Before

Hello internet, my name is Kai and I'm the one not wearing pink. My new human is introducing me to you. I'm a pug. A pug on a journey. It's been a bit bendy getting here but as of today I can borrow their typey-thing to tell you about it.

Life was pretty crappy for us up until a few months ago. I had to live out in the open with Opaka (all the time) while she produced little ones that were taken away from us and we never saw again. We had to sleep on the concrete a lot and never allowed in the House, even when it was cold - or worse - stinking hot. There were lots of bitey things all over me and never enough food to go around, but we made do and got by with what we had.

Opaka has always been older than me. I don't remember when I first met her but I was very young and the Foodbringers only acquired me to be her mate. She always told me this was not to be our life forever, and that help would come, and as long as we stayed true on our path to the Couch it would be alright. I was never a believer, but it seemed to give her hope, so I tried to listen to her teachings and go along with it to make her happy.

Litter after litter of puppies came and went, seasons shifted but it seems that she was right in the end.

A few months ago some nice people came to the place of the yard, spoke with the Foodbringers there and took us away in their car. They took us to another place that had really cold tables and a man there told them I was about six summers old, and that Opaka had seen at least eight. I don't really know for sure, up until then each day seemed much the same as the one before it.

The man there cleaned us, fixed up some sore bits in my mouth and took some of my teeth away. They also made me really sleepy and when I woke up I didn't feel quite the same in my nether regions, but that was okay. There was also something he gave us called 'Mike Row Chip' which they said was inside of me and would help me be found if I ever got lost again.

(I hope Mike is comfortable and will stay around for a while because if what we were was 'lost' then I don't ever want to be lost again.)

After we slept the people came back and took us to another House. I expected us to be put into the place of the yard but they told us this was different and should be called a 'Home'.

I like Homes - they have blankets and food and things that go squeek when you chew on them and food and people who are not just bringers of food and a roof and food.

They even had their very own Couch! I'd never seen one before but I understood more about what Opaka was trying to teach me once I did.

Opaka told me it was not our Couch, and that our journey to our own personal Couch takes a lifetime to achieve. She also told me that each pug's Couch is different, but that they are all a place to rest and be safe. She even said that our Couch may change depending on where in life we were at, but there was never such a thing as a bad Couch, just different ones.

Confused yet? So am I. But she was right about one thing - help did come - so I guess she knows something about this Couch stuff and I'm doing my best to learn so I can know something about it too.

It sounds pretty good at least.

We came and went into a few different Homes, but always ones where people welcomed us, fed and looked after us. There were even other pugs at some of these places, and they told me about their life before help had come - some were even in worse places than our yard! (Not many seemed to know about the Couch though - Opaka did her best to explain.)

Bit by bit we regained strength (food really helps with that by the way) until another man came one day and clicked a black box at us that spat light a few times. He said something about a seeing web thing that could help us find a Home of our own.

We were told a few days later that people had asked to meet us and that on SittingDay we'd go to visit to see if we liked them.

So we went, and we did, and they liked us in return. And the person looking after us seemed to like them too.

Then we left.

That bit confused me. Wasn't that all that was required to find our new Home? Didn't they like us and I'd been wrong?

Turns out that we were just going back to the other Home to pack up and come back a little later once they were ready for us to move in permanently.

Which we did - today!

We spent the day playing and getting cuddles and moving in to our new Home. (There is a Couch here too and I've sat on this every chance I've gotten... purely for research purposes you understand.)

I'll write more about our first day later, it's been huge and I have a bad case of the blinkies.

See you tomorrow internet!