Oh, Pug People, you are SO going to enjoy today’s interview because Ronnie, Bogie’s Person, is honestly hilarious and has as many quips as there are pug hairs floating in the atmosphere. She’s also a marvel, the founder of Grumble, Inc., @grumble_inc and doing so much to raise money for rescue pugs and Ukraine. Bogie pretty much slept through the interview, but woke up occasionally to dash off a couple of jokes of his own. Enjoy this wonderful duo, Pug People!
PP: Ronnie!
Ronnie: I’m very glad I was able to get on Zoom, it’s not something I do all the time.
PP: We’re proud of you. It must have been the power of the pug.
Ronnie: I’ve got my Bogie tumbler to drink from during the interview. My friend Cynthia who raises money for High Rollers Club had it made for me, because I donated a lot of Bogie plushy toys for auction. I posted about it on my page, but if I read it, I’m gonna cry. I’m a crier.
PP: We love that you’re a crier! We’re hoping for some tears during our time together.
Ronnie: Yeah, I watch a movie and I cry so hard, you’d think I just lost somebody in my family.
PP: We cry watching the news.
Ronnie: Especially with Ukraine.
PP: Yes, thank you for all you’ve done to raise money.
Ronnie: Well, everyone joined in and supported, because that’s the pug community. That’s what we do.
PP: We love the pug community so much.
Ronnie: When I start Grumble, Inc. back in 2016, it was so pugs could make new friends. You know, because I think they’re human. And they would see their pug’s picture posted and it was like they were a frigging celebrity. And everyone started to feel like they were part of a community.
PP: It’s amazing you keep up with both those accounts. They seem pretty labor intensive.
Ronnie: I’m like a manager of a star. Whenever I’m walking Bogie and I see another pug, I tell the person, “Oh, you should follow Bogie on Instagram, he’s kinda famous.”
PP: You’re the Kris Jenner of the pug world.
Ronnie: That’s a good one. Put that one in the interview.
PP: We will. So, Ronnie, how did this all start, this pug devotion?
Ronnie: One of my friends got a pug named Henry and I saw that pug and absolutely fell in love, I was sick for it. I loved that pug so much, I had a picture of him on my desk at work. And people would say, “Is that your pug?” and I would say “Uh… no.” And then I became an official pug stalker, you know, you see one on the street and you’re chasing after it?
PP: That’s how we started, too.
Ronnie: I eventually had a few fawn pugs that I adored, but I always, always wanted a black pug. One of my pug friends, Susan, used to say, “I see a black pug sitting on your lap.”
Ronnie: And if she saw any black pugs in the classified ads—this is a long time ago, of course—she'd write “I want you to be my mom” on it and send me a picture. It got to be kind of crazy after a while. But one day while I was volunteering at the Humane Society and I’m in the back with the dogs and all of a sudden, I see this black pug sitting there.
PP: Score!
Ronnie: The weird thing is, I was taking pictures that day and I still have the one I took of him—and in the picture in the upper corner of the cage, there were angel wings. And I said to myself, “That’s Susan.” She always said I was going to get a black pug.
PP: Aw, we love that!
Ronnie: I know other people would say it was the lighting or a reflection off the stainless steel of the cage, but I believe it was an angel. And I kind of had to fight for Bogie, he had a lot of health issues, but after he met my other pugs, Lily and Louie, the next thing I know I’m putting him in my car and taking him home. Apparently, the people who surrendered him had two pugs and they found a home for the other one, but not Bogie. And the way I look at it, it was their loss, because look at my Bogie. Look at my man.
PP: Your main man.
Ronnie: We’ve accomplished so many things, this little rescue pug. I couldn’t do it without him. Well, he couldn’t do it without me either, since he has no thumbs and can’t post on Instagram.
PP: Whenever we’re scrolling and see that handsome black and gray face with the peekaboo tongue, we’re like “Bogie!”
Ronnie: I call him the George Clooney of pugs.
*Pause while the Pug Sisters freak out because Candy used to call her pug Roscoe the George Clooney of pugs. We all have ‘a moment’.
Ronnie: When Bogie has his bowtie and bowler hat on, he looks like he’s going to the Oscars. With Rosie on his arm.
PP: With his tiny tongue and her huge tongue. What a couple.
*Since we conducted this interview, a big event happened: Bogie proposed to Rosie @ourpugrosie and they’re engaged!
PP: Ronnie, what do you love most about the pug breed?
Ronnie: Pugs are like no other dog. I know because I recently got a Frenchie and… (whispers) they’re crazy. They really are. I don’t want him to hear me. He’s upstairs and I swear he can hear me. (back to normal voice) Anyway… pugs have this sweet comical personality. They’re just the best breed. I think I should have had Bogie be a therapy dog, he would have been great. But he’s eleven, it’s probably too late now.
PP: Well, he’s your therapy dog.
Ronnie: True. When I lost my Lily, he was my go-to man. Okay, this isn’t funny, but… when I had the vet tech come in to put Lily to sleep, she was on the couch and she was snoring. So loud. And it’s a serious time, so emotional, and on a scale of one to ten, she’s snoring a full ten. And of course, the vet starts laughing and she doesn’t want to laugh, because this is so emotional… Oh, it was crazy. But Bogie stuck by me.
PP: Not to bring up a sore topic on top of that lovely story, but we heard that Bogie, for all his classiness, is a muncher of poop.
Ronnie: You heard right.
PP: So, we have a fix for you, Ronnie. Candy’s pug Roscoe, the other George Clooney of pugs, used to do the same thing and she found out that if you put a little canned pumpkin in their food, it makes the poop unpalatable for them.
Ronnie: That’s great. Except then he’ll just eat other dogs’ poop.
PP: Oh. Good point. Well, Ronnie, we have only one more question for you. What’s your True Pug Confession?
Ronnie: Well, I do kiss him on his heart-shaped tongue. It’s the sweetest part of him. It’s like “your tongue looks dry, let me moisturize it”, you know?
PP: We do know. We really do.
