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Because, Just Because

So many times this past week The Pongo Fund’s Emergency Kibble Response Team was on the road to get help to those who needed it most. Everyone struggles, no one is immune. Bend, Bandon, Medford and Ashland, Tillamook, Garibaldi, Wheeler and Astoria, Eugene, Prineville, Burns and more. We even Pongo’d just outside Boston, MA and somewhere near Helena, MT, and right in the heart of Seattle. Twice. The hardest trip came close to home, in a quiet trailer park in Clackamas. This family was hurting on every level, a shutoff notice for power, phone minutes down to the last few, cupboards bare. Two feisty seniors who have lived hard times before, so in looking around at all they did not have, they simply shrugged it off and said better times are coming. But they aren’t. Not for these two.

Two stubborn and dedicated folks with a still mischievous sense of humor that feeds their need for laughter. In the middle of it all are three cats and a scruffy dog, all of them older than numbers. All of them happy and loved and never far from a place to snuggle. They asked for cat food, then they said some dog food would be great too.

What about them? “Oh, we could probably afford to lose a few pounds? When was your last meal? One had to turn to ask the other. That’s not the answer we’re looking for. We were at their door before the sun went down, these two were waiting for us, watching out the window. They expected dog and cat food. Let’s just say we exceeded their expectations.

They live a hard life, they have aches and pains like you and I may never know. Yet they complain not. Watching their animals run around, here to there, from one lap to the other, that is the love that feeds their soul. When we left there were well stocked cupboards, because sometimes feeding the soul is just not enough. The stomach needs to be fed too.

And in the middle of it all, a simple white envelope with the money to pay their power bill for this month, and the next one too. Because, just because.

And this is why we Pongo.

Sit. Stay. Eat. Live. thepongofund.org

If you like what we do and want to donate, please click here: https://www.thepongofund.org/contact/donation-page/

#pongofund #petfoodbank #hunger #love #portlandoregon

(Photo is stock image because taking photos at a time like this was just not the right thing to do. But this dog is a real close match)