He was found after a panicked 10 minutes in the basement under a piece of furniture and before we picked him up we knew. He was diagnosed with Pug dog encephalitis (PDE). His immune system was attacking his brain. Over the next 4 months, his life was a cocktail of medication every 2 hours, MRIs, and chemo treatments. It was so hard watching our man fight for his life trying to learn how to stand and walk again. Our living room consisted of foam flooring, a playpen and a medication station. We celebrated Christmas with Diesel and said goodbye in early 2015. As a family, we were devastated and as a big dog person, I was adamant that we would never have another little dog again.

We had dealt with the loss of a pets before but nothing like that. He was so sick and to lose him so young was just complete anguish. We were involved with a local pug group at that time and I asked if we could just come to the next meet-up for some pugs and kisses. We arrived at the next meet-up, walked in and sat down in the middle of the floor and cried surrounded by 20+ healthy pugs. We had forgotten what it felt like and how Diesel was before he had gotten sick. Our hearts healed a little more that day and I knew before we walked out I would be a pug mom again. For months after our devastating loss, I was looking through Kijiji and found a lady that had purebred pugs just North of the city. I was hesitant but knew we needed to have a healthy puppy to grow with and have a positive experience. We will never ever forget Diesel for he was our first pug love but we are so grateful for Ruben and the healing he enabled us to go through. We had one hell of a 2nd Birthday Paw-ty for him!

 

We tried for quite a while to rescue a pug through different organizations but the most common answer we got was “sorry you are out of province” and even “sorry you are out of state”. We started close to home heading east and west from province to province but had no luck. Then we started our journey south into the States. Once again there were pugs for adoption but none were able to join our family because of rescue policies. We were willing to fly or drive to pick them up but another concern was if we changed our mind about keeping them there was no way the rescue could get them back. We hated it but sadly understood why that rule existed. Then it happened! We found Pug Nation Rescue in L.A. and an immediate bond was formed. Over the last 5 years, we have adopted 21 babies from them (and rescued 2 locally) Each one has been as wonderful and beautiful as the next. They are an amazing Rescue that we are proud to be a part of as adopters and look forward to continuing our relationship with them in the future.