August 16th started out like any Sunday morning. It was about 7:00am and the pugs had been fed and gone potty, and gone back to sleep. I sat down with my coffee and turned on the laptop to see what was new. My eyes immediately landed on the email subject line “pugs in need.”
I opened the email and read, “I am a no kill rescue out here in desert. I was contacted by a pug breeder in trouble. Wanted to give up the breeding and no air conditioning in our 120 degree weather. I took 10 of them right away and 15 still need help. Can you help place the remaining 15? They are in good health and very sweet. Please advise; trying to get her AC on. It is way too hot for them.”
I quickly emailed back, “Yes of course we can help the remaining 15. Where are you/the pugs located? I am sure we can make arrangements to pick up today. Are you the contact? Please let me know the best number to get ahold of you.”
While I waited for a response, I checked a different email account and found another plea for the same situation forwarded to me from Bari Mears of PACC911.
“HELP URGENT 31 PUGS WITH NO AIR CONDITIONING IN HOUSE. Urgent situation. A woman has 31 beautiful full blooded pugs in her home and the a/c went out. They are trying to fix, my friend and I took 9 dogs to my friends house and they are safely in a/c but the other 22 are still with the woman and they only have one window unit running at the place. Can you help us? Can you contact Pug Rescue? I am praying for help for these beautiful dogs.”
I quickly emailed Bari back, “Bari, no worries; we are already on it!”
In a few short moments I had received a response to my first email with a contact name and phone number, and quickly called her. “Yes, we can absolutely take them all in,” I assured her, “we have amazing foster homes. Where are they?”
They were out in Tonopah, the far west valley. Kim, the desert rescue contact, said it would probably be easier for her to collect the pugs from Tonopah, and meet us at the Petsmart at I-10 and Watson in Buckeye. In moments, we had volunteers on their way to pick up the pugs.
In the meantime, I contacted Austin, the Clinic Manager at Noes Ark, and Paula, vet tech extraordinaire, and asked if it would be possible for someone to meet us at the clinic so that we could get the pugs checked in so they would be there already Monday for intake exams, etc. Paula not only responded yes, she called in reinforcements, and had Donna and Carolyn standing by to meet us as well.
With a plan in place for the pick up in Buckeye. Jenn, Freddy and I would meet at Petco on Thomas & 44th Street, and distribute the pug load as needed, then head out to Noe’s Ark, where Laura would meet us.
There were a couple hiccups along the way; the breeder decided to give us only 7 dogs; so we offered to take in the ones Desert Dogs had taken, to free up space for them to save more lives. We would end up with 12 dogs that say.
All volunteers arrived at Petco within five minutes of each other. There was one unexpected dog – a morbidly obese white French Bulldog, who was overheated and panting up a storm. Jenn and Freddy had stopped to pick up a couple of bags of ice on their way to Petco, and the French Bulldog’s distress was eased by rubbing ice on her fur and letting her lick the cubes.
Upon arrival at Noe’, we quickly carried in each pug and placed it in one of the holding cages. There were two females; the rest males, two of which were black. Only the French Bulldog was spayed. Several of the males had severe dry eye, and looked as if they would likely lose an eye (or two) due to the neglect.
Over the span of the next four hours, we worked together as an amazing team, the techs at Noe’s checking vitals, getting weights, writing up charts, doing blood draws and running heartworm/tick fever tests, applying K9 Advantix to each pug (pulling a tick here and there), and setting up each pug in the clinic computer. The APARN volunteers prepared a harness for each pug, affixed ID tags, microchipped each dog, entered the ID numbers in the APARN computer system, wrote up a name tag and placed it in front of the pug while a photo or two was taken, then placed the name tag around the pug’s neck, and carried pugs back to the kennel area.
One all of the intake work was done, 12 bowls of kibble were prepared and handed out. It had been a lot of work, but everything that had been done would save the vets so much time on each intake exam, that they would now be able to do intake on all pugs during the week, and likely even do at least half of the spay/neuter surgeries that coming week.
It was an amazing job well done, and the APARN volunteers all headed their separate ways. Little did we know that we would be repeating this scenario the following Sunday, with another 12 dogs – again, 11 pugs, and one French Bulldog.
And on Sunday morning, August 23rd that second wave came in like a tsunami. No warning, just a call that the breeder was ready to release another 12 dogs … now.
Phone calls were made, texts were sent, and the APARN volunteers were on their way to Buckeye to pick up the remaining 12 dogs as Laura and I hit Big Lots to purchase another 12 harnesses and leashes for the new arrivals.
Not only did Paula at Noe’s respond that she would meet us at the clinic, she said she also had Donna and Carolyn at the ready; all with Dr. Noe’s blessing to let APARN basically take over the clinic for the afternoon to assist in taking in these new pugs.
Shortly after 1:00pm everyone arrived at Noe’s Ark to repeat their duties from the previous Sunday. As volunteers brought each dog inside, we could tell there was something different from last time. Today would be a bit more challenging, as this second group of pugs were far more frightened and nervous than their counterparts from the week before. As soon as the car doors were opened, the pugs would back into the corners of the crates as far as they could, huddling together in a mass of shaking, trembling fur. Just getting them out of the vehicles took considerable coaxing and soothing, but APARN volunteers have patience and enough pug experience to fill volumes, and soon the pugs were safe inside.
One by one, the pugs went through their initial intake procedures as before. And once again, after each pug had been cared for, tagged, microchipped, named, and photographed, and given a fresh bowl of kibble, all of the APARN volunteers and the Noe’s Ark staff members went their separate ways to decompress for the day knowing at least these pugs were now safe and on their way to starting their new lives.
Over the next two weeks, as these pugs had their vet exams, spay/neuter and other necessary procedures were scheduled. There were two pugs who had to have double eye enucleations as a result of severe untreated dry eye. Three other pugs each lost one eye due to dry eye. Several pugs required dental cleanings with extractions. One young male had severe mange, a young female had severe bacterial and yeast infections.
But as bad as their physical problems were, they were simply no match for the emotional trauma these pugs had been through. So many were too terrified to come out of their crates, so foster homes simply gave them time and gentle encouragement.
As of this writing, a few of the more social of these pugs have been adopted and are adjusting to life in new homes. So many others will require not only more time, but also a doggy pal in their new home, to show them the ropes, and help them learn what it means to be a dog. To know that you will get two meals a day, served to you in a dish. That you will always have fresh water close by. That doctor visits are a good thing, and should occur at least annually. That those small fuzzy things that squeak are called toys, and they are for you, to help you enjoy your time called play. And that there are human beings that want to offer you love, friendship and undying devotion. Perhaps not that equal to what those of the canine persuasion offer, but if given the chance, they will promise to work very hard to come close.
