27/12/2022
How I miss you. It’s been three and a half years without you. Three and a half years too many.
Ferguson
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Ferguson is a black pug living in Music City in Nashville, TN.
28/06/2020
Hard to believe it has been a year since Gus crossed rainbow bridge. He was the best pug in the world. I miss him every day.
30/06/2019
Gus and His first workplace:
When we first brought Gus home, I worked close enough to home that I could run home for lunch if Jeff was on the road.
My boss asked what Gus was doing when Jeff was traveling and told me that Gus was welcome to come to work with me. So a baby gate and all of the accoutrements that come with a puppy became a part of the landscape of my office.
It didn’t take long for Gus to endear himself to our staff. He became our therapy dog, in his sweet little way. One of the attorneys, Evelyn, would get down on her hands and knees to play with him and it didn’t take long for him to head to her office as soon as we walked in the door. Others would come and get him to sleep on their lap while they worked.
One day, the managing attorney appeared at my door and asked if Gus was at work and that she needed to borrow him and disappeared with the little black ball of fur for a time.
Gus had very special work to do that day.
The agency was interviewing law school students for an internship with the agency. An interviewee was in the attorney’s office and was very shy. She was having a very difficulty getting through the interview.
Martie decided she needed to hold a puppy, so she came and got Gus and put the little guy in her arms.
And it made all the difference in the world. The interview went well and the student was given the internship.
After I left the agency, we would come for a visit from time to time. When they were still in the same office, we would walk in the door and he would run to Evelyn’s office, looking for a friendly fight.
29/06/2019
The Pugacure
I never knew that dogs licking feet was a thing until I met my cousin, Tim’s dog Rocky. He started licking my feet and they wore completely cleaned by the time I was done (which was before Rocky was.)
I have always hated anyone touching my feet. Attempts to tickle them resulted in danger to any part of the offenders body I could kick to make them stop.
So when Ferguson first eyed my feet and started to lick them, I decided to see how long it would last. forty five minutes later, I couldn’t outlast him. I was done!
It was an obsession. It was something he seemed to have to do. I wasn’t his only victim in the household, he would insist on Isaac’s participation in this pugritual that he was driven to do.
It was strangely a weird, pleasant experience. It was like getting a foot massage, only with this really disgusting sound of the wet, sloppy kisses. An unexpected benefit was that I tended to have dry, cracked heals on my feet, but Gus’ gift resulted in smooth heals.
If he saw bare feet, you could see a shift in his attention and he was ready to go. At night, he would walk to the foot of the bed, expectantly. Impatiently. Socks came off,he would stand and the nightly ritual would begin.
Sleep was not permitted until the ritual was complete. Attempts to bypass a night would result in an attempt to sneak under the covers to complete the task at hand.
It was his crack.
He would start standing, finding the perfect place to start. Soon, his eyes would closet and he would lay down, almost like he was in a zen sort of trance. He would start between the toes and cover the foot with purpose and his own methodology.
I was talking to our vet about it one visit and he told me that there was a purpose to the behavior. We detoxify through the sweat of our feet and the sweat contains a lot of chemical information about our physical wellbeing. He said that, in a sense, it was a way that he kept tabs on me and my health. Dogs collect information about their world through their sense of smell and taste.
There were also times he seemed to scan me with his nose. I watched him scan the back of a coworker, who later told me that the three places he stopped were the three places where she had surgery to remove skin cancer. He didn’t linger long, so I think he knew, but moved on. If there was something to worry about, he wouldn’t have let it go.
I have always believed since Dr. Gus alerted me to a cancerous tumor in my left breast, he knew more about my physical health than any of my medical team combined. I also believe that if the cancer came back, he would know before medicine could find it. So did some of my medical team.
He knew when I was sick. He knew when the people he loved the most were sick. There were subtle changes in his behavior when he was around another cancer survivor. He was that tuned in with that aspect of the people around him. And knowing that Gus knew that I was okay helped me. I could rest in knowing that he was my early detection system if the cancer came back.
We nicknamed this daily ritual, this obsession, a pugacure.
I miss it already.
27/06/2019
It is with a broken heart that I have to tell you that Ferguson died today. He collapsed and was taken to the vet. He died of heart failure a short time later.
Gus was special. When he was fourteen months old, he alerted me to a lump on my left breast that I had been told was nothing to worry about. But Gus would not leave it alone. I decided to get a second opinion and was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer.
