- March 28, 2024
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Two Winter Park pugs have hit the big time.
Winter Park hair salon owner Michael Quick recently finished work on “The Pugs: Shiloh & Una’s Adventures in Winter Park” — a photo book that captures a day in the life of his two dogs throughout Winter Park.
The book features about 100 photos of the doggie duo exploring several stops throughout the city, including The Alfond Inn, Croissant Gourmet, Winter Park Scenic Boat Tours and Be On Park jewelry store.
It’s a humorous account of an adventure by the two pugs, complete with written dialogue between the two cute canines. The book also tells the reader a little bit about Winter Park and gives some background about each location visited in the book.
“I wanted it to hit on a bunch of different levels,” Quick said. “I wanted it to hit as a pseudo memento/souvenir that would kind of represent Winter Park if you were here.
“I also wanted to appeal to the kids — that’s why the pugs kind of tell their story.”
The idea for a photo book all came from a Facebook comment September 2016. Quick had set up a Facebook page for his two pugs — at the time Shiloh and Yaya, who died in November 2016 — and occasionally would post silly photos of them at home or out and about.
One of the page’s followers suggested capturing the pugs’ likenesses in a book for everyone to enjoy.
“Someone tells you that and you just mull it over in your head,” Quick said. “’That’s kind of a cute idea.’”
Time passed, and Quick brought little Una home in January. He was still repeatedly asked if he had ever considered doing a photo book. It was after the third person brought up the idea that Quick began giving it some serious thought.
In March, Quick hired photographer Pat Saizan to start snapping photo of his pug pals, starting at Croissant Gourmet off Park Avenue. The first few photo shoots were “ruff” — especially with a younger, energetic Una — but the process got easier over time.
The pugs posed at several locations during multiple shoots over the next two-and-a-half months. They ate a five-scoop ice cream cone outside of Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream Shop, sipped coffee at Barnie’s Coffee Kitchen and Una tried on a $22,500 necklace at Be On Park.
“Una’s personality is bigger than the city of Winter Park,” Quick said. “Whatever it is, she has it. … The moment she put that necklace around her neck, that dog sat still. That figures – diva. That’s why the caption is, ‘Yes, I’ll take it.’”
“We loved being a part of Shiloh & Una’s adventures,” Be On Park marketing coordinator Heather Cunningham said. “They are Park Avenue’s most famous pugs. We wanted to be involved because we are animal lovers here at Be On Park, you can usually see our store mascot, Takai (a black lab) hanging out on the porch from time to time greeting local shoppers. We also believe in supporting our Winter Park community. Shiloh and Una were wonderful to work with and we are delighted to carry copies of the finished work at our store.”
Quick established a book publishing company called Pug Smiles Inc. in March and began researching how to put together a photo book. He learned the entire process of putting together a photo book, designing every last detail from the thickness of the pages to the placement of the text.
On Sept. 27, Quick received the final version of his photo book and ordered 1,000 copies. He plans to create more photo books of Shiloh and Una in the future, with talks already underway for a potential New York book, Orlando book and a Greenwich, Connecticut book.
But Quick said it wasn’t the potential for selling books or necessarily a desire to put Winter Park on the map that led him to publish a pug photo book. It wasn’t event to make his dogs famous.
Like Shiloh and Una’s story in the book, it was simply a fun adventure.
“It was the most odd thing I’ve ever done in my life, because every door I came to just opened,” Quick said.
“It was just ‘You know what? This would be kind of neat.’ To use the book, ‘This would be a fun adventure.’”