What a ride that was.   We never knew why Daddy and Momma were leaving us with our best friend Cindy for 10+ days last year and this year – but we found out on the 1st May 2013.   Another road trip….to our new home here in North Carolina.

I’m done with all that travelling now, what with visiting most of the UK with Daddy when we lived over there and then the Sea and Road tip across the Atlantic to Texas back in 2007 – I’m done with it – really, no more.  Please!

We now live in a wonderful place, somewhere where I can roam around in my cart while Charlie, Phoebe, Maggie and Stewpot can run and bark to their hearts content.    We don’t need to keep looking now, we have found the perfect place.  This is it.

I have a nice private office where just me and Daddy spend the day too.   He starts work at 8am and I spend the whole day with him upstairs away from the hooligans. 

I’ll write more soon.   Just wanted to say hello.

Denny

We started talking about moving from Texas back in 2009 – only two years after actually arriving and putting down the roots.  Our hearts were somewhat in it, but what with work, opportunities and other life things putting their finger in the pie it just never happened.  

Well last year we decided once and for all that we were going to make this move – we put plans in place to visit Raleigh and choose a place to live.   Two visits later we chose Franklinton, just north of Wake Forest on the northern side of Raleigh.   I think we made the right choice.

We have only been here two weeks and we already love this place.   It’s not as if we have had the chance to go anywhere further than a few grocery stores, furniture stores, Costco, Lowes and the old faithful Home Depot – but it just feels right.    Were looking forward to being regular visitors to the brew pubs and unique restaurants and events that take place around here.  There is just so much for us to get our teeth in to.

As I type this we are just taking delivery of our NEW furniture – we sold absolutely everything in Texas to make this move – not for the money, but to reduce the hassle of getting movers and coordinating everything.  Again, we made the right choice.    A new start makes it all feel so good.

This is my first post in a long time, but I intend to make this a regular occurrence from this point on.  So many things have changed in our lives, and the dogs lives.  Denny has a lot of explaining to do – so over the coming months I intend to write at least one or two posts a week to get y’all up to date with what's been happening, and what's going to be happening.

Stay tuned!  Photos to come!

Richard & Denny (in my new office!)

This is the view from my new office window!

Really exciting news here at Denny Towers – we are moving!!  Yup, the house has been sold (closing next week) and we have bought a new place in beautiful North Carolina! 

We couldn’t be happier except for all of the exhausting packing/selling/purging nonsense that goes along with moving (and having lived in one place for 7 years!)

The Pugs are decidedly confused.  Munchkin is an old pro at this moving malarkey, so she’s not bothered; but the pugs definitely have no idea what is happening.  We have sold most of the furniture so they are a bit concerned that every time someone comes to the house we seem to have things go missing.  Though they seem rather happy about the mattress on the floor (makes going to bed and getting up much easier for them – though MUCH more difficult for us gangly humans.)

They have no idea how much planning and plotting has gone into this move.  And they have absolutely no idea how much their quality of life is going to improve very shortly!  We are thrilled to be moving to an area with 4 – count them, FOUR – seasons!  That means less oppressive heat & humidity in the summer; a shorter summer and a lot more outside-time for the doggers.  We have bought a home with a decent plot of land, so there will also be a ginormous yard for the kidders to run around in.  And a lovely screened porch for mornings and evenings to spend laying about without being munched on by bugs (humans too!)

All in all we are so pleased that we are finally making the move we have been working towards for so long now.  We will miss our friends here in Texas (both pug and people) but we know this is the right move for us.

Stay tuned for details and updates on our move and new home!

Denny Towers has been a flurry of activity lately…there is so much to do and time keeps persistently ticking by…

Following Stewie’s birthday, we had a lovely Thanksgiving with all of the kidders enjoying a bit of turkey (but no other dishes were deemed appropriate for the furkids, so no stuffing or green bean casserole!)

And then as the end of the month rolled around, it was time to celebrate our sweet kitty Munchkin’s birthday.  She doesn’t get mentioned much on these pages, mainly because she’s not a pug, but she is the senior member of the household.  I had honestly only a rough estimate of her age but when I pulled out her vet records to see the date of her first vet visit, I realized that this year marks her 16^th birthday! 

For those of you not familiar with Munchkin’s story, this sweet little girl ended up under my front porch one freezing January morning in North Carolina.  Our house was covered in ice and the freezing wind was whipping around.  When my brother headed out to his car to go to work, he heard a pitiful mewing coming from under the porch.  He stopped and found Munchkin cowering under the deck, trying to hide from the elements.  He scooped her up and brought her inside and gave her to me.  As he went off to work I wondered what to do with her.  She was so tiny – could not have been more than 6 weeks old if that.  A look around outside found no other kittens or a mother.  Had she been left behind? Did her mother intentionally leave her?  We’ll never know.  But given Munchkin’s diminutive build, we have always believed her to be the “runt” of the litter.  Probably left behind on purpose given her poor chance of survival if left out in the elements.   As I already had a cat, Tigger, I was hesitant to keep her.  I called her Munchkin because of her diminutive size, thinking whoever she ended up with would probably change it.  But, as everyone around me predicted, I never gave her up and she became a permanent member of our household.

I often wonder what happened to her littermates.  Are any of them still alive? Did any of them ever leave NC?  It’s doubtful any of them have had the globe-trotting adventures that Munchkin has.  She’s lived all up and down the SE US. When I was doing my nurse contracting work, I used to pack her and Tigger up in carriers and put them in the backseat while I drove to our new home in whatever state we were going to live in for the next few months.  She would settle in and sleep the whole drive, never complaining.  When I moved to England, she preceded me and flew into London, her first time on a plane.  She lived happily in the UK, scaring me by climbing out of 2^nd story windows and into trees.  (She also went missing in the UK but thanks to a microchip ended up back with us – but that’s another story.)  When we moved back to the US she was ferried on the Queen Mary II in kennels that have housed the pets of royalty and celebrities.  Upon arrival in the US, we drove cross-country to TX, stopping to stay in strange and not-so-nice motels along the way.  And once here she saw countless dogs come stay with us; some as fosters and some as new family members. 

And through it all she has remained a sweet, even-tempered girl who adapts and learns to live with whatever changes she has to deal with.  She has been my rock, with me through thick and thin.  I owe her so much. 

She had a trip to the vet for a senior check-up this past week.  Everyone, including the vet, kept commenting that she looked remarkably well for 16.  To me, she still looks like a kitten.  And thankfully she has remained lively and active.  Occasionally I’ll see her bat around a toy when she thinks nobody is looking, which makes me smile.  On this trip we found that she had lost a bit of weight.  Blood tests showed she has developed an overactive thyroid, a common condition in senior cats.  We will be starting her on a new medication to correct the imbalance.  All the other tests showed she remains in overall good health.  I’m relieved.  She is my rock.  She has been my constant companion for 16 years and I cannot imagine life without her.  Here’s hoping I don’t have to for many years yet.

I love you Munch!