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The Pongo Fund Providing free food and lifesaving veterinary care for the animals of our community’s most vulnerable
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05/11/2024

It’s not an easy job, holding a sign and asking for help.

But there he was. Him and his dog.

He wasn't very good at it. His sign was too small. And where he was standing, he was easily overlooked.

And his dog, all he did was sleep.

But from what I could tell, the dog was really good at sleeping.

He was not a big dog and not a small dog, just a right sized dog. Laying on a blanket with a leash and harness attached to the man’s wrist.

The man holding the sign was older. Not sure how old but I guessed him around 70 something.

I was parked next to him and could not avoid the moment of conversation. I asked about his dog. I thought that was a good starting point. His sign said they needed dog food, so learning about his dog seemed to make sense.

Because for me, if you need food, I’d like to know what kind of food. Wet or dry? Chicken, Turkey, Lamb, Fish, Beef or something else. Big kibble or small? If wet food, pate or stew or something in between.

So many questions.

So I asked him. He fumbled the answer. That could have been for any number of reasons. But fumbling the answer also tells me something.

So I got down on my hands and knees and asked the dog the same question. The man did not know the answer but I thought the dog might know. But before he answered, the dog instead rolled onto his back with all four legs in the air and told me that before he’ll answer, I needed to rub his stomach.

So I did.

And while I rubbed his stomach, he fell back asleep.

The man held his sign.

The dog slept.

And I just sat there, not sure what to do.

It turned out, the reason the man fumbled his answer to my question was because this was not his dog. The man I guessed to be 70 something was actually 76. And the dog was 14.

The dog belonged to his neighbor. She went into the hospital a couple weeks earlier and the man was taking care of the dog. There was no conversation about it. He just did it. That’s how he grew up.

During those two weeks, the food bag had run low and would be gone in the next couple of days. Both of them, the man and his neighbor, lived in a low income apartment building and he did not have extra money for dog food.

The neighbor was still hospitalized and he did not want to worry her about money for dog food.

I asked him if he’d ever held a sign before.

He said he had not. He asked how he was doing.

I told him he was doing great.

I made a comment about his smile. Told him that not everyone holding a sign asking for help smiles as much as he did. He said he knew that and apologized.

He apologized for smiling too much.

He said he saw a lot of people holding signs and they always looked sad. He said he was just a really happy person and couldn’t help but smile.

I asked him how the collection had been going. He said not very well. Only a couple people gave him money. But then he said, he had wished at least a hundred people a good day.

This man holding a sign asking for dog food for his neighbor’s dog was such a happy man.

He knew he needed money to buy the $40 bag of dog food. But even more, he wanted to make sure and wish everyone a good day.

I asked him if he knew there were places he could get dog food for free. He said he did.

But he said those places were for people who really needed the help. I said people like him. People doing incredibly good deeds for others without pause.

He said there were too many people who needed the help more.

So this is what I knew.

An incredibly happy older man with a sleeping dog who loved belly rubs was willing to stand on the sidewalk holding a sign asking for dog food rather than go to a place a few blocks away and get it for free because other people needed it more.

And the dog wasn’t even his dog.

During the conversation he told me where he lived. I knew the building. We sometimes dropped food there for several of the residents and their pets.

I asked him what his goal was for the day. Based on how things were going, he said he didn’t think he was going to get enough money for a bag of food. I asked him what else he needed besides dog food.

He said a really fluffy dog bed would be good too, since he knew the dog had some arthritis and his dog bed was really flat and he thought an older dog should have a really fluffy bed.

So dog food and a fluffy dog bed. What about wet food?

He laughed and said wet food was only a dream because he knew wet food was about $4 a can and there was no way he could afford that.

The entire time I was with him, this man never stopped smiling. It wasn’t a fake smile. He just smiled. And in his dream world, he dreamed for dog food and a fluffy dog bed.

And for his neighbor to feel better.

But he dreamed of nothing for him.

