We have been getting a lot of questions recently as to how our Fritz is doing. We are happy to report that he is recovering and doing wonderfully! If you aren't sure who I'm talking about, visit our home page and scroll down until you see his story. Here are some before and after pictures!

Fritz before:

Fritz after:

Doesn't that just put a smile on your face? This is the reason we do what we do. This is what all your generous donations go towards. Helping poor babies like Fritz have a second chance at a happy, healthy life. Thank you so much from everyone at PugHearts!

-Chrissie

Three years ago today, my heart was being ripped from my chest and I could barely breathe. Today is the 3 year anniversary that Alfie (then Charlie Brown) was adopted by Richard and Robbi. For those of you that know me well, you know this story. I want to tell the story for those of you that are new to PugHearts.

I have been thinking about Alfie so much lately. I miss him just as much today as I did the day we lost him. I was privledged to have been allowed to spend the last ferw months of his life with him. I almost missed it and that would have been a shame. He was perfect.

Charlie Brown came to me as a foster. He was about 10 and in very poor health. I was not sure he would survive to even be adopted out. He was very thin, scared, did not see well and had the worst breath ever. I thought he was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I was in love instantly. Charlie and I had the worst first night EVER. He screamed for 9 hours straight. It did not matter if I held hi or not...if he was crated or not...if he was on the bed or not...or even if he was with the other dogs or not. I sat with him and cried that he was so upset, scared and sad. I sat on the floor of the bathroom and cried with him. Charlie got his name because I kept telling him it was going to be a good life from here on out. Boy, I had no idea how right those words to him would be.

I recieved a call that he was to be adopted and the adoption coordinator was coming to pick him up. I told them NO. I wanted to know where he was going and to meet them. I was told no. We had many words regarding this and I refused to let them have Charlie. Finally, I was told that I could go meet the family and finalize the adoption, but I could not contact them again after that day. I agreed and told them they would have to be perfect fo me to leave him there. I am happy to say that they were perect for him. I walked out that door crying so hard that I could not see. All I could tell my husband was "just drive". I cried almost non-stop for a week. No one was allowed to say his name or ask about him. I just could not take it.

His family named him Alfie.

I am happy to say that Ricahard and Robbi had a webcam for the pugs. I became a cyber stalker of Alfie. I would log on and watch him laying there for hours. It really became a bit sick and twisted. I finally called them to ask how he was doing and see if I could just see him. I was not going to foster anymore, as it was too hard. Robbi was so generous and was happy to give me updates and offered to let me see him. I jumped at it. Richard met me in a park with Alfie. Alfie never toushed the ground that day. I was in heaven.

This meeting was in January of 2007. PugHearts was "born" on February 14, 2007 when we went live on the internet.

I was honored to have been allowed to spend the last few months of Alfie's life as a part of it. He was loved and adored by his family. They gave him everything that he needed. They made him whole, healthy and (most important) loved beyond words. Thank you both for loving him like he so deserved.

I am honored to be the director of PugHearts. I will always remember Alfie and hope he looks down on us and is pelased with his result.

PugHearts is his legacy. It was his love that grew to allow us to rescue 446 pugs to date.

Thanks Alfie. I love you, always!

One of the great things about adopting through a rescue organization is the wide variety of pets you see come through. The options are endless which means we will almost always be able to find the perfect fit for your home. I’d like to show some examples of the different varieties of pugs we currently have up for adoption. Old, young, fawn, black, shy, energetic, loving, and even some pug imposters. We have it all!

First up is our newest rescue, Gucci. At the tender age of one, he is young, cute, and full of life! How can you resist this facejQuery15204793264433615507_1309813524848

Gucci

Here is Yoda. A sweet 9 year old gentleman who is diabetic. He takes s4 units of insulin twice a day but is easy to give the shots to. He is dealing with cataracts due to the diabetes but is seeing the veterinary opthomologist and is doing well. Please consider adopting this sweet boy. I can say from personal experience that they only get better with age!

Yoda

On a fairly regular basis we also bring in bonded pairs who we will only adopt together. For example, we currently have Joey & Suki. Joey is about 7 and Suki is about 8-9. We really think Suki is Joey's Mom. Joey is a Bug and thinks that the world revolves around fetch. Their love for each other is very evident in the way Joey looks after Suki. Speaking once again on personal experience, adopting a pair is extremely rewarding knowing that the two get a second chance at a good home together. The thought of bringing in two new dogs to your home may sound like twice the work, but it really is not. Whether you have one, or more than one, they still have to be fed, walked, and loved just the same. Added bonus - they keep each other company while you are gone!

