The PugSpeak Story

The PugSpeak story begins in 1999 with a love for pugs; two little pug boys – Dexter and Trevor, a computer; and a husband with superlative photographic capabilities. We began by taking photos of our pug children – almost too numerous to count. The grown-up children joked that we may have more photos of the pugs than the human children. We smiled as we continued to shoot pictures. Eventually, we put the photos on card stock and sent them out to family and friends. Somewhere along the line, someone said, “Why don’t you sell these?”

Dexter and Trevor concurred and were more than willing to pose from sunup to sundown. Pugs are natural born hams when the camera is pointed at them. Our next thought was – we’d need to website to sell the cards – so we got busy getting our website together.  And as always, the two pug boys were by our side. We got to work and on May 5, 2002, PugSpeak was born. Since then, we acquired (or perhaps I should say they found us) two more pug boys – Ian, then Mackenzie. You can’t have one or two, for that matter.

As PugSpeak, the website developed, we began meeting, via internet and emails, other pug lovers from all over the world. It turned into a “pug community.” They say there are six degrees of separation between people. At PugSpeak, we believe there are only three degrees between pug owners. We came to realize that this is really a small planet and everyone seems to know everyone. And we were only too happy to become a part of that community.

Before we knew it, our email box was jammed nearly everyday, Christmas cards and gifts were (and still are) beingg exchanged and we were tiring out our mailman. Folks began sending in photos of their pugs, asking if we could post them on the website. That request started the World Pet Photos gallery which now contains nearly 400 photos from around the world. At this point, PugSpeak moved its headquarters to Kansas and became PugSpeak, LLC. We began adding new items to the merchandise line including pug handbags, pug earrings (which we now handcraft ourselves), pugs mugs, calendars, and toys. We ship out products all over the world including France, Italy, Germany, Australia, South Africa, and the Isle of Man.

And another idea spun out of PugSpeak. We knew there were “pug parties” and “meet-ups” being held all over the world. Why not start a group here? Pug Parliament was born on Aug. 13, 2003 at an area coffee house. We had posted flyers and put up another website and before long, the phone was ringing and the emails flooded in. Many strangers became friends at the first Pug Parliament and since then, we’ve held subsequent events at our Overland Park home.

With each new Pug Parliament, we bring in new members, see old friends, and have a wonderful time. The pugs talk about their owners and we talk about the pugs. An event generally includes a guest speaker – a veterinarian or trainer – to answer questions. We just held our 4th Pug Parliament on May 20, 2006 and hope to hold another in the fall.

In the meantime, PugSpeak continues to grow and we continue to have fun. People often ask – “What is it about pugs?”  I’m not sure it’s something you can explain. Owning pugs (or being owned by pugs) is a state of mind. Pugs have a mystical way of bringing the world together. For the love of pugs, we hope to bring camaraderie, peace, and a sense of collectivity and harmony to the table and to a small portion of the world as well as the rest of the planet.