Two women came to The Pongo Fund. They walked more than an hour because they had no money for the bus. They needed cat food. But they had no cats.

But there were two women in the building they lived in downtown who did. Both were disabled and facing the reality of everything being more expensive. Especially cat food. Both were older. Both had older cats. So the two who could walk, walked for them. As good neighbors do.

We knew the building well. They used to have a Pongo Fund Pet Food Bank Annex onsite and every month it was restocked by The Pongo Fund. There were more than two dozen hungry animals in that building. The person who managed the building retired. The new person did not think feeding pets was important.

That meant all the pet food that had been there for many years was no more. And that hurt.

So these two women did what they could to help their neighbors. They didn’t know all of them but they were good friends with the two women with cats. One of the women had a backpack. We loaded the food inside. It was heavier than she thought it would be. The two women agreed they would walk more slowly to get back home.

But even with that, they asked if they could come back again and get more food for their other neighbors, many of whom were disabled and could not get to us. We said yes.

They said they would both bring backpacks the next time.

One of our volunteers grimaced at the thought. She drove past downtown on her way home. Could she set up a time to drop more food off for them, and maybe they could reopen the pet food annex from their apartments? They reacted as if they’d just been offered a winning lottery ticket.

They can’t have much food as these are very small SRO’s. But they loved the idea of being of service to others. One of the women asked if she could have an extra label that we put in the pet food bags. We said sure, but why?

She said she was going to tape it to her front door. That way everyone will know where to go so their pets don’t go hungry.

Two women with little money but such big hearts.

Doing what they could to make life a little easier for others.

“What do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?” — George Eliot

Before they left we gave them bus passes for the ride home.

Being a helper.

And this is why we Pongo.

Sit. Stay. Eat. Live. thepongofund.org

The Pongo Fund / Portland, Oregon