I didn’t have any dog food with me. But I had another idea.

I asked him how he would feel if he opened his door one day and found bags and cans of dog food outside his door, stacked inside a big fluffy dog bed.

He laughed and laughed and laughed.

I have a feeling he was still laughing the next day when he opened his door and found all that dog food and the big fluffy bed.

“Many eyes go through the meadow, but few see the flowers in it.” -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

For this man and this dog, they were the flowers.

Truly beautiful flowers.

Being a helper.

And this is why we Pongo.

Sit. Stay. Eat. Live. www.thepongofund.org
The Pongo Fund / Portland, OR.

For all the words I write, are all the words I don’t. I know it’s that way for all of us, not just me. But for you too.S...
05/11/2024

For all the words I write, are all the words I don’t.

I know it’s that way for all of us, not just me. But for you too.

Sometimes just too many words. And for many of those words, they hurt.

Not just to read them. But to write them.

So for now, we'll keep it short. There are not many words to follow.

I will trust you to fill in the blanks.

This is a reminder of the work The Pongo Fund does and has done.

We don’t have complicated processes or fancy titles or department names with lots of syllables.

We just help when we can.

This little one, they got help.

To each one of you who helps us, thank you.

This is what you make possible.

Because everything we do, we do together.

“May all that have life be delivered from suffering.” -- Gautama Buddha

And this is why we Pongo.

Sit. Stay. Eat. Live. www.thepongofund.org
The Pongo Fund / Portland, OR.

02/11/2024

She saw the kittens. They were part of the discomfort in the tents on the sidewalk pressed against the building face.

She was comfortable buying cans of cat food. But she was uncomfortable delivering those same cans. I understood.

She called and asked, if she bought food, would The Pongo Fund deliver it? We asked for more details. But the answer was already yes. We just needed to hear it, in her words.

Why?

Because her words spoke volumes.

The kittens she saw as a little girl. The ones she could not help.

But these she could.

She bought cat food. Little cans and lots of them. Assorted flavors. Chicken. Fish. Turkey. Soup. Stew. Puree. Many dozens of them. She spent an armload of money for neighbors she did not know.

All because one of them held up a sign that said “Please Help” with cat food as the goal.

We started at one end and worked to the other. If someone had a cat they received cans of cat food.

There were a lot of cats. There were a lot of cans.

We shared food and knowledge and resources and rescue.

Close to the end a man asked for just two cans of food. We showed him they were small and offered more, but he said just two cans was fine. He said there were others who needed it more.

He also asked for a metal spoon. That’s happened before. To unpack food from a small can works best with a small spoon. A metal spoon adds a touch of dignity, more than a plastic spoon.

Or was it a metal spoon to make drugs?

We did not have a metal spoon with us. I said if I find one, I’ll bring it over. Unsure of the spoon’s purpose, I wasn’t sure what to do.

We gave out the rest of the food. There was a small café nearby and I went inside and they gave me a random spoon.

We walked back to the open tent and looked inside. The look on his face said he never expected to see us again.

He froze, wearing a look of both guilt and embarrassment. Caught in the middle of doing what he didn’t want to be caught doing.

But I had the spoon.

But it wasn’t me or the spoon that was the problem.

It was having caught him using two of his fingers to lift small amounts of cat food to his mouth to fight the hunger that had been there all day.

His cats were not hungry. He had none.

He was hungry.

He was a soft spoken and competent man, or at least as competent as any of us can be. But PTSD had unbalanced who he once was. Crowds. Noise. Loud voices.

Some of the things that hit all of us, hit him harder.

And some of those things sometimes took place as he waited for food at the nearby shelter. So on those days when he felt most fragile, he went hungry.

The cat food was a gift he never saw coming.

That’s why he asked for just two small cans. He could have asked for more. But he felt what he was doing was wrong and he wanted to balance his hunger with his karma.

His hunger.

His karma.

A million moments took place in just a few. I gave him the spoon. He said thank you.