Joey

Suki

We also have pugs come in with special needs. Take Izzy for example. This poor sweetheart suffers from hydrocephalus, which means water on the brain. Since coming to Pughearts, Izzy’s condition has stabilized and all she requires now is special monitoring. She can move around the house and find her person with no difficulty. Otherwise, Izzy is a young, adorable pup with much love to give! She loves to be touched and spoken to.

Izzy

There are also our many senior puggies. We often find that people are reluctant to bring in a senior dog. One of the common misconceptions is that the dog will not love you as much as if you had had them from a younger age. However, I find it is actually the opposite. They seem to know that you are providing them a new pampered life and they will continue to reward you with love and gratitude. There are many other benefits to adopting a senior dog. They are almost always housetrained and generally well-behaved at this point in their life. Also, since they have mellowed out in their older age, they tend to be easier to train and also tend to settle into their new surroundings more quickly. Being more mellow also makes them the best couch potatoes and cuddlers! Here are some of our current senior cuties.

Dottie

Clyde

 
Phil

Last but not least are our current pug imposters! While we are a rescue organization dedicated to the pug breed, we occasionally come across a dog of another breed who we can not turn away. For example, take Gherkin and Vinny.

Gherkin

Vinny

As we are a rescue organization, and our dogs come in after being surrendered by their owner or found on the street, we generally don’t see many puppies. In my opinion, and I’m sure most of our adopters would agree, adopting an adult dog is one of the most rewarding things you can do. Just look at all the choices!

UPDATE (09/28/09):   Lexi is going home to her foster home today. Her white cell count is down and she is feeling great.

I wanted to take a minute and introduce you all to Lexi. Lexi is a 10 year old female that came to us last week.

Lexi was obviously not feeling well. We were told that she had been having accidents in the house. We had Dr Hendrix do an exam and we found that Lexi had bladder stones. These stones are caused by a high pH in the urine that crystallizes byproducts of the food. Lexi had a large stone. While Lexi was under anesthesia, Dr Hendrix decided to do the spay also. That is a really good thing. The decision saved Lexi's life.

Lexi had a VERY infected kidney. The kidney had become so infected that it was adhered to the abdominal wall and the uterus. Dr Hendrix spent a lot of time and showed his skills. He managed to remove the kidney and complete the spay. We were not sure if Lexi would make it through the night.

This photo is of Lexi a few hours after surgery. You can imagine that she was very sore.

I am happy to report that Lexi was standing in her crate and wagging her tail when the staff come in the next morning.

We are all very hopeful that she will do well.

Today Lexi has a very elevate white blood cell count. This is not unexpected, as the kidney was so infected.

She is on antibiotics and receiving excellent care at Sugarland Pet Hospital. She is a real lover and a happy girl.

We are all rooting for her complete recovery.

Cindy

Hello pug enthusiasts!

My name is Chrissie and I am going to be a new blogger on this site. Since I'm new to this, ideas and suggestions are very much encouraged! Just use the contact form provided on this blog.

I'd like to start off by giving a little bit of my background in the pug world. It all started about 12 years ago. I'd been begging my parents for, oh, 5 years to get a dog. Long story short, we came home with a pug from the SPCA who we named Holly, since we adopted her in December. We had no background with the breed and weren't sure what we had gotten ourselves into with all the snorting! But we all quickly fell in love with her. This is her in one of her favorite lazy-pug positions.

Holly

Fast forward ten years and I found myself dogless again. And I knew the only breed for me was pug pug pug. I'm a working woman without the time (or patience) for a puppy, so I knew I wanted to adopt an adult dog. A quick internet search brought me to Pughearts and my application was probably submitted within the hour :) And this led me to Lou and Andy. Two very sweet gentlemen that I fell in love with immediately. They are the best cuddlers and I just knew how appreciative they were to be in their Forever Home. Aren't they the cutest??

Lou (left) and Andy

For my birthday this past year, my husband and I decided to give fostering a try. This is when we brought home our first foster, Rex! One crazy little dude who I can't imagine anyone wanting to give up! Young, healthy, and full of love. He came to our home on a Thursday, my parents came to visit the next day, and by Sunday they wanted to adopt him. That really had been my plan all along, but don't tell them :)

Rex (now my puggy sibling)

The same day my parents took Rex home, we brought in our next foster, Flip. This guy came into Pughearts having been hit by a car (thus his name, he he) but was completely healed by the time he came into our lives. I wasn't sure about him at first. He didn't have the typical pug quality of being completely attached to humans, seeming to care more about food and getting into mischief. Unfortunately, a couple weeks later, our poor Lou Lou passed away. A very hard loss. Within the next week, the decision was made to adopt Flip as he and Andy were already bonding and he had already made a smooth transition into our home. It didn't take long for Flip to show his affectionate side and he is now attached to my hip at all times. He makes the funniest noises when he plays and loves to give you an arm or leg bath as you watch TV, if you let him.

