Last week before the art show, I met with Jon Katz and Maria Wulf for lunch to deliver my photographs. We got to talking and I mentioned an article I was writing about the upcoming Green Mountain Pug Rescue Pug Social.
"What's a Pug Social?" Jon asked, and I proceeding to tell him how it's a fundraiser for the rescue where 300 people and their pugs gather for a day of fun-filled activities.
"Such as?" he asked.
"You know, the usual...pug races, the kissing contest, and of course, the costume contest."
"Of course," he drawled, rolling his eyes at Maria.
Oh, no, I thought, these people think I'm crazy.
"My pug won the kissing contest," I bragged, hoping this honor might impress them.
"Tell me more," Jon said, clearly humoring me.
"Well, you know, we gather in a field and your pug starts kissing you, and the first one to stop gets kicked out until there's only one standing.
By this time both Maria and Jon were in stitches and I couldn't help but laugh myself. I was too far into the story to stop.
"Only, sometimes you get accused of cheating. My pug, Mira, was so orally fixated I got accused of cheating. She wouldn't stop even after everyone else left the ring and the judges called her the winner."
"Cheating?" Jon asked incredulous.
"Yeah, you know, they check to see if you have liver or hotdog in your mouth to make your pug keep kissing you."
"I see," he nodded.
I sighed, this obviously wasn't going where I expected. But, what did I expect? Somewhere things had taken a turn in what I viewed as a relatively straightforward conversation. It seems that while I am accostomed to people who spend months in advance preparing family costumes for the next big pug social, this is not something everyone experiences. It seems there are some things I've been taking for granted, like pug kissin'. Wait 'til I tell him about my pugs' graduation ceremony. Obviously, some people don't know what they're missing...yes, like pug kissin'.