I asked him if any other food sounded good. What did he like to eat.

He told me.

It was simple.

Something he’d grown up with.

I had it for him the next day.

Delivered by a caseworker who wanted to help.

We help dogs. We help cats.

We help people with dogs and cats.

And sometimes we simply help people.

But it all starts with food.

Feeding both Stomach and Soul.

With LOVE.

And this is why we Pongo.

Sit. Stay. Eat. Live. www.thepongofund.org
The Pongo Fund / Portland, OR.

31/10/2024

His name was Jerry.

He was just a cat.

18 years old. Maybe more.

He crossed The Rainbow Bridge.

His Dad said there was nothing special about him.

He was just a cat.

That’s what his Dad said.

Just. A. Cat.

His Dad called us to maybe help with a vet exam. He suspected something was going on, he feared more than an exam would be needed. His wife had told him about The Pongo Fund. He called. He said he may not have enough money for everything and wondered if we could help. We asked him to tell us more.

He said there wasn’t much to tell.

Jerry showed up one day in their back yard. They never saw where he came from. And after that, he never left. He blamed his wife for that. He said she brought him inside and treated him like a baby.

He asked me, what kind of cat wants to be treated like a baby?

He said Jerry sat in the window watching the birds and squirrels. He said sometimes his wife made him put a leash on Jerry and take him for walks. He said it was embarrassing for both of them.

He said Jerry had too many beds and too many scratching posts and way too many of those silly wands with feathers on the end. He always wanted to let Jerry back outside to be wild, but his wife told him she’d leave him if he ever did.

He said his wife was the best woman he ever knew. That he didn’t deserve her. And that’s why he did everything she asked. Including walking Jerry on a leash.

Then his wife left him anyway.

When he found her, there was Jerry, sitting on her lap. Just like they’d done a million times before.

Only this time, she was gone.

That was a few years ago. And from that moment on, he became the one to treat Jerry like a baby.

And they both loved it.

He said he knew he didn’t do it as good as his wife did. He said he and Jerry talked about that. He didn’t shake the wand quite right. He didn’t fluff the beds quite right. He didn’t clean the litter box quite right. But Jerry was patient with him, never complaining.

With one side of the bed now empty, Jerry decided to sleep there.
Jerry’s Dad was glad. He felt less lonely that way.

His wife had once taped a note to the fridge. It said Pongo Fund.

Things were always tight for them. Sometimes even tighter than tight. She put the note there just in case of emergency. That’s where the note stayed, even after she was gone.

That was the note that prompted his call. Even after she was gone, he said his wife was still looking after them.

The vet explained what was going on. They talked about time in days, not weeks.

Jerry and his Dad played and walked and napped like always.

He said he always wondered how he would know when it was time. He wondered if Jerry would tell him. He worried he might not have enough money at the end, he might need some help. Unless it was the beginning of the month when his check arrived. He could afford things then, at the beginning of the month.

Afford things, like saying goodbye to Jerry.

But you never know.

The Pongo Fund was his Plan B. We told him we were good with Plan B.

Jerry’s Dad called us, wanted us to know that Jerry told him it was time.

We waited for the next sentence.

He said when he woke up, Jerry didn’t. He left just like his wife did.

Without a sound.

He burst out in tears.

He said he knew Jerry was just a cat.

But a what a really great cat he was.

That was a few weeks ago.

About a week later, he met Milo.

Milo is no Jerry, but he loves walking on a leash.

And he sleeps next to him on the bed.

He said Milo is just a cat.

But what a really great cat he is...

Sometimes the work we do is hard to understand. Even for us.

We’re a food bank but as someone once said, food from The Pongo Fund feeds both the stomach and the soul. I always liked that. And I thought what a wonderful compliment it was.

We were there for Jerry in more ways than these words can ever tell. And we’ll be there for Milo too, for it is an honor to be part of Plan B.

And for Jerry’s Dad, he knows we’re only a phone call away.

