With the close of 2013 Philly Pug & Short Nose Rescue are a couple of days short of being six months old. And what a six months it has been. As the founders of this rescue, we would like to take an opportunity to thank all of our wonderful volunteers for everything that they have done. It is without your time, efforts and support we would not have been able to realize our dream. We knew from the outset that we would need a team behind us. It is beyond our imagination the quality of the people who have stepped forward to join the PPSNR team. THANK YOU ONE AND ALL.
Recap
In our first six months we brought in eleven pugs and one pug mix. In relatively short order eleven of the twelve dogs were adopted to loving furever homes. Ming, our first rescue, came into PPSNR just two days after we announced the opening of the rescue. Since there was little interest (something that still baffles us) we decided to adopt her ourselves and make her the official spokes pug for the rescue. (You can hear from Ming regularly in our newsletter.) The twelfth pug to come into PPSNR was Casey Jones.
Casey Jones, as her name suggests, is a train wreck. When she joined us her age was estimate to be somewhere between six months and one year. Days prior to her being surrendered she had a litter of pups. Most upsetting was that all four of her limbs are problematic.
Both rear legs have luxating patella’s (a dislocation of the knee cap). In mid-January surgery was done to repair her left rear leg. After she fully recovers we are planning on surgically repairing the right knee cap. Casey’s right front leg is dislocated from the shoulder socket. Philly Pug & Short Nose Rescue has been advised not to try to surgically repair this deformity. The chance of a successful outcome is minimal at best.
Casey’s left front leg is the worst off of all of her limbs. The humorous (the bone between the shoulder and the elbow joints) is dislocated from both joints and has rotated out of its normal position. As this is a condition that she was most likely born with, as are all of the problems with her limbs, and was never treated her triceps muscle in this leg has a shorten range of motion. Therefore, she holds this leg off of the ground most of the time. One veterinarian advised us to amputate the limb, while two others did not feel that was necessary at this time as Casey does use it as best she can. It is our intention to try and keep this leg for as long as possible.
Financial Highlights
Financially the rescue has been able to hold its own. Our adoption fees brought in $2,825.00; while we paid out in veterinary services, medications, and other direct costs $4,959.61. The short fall was covered by general donations to PPSNR. Currently, we are strong enough financially to continue with our mission. The long-term success of the rescue, however, is dependent on the generosity of our supporters.
This does not take into account the estimated costs of Casey Jones medical care or the donations already received for these expenses. Donations made towards Casey’s medical costs have been segregated into a separate account.
Looking Forward
When Casey Jones came into the rescue we temporally closed to intake because we were unsure of the financial demands this little girl was going to put on the rescue. With a very successful emergency auction and Fundrazr.com campaign to fund Casey’s immediate medical needs we have reopened our intake. We will help as many Pugs, French Bulldogs, Boston Terriers and English Bulldogs that we can. Our two biggest constraints are available foster homes and finances. If you can foster, please complete an application. If you cannot foster why not volunteer your time. We are always looking for help with transports, making phone calls, publicity, fundraising projects, etc.
As we discussed above, our adoption fees do not cover our direct costs. This is true for every rescue we have talked to. Therefore, we are busy working on various fundraising projects for 2014. Some will be live face to face events (i.e. bowling and pizza on March 22nd) while others will be held on-line (i.e. Facebook auctions, pasta sale). Please check the Events page on our website, subscribe to our newsletter, as well as our Facebook group and fan pages to stay up to date. If you would like help by making an automatic monthly donation, please contact Jeff (jeff@ppsnrsecue.org) to discuss how it works.
Thank you again for your support of Philly Pug & Short Nose Rescue and especially those rescues that have found their furever homes already. Together we can find loving furever homes for many more fur babies that are counting on us.
Sincerely,
Rachel & Jeff Koltoff
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