VICE
By Zak Krevitt
When I met Pup Scrubs at the Cleveland Leather Annual Weekend (CLAW), he was non-verbal, only speaking in barks, and he sported full football pads as well as a custom-made sports jersey that read “Raptor Pups” on the front and “Pup Scrubs” on the back. At the convention, the pup carried a dog bed stuffed with plush toys, and I saw him curled up for a dognap during one of the lectures at the event. Days later, on the eve of the convention’s closing, Pup Scrubs hopped on to the couch I was seated in before proceeding to nuzzle my lap. We cuddle in silence for a half hour before he popped his head up and asked me about my column, Pupdates.
After a lengthy conversation about the extremes he went through researching and purchasing his gear and the time he went to Alaska to live out a cold weather gear fetish, I knew Scrubs was a truly a good boy and wanted to get to acquainted with him outside of the convention setting.
After talking online at length, Pup Scrubs invited me to upstate New York for a visit at his one-of-a-kind kennel. Most pups in the community only know Scrubs as a non-verbal puppy who’s always masked, so it was a rare privilege to be invited up to his home and learn about his lifestyle. We stayed the weekend in the sprawling, cobalt blue estate, tucked into the countryside along the coast of Lake Ontario. The secluded lake and forest allow the pup to don his functional fetish gear in the environments where he enjoys the equipment best.
In other words, it’s a dream playpen for a pup to live in year round. After Pup Scrubs picked me up at the Greyhound bus, we spent the weekend learning about the functions and applications of different pieces of fetish gear, as well as ways to ride out the inevitable collapse of industrial civilization, a hot-button issue for Scrubs. As we ran on all fours through the forest and doggy paddled in the lake, I got an up-close look at the home life of a pup who was truly dedicated to the lifestyle. Below is an edited transcript of our conversations, as well as photos from my visit to Pup Scrubs’ pup haven.
VICE: Who’s a good boy! Tell me about your pup name and how you decided on it?
Pup Scrubs: My pup name is Pup Scrubs, and I didn’t decide it. No self-respecting pup gives themselves a name—a handler or an alpha has to give you a name.
How did your handler decide on your name?
Because scrubs are my favorite thing to wear, and it’s probably the gear I wear most often. I’m wearing them now, of course!
You have a lot of different kinds of gear looks as a pup. Can you remember the pup gear you were first infatuated by?
The first gear I was infatuated by, and always will be infatuated by, was football gear. A complete set of football gear was the first [fetish gear] I ever bought with my first credit card when I was 18. When I’d see football on TV, or see football players in the locker room at school, I just knew I always liked big, padded football gear. I always will enjoy football gear, but it’s not very practical to wear around the house on a daily basis. Scrubs are practical. …