PugHearts needs your help. We are over-run with pugs that need us, and we do not have the funds or the foster homes to help them all.
For those of you who have followed us throughout the last 4 years, you know that we always need help but we don’t make a public appeal unless it is very serious. Folks, it is very serious right now.
We are full to the brim and several thousand dollars in debt on our veterinarian bill. We are not able to accept all pugs that are being asked of us. We have had to close intake unless it is an extreme emergency. We hate this, as we know there are people out there who will take their dogs to a kill shelter now rather than surrender it to us. We hate it because it means we cannot help every pug. But our resources are stretched too thin to be able to take every dog we are asked to take.
Of course this just happens to coincide with the busiest time of year for any rescue. Summertime means people go on vacation and if they were considering getting rid of their dog, now seems the perfect time. Also summer is when a lot of people move. Lots of times their dogs don’t make the move with them. And of course there are so many people suffering from financial difficulties who cannot afford to take care of their pets anymore. It all adds up to far too many dogs being taken to shelters or given away.
We have also had quite a few pugs in lately that have needed a lot of medical care. We have an alarming number of heartworm positive dogs coming in right now. It’s gut-wrenching to see dogs that are so ill and will require costly and difficult treatment for something that is preventable by one pill a month. If only someone had given these dogs preventative heartworm treatment. But they didn’t, so now we have to put them through heartworm treatment to get them healthy so they have a chance at a new life.
There has also been emergent care needed for several dogs. Maksym came to us having suffered terrible heat stroke by being left out in the punishing Texas sun. We tried so very hard to save him, but ultimately lost him to distemper. (Again, all of his issues were avoidable – if only someone had cared enough about him.) Bob was a wonderful little guy who came to us with a few issues, including a hernia which we had repaired. But sadly he lost his fight when his heart simply stopped. Vee came to us over-bred and dumped, needing emergency surgery to repair a severe vaginal prolapse. Thankfully she is recovering and doing well. Danny came to us as a cruelty case. He has a severe spinal issue that makes it impossible for him to use his back legs. As he is a senior, we know his chances of adoption are not great. It’s so sad as he’s a lovely boy. Then there’s Peanut. This adorable young guy came to us from a local kill shelter with obvious mange. Once he got to our vet, they realized he also had a fractured hip. That was surgically repaired and he is expected to make a full recovery. If not for PugHearts he would be dead right now because somebody didn’t want to pay for his treatment and didn’t care enough about him to find him a new home rather than take him to a kill shelter.
This is why PugHearts exists. But this is also why we desperately need your help. PugHearts has rescued nearly 800 dogs in the past 4 years. We have no way of knowing how many of those would not be alive today if it weren’t for us, but you can be sure it is more than a couple of hundred.
People like you have made it possible for us to save lives. We need you to dig deep and help us continue our fight. Please donate today to help us be able to accept any dog that needs us.
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