Missy the Pug

July 1990

Missy was a young pug who lived next door to me in Rosedale. She was a young pug, since she was the replacement for a previous dog, also a pug, and named Mister Pug. Each in turn were the companions of Tootsie, a longtime neighborhood fixture on 147 Drive, one of those ubiquitous little old ladies that you find on every block in Queens. She lived with Missy in a house where time had stood still since the mid sixties or seventies, painfully neat and orderly, all the upholstered furniture covered with plastic, and religious icons scattered about.

As a dog, Missy had but one trick, which she dutifully performs above. I'm not sure if all pugs can do this with their ears, but she could, and it was very odd to see.