Pugs are a way of life for Eric Neumann. <\/p>\n
From his doormat, to his bedspread to the art on his walls — the flat-faced dogs are featured prominently on nearly every surface of his Wolseley home.<\/p>\n Neumann has owned pugs his whole life and is currently the caretaker of Susan and Rudy, a pair of six-month-old pug siblings with their own Instagram account (@susan.and.rudy<\/a>).<\/p>\n He is also the founder of the Wolseley Pug Club, a Facebook group he started to get to know other pug owners.<\/p>\n “I fully own the fact that I’m a weirdo pug owner, my friends joke about it, but when I go and meet with the other pug owners, we just get each other,” said Neumann.<\/p>\n The group is planning its first meet-up at Central Bark on Feb. 17 from 2 to 5 p.m. The event is open to anyone in Wolseley, the West End or West Broadway who owns a pug or a related breed — like puggles (a pug-beagle cross), chugs (a pug-chihuahua cross), French bulldogs or Boston Terriers.<\/p>\n “We’re not trying to be exclusive, but we want to build community around people who are walking and you can bump into on the street,” Neumann said. <\/p>\n The event will be a chance for the dogs to socialize and their owners to talk about breed-specific quirks and care.<\/p>\n “Pug people are social people and pugs are very social dogs, so get us all together and it’s going to be a party,” said Neumann’s friend and neighbour Toby McCrae. <\/p>\n For both McCrae and Neumann, the personality of the bug-eyed, curly-tailed animals is what has won them over. <\/p>\n “They’re so human from their quizzical expressions to the way they interact with people,” McCrae said.<\/p>\n “Their face is so ugly it’s so hard not to love, but their personality is really what it’s about,” said Neumann, who describes Susan and Rudy as good companions who feed off the energy of their owner.<\/p>\n McCrae has a pug named Leonard Chubbles — named after the late Leonard Cohen because he has the “face of a sad, deep old man” — and says the neighbourhood is the perfect place for pug club to start.<\/p>\n “I’ve never ever lived in a neighbourhood with so many pugs. I don’t know what it is about the Wolseley demographic, but there is a preponderance of pugs,” she said. <\/p>\n Neumann’s friend Adam Neustaedter recently moved to Wolseley from Steinbach and says the pug population was one of the first things he noticed about his new neighbourhood. <\/p>\n “Seeing a pug (in Steinbach) was kind of a rare thing because it was a smaller town,” he said.<\/p>\n Neustaedter owns a six-and-a-half year old puggle named Huxley — of whom he has a tattoo on his forearm — and is also a member of the Wolseley Pug Club.<\/p>\n “Eric said I didn’t have a choice, that I had to join,” he said, adding that he’s looking forward to the meet-up. “I think it will be a cool way to meet some neighbours and I think it’s healthy for the dogs to be around other dogs.”<\/p>\n Search Wolseley Pug Club<\/a> on Facebook to join the group.<\/p>
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