Peace out, Jerry.

For all the really great cats...

And this is why we Pongo.

Sit. Stay. Eat. Live. www.thepongofund.org
The Pongo Fund / Portland, OR.

13/10/2024

He said he had nothing left to lose.

Except for one thing.

Millie.

The sweet blessing of a dog they adopted a few months earlier. A shelter giving dogs away for free. Even though they knew money was already tight and they would need even more for dog food, vet care, etc. they still said yes.

Fast forward to the call he never thought he’d make.

We talked about Millie. We talked about him. We talked about his wife, the most gracious woman in the world. She loved every animal and they loved her even more.

And now she was gone.

No one knew that was coming. Maybe Millie did. But she never said. But those last few days she stayed really close to his wife. And then she was gone.

He met his wife in recovery. Many years together clean and sober. They leaned on each other every day and their days were good days. But he said he was sliding backward into breaking every promise he made to his wife and to Millie.

Because his wife was more than just his wife, she was part of their financial stability. Two people with fixed incomes was a lot more than just one. And now he said he could not afford Millie’s food.

Millie, the dog that he promised a better life.

And his call to us then was not for food, it was for giving Millie up. Could we promise him we’d find her the best home, with people who loved her as much as they did?

People who knew her favorite toys and how she liked her bed fluffed.

The way she would eat part of her food and then take a short break and then eat the rest.

The way she looked in your eyes that touched all the way to your soul.

Could we help him find her that place?

And all because he could not afford to buy her food.

We get too many calls like this. Things are going along just fine until they’re not. For a while you go hungry so your dog or cat does not. But then things get worse and you go hungry together.

He asked us a single question. Could we find Millie a new home? We said yes. And we said yes because that’s what he needed to hear in that moment. But we knew there were more questions still to be asked.

So when it was out turn, we asked.

He was in his 70’s. A hard life that never stopped being hard but it was the kind of hard that was better when shared with someone you love. Someone who also understood. His wife did. And now with her gone, he felt everything was starting to fall apart.

He called the shelter and they said they could not take Millie back because it had been too long since the adoption. And that made him panic even more. That panic is what helped him find The Pongo Fund.

He was broken and he was broken about more than just dog food.

Sometimes when you can’t help with everything, you find the one thing you can help with. For us, that was Millie's food. So we started talking about what Millie liked.

He talked about her favorite kibble. Her favorite proteins. Her favorite vegetarian treats. She loved little bits of fresh cucumber. And every now and then he’d sneak some scrambled egg into her breakfast bowl and whenever he did, Millie went bonkers.

I asked him what he meant when he said she went bonkers and he told me. He broke my heart as he told me because no one would ever appreciate all those things as much as he did. When she did her happy dance, she was doing it for him.

I asked him one more question. I told him it would be the last one.

He then said some things that went far deeper than the call. He cared nothing about himself. He just wanted to make sure she would be ok. But it was so much more than that.

A couple minutes later the call ended.

The last thing I told him was that we would be seeing Millie soon.

A few days later we got dog food delivered to his home. Some fresh eggs too. Some cucumber. A couple bags of groceries for him too, because the woman who delivered the food for Millie had spent a lifetime helping others and when someone is hungry you feed them so feeding Millie and her Dad at the same time just made sense.

Fast forward. Millie is now 15. She still goes bonkers over a little bit of scrambled egg in her breakfast. She and her Dad spend their days in the simplest of ways. But they're together. A bag of dog food made that happen.

Sometimes it’s just as simple as that.

A bag of dog food.

And some love.

And some words of hope too.

The words that he needed to hear, to hold tight, that if anything happened to him that The Pongo Fund would be there for Millie. Yes, we would. Our name and number are now on her collar. We’re the backup plan.

Every few months we might hear from him again. Maybe things had gotten extra hard financially, maybe we could help with some food. Always a question that he asked with pause, knowing there were others who he felt needed the help more.

But if we could help, he and Millie would be very grateful.

