The Gazette (Montreal, ON)

Pug lovers of Montreal, unite!

ALANA RONALD, The Gazette

They look more like extraterrestrial imps than canines. They're intelligent, but not particularly obedient. Their specialities: playing, snorting, snacking, snoring, sitting on laps. They're pugs, and their owners (a special breed themselves) are besotted.

You can check them out - dogs and owners alike - the first Saturday of each month in Girouard Park in N.D.G., when members of Montreal's Pug Meetup Group, which unites 130 pug lovers, gather in a corner of the well-used dog run and celebrate being with their own kind.

Pierrefonds resident Lindsay Legault discovered the group online, where Montreal aficionados of anything and everything can find each other. Legault got hooked on pugs three years ago when her sister moved into a no-pet apartment, and was forced to leave Milla behind.

There was a problem finding companions for Milla. "Every time I went out with her, we met Goldens or German Shepherds, not exactly her size. Organizing the Meetup means Milla sees other dogs her size; they're friendly, and it's fun," Legault says.

Legault's mother, Christine - they're both organizers of the local Pug Meetup chapter - says: "I've never seen a mean pug. They're expressive, they make funny noises, and just want to play."

You think they're biased? Listen, pugs were originally bred in China as companions to royalty. William of Orange, Napoleon and Josephine, Edward Windsor and Wallis Simpson, they were all owned by pugs.

These dogs even have a motto: "multim in parvo" (a lot of dog in a little package).

A confession here: I have fallen under the pug spell. When I visited an abandoned pug, Babyface leaped into my lap and kissed me, I agreed to take him home temporarily ...

I found someone to adopt him, and Baby trotted off cheerfully for an overnight trial.

It was me who awoke blubbering in the night.

Puglove claimed me, and puglove will lead me to join the more than 20,000 pug owners worldwide who will gather in parks May 6 to celebrate United Pug Meetup Day.

Pug lovers of the world, unite! You've nothing to lose but your hearts.

United Pug Meetup Day is May 6, 2006, at 1 p.m. For more information, contact Lindsay or Christine at Montreal's Pug Meetup Group website: http://pug.meetup.com/137