He was superhero whose gift was detecting cancer.
He saved my life.
Until a couple of months, he was my constant companion. He was with me 24/7 for nearly three years.
I am absolutely gutted.
He was the best dog ever.
21/06/2019
A snug pug...
04/04/2019
This little guy came home to us six years ago. Little did we know how much we needed him.
30/03/2019
Visiting the Depot Museum in Paradise today.
10/02/2019
How a pug sleeps...
03/02/2019
Happy Birthday to this guy. Six years ago, he came into the world and eight weeks later, he became a part of our family, Little did we know how much we needed him. At fourteen months, he detected a major health condition and saved my life. Two and a half years ago, he officially became my medical alert dog and he has been my constant companion ever since.
He has traveled to Colorado, Kentucky, Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, North Carolina, Arkansas, Georgia, West Virginia, California, and Puerto Rico with me with work. We have weathered many things since he became my service dog. Everyday, he has chosen to make it his job to take care of me. I have no doubt that he knows more about my health than all of my doctors combined - if only he could talk. Sometimes I wonder if he wishes to just be a dog and I have no doubt he is grateful for the moments when he gets to be just that. I watch as he takes on other people. I often know when someone else he loves is not feeling well just by watching how he interacts with them.
I’ve watched him crawl on the the lap of a seatmate on a plane and look at me with eyes that said, “She needs me more than you do right now” and watched him snuggle into her in a way I have only seen him do with me. I knew she was not well. At the end of the flight she thanked me for letting her hold him during the flight. She told me she really needed it, she hadn’t been well for awhile and it was good for her.
We have also experienced discrimination. I have no doubt that because he is a pug, not your typical service dog, people assume I paid a fee to have him registered at some bogus website, but I have a prescription for him from a medical provider. I have had people try to assault him at hotels, been denied entry into restaurants, experienced discrimination in the workplace, had poor treatment by other passengers on a plane. We have experience first hand ignorance of the laws about service animals.
And honestly, I would rather not need him but I am so grateful that God put him into my life. He has been an amazing part of my journey in this world.
Today I celebrate his snorts and snoring, his daily pugacures (pug version of footwashing) and pug bursts, and his head tilt. I love that he makes me smile every day, he snuggles in when I am sick and when I am sad. And sometimes, he just snuggles in. I love how he finds his favorite people wherever we go, how others seem drawn to him and grow to love him so quickly. I love that he takes on some of my coworkers, or chooses to take care of someone else who is having a hard time ina way that seems to say, “I’m here. I’ve got you covered!”
He takes on more than a 17 pound little guy should ever carry. I am so blessed to call him mine. Or maybe it’s that I am blessed that I’m his person.
So celebrate Gus with me today.
Happy Birthday Gus.
21/12/2018
My seat mate from Nashville, Grace! Happy Holidays!
14/12/2018
We’re home! Thanks, Bonnie for being such great company on the way home!
14/12/2018
My new friend from Denver, Bonnie!
10/12/2018
Sleepy pug 💤
10/12/2018
What happens to alligator tails when Gus is around....
12/11/2018
Had a great time in Ohio with my Bop and Gram. Now back to Nashville and off to California on Wednesday.
04/11/2018
New friend, Amanda on our way home from 🇵🇷!
26/10/2018
Saying goodbye to my workmates. I will miss them!
26/10/2018
Saying see you later to Carole...
26/10/2018
Gus and his plane mates Shaun and Jim
25/10/2018
Saying goodbye to friends in Aguadilla...
13/10/2018
Waiting for Jeff to drop a piece of snapper... or red beans and rice...just waiting.
30/09/2018
Gus and his new friend, Izzy Molina, former catcher for Oakland.
22/08/2018
Hello from Isabela, 🇵🇷
11/08/2018
Gus and his new friend, Edward, at Paradise Scuba & Snorkeling Center
15/07/2018
I’m not quite sure what to do with all this space...
14/07/2018
The Condado Vanderbilt Hotel has been our Puerto Rico home for the last six months. Tomorrow, we move to the west side of the island to work at a branch office there. We will miss our Condado family so very much.
14/07/2018
Gus and Amanda
14/07/2018
Gus and Javier
14/07/2018
Gus and our friend, Rafael!
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