Tallula May: A Pugs Life
2004. A year for me that in so many ways helped define what direction I needed to take in life. The truth of the matter is, I was running from what I knew The Lord had for me in Alabama and yet I was at the same time, finding myself falling in love with this woman named Amanda. At the time, I didn’t realized I could have both. That same year however, the girl I was falling in love with decided it was time for another love to enter her life…she named her Tallula May Kaye. I can still remember the night we drove out East in the middle of nowhere to get her. The smallest of the litter and yet, in so many ways, the tallest in stature. I remember those first few months when we would hang out at her house. Those evenings were such fun just playing with her, watching her run, play, jump, and just enjoying the new “family” this little pug puppy had been brought into. Things would always take a turn for the worst when it was time for her to go into her pen for the night. The howling, crying, scratching, trying to eat her way out of her pen. It would go on for hours. It was hard to watch Amanda really suffering through this process but since I had never owned or had much exposure to dogs growing up, I figured this was the way of things. Time passed and Tallula began to figure out what was expected of her and balance was restored to Amanda’s home. Tallula was like any puppy, full of life & love for her owner. It was Tallula & Amanda & that was the way of things.
After our marriage in 2006, Tallula occupies many of our memories of those first few years together as an official family. I can remember Tallula running and enjoying our backyard at our first home in Alabama. How, when there were those heavy southern rains, Tallula was always thrilled to go outside to potty. She had her own lair, a space she didn’t have to “share” with Amanda’s parents dogs. In those first years, I began to truly understand what it meant to have a dog. As a kid, my parents always had a cat. Cats as you know, are fairly self sufficient and let’s be real…mostly self centered animals. Dogs on the other hand, require the attention of their owners and in return, love & loyalty is showered upon us which was a concept quite foreign to me. To be honest, I didn’t have a lot of patience for Tallua in the beginning. I didn’t know how to have a symbiotic relationship with her. In those first few years, I needed to figure her out & she needed to do the same with me. She taught me so much about being a “parent”, about serving someone or something, beyond your own needs and wants. My heart grew for her and I began to see it returned in this little dog.
Now 13 years later…we say goodbye. There are a thousand memories of this little pug. A thousand images that occupy my thoughts today. Grief and pain are a cruel fact of life in our fallen world but this pain is new. This pain is different. It has been the long goodbye the last few months & although it was hard to watch her slowly slip away today, it brings me peace to know her suffering has finally come to an end. She was our first “baby” and my first endeavor into this thing called parenting. At the time I didn’t realize it, but after Cooper entered our lives, so many things I learned directly and indirectly from Tallula became abundantly clear. This chapter of our lives closes with knowing we gave Tallula a wonderful life, a life filled with love & caring. A life filled with family trips, and beach adventures, and cross country moves, and snowy mornings cozy in our bed, and chasing birds, and many walks, and surviving the invasion of two children and a life that for her…I couldn’t have ever imagined. We will miss her deeply and we will know our lives were richer & fuller because she was in it. That fateful night 13 years ago when Amanda choose Tallua, we could have never known that in so many ways…Tallula chose us & today we celebrate…
a pugs life.
Tallua May Kaye Dumais (2004–2017)