The woman who delivered that first bag of food, still delivers it now. I ask her how it’s going and she tells me it’s going fine. In this line of work, neither one of us needs more words than that.

Feeding Millie.

And this is why we Pongo.

Sit. Stay. Eat. Live. www.thepongofund.org
The Pongo Fund / Portland, OR.

The Good News!The Really Good News!The Let’s Hope It Gets Better News!And a photo that is far more exciting than it look...
22/09/2024

The Good News!
The Really Good News!
The Let’s Hope It Gets Better News!
And a photo that is far more exciting than it looks!!!

***Here's The Good News***

Thank you to everyone who quickly rallied together last week to help us try to raise $50,000 to restock our pet food bank with $150,000 worth of dog and cat food. That’s a HUGE amount of money for our small but mighty group. These discounted food buying opportunities are not commonplace anymore, and when they do come along we do our best to be ready. Thankfully we had $20,000 of Matching Funds to help, and what a difference that made. Even though we did not raise the entire $50,000, we came very close, falling short by only about $6,000. And for a small, volunteer driven group like The Pongo Fund, a group without any marketing or fundraising programs, that’s really a huge success. We owe it all to you. THANK YOU!

***Here's The Really Good News***

We used the money we received and ordered all the food we could, with three truckloads arriving as fast as we could get them here. The photo is just one of the many pallets of food received, with much of it already going back out the door helping fight hunger throughout the community. Because hungry people will always have hungry pets. And thankfully, we’re here to help.

***Here's The Let’s Hope It Gets Better News***

Unfortunately, several people did not complete their contributions. They did complete the online donation form on our website, but when that link took them to the Paypal site to enter credit card information, the donations were not completed. Please note that Paypal processes the donations for the majority of small non-profit groups like The Pongo Fund, thus why we use the Paypal site. But you do not need a Paypal account to donate to us. A credit card works just fine.

As for the donations not being completed, this is not the end of the world and it can happen for a lot of reasons, including credit card details entered in error, a technical error on the site, or something as simple as someone running out of time and not being able to finish. In fact, someone might not even realize the donation was not completed. How do you know if your donation was completed? You would have received an email from Paypal letting you know. It’s that simple of a process.

If you did not receive the email from Paypal, then your donation was not completed. Several of the donations that were not completed were from regular donors, so I’m pretty sure they don’t even realize this happened. So for now, if you meant to donate to restock our pet food bank and to have your donation matched, and if you did not have a chance to complete your donation last week, then I invite you to please try again since WE STILL HAVE MATCHING FUNDS AVAILABLE.

To donate now please click here https://bit.ly/37joA5S to donate via our website with your Credit Card. Or you can also donate directly on this Facebook post. Donations are still being matched.

If you prefer, please consider mailing a check. The mailing address is The Pongo Fund, PO Box 9000, Portland, OR, 97207.

Because Hungry People Have Hungry Pets.

And this is why we Pongo.

Sit. Stay. Eat. Live. www.thepongofund.org
The Pongo Fund / Portland, OR.

The donation link again is https://bit.ly/37joA5S

Short and Sweet. The Bad News and The Good News.THE BAD NEWS.We have 60 empty pallets. And every one of them should be f...
10/09/2024

Short and Sweet. The Bad News and The Good News.

THE BAD NEWS.

We have 60 empty pallets. And every one of them should be filled with food.

Our costs have gone up. Just like for you, for us too. And it’s gotten a lot harder to buy truckloads of food.

THE GOOD NEWS.

Right now we have the chance to buy about $150,000 of food for about $50,000. That means we need to raise $50,000. It really is a great deal for us. Cold winter months are coming right up.

$50,000 is a lot of money. Especially for a little volunteer driven group like us. We know that. We know you know it too. That's why this ask is so hard.

But it gets better.

Because we’ve got a total of $20,000 of matching funds. Meaning every dollar we raise for food will be doubled up to $20,000. And that’s a great deal.

