No, you didn’t imagine seeing thirty plus pugs in the city last month.
The first Sunday of every month pugs and their owners convene at Alta Plaza Park in San Francisco to partake in Pug Sunday.
These wrinkly dogs gather with their owners for hours filled of playing, running, sniffing, munching, and making friends (dogs and people alike).
Essentially, Pug Sunday is a large meet and greet for pugs and their owners. While some may view this as odd, senior Roger Romani said, “[Pug Sunday] sounds like a great way to build a community. It doesn’t seem that strange. I mean we are in San Francisco. I’m sure there are dog meet and greets all over the country.”
“All over the country?” Try all over the world. Gina Scialabba of KQED News wrote in a blog about Pug Sunday, “The gathering I went to included up to 20 pugs in their Sunday best. Pug lovers in attendance came from as far away as England.”
England may seem pretty far to travel for a simple pug meeting, but devotees are committed to their dogs. Scialabba wrote, “Pugs have a passionate, cult-like following. They are playfully clownish, yet stately and dignified. Pugs have been referred to as mini-Ewoks and aliens, with a face only a mother could love.”
The “cult-like following” of pugs has only intensified due to social networking sites. Pug faces are sprawled across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, strengthening the already powerful love of pugs by their devotees.
Senior Kevin Velcich is not as interested in the scrunched-face breed. Velcich said, “Pugs aren’t cute. People pretend they are. I think they are just fat lumps of grossness. If you enjoy pugs that’s good for you but that’s not my life.”
Pug Sundays do not discriminate against anyone including people such as Velcich who may believe the breed to be a bit “gross.” All dogs, pug or not, are welcome to Pug Sunday (as well as their owners).
Senior Ethan Wallace said, “I really like pugs, they make me smile. I want to hug all the pugs in the world. I just want to cover myself in peanut butter and have them run up on me and lick me.”
Wallace could make his dream a reality this Sunday, April 6 starting around 2:30pm.