We would like to wish Jelly a very Happy 1st Gotcha Day!
Could she look any prouder here with best bud Bodhi, another rescue through K9focus.
This little girl was found dumped on the streets, 5kg, in a terrible state after being used for breeding. It took over a year in foster to bring her back to good health after which she joined Bodhi. He too was rescued from a sad situation, kept outside and petrified of the wind and rain. They have thrived, being adored, ever since, where they should be – living the dream together!
Jelly is testament to everything the PDWRA does for pugs in need.
We occasionally need to find cat and child free homes for pugs in our care. In rarer cases they may also need to be the only dog in the home! They tend to be few and far between or not at a reasonable distance for transporting a pug to.
These pugs can be extremely anxious or sensitive, or even traumatised from events in their past, victims of more aggressive dogs for example or just not able to live with cats or boisterous children.
“This is Bo who was 14 1/2 years old, but we only had 5 1/2 years to love her and her daughter Hetty, who we also sadly lost, very recently.
Bo was a HUGE character, very intelligent and opinionated about everything. She loved the sun and would sleep on her back for hours in the sun. She could communicate her wishes to us very clearly, and we had better do as she asked as she would nag us until we complied. Her spot was on the couch right next to me and she would not share it with anyone. She came to us as a rescue with her daughter when she was 11.
Bo developed Pug Myelopathy which she fought fiercely loving aqua treadmill. She came to rule the house and we feel the loss of her presence with broken hearts.
Hope this tells you about our beautiful girl Bo.”
Bo and Hetty’s Mum, Lyn.
If you would like to pay tribute to your sadly lost and beloved PDWRA pug on this dedicated web page,
please email your story, or whatever you would like to say about them, with a photo, to:yasmin.t.pdwra@nullgmail.com
As a special limited time offer during Prime Day, Monday 21 June to 22 June 2021,
Amazon will apply an increased donation amount of 5% on the first eligible AmazonSmile purchase on Prime Day made by Prime members who enable AmazonSmile
in the Amazon Shopping app from 2 June 2021 to the end of Prime Day.
This is 10x the usual donation. All other eligible AmazonSmile purchases by Prime members will generate 1%, double the usual donation.
We are pleased to be receiving new applications to foster & adopt, however we urgently need more fosterers in the North East & Cumbria, we’re getting busy there!
If you feel you can offer the care & dedication, so that surrendered pugs get a fair chance to readjust, receive any healthcare they need with our supervision,
It all adds up while you shop & costs you nothing!
If you haven’t already, please set us up as your nominated charity.
From ‘Your Account’ go to ‘Your Amazon Smile’ which allows you to select The Pug Dog Welfare & Rescue Association.
To shop in the Amazon app, simply follow the instructions below to select us as your charity and activate AmazonSmile in the app. Amazon will donate a portion of your eligible mobile app purchases to us.
1. Open the Amazon app on your phone
2. Select the main menu (=) & tap on “AmazonSmile” within Programmes & Features
3. Select The Pug Dog Welfare & Rescue Association as your charity
4. Follow the on-screen instructions to activate AmazonSmile in the mobile app.
Ian has been a ‘Friend of Welfare’ since first applying to adopt a bonded-pair of pugs 4 years ago. He is always available to transport long or short distances, during weekends or evenings after work, sometimes dropping dogs off and collecting others at the same time. Its not unheard of that the family will transport one day, overnight a dog and then transport the next day.
This happened with their youngest rescue, Bertie, only 8 weeks old! He came from a loving family that really had no idea what they were taking on with a puppy, who really should still have been with his birth-Mum. The family couldn’t cope but loved him very much, so Ian often finds himself counselling surrenderers during those difficult moments. Bertie slept on Ian’s chest all that night, and truly blessed their home (in trickles everywhere!).
Ian has also fostered a few times, but finds it hard to say goodbye. It often helps when he delivers them to their forever homes, and he can see how happy they’re going to be. The last time though, while fostering a pair of bonded boys who required dentals and neutering, he decided with his wife, another dedicated PDWRA volunteer, to adopt them just before lockdown. At that time there weren’t many adopters on the waiting list willing to take pairs, so it worked out perfectly for all of them.
Ian can’t imagine not being available for these innocent pugs in need, and always will be! Thank You Ian!
Jackie has adopted through PDWRA and fostered many pugs, short and long-term. We have to put the breaks on though, as she’s always keen and happy to take on more! At one time she had 9 pugs!
Jackie came back from holiday early once, to help with an emergency foster. Her expertise and experience was invaluable. Jack had spinal and mobility issues and has since thrived under her care, now able to move outdoors without wheels! He will remain in his perfect home with Jackie and their gorgeous grumble.
Among them there are a number of healthcare issues to manage, including one totally blind girl. Jackie takes it all in her stride and can’t help loving them all!