This is a short email for me, but it’s long on gratitude. For each one of you who keeps us going. If you can help, please do. Here are the details:

To help us purchase our next truckloads of food, please click here https://bit.ly/37joA5S to donate via our website with Credit Card or Paypal account. Or you can also donate on this Facebook post.

If you prefer, please consider mailing a check. The mailing address is The Pongo Fund, PO Box 9000, Portland, OR, 97207.

If you're already a monthly donor, please know your donations will also count toward the matching funds. Cool!

If you're not a monthly donor, please consider joining us. The monthly donors carry a heavy load, far more than they realize. Please join the group, we'd love to have you with us each month.

As always, please call or email with any questions you have and I’ll do my best to answer. The phone number is on our website and if you get voice mail please know we'll call you back.

Filling our food bank.

And this is why we Pongo.

Sit. Stay. Eat. Live. www.thepongofund.org
The Pongo Fund / Portland, OR.

The donation link again is https://bit.ly/37joA5S

28/08/2024

Henry’s Mom had three children, two legged and four.

Henry was the only one left.

He was sick, needed to get to the vet. That would happen the next day. She was calling now, to talk about the days after that. Because she already knew she could not afford them.

Henry had been fighting for a while. A terrier mix, 18 years young. They’d been together forever. She could afford the vet visit. But it was the vet visits after that, that she feared.

Like Henry’s medication.

She knew it was going up in price, maybe $15 more per month. And she didn’t have it. She wasn’t calling for help with money. She didn’t have much, but that’s not why she was calling.

She was simply calling to talk.

I told her she was not alone, that her dilemma was a tough one faced by many. How to pay for Henry’s monthly medication when her budget didn’t allow it.

She talked about Henry, her best friend, he barked a couple times in the background. I think he liked what she was saying about him.

Yes, he was a very good boy!!!

Her neck of the woods was a couple hours from Portland. There weren’t many resources there, except neighbors who cared. But she did not want to rely on them for $15 per month for all the rest of the months. Because her neighbors, they struggled too.

And for them, $15 was a big deal.

She just wanted to share what was on her mind. I was a total stranger. And that’s who she wanted to share with. Maybe I had an idea. She’d heard about The Pongo Fund from someone who told her we do all sorts of things. Maybe we could help her come up with a solution.

Not money. Just ideas.

Told her we’d call her back.

A few months earlier a woman brought a smattering of stuff to The Pongo Fund. Her dog had crossed The Rainbow Bridge. Everything was well loved and filled with thousands of memories.

She drove a couple hours to get to us. Said it was important for her to get Bailey’s beds and blankets and toys to The Pongo Fund. She knew our website said these were things we did not currently need, but she brought them anyway.

Said she had to do it. She just had too.

We talked about all the people who could not afford beds and blankets and toys for their dogs. So even though her things were very well loved, maybe we’d find the perfect dog for them. We told her we would. And we did.

We also talked about good fortune. How sometimes, not everyone has it when they need it most. She said she was not going to be getting another dog. At least, that was the plan. But if, just if, we ever got a call from someone needing a little extra help for their dog, to let her know.

The neck of the woods she lived in, a couple hours from Portland, wasn’t too far from the neck of the woods Henry and his Mom lived in. And that got me to thinking.

So I called Bailey’s Mom and told her about Henry’s Mom. We talked about how much $15 per month is when you don’t have it. She asked me to have Henry’s Mom call her. That she’d like to tell her that Henry’s medication was going to be paid for each month, in memory of Bailey. They’d work out the details themselves, all Henry’s Mom needed to do was call her.

I called Henry’s Mom with the good news. I had to explain it twice, because it didn’t make sense the first time. Why would someone want to help a total stranger? I told her maybe because that was the best kind of help.

She then asked me how long I’d been helping at The Pongo Fund. I told her a long time.

She asked if it would help me if she called back and talked to my manager, to say what a good job I did.

