Pugging Out

Back in June, Ritche's co-worker brought to work a little Pug named "Bubbles." Ritche was immediately enamored with it, and two days later I found myself in a car with Ritche driving almost 2 hours to "look" at Bubbles' litter mate.  On the drive back home, we were trying to decide on names so I tossed out "June," meaning: we got her in June and she's a June Bug/Pug. Ritche looked down at her and called "Juno" and she immediately looked up.  

I never considered the Pug breed before I met Juno. In fact, I wasn't a huge fan of small, toy breed dogs.  I am a fan of goofy dogs and fortunately her little package is stuffed with tons of character!  Shortly after we got Juno, I watched the movie Marie Antoinette and was intrigued by the fact that she too had a Pug named "Mops."  Then a few weeks ago Suzanne sent me some pictures from the June issue of Italian Vogue, featuring model Linda Evangelista and a bunch of Pugs, and it got me thinking about our little Juno...who is she?

I already knew from the movie Juno that Juno was a Roman Goddess who was married to Zeus. According to Wiki, Juno was the protector and special counselor of the Roman state.  She's the daughter of Saturn, and sister AND wife (you know how the Romans use to "do") of Jupiter, and mother to Juventas, Mars and Vulcan. 

When we first brought Juno home I got her a stuffed toy that is a lamb. It's big enough to line her crate, so I thought it would be a nice for her to sleep on. She often pulls it out of her crate and tries to rip its head open.  Coincidentally, every year on the first of March in Rome, women held a festival in honor of Juno, and on this day lambs and cattle were sacrificed in her honor.  

I wonder if the Roman Juno also peed on the floor and took a long time to potty train.

Here's a picture of our Juno and her sacrificed lamb.

  

Kirsten Dunst as Marie Antoniette and her Pug, Mops.  I've also read that 

way back in the day, toy breeds were popular among Royalty because they 

were small enough to carry and keep their owners warm.

Supermodel, Linda Evangelista and her supermodel Pugs.

This is what Juno and I strive to look like every morning.

Juno is now going on 5 months, and she's starting to really to show her true colors. She's so much fun that I can't imagine not having her around.  Who knows? Maybe down the road we'll add to our collection and get a "Jupiter" or "Mars" into the mix.  Then I could dress up like Audrey Hepburn and we can "Vogue."