Jackie is a willing and regular transporter and home-checker, a generous donator and participant in our ongoing Mega-Auction fundraising. She has rallied her neighbours into getting involved too!
Karen became a volunteer after she adopted from PDWRA over 4 years ago. She has a revolving door! During this time, she has fostered 18 pugs, adopted 2 and been a failed fosterer on 3 occasions! She also transports and home checks for us.
Karen has a heart of gold and finds it so difficult to part with any of her foster pugs, each time saying “I don’t know if I can part with this one!”. But she does, she loves helping them on their way to their future homes, seeing them through any healthcare management, but just naturally, can’t help falling in love at the same time.
The biggest struggle Karen has had, was parting with Chester, who was a very naughty pug. Our Area Coordinator remembers getting a call from Karen to say Chester has jumped over the baby gate, we had to quickly order a taller one to stop him getting out. Although Chester was naughty, he soon won a special place in Karen’s heart. When the time came for Chester to go to his new home she was devastated. It was such a relief when she contacted us a little later to say, “I’m ready for another one now!”.
Karen truly loves and cares for pugs as all our volunteers do, and we couldn’t be without her in our family!
Peter, regularly transports pugs between their destinations, on the road to their forever, loving homes. He’s one of those diamonds who never says no. He knows we wouldn’t ask if there were others available to suit the collection or delivery destinations and for the dates needed.
Peter’s been known to make multiple trips in a week or to take a pug cross-counties to a specialist vet consultation or procedure. He and his wife Alison have also fostered pairs, long-term, seeing them through surgeries and after-care. They patiently attend all the vet visits reporting back to their PDWRA Area Coordinator who supports them throughout. Peter says “It’s why we foster them though, so that they are comfortable until their perfect home is found”.
One pug that really stole Peters’ heart, was Dillon. He will remain with him forever now. A cheeky, gorgeous boy seen here, with a few ailments as he ages. He also has to ‘tolerate’ all the visiting fosters which he takes in his stride. They have become extra-close during lockdown.
Peter has transported so many pugs in his time volunteering. His busiest period was probably the last 6 months of 2019 when he recalls driving around 20 pugs. In one town that only had 2 car parks, it was amusing when Peter and the person he was delivering a pug to, were waiting for each other in different ones!
Peter has got to know our other regular fosterers pretty well, familiar with their foster pugs’ stories and journeys to their forever homes. Our volunteers’ teamwork is amazing, and we couldn’t do what we do, without those like Peter, very much at the heart of our extended PDWRA family.
A chance, every year, 1 – 7 June, to say Thank You for the fantastic contribution volunteers make to their causes. The PDWRA couldn’t do what we do without them, and this week we will recognise and thank, some special individuals who are testament to those who go above and beyond!
Rachel is our outstanding, committed, volunteer fundraising co-ordinator who can turn anything into a donation for our pugs. She has been running the PDWRA Mega Auction for Pugs in Need, every day of each year with an occasional break for overseas holidays before the pandemic. Even then she visited Rescue centres that she contributes to.
From selling raffle tickets for high-value donated branded goods to auctioning hand-made greeting cards or themed, knitted pugs that can achieve £80 each, she has raised anything up to 10,000 totals each month! This is invaluable towards our ever-increasing vet costs. She has a small team of helpers, Catherine, Mark and Tracey plus Steve, her husband, who help to make everything happen smoothly, from storage, transportation or administration. Rachel can be found every morning at her local Post Office with all the prizes and goodies won by our enthusiastic bidders, so they can receive them as promptly as possible.
Over the years Rachel has seen that we could attend as many dog events as possible, negotiating venues for free, organising transporting our stands or gazebo’s to where they need to be and rallying volunteers to represent our worthy cause. She has even run agility courses for competing pugs, always to help raise funds.
Rachel has such a ‘can do’ approach to anything she touches. She’s helped with emergency transportation and fostering while our rehomers coordinated those cases. She can’t help herself from getting involved. All for the luv of pugs!
Archie, was surrendered to PDWRA with his brother Benny, who we wrote about a few weeks ago. One of our volunteers Hannah, who also has pugs, fell in love with him from the moment she saw him at her local park with his foster Sue. She had seen them both through dentals, as well as Archie having to have a dreaded graft procedure from an ulcer. Sue already had an adopted PDWRA pug, Alfie, and as we often find, was considering adopting but couldn’t manage both of them. Archie was 11 years old and had ongoing and progressive healthcare needs that Hannah was willing to manage, so she jumped at the opportunity to discuss with us, giving him his forever home.
Hannah updates us:”I’m so happy to say our golden oldie Archie is settling in well. It was all a bit strange for him at first having two new brothers and one new sister in our home and for the first few weeks at night, he needed either me or hubby Joe, to lay with him whilst he settled, but we didn’t mind as we got extra snuggles with him!
