Clouseau

2005 - 2020

In the first months of 2005, we acquired Clouseau the wonder pug from a home breeder in Cambridge. It was a fortuitous event… we had decided we wanted a pug and were looking for a puppy. We were just getting ready to go down to the Cambridge antique mall to break up a boring winter day, when a relative called and told us of an ad in the paper offering purebred pugs for sale. The breeder was located exactly on the way to the mall. We stopped in that day and selected him from the litter.

Through the intervening years we never once regretted having him as part of our family. Most accurately, we were his humans... Daddies Paul and Fred.

He was a gentle, charming, handsome boy with a rare double curl tail, a smooshy face and the velvetiest ears we had ever felt. He was a plucky little devil who could always make us do as he wanted... eventually.

Clouseau was with me the last day I ever saw my father alive. He ate korma sauce dipped naan bread with us. Cheddar Cheese carved off the block was a favoured treat. He would chase his tail. When I came home from work, he would hear my car pull in the laneway and jump off our bed… run downstairs… and greet me barking in anticipation at the back door. He worked almost every day of his life in Paul’s boutique in Downtown Elora – where people would come and tell Paul they weren’t there to shop… but “was Clouseau in today?” He guarded the perimeter of our property with fierce determination. He chased robins, and caught and ate flies “in mid flight.” When he wagged his tail, his whole bum moved. He would kiss us with unending kisses, and loved a gentle, deep tissue ear and face massage. He would fidget and bark in his sleep, and make the happiest "yip! yip! yip!" sounds as he gobbled down his food. His sweet, gentle personality affected Paul and I so greatly that we became vegetarians just because of our love for him.

Clouseau died with the same dignity that we knew and loved him for. He was cradled in Paul’s arms as we lavished him with a million tear stained kisses and “I love you’s.”

We know we had Clouseau longer than most any dog is able to live. The weight of his loss is crushing.

15 years, 3 months and 23 happiest days of our lives.