Princess Pug Zoe

Our first dog: Bandit. When he was a pup, his mask was darker. Thus his name

Very young Steve

Miss Zoe

Yesterday I was sorting through papers (ruining my shredder forever) and came across our first pug's AKC papers. These arrived several months after we bought Zoe. I was very surprised to find out her registration name was Princess Pug Zoe. We were not told her name when we got her and named her by the time we got home. Josh wanted to name her Zo, after his favorite basketball player, Alonzo Mourning (what did she have in common with a basketball player? Besides both being black...) but I said since she was a female, maybe Zoe would be a better name. She was a cute, feisty thing. By the time she was only 18 months, she became very ill with lupus. Steroids slowed the progression but she died anyway. Josh was heartbroken. She was replaced a couple  of months later with Spud, the pug (registration name Leader of the Pack) who we had for 15 years. He has not been replaced. The kids have moved out and some of the grandkids are allergic. Plus I had envisioned doing more traveling while retired.

 Above is Zoe's replacement Spud trying to make friends with Sasha, the cat. Sasha was having none of that but as they both aged (Sasha was 22 when we had to put him asleep), he would be curled around Spud for warmth. Spud so resembled a lumpy potato, his name just spoke to me. And people would guess correctly his name. Spud did not have the feisty personality as Zoe did but was a very sweet dog.
We are awaiting word that we can start moving stuff into the house. They told us they would contact us by this morning. They better get cracking as a huge storm is coming our way and they are driving to around Charlestown, SC.

My neighbor called this morning in tears. Her husband died yesterday from Stage 4 prostate cancer. He was given about a year when diagnosed almost 9 years ago but the miracles extending his life ran out.