Our Flip-Flop

After giving myself a couple months to grieve over losing Lou, we decided to take in a new foster. Next up was Cooper! Mr. Super-Duper-Cooper-Trooper. He didn't last long. We took him to the Reliant Dog Show the week we brought him in, and someone fell in love with him right there. He went to his new home a couple days later. I hear he is doing wonderful and is very loved!

Cooper at the Reliant Dog Show

After that came Samantha! What a sweet girl with a cute little under bite! We are still fostering her and she is currently going through heartworm treatment. Here she is!

Samantha

I think it goes without saying that I am completely in love with and devoted to this breed. I am also very happy to have become involved with such a great organization. Pughearts is run by truly devoted pug lovers and Dr. Hendrix, who works with all the rescues, is absolutely wonderful!

Going forward with this blog, I would love to post other adoption and foster stories, so please contact me if you have any, using the contact form provided on this blog.

Also, our next big fundraiser is happening on Sunday, November 8th at Blanco's. There will be a live band, barbeque, raffles, a silent auction, and of course PUGS!!!! Stay tuned for more details as we get closer to the event.

Until next time,
Chrissie

So often most of what happens at PugHearts happens behind the scenes. There are so many stories, so many dramas that unfold that nobody ever hears about. There are heart-wrenching decisions that have to be made and not every story gets a happy ending. But there is always hope. Because sometimes we do see a happy ending. That is what keeps us going, trying to save one pug at a time.

In the past month we have lost two very special little guys. Unfortunately they were not the first pugs that we have lost and we know they will not be the last. That is the nature of what we do. Sometimes we get these guys far too late to “fix” them. And so they live out their last days with us as a hospice care pug. People will see them on the Our Dogs page with a note that says they are not available for adoption but are in hospice care. Then one day their picture and bio are quietly removed from the page. We could not pass up this opportunity to tell you about two of these such dogs.

Albert

Albert was a beautiful senior boy. He came to us with a severe case of heartworms. He had numerous other issues that made aggressive treatment of the heartworms impossible. As we could not rid him of these, we knew he would not make it. However, we wanted to make sure that he lived out his last days in a loving, comforting environment. He got just that.

He learned what unconditional love and pure compassion were. He lived his last few months as a very happy, spoiled little guy.

Samson

Samson was a sweet little guy, just over 10 years old. He came to us with a brain stem tumor and severe pneumonia. We treated the pneumonia but as it was a result of an impaired swallowing ability (due to the tumor) we knew it would never clear completely. And we knew the tumor would grow. The neurologist we took him to gave him just weeks to live. That was in January 2008.

Samson had a happy life in his last several months. He learned what it was like to be part of a loving family who accepted him as he was. He was loved and able to love in return.

As is always the case in rescue, there is no time to grieve as you would like. The calls keep coming, the emails don’t stop. There is always another pug who needs help. Last week we took in two very special boys who need us badly.

Bobby

Bobby is an adorable little 6 month old puppy. He is more than likely a cast-off from a local backyard breeder. He was found wandering the streets, left to fend for himself. He weighs 6 lbs, though he should weigh around 10. His eyes never fully developed, leaving him blind. He is also a hermaphrodite. We are referring to him as a boy. Once he is spayed/neutered it really won’t matter anyway but for some reason people have a hard time dealing with his condition. A breeder certainly would not be able to make a profit off of him. And so he was cast out and left to die. We know he deserves a chance and will make sure that he gets it. Somewhere out there is the perfect family for him and we will help them find him.

Nicholas

Nicky is a sweet fawn male that was picked up by a local animal control authority. Thankfully they called us, as they are a kill shelter and nobody would’ve adopted Nicky. He’s an adult – we’re not sure of the age but we think around 4-6 yrs old. He is covered with fleas and sarcoptic mange. His left eye has an old injury to it. And he is heartworm positive. Quite frankly, he looks horrible. But we’ve seen this before and we know the mange can be easily cured. Soon he will be clear and his fur will grow back and he will be a beautiful boy. Unfortunately, few people can look past his cosmetic appearance right now and see that. But we know better.

And so it goes. The calls and emails continue and the pugs just keep coming. We will be here for whatever they need, whether we can “fix” them or not.