Today, July 15th, makes a whole year since we drove across town to pick up Frank and Beans, my two pugs. It’s our one year furever family day. If you haven’t already, feel free to check out our pug adoption story blog post to learn how it all came about.

A few weeks ago, my pet hedgehog Henry passed away. I went to fill his food dish one day and realized that he hadn’t eaten much since the last time I filled it. So I started looking him over and realized that he had a strange looking growth on the roof of his mouth. I gave him a tiny piece of chicken and he chewed it but couldn’t seem to swallow. So we took him to the vet who told us these oral growths are very common in hedgehogs. She said she had tried to remove several but had never had one be successful. There isn’t any way to ‘shrink them’, and they just grow over time until they are unable to eat at all. I knew it was already affecting his ability to eat and didn’t want him to suffer so we had him put down. It was really difficult. Henry was the first pet that I ever had as an adult and even though I only had him for 3.5 years, it’s strange to not have him around anymore.

Anyway, my reason for sharing about Henry is it’s made me really aware of the fact that my time with Frank & Beans is limited. I would love to see them both live another ten years (I’ve heard of pugs living to 20 and 21, though its of course rare). But the reality is that they are now 9 and 10 years old. They both still get around really well, and will run and play whenever I start roughousing or playing with them. Maybe once a week they will still get sassy and invite a play-session on their own. While they clearly aren’t puppies, they don’t seem like they have truly ‘slowed down’ to me. My mother in laws 7 year old dog is much more sedentary than Frank & Beans. Yet, we really have no way of ever knowing how long they have. It could be 10 years or it could be 2 weeks. Since losing Henry, I have found myself being so conscious and “in the moment” to play with them, give them extra-long petting or scratching sessions. My pugs are truly such precious gifts. Someday they won’t be here to jump on me, wake me up, sneeze in my face, or to play, cuddle, run or just BE with. I am so thankful that I decided to take the risk and bring them both home a year ago today. It’s easily one of the better decisions I’ve made. I have no idea how many more years I have with these two pugs but I’m going to try to make the most of the time that we do have.

Happy furever family day Frank & Beans.