our Friend, Payton

We have lost a friend.

Mom & I found Payton's blog sometime last year (pre-Vinny), and we were both so inspired by her. She was a real-life miracle pug. PDE is a dirty "word" in the Pug world. It's terrifying. Pugs with PDE don't survive for long. But Payton did! She fought and she not only survived, but she thrived! She amazed everyone, including her doctors. And that was thanks in huge part, we all believe, to her incredible family, including her mom, dad, and her grandparents, who we all know as Gammy and Gampy.

We were lucky enough to actually meet Payton, her mom, and her Gammy last summer, when they came to our house at the same time as our friend Hank came to visit from Indianapolis on his Summer 2011 Midwest Tour. We didn't even realize at the time how close Payton lived to us. Mom remembered that Payton lived in Illinois (we live in St. Louis), so she decided on a whim to email Payton's mom and see if she might want to make a (what we thought at the time might be a long) drive over the river and join us? We were so surprised when her Mom told us that the drive was super-short and they had actually taken Payton to the patio of the coffee shop down the street from our house just a few weeks before!

We had so much fun that day meeting Payton. She was unsure of us at first. Her mom told us that she hadn't been around a lot of other pugs before so we were quite a test for her (because Vinny is kind of out of control, I am an angel of course... um, yeah, that's the story). But Payton held her own! She let us know when we were out of line! (Which we were!) Payton came out of her shell so much that day and it led to so many more adventures for her. She ended up going on so many travels & meeting so many of our other blog friends in the following months! We were SO proud of her!! This little girl, given such a scary diagnosis, let nothing stop her.

Payton, her Mom, and Gammy at our house

Vinny being annoying and Payton being adorable

Hank (and his Mom Sarah), Me, Vinny (and our Mom) and Payton (and her Mom Christy).
Payton was giving us the stink-eye that we deserved.

Today, we learned that our sweet friend went to the Bridge. She fought as hard and for as long as she could. Payton will forever be a legend in Pugdom. Despite drawing the short straw early in life with PDE, she defied all of the predictions. And she did that because of her mom, dad, Gammy & Gampy. She knew how lucky she was to have landed in the most amazing family a pug could ever have. She could not disappoint them. She loved them too much.

Sweet Payton - you succeeded. You not only fought, but you taught even seasoned, expert doctors new things, so that they can help more pugs like you in the future. You are a hero, Payton. And you loved every minute of your life, thanks to your family who devoted everything to you.

We miss you already and we hope that your family can heal soon and that you can give them the strength to do that from the Bridge by letting them know that you are happy there with your friends who went before you.


We love you sweet, beautiful, brave girl.

Vito, Vinny and Gina

Pug Party 2012!

On Saturday we went to a big pug party! It was a gathering of SEPRA volunteers, fosters & adopters. There were so many of my cousins there!

This is Piper. She is a tiny little pugger! Four years old and only 11 pounds! She had a liver shunt like Vinny when she was only 6 months old.

Piper and her mom

This is Theodore (Teddy). He is 8 years old and had heartworms & was just neutered two days before! He will be up for adoption soon & you can see his Special Needs page on the SEPRA site here!

Teddy with his foster mama.

This is Julie with her dad. She is 15 years old and a parapalegic. Her parents take such good care of her!

Julie and her mom

This is Bella Joy - Mom said she was Louie's twin! She is getting adopted this week!

Pug imposter! This is Anne!

I panted the whole time even though it wasn't hot. I was just so excited!

Me and my brother Vinny

LOOK WHO SHOWED UP AND SURPRISED MOM! It was Jax! She started crying like a little girl and it was so embarrassing. Vinny and I pretended like we didn't know her after that til it was time to go home.

Mom and Jax (now known as Jackson with SEPRA)

Mom swears he was smiling here. But she is often delusional.

Jax's new foster mom took him for a second opinion on his hips last week. They are going to do surgery this Thursday! Mom is happy about that but also nervous. He also has a problem with one of his knees but they are going to do this hip surgery first to see if that helps. If you have any spare change, SEPRA could really use help with the cost of his surgery. Any little bit helps, honestly! Fingers crossed that this helps him live a normal puggie life! You can see his page here and donate at the bottom where it says "Virtual Foster."

There were even more puggies there but Mom didn't get pics of all of them. We had a great time and boy were we tired when we got home!

Finally, here are some new pics of Louie and his family, taken for his brother's 2nd birthday! They are pretty cute, I must admit!!

