One hundred years from now it will not matter. But yesterday it did.
11:31am. Email arrived, an 18-year-old dog with a bleeding tumor, can’t stop the bleeding. Our triage team replied. We’ve got photos of the tumor but not going to share. No need for that. It’s punctured. It’s bleeding. It hurts. It’s infected. It’s not good. We’ll leave it there.
She’s 18 years old but her and her Dad have only been together a couple weeks. Her family needed to give her up, this man said yes. We don’t know all the details. But the bleeding tumor, we know that detail. And right now, that’s what matters. We respond with urgency.
11:39am, just 8 minutes later, we’re on the phone to this man. He had no money for emergency vet care. But he didn’t tell us he also had no car or bus fare. With fury as his guide, he made it.
3:58pm, it took him four hours, the snow and ice unforgiving, but he got there. His girl was in good hands, getting treated for the ulcerated mass. Inspect the tumor. Clean the wound. Stop the bleeding. Inspect the tumor again. Antibiotics to quell the infection. Pain medication to lessen the pain. Bloodwork to tell us how things are should we need surgery.
They went home. She was feeling better. He was feeling numb.
“It takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal.” — Joaquin Phoenix
This man who worked so hard to get his new old dog to the vet deserves a lot of credit. He survives on about $700 per month. That’s rent, utilities, food, and now vet care. But he stepped in when no one else would. He’d already had Molly to the vet last week for treatment and medication and paid for that himself, but now, this bleeding tumor needed urgent care and his next check was still several days away.
Thankfully he found The Pongo Fund.
He got to the vet. The vet dropped everything to do the work that needed to be done. None of us know what will happen next. This sweet girl is 18. She has a mass on her abdomen. But she is loved. And in these moments, there you are, to help us, help them.
It could not be more perfect than that.
There’s not a lot more to this message. Just another chance for me to say thank you. I say this over and over again, and will keep saying it. Without you, there’s no us. Simple as that.
The Pongo Fund is not a machine. When you call us, when you email us, the people on the other end are not just reading and listening to your words. We are feeling them too. And that’s not always easy to do. Because a lot of the words shared with us, are words that hurt. Because life hurts.
But in those moments we need to put that hurt aside, because connected to each word is also a dog or cat or horse who hurts. A person who hurts alongside too. So we accept, that we will hurt together. We fight hunger. We fight hurt. We do what we can to make things better. We are grateful for that.
And we are grateful for you.
Please also know this. For the next two days, any donation to The Pongo Fund will be TRIPLE MATCHED thanks to some generous donors who care about us and the work we do. If you are thinking about a year end donation, please consider The Pongo Fund.
Not only will your donation be TRIPLED, but sweet friends like 18-year-old Molly will thank you too. Because without you, she doesn’t have a chance.
There are three ways to donate, so please take your pick:
You can donate on our website here: https://bit.ly/37joA5S
You can donate on our Give Guide page here: https://giveguide.org/nonprofits/the-pongo-fund%20
You can also mail a check to us here: The Pongo Fund, PO Box 9000, Portland, OR 97207.
Every dollar. Every donation. TRIPLED!
For Molly.
And this is why we Pongo.
Sit. Stay. Eat. Live. thepongofund.org
“One hundred years from now it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of house I lived in, how much I had in the bank nor what my clothes looked like, but the world will be different because I was important in the life of the animals and the creatures on this earth.” ― Unknown
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