“Shall we do it?” Sitting on the sofa today with Ollie and Stan curled up next to us, it’s difficult to imagine how different our lives would be if we hadn’t said yes. But when we saw the boys on the PDWRA website, we both instantly knew they were the ones for us.
We’d been thinking about getting a dog for a while and knew we wanted to rescue. Becky’s family had rescued dogs, and the joy seeing them come out of their shell was something we wanted to give another dog. And we knew we wanted a pug, having fallen in love with the breed relatively recently. Pete’s sister has a 5-year-old black pug who lived with us for a few months during some building work. During that time, we learnt about the breed’s idiosyncrasies and fell in love. Even though we’d grown up with border collies and English bull terriers, for us it had to be a pug.
We followed the PDWRA Instagram page, and Pete’s sister would also share any pugs up for adoption. Then one night, we saw them… Ted and Henry were their aliases. As we read more about them, we couldn’t believe how amazing they sounded. And two of them, why not! After waiting to feel ready, we suddenly just knew.
“Shall we do it?” We both agreed it was a definite yes, so we filled out the form straight away, sent it over and hoped.
The next day we heard from Helen; throughout the entire process, she was always so responsive and helpful. The next few days we had everything crossed. The home check went well, we got to speak to Ollie and Stan’s fosterers and FaceTime with the boys. We were in love but always wanted to make sure we were the right home for them. When we heard that we’d been chosen, we were elated. We went into full-on preparation mode to get them the comfiest beds, buying their food, trying to not go overboard with toys!
It was a long drive to get the boys, so we met Rob, one of the fosterers, halfway. And so we set off as a two and came home as a four. We were very grateful Rob introduced us and they had different colour harnesses! We were a little worried we might get them mixed up once we took them off. Now when people say they can’t tell them apart, we can’t believe it!
Ollie and Stan are just the absolute best. They are sweet, funny, chilled out but also such characters. We really couldn’t imagine our lives without them. We are so fortunate that we’ve been given the opportunity to care for them. Ollie is definitely a snuggler who loves to curl up next to you in the mornings on the sofa and is always very excited for his food. Stan is our little Velcro dog who follows us around the house, he’s always happiest if he’s in the same room as one of us. He isn’t as excited about food but has a tendency for zoomies, and they both go a little bit bonkers after a bath!
Life with Ollie and Stan is just infinitely better. We definitely don’t get as much sleep as we did before, which is surprising considering how much they sleep! Everything now revolves around them. They’ve been at the very heart and centre of a lot of our decisions around our wedding – they were even involved in the proposal! They’ve taught us patience, they make us laugh, and they just bring us so much joy.
With the PDWRA everything was so clear. All the support subsequently after adopting them has also been amazing. Helen, Lorna and Rob provided lots of information to help us settle in the boys and were on hand to answer any questions. The Happy Pugs in Happy Homes Facebook group is also a really great resource if you’ve got a question about pugs.
We cannot thank the PDWRA enough for trusting us with these very special boys and we look forward to so many more years altogether as our new little family. We are so glad we did it, as they are the best thing to happen to us.
For anyone thinking of adopting a pug or thinking “shall we do it?” you’ll know when the time is right to say yes. We’re so happy we decided to say yes to Ollie and Stan and can’t picture our lives without them.
Pete & Becky