We'll talk to you guys soon! Mom is planning to get caught up on everyone's blogs this week! Later, friends!

PS from Mom: look at my new pug print! I LOOOOOOVE IT! You can get one too, with any background color!

Yep, We're Still Alive

Not much going on in this neck of the woods. Except that it's super warm so we've been getting to play outside a lot in the evenings! Our favorite thing is to root around in the grass with our non-existent snouts.

Mom had actually wiped off our faces before this picture - she missed some.

Mom made us put on flea treatment a little earlier than normal because it's been so warm. I wish flea treatment came in food form. But alas, it just comes in some wet stuff that goes on my back after I get Furminated. I looooove getting Furminated. Vinny DOES NOT. And he's the big shedder! That's what Mom gets for getting me a brother! Karma, lady.

Mom got us some new collars. Do you hate having your collar taken off? WE DO! And I especially hate having it put back on. Mom hates putting the little tags back on the collars. I say we all lose. But oh no, she thinks we need to have clean sparkly collars like we are some kind of show-ponies instead of PUGS.

Here's Vinny telling Mom it's time to go to bed. She stays up way too late on weekends. This was her signal on Saturday night that it was time to hit the hay.

And just because, Mom says we have to throw in this picture of Louie because it's "so so so cute." Whatevs!


That's all, folks! We'll write again when we have something exciting to say. Who knows when that will be.

Later friends!

PS From Mom: I still can't post on most of your blogs! Those that have a "pop-up" comment box work just fine! But those that don't - I can either see others' comments but there is nowhere for me to comment (and yes I'm signed in) OR I click on "comment" and it just goes to a white screen! Ugh! I'm even mostly caught up on reading but can't leave you fun little notes! Don't take it personally! Hank, Payton, Payton's Gampy, etc. etc. miss you all! And shout-out to a blog we just discovered - Mr. Bean! TOO incredibly cute and funny!

PS Again: Payton's awesome Mom just told me how to make our blog have the "pop-up" comment box! You should try it too so we can comment on your blogs again (even though I don't know why we suddenly can't when we used to able to)! Go to your dashboard, select Settings, then Comments, then scroll down to where you select how your comments appear, i.e. Imbedded, Pop-Up, etc. Choose Pop-Up!

Playing Catch-Up (and Stupid Vets!)

I'm back! Since I last talked to you, Mom took me to the vet. Usually I like going to the vet but this time I knew something was... DIFFERENT. First of all, I DIDN'T GET BREAKFAST. And you better believe I barked my head off the WHOLE time Mom was getting ready! Then we went to the vet's office. I was suspicious. Then some crazy lady came out and tried to take me from Mom. Mom just handed over my leash! This was unusual! So I went ahead and tried to follow Mom out but Mom just walked away! (Full disclaimer: she didn't walk away happy, she was kind of teary. Oh cry me a river, lady!) Finally that crazy lady just picked me up and whisked me away! I don't remember a lot after that, until Mom picked me up later that day. I was WOOZY and I wasn't even excited to see her.

Turns out, I had my teeth cleaned - and they pulled two of them right out of my mouth! Mom wasn't happy and neither was I! The vet said my teeth in the back were super crowded and had caused some gross-ness. (Apparently smush-faces equal smush-teeth!) Also while I was under, they removed this gross bump from my side. (I blogged about it here.) I have seven stitches! It was zero fun and I was pretty sad on Friday night.

No more gross skin tag!

I was sleepy. (Mom's note: "and precious!")

But don't you worry, I was back to my bossy spirited self on Saturday!

Now for some catch-up, not only for Mom being lazy but for Mom's stupid iPhone and how now she only takes pictures with her phone & is super...wait for it...LAZY about getting pictures from her phone on to MY BLOG! So here is some eye candy for Vinny's and my admirers.

Night-night!

Vinny

Vinny after getting his belly rubbed. He only likes his belly rubbed in bed. He's weird.

That's me and I would like Mom to turn off the lights so I can burrow in to my usual spot under the covers slammed in to her stomach.

Random picture of Vinny after likely stealing that Nylabone from ME.

Me being extremely comfortable. Don't you sleep with your foot in your eye?

Alright, I have some laying around to do now, so I must say: Later friends!

PS Jax Update: he was neutered last week and had a dental - he had to have SEVEN teeth removed! So Mom says I should stop whining. ;)