In April 2004 I was looking at the pugs available for adoption from APRA. Suddenly this beautiful little fawn face with the eyes of the warmest soul took my breath away. She is Sophie. My first thought was why is this beautiful girl in rescue? Then I realized after further reading that she is blind, and also a “senior pug” of 8 years. I painfully admit that I had seen her before on the website and when I realized her age and that she was blind I convinced myself I was not interested, and kept going.
A good friend of mine has a wonderful blind pug boy named Kramer. Kramer is “Skinny” in “Letter to a backyard breeder”. I pumped her many times over about how it was with Kramer, a pug who unlike Sophie was blind since birth. She told me at first that there were some potty accidents, but before long once Kramer got into the routine the accidents became fewer and fewer. I asked her a question and expected an honest answer which of course I got … “Linda do you think I could/should adopt a blind pug?” She said yes without hesitation. I already had 3 pugs at the time, all of them sighted, and one of them being a rescue from SEPRA, so I figured “hey what‘s one more?”
Now to convince hubby! We had just adopted Phoebe (formerly Reese) from SEPRA in October 2003, and at that time he had said “no more”. I played it cool for a while, knowing all the time that Linda was going to arrange a “chance meeting” for us with Sophie when we were in Alabama for POP 2004 in May. Well we went to POP and as promised (Thank you Linda! J ) we had our “chance meeting” with Sophie. She stayed for a few hours with us, in the pen with our other three pugs as hubby kept a watchful eye. I was helping setting up/manning the craft booth. I looked over at one time to witness this little puggie girl Sophie and my husband having a conversation. They were barking at each other! I knew then and there that she had captured his heart and whether he knew it or not he was as hooked, lined and sunk , as I was for her!! Before we left POP to head for home (a 13 hour drive away) we went over to visit Sophie one more time at the tent of “ A place for hope”.
Tom admitted to me then that he had gone back over to her later in the day after Linda had taken her back to “a place for hope” to visit with her once again. He told me she was the only one out of the ? dozen or so other pugs in that tent that paid him any mind. She seemed to look right into his soul. We were home a few days and I asked if I could fill out an application. He said “I must be crazy or maybe you are but, yes” I was ecstatic! I filled out the application gave Linda as a reference and waited with baited breath. I heard back from Pam and she said that our application had been reviewed and we needed to schedule a home inspection. The home inspection was completed by an APRA volunteer in Florida and we passed ! It took some begging and pleading to get Pam to let her go, she needed to know without a doubt that this wonderful little pug that she calls “Soph sweet” was getting a forever home that would cherish and love her they way she and Larry do. We drove 13 hours to Alabama and 13 hours back to bring her home.
It’s been months now since we brought her home, and if you met her you’d never know she’s blind! She knows this house and her backyard better than any of our other pugs, and she is so well adjusted and happy!
She has even begun turning little pugtonas on the floor at bed time, tucking her tail under and running these happy little circles! In a matter of a few days I taught her to "down" and she does it now without hesitation, sometimes without me even asking! Can't teach an old dog new tricks??? Hah! Tell that to Sophie!
We love her sooo much and are so glad we dropped our negative thinking about adopting a blind dog! She is truly a treasure and we love her more everyday!
Thank you Pam and Larry for letting us take home a piece of your hearts to love, and for giving love unconditional to all the pugs in need that cross your path!
