Since Kiko was very little, we have been taking him to pug parties. Yes, you read that correctly. There is a subculture of people who own pugs and feel compelled to get 30-40 of them (or sometimes in exponentially larger groups) together in one house for an afternoon of butt-sniffing, snorting, sneezing, and meandering around in one big swarm. They are like bees in movement, when together in large groups. I still remember his first pug party, when he was about 16 or 17 weeks old. We dropped him into the crowd of pugs and he was off, tail wagging, sniffing everybody’s booty, and having a grand ole’ time. Since then we have actually held our own pug party, for Kiko’s first birthday party. In attendance were 23 pugs, two bulldogs, and a chihuahua (although I believe the chihuahua was more of a blouse accessory than another birthday party participant). We had a doggy birthday cake made of carob and other dog-friendly ingredients, and there were lots of happy pugs running, jumping, and rolling around in our backyard for a few hours.
Since moving to Illinois, we have not found another pug party group like the ones we were involved in, in Orlando. It seemed people just aren’t as weird here I guess, or at least weird people don’t congregate together as much. That was until I stumbled upon the Pug Crawl of Chicago. It’s exactly what you’re thinking it is . . . a pub crawl, but with people and their pugs. For the last two years Sam and I have been trying to go, but it always seems to fall around the time I have to study for midterm exams. Then, this fall it finally fell on a weekend we could get up to Chicago. So we packed Kiko and all his paraphenalia into the Honda Element and drove ourselves towards Pug Fantasyland. When we got there, there were over 200 pugs in this one establishment and it was hysterical. Pugs were dressed up, in strollers, with party hats on, and hanging out in every corner of the place. We had a good time that day, and Kiko was zonked out at the end. I’m including some pictures of the party, and then pictures of Kiko passed out on the ride home. I think he slept for two days after that party. 😉
