It’s a very special day here at Tales of Pug People, because we are bringing you the Honduras Grumble, a group of ten, count ‘em, TEN pugs, and their very special People, Sandra and Pedro. The only way one could pull off a ten-count grumble is with a great sense of humor and very tender hearts, and you’ll soon see that Pedro and Sandra have both (plus a pug photography studio in their house). Enjoy!
PP: So, we have to start off by telling you that Candy sent a picture of your ten pugs to her husband with the caption “I’m moving to Honduras because this woman is living my best life.”
Sandra: (laughs) Everyone is always like, how do you handle it? I say, it’s easy.
PP: We’re thinking once you get past four of five, it’s all a wash, right? You just make and stick to the routine.
Sandra: We don’t have a very specific routine, honestly. We’re just rolling.
PP: Wow. Okay. So, Sandra and Pedro, tell us how this all happened; where you started and how you ended up… here.
Sandra: I was not a dog person in the beginning.
PP: What?!
Sandra: No. My parents had dogs, but they always said dogs are to take care of the house; that is what they teach me. So… everything started with a small lie. Pedro always wanted a pug, so before we got married he got one and I said, “you’re taking that to your mother’s house, right?”
Pedro: My mother always had small dogs, but when the last one died, she said, “no more dogs”. But I saw Men in Black and I wanted a pug, so I had to lie and say “Oh, well, someone gave it to Sandra and she can’t have it at her parents’ house because of the big dogs.”
Sandra: And my mother-in-law crumbled; she was the one who gave the name, because I wanted Mulan, but she didn’t like it. She said, “Molly”. So, yes, Molly… Mulan.
PP: Clever.
Sandra: Then we got married and I said I wanted a black pug for our first anniversary. That’s Coco Chanel. And we are six years married now.
PP: So, basically, you’ve averaged a new pug and a half each year.
Pedro: Longer story than that.
PP: Oh, no doubt.
Pedro: Okay, so we had a fawn and a black. We were researching about the other colors, the apricot, silver, you know, and we went on a trip to Texas—
Sandra: We love Texas—
Pedro: And we were looking at the shelters to see if we could find more pugs. But when we got back from that trip… Wait, the story goes this way, let me see if I can figure it out—our friend had a friend named Sonya who had three pugs.
Sandra: Frank, Baby, and Stella. Baby's the father of the puppies.
Pedro: Frank is silver, Baby is apricot, and Stella’s the mom of Baby. Sonya had to move to Germany for work and she told our friend, “I need somebody to adopt my pugs.” I called Sandra and said, “Do you think we can handle five?” And she said, “The sky is the limit.”
PP: Wow. Sonya must have been so happy.
Sandra: Well, it wasn’t easy.
Pedro: She vetted us. For three months.
PP: Good for her!
Sandra: She figured out quickly that we love pugs. Sonya’s mom said “they have a pug who’s nine years old, so they do take care of them.” We had to promise that the three pugs, they would be together forever and ever, never to be separated.
PP: How lovely. So, not to jump ahead, but obviously Baby got somebody pregnant.
Pedro: Yes, Coco Chanel. We call the puppies “querubines”, which means “cherubs”. They’re like a little gang. They get together and destroy things.
Sandra: We didn’t plan this. We had them separated with a gate and I don’t know how Baby get in and get at Coco Chanel during her heat. I was like, “damn”. But, I’m thinking, it’s only one time, only fifteen minutes, maybe we’ll get lucky.
PP: That was a hard 'no'.
Sandra: Then I’m thinking it will only be two puppies. But the first ultrasound showed seven.
PP: Oh, pug mercy.
Sandra: Sadly, two of them didn’t make it. But five black puppies! We think black pugs are more jealous and need more attention.
PP: And how old are the kids now?
Sandra: Two, we just had a birthday party! We made a “Party with Purpose”, for rescue. I invite people with their dogs, 47 people with 49 dogs. I have a friend named Katherine, who has a border collie—
PP: Ohhh, was she herding the rest of the dogs?
Sandra: Yes! Keeping them in line. And all the guests bring food for the rescue, and money.
PP: What a wonderful idea. Okay, here’s your quiz: can you tell us all ten names?
Sandra: Molly Mulan, Coco Chanel, Frank, Baby and Stella. And the puppies are Gabbana, Borginia, Paris, Mafalda, and Tommy.
PP: Do all the names have meanings?
Pedro: Coco Chanel for the designer, obviously. Stella for the beer Stella Artois. Frank for Men in Black.
Sandra: Baby has a face like a Baby. And Borginia I take from the movie John Carter, when John talks to the alien and tells him he is from Virginia and the alien replies "Borginia".
Pedro: Paris for the city, Tommy for Tommy Hilfiger, and Mafalda for the Argentinian cartoon.
Sandra: And Gabbana for Dolce & Gabbana, but I did not like Dolce, so Gabbana was perfect.
PP: A lot of designers in this grumble. Now, we have to ask a vital question: they don’t all sleep with you, do they?
Sandra: Oh… yes.
PP: OhEmPee. We so wish we could get a picture of all of you in the bed.
Pedro: The way we manage it, we have two beds.
Sandra: In Honduras, they don’t sell the Grand King. I really want one of those. It’s two King-sized in one bed.
PP: Could you put two King beds next to each other?
Pedro: The room’s not really that big.
PP: And no one’s bothered by the snoring of ten pugs?
Pedro: No.
Sandra: Oh, no. I love it. I have to touch each of them, that’s my way of falling asleep. I close my eyes and count, one two three four—
Pedro: I was reading that caressing your pet is really relaxing. So, multiply that by ten.
Sandra: And I sing to them. Well, mostly Coco Chanel, because she’s very attached to me.
Pedro: One time Sandra went on a trip to Texas by herself and Coco was puking and crying and peeing in the house and Sandra had to do a video call to sing her the song to calm her down.
PP: Can we just say how much fun it is to interview people who love pugs as much as we do? Actually, more. Ten times more.
Sandra: Yes, if you ask me if I have a limit, I say no. I want twenty-four.
Pedro: Twenty-four is the magic number for her.
PP: Do you have a color system for the collars to tell them apart?
Pedro: The necklaces for the puppies, yes.
Sandra: I can recognize them without, but not everyone can.
Pedro: When they come and do the grooming and take the collars off, I don’t.
PP: That’s a mom for you.
Sandra: I have to tell you, my mom thinks I’m crazy. She thinks this is why I don’t have children, because of the pugs. I tell her, give me time, I’m enjoying my pugs right now.
PP: Do you guys have pug stuff, like paraphernalia?
Sandra: We have a whole wall for the pug stuff.
Pedro: When we wanted to get a Christmas picture done, we couldn’t find a studio that would allow dogs. So we built a studio in our house and had a photographer come to us.
PP: Brilliant! We imagine that you have to do a lot of that, a lot of adapting and improvising and making it up as you go along, right?
Sandra: Yeah. We just… roll.
