Claire’s Story of Adopting Jethro
I stumbled across PDWRA on Facebook, the mega auction page. Already the owner of a black male pug, Pablo, I was looking for a UK based pug group. I started buying and it became my go to place for unique items that you can’t buy anywhere else.
Just over 2 years ago, my son left home and there was a huge void in the household. Pablo missed him terribly as did I. Then my husband spotted that Margo was up for adoption and thought she would be a good fit. Unfortunately, we were not successful, quite rightly she went to someone who had been waiting longer than us.
Not too long after, I had a call to say that a male the same age as Pablo was being surrendered and would we be interested? We jumped at the chance! After meeting Jethro, we agreed to adopt him. We brought him home and Pablo accepted his new brother easily.
The first weeks were a huge learning curve, Jethro was very protective of food, and not just his! He wouldn’t make eye contact with anyone and was not keen on lots of fuss. I took the first week off work to help him settle in. He was brilliant walking off the lead and even went for a swim in the sea, much to Pablo’s disgust! So, I had one pug who would walk around puddles and one who would just barrel through them. Jethro slept downstairs for the first few nights, he then realised that Pablo slept on the bed with us and he came up as well. Many a time he’s actually snuggled up under the duvet, in the middle, nice and warm. After the first week, I was back in work, my husband messaged me, he’d had to call the fire brigade as Jethro had got his head stuck in the hole of his raised bowl!!!
My husband is a fluent Welsh speaker and we discovered that Jethro responded to Welsh! A bilingual dog! Slowly, Jethro has become so settled and gazes at us, he smiles and nudges us when he wants a fuss. So different than when we first had him. Sadly, between Christmas and new year, Pablo crossed the rainbow bridge, it was sudden and unexpected. However he went in my arms and Jethro was at my side, he knew. Jethro now has a little sister called Ziva, the smile on Jethro’s face when we brought her home said it all.
Jethro is 10 now and slowing down physically, he doesn’t miss a trick though and runs to greet me when I come home from work. To anyone who is considering adoption, go for it, it is so rewarding, PDWRA are so supportive and helpful. You do need truckloads of patience, but it’s worth it!