His eye is healing now ulcer-free, however, unfortunately it was soon followed by an ulcer in his other eye! Thankfully, I spotted it straight away, knowing the signs, having been through it a few times with my other pugs, so got him to vets quickly. It was treated in the usual way with endless drops and was gone in one week ..thank goodness 😅
He’s getting on well with his new siblings and puts them in their place by doing what we call the death stare 😳 should he feel they need it, and especially if they’re in the spot where he wants to relax. Stevie our other PDWRA rescue took a bit more time learning to love Archie – simply because he loves and craves all the attention and didn’t want to share his mum and dad with anyone else, let alone someone new! But he’s more than happy to let Archie lick his ears and get in bed with him now.
Like most pugs Archie absolutely loves his food and feels no shame about barking at 5:45am every morning to let us know he’s ready for his breakfast! There’s often a little gift waiting for us in the morning also, as he hasn’t got much awareness of his bowel functions, especially if he’s excited or when I pick him up.
It’s also so lovely that his brother Benny only lives a ten-minute walk from our house, which means they still get to see each other. We really did consider taking them both, but it would have been too much. And with our resident Stevie, I know how jealous he gets and how much attention the others need – it wouldn’t be fair to take that much attention away from each of them. All in all, we feel both Archie and Benny have landed on their paws and we adore our little snuggle monster!”.
Fred came to the UK from the Far East, with his original parents. Their family was expanding and they came to the very difficult decision to surrender him to PDWRA when they realised that they could no longer give him the attention he deserved. One of our adoptive families who were willing to foster him, went to collect him. All his belongings were ready outside, food, bedding, toys etc. and his Mum was too upset to say goodbye. It was absolutely heart-breaking for all concerned.
His fosterer Cheryl tells us, “Unfortunately, when Fred first arrived he did have a number of health issues that needed attending to. He’s such a beautiful boy and we knew we just couldn’t let him be adopted. We had to keep him. We knew he’d get a beautiful home but made the decision that he wasn’t going anywhere. Thankfully there was no argument from our Area Coordinator, Dee who placed our resident pug Mollie, with us 3 years ago. She knew we could give him a perfect forever home too. We just hadn’t been on the adoption waiting list as we hadn’t considered it, until Fred!
With lots of love and care, time and patience, a change of diet and medication, he blossomed. His skin became healthier and he’s so much happier living life to the full. Mollie, is half his size, but bosses him around which he just takes in his stride. He’s so laid back and nothing phrases him. The best things we ever did was to adopt Mollie and foster Fred.
We can’t thank our Area Coordinator Dee, and everyone within the PDWRA family, enough. They have been absolutely amazing and we are so blessed to have two beautiful pugs in our lives. Xx “
“Adorable pugs tuck into ‘doggy takeaways’ during PDWRA event at Village Pizza in Leeds”. The Yorkshire Post reported. A group of lucky pugs got their noses stuck into doggy takeaways during a pizza party this weekend.
Six pooches and their owners were invited to taste the new ‘Village Paws’ menu, carefully designed for dogs. Animal lover and Village Pizza owner, Liam, designed the Village Paws menu with his own dog in mind. The menu includes beef and chicken dinner boxes, a frozen yoghurt dessert and even beer and ‘pawsecco’ designed for pooches.
PDWRA’s Yorkshire re-homing coordinator, Lisa, told the Yorkshire Post: “We loved the idea that Liam was launching these doggy takeaways and he invited us to go along and try them. “My pug Bruce loved it, especially the ice cream – he had his nose stuck in the tub for a long time!”
Liam has donated doggy beer and prosecco to a pug wedding organised by the charity in August, where loved-up Percy and Mabel will tie the knot after meeting at a PDWRA event.
Working with local businesses has been a lifeline for the charity this year, as it has been left without the cash flow of its usual fundraising events.No one at the charity is paid and volunteers such as Lisa juggle full time jobs while giving up their time to help, reported Abbey Maclure.
We thank everyone involved, for keeping spirits up and having fun while raising awareness and much-needed funds!
Bruno was adopted earlier this year. Since then, he’s moved house, become friends with the resident chickens and begun to make friends with another resident pug. Some big changes for the little man!
Bruno’s new brother, Pugsley has had his health issues through the years. Recently though, he has had a tumour removed and since discovered a cyst on his spine so will be going back under the knife soon.
Bruno has stepped up though and helped look after Pugsley in his time of need, giving him a new lease of life when he’s needed it most. Bruno knows when to play with Pugsley and when to play with his toys. He knows when he needs a cuddle and when to give him space.
They have both grown extremely close in a relatively short space of time and look for each other on their walks. Pugsley was a little grumpy, has now come out of his shell and is an overall happier dog.
Sometimes a rescue dog who needs help can actually help other dogs! They have mental health that needs to be cared for too.”
