Laura & Ethel

by Yasmin | 15 Apr, 2025 | Blog, Rescue Stories

Laura’s Story of Adopting Ethel

There are two 40^th Anniversaries this year, the 40^th Anniversary of EastEnders and the arrival of a very famous TV pug – Willie, belonging to Ethel Skinner and more importantly, the 40^th Anniversary of pugs entering my life, which was January 1985. I was a young teenager and my family got our first pug puppy, called Honey. I was the start of a 40-year pug adventure ending with the adoption of our very own Ethel! After a few years of having Honey in our lives, my Mum heard about PDWRA and she has adopted at least 4 pugs through PDWRA over the last 40 years, and that’s how I knew about pug adoption.

Due to work commitments and family life, a dog was not a viable option for our family for a number of years, but in 2018 my husband was made redundant and took a job with more flexible hours. We then thought about the prospect of getting a dog and I made the first move to contacting PDWRA. This was around September 2018 and it wasn’t too long until we were contacted for a home visit and the ball was rolling. My mum had warned it may be sometime before we heard anything but 2 or 3 weeks later a call came through from Paula Parke regarding a puppy pug that had become available. We weren’t too sure about a puppy, preferring a 2–3-year-old dog and Paula then mentioned a little pug called Ethel. “Tell me more” I said, and she did. 2 weeks later we were on our way to collect our very own little ‘Willie’! We can still remember the first time seeing her now, a tiny little thing bounding into the room after a tennis ball, which was as big as her head! From that moment on, we were smitten.  We drove home to where her 2 human sisters were patiently waiting and life changed forever, for the better. Ethel settled in reasonably quickly, we had originally said – “no sleeping in our bed”, but those big eyes and sad little face – 24 hours later she was on the bed in between us snoring away on her favourite soft blanket and she’s never looked back!

Ethel has had a few health issues, like all pugs she suffered with eye ulcers and after a particularly bad bout of them we spoke to the PDWRA who were excellent in referring us and helping with the costs, to an expert eye surgeon. Ethel had a cornea graft in the summer of 2021, it was a worrying time and after a few weeks of wearing the cone, numerous trips back and forth to the vet and LOTS of eye drops, the result was amazing and well worth having done.

Ethel was a tiny 5kg when we adopted her at the age of 2 and half, she has now been in her forever home with us for 6 years and due to her love of cheese, crisps, apple, chicken, roast beef, the list goes on, her weight has slowly crept up. She enjoys 2 or 3 walks a day, dry at an ambient temperature is always preferable! Ethel has also “enjoyed” a few trips away, she’s been to Devon, where she very much enjoyed trying to snack on sheep’s poop, and climbing up the various Tor’s. She’s also been to Rye and Camber Sands, where she’s really enjoyed a trot on the sand with some doggy friends of ours, but always looks at them like they are slightly mad when they go running off into the water – “wet paws, not for me” she says!  But as much as she’s enjoyed her trips away, you can tell Ethel’s absolute favourite place is in her own home, on the settee, next to either me or her Dad, squashed up next to one of us snoring away until a crisp packet rustles and you’ve never seen a pug move so fast!

Ethel is a lovely little pug, she is loving and attentive but at the same time can give you that moody side eye pug treatment when she feels like it! She’s 9 years old now, a senior, but still has quite youthful looks, even if tinged with some grey. She can still chase a squirrel or even an aeroplane in the back garden and jumping up at the TV when any non-human is on – not a problem! And even though crisps HAVE to be shared and nature programmes are a no-no, we wouldn’t have it any other way! Here’s to another 40 years of PDWRA and pug love.

Sam Harrington-Lowe – In Praise of Older Pugs…

by Yasmin | 14 Apr, 2025 | Blog, Rescue Stories

Sam Harrington-Lowe is Director, Founder and Managing Editor of Silver Magazine, an edgy, exciting online magazine for the 50+ market where she examines what your Midlife Coming of Age is, why it’s so amazing, and how you can get there!

Sam is a volunteer for PDWRA who fosters occasionally as well as transports whenever she can and there’s a need for it in her area. In March, Sam had an article published talking about how she has recently fostered a blind, deaf 15-year-old pug. She says that whilst this has made life a little more complicated it’s also been rather magical…

Miss Bones was Sam’s new arrival. She says that “Her owner died. Imagine being fostered out at 15 after a lifetime with one family. When she arrived she was frightened and in flight mode.

Incumbent Alice in front of Miss Bones.

Sam already had a pug, Alice Pickle, who we all knew could be a little diva and was fussy about fostering other pugs so Sam had to be careful offering sometimes! So, although Alice Pickle wasn’t a huge fan of Miss Bones at first, especially not understanding that Miss Bones is blind and why she bumps into her, it wasn’t too long before they starting to sit closer together.

“As for Miss Bones, she barely knows Alice is there. It’s very hard for a pug that can barely even see if it’s day or night. After a day or two crashing around trying to escape, the pheromone diffuser and industrial strength hemp oil kicked in and she settled, found her stride, started to trust us, and we formed some routines.”

“Miss Bones is amazing. She’s mapped out the ground floor of the house, doing laps over and over, touching things with her nose to test the boundaries, and walks around it without hesitation now.

We have to be careful of not ambushing her by leaving things lying around where she’s not expecting them. Added bonus is that my daughter now has to be tidier, or Miss Bones goes a cropper…”

As you can tell, with time and adjustments to help each other, Miss Bones found a very happy, secure and loving home with sisterly companionship in Alice Pickle. Thanks Sam!

Read Sam’s full article here

You can find out more about Silver Magazine here

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