I told her she already had. And it was very much appreciated.

Henry and Henry’s Mom are doing great.

Bailey’s Mom might be the happiest of all.

As Mister Rogers said, "The real issue in life is not how many blessings we have, but what we do with our blessings.”

Being A Helper.

And this is why we Pongo.

Sit. Stay. Eat. Live. www.thepongofund.org
The Pongo Fund / Portland, OR.

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Videos

Cody's Happy Dance
Cody's Happy Dance

GREAT NEWS!!! ---- Happy French Fry Friday from Cody, he’s standing in for Scooby today. This little guy did a Happy Dance when he heard how everyone stepped up to help make his surgery dream come true, and that surgery is now coming up next week. Look at that little tail wag! Also look at the ecollar, how big it is compared to Cody. He may be small, but he is one cool little dude. Thank you to everyone for helping turn this guy’s life around. Being there for Cody and tens of thousands more. That’s what you help us do. And this is why we Pongo. Sit. Stay. Eat. Live. thepongofund.org #cody #savethepen*s

Look at these faces. Because they are truly special people. The Pongo Fund will be open this coming Sunday, Christmas Eve Day, to do the work that no one else does. Providing high quality dog and cat food for those in need, keeping their beloved animals safe, healthy and out of the shelters. We’ve done it 10,000,000 times, and we’ll do it 10,000,000 more. The forecast is for more than just cold, and that’s why we’ll be working in subfreezing temperatures. But it is work that must be done. Because lives depend on it. And there are 100,000 dogs, cats and horses alive today that would second what we just said. We’ve had more than 50 kibblers in this month, packing food for hungry and hurting dogs and cats near and far. Some of them have come in groups, others have come alone, but they quickly met new friends and decided that they too wanted to become part of the work we do. It’s not fancy by any means; the floor is hard concrete, the walls are unpainted, there’s no heat in the winter or AC in the summer. Our coffeemaker cost $10.00 but still brews a fine cup of strong black coffee. But despite what it’s not, it is still a sanctuary, a place to relax and reconnect and to do good so that others will feel good. The folks in these photos are part of our Starting Lineup. They’re been Pongoing for many years, some of them since the day we opened, some of them since the day they were born. Some of them are even away at college, but will return this Sunday to Pongo, to this touchstone that has meant something to them, something more than words can say. We’ll be there together, wrapped in as many layers as we can, shivering through 28 degree temps that we know will chill all of us to the bone. Some will bring their kids. Some will bring their grandkids. There will be about 25 of us fighting the good fight, and I wanted to take a moment now to share a few of them with you. Most of them run when I show up with a camera, they do not Pongo to have their stories told. But the

The video is from a few months ago, Lola is not ready for this much fun yet; she's still working hard to recover from her surgery. But the good news is that Lola is feeling a little more like Lola this morning, not 100% yet, but she's the most Lola yet over the past several days. She woke up happy and waggy and barked at me to get out of bed and get her breakfast post haste. And that's a big deal because she's fighting food PTSD. Yes, it's a real thing. That's when we turn away from the food we love because we associate it with being sick; it happens to us, it happens to them too, two and four-legged alike. So they walk away, still hungry, rather than risk getting sick again. But it's a lot more serious for our animal friends; I've read stories of them almost starving themselves because they won't eat. So Lola barking up a storm this morning for me to get cooking was a real good sign. She's just eating in bits and pieces, we treat every meal like an appetizer rather than the full meal deal. Her little body is still sore and she's adjusting, so one step at a time. But just getting her to eat is huge, because this little daisy has lost 10% of her body weight and that's a lot for this little one to give up. So right now the goal is to fatten her up a bit, get some junk back into that trunk. And we’ve got a secret weapon, a good friend who has mastered the art of canine nutrition and she's been hard at work testing special Lola recipes. The bad news is that I had to break it to Lolabajola this morning that there’s no beach trips anytime soon. Maybe not until September. Sand and stitches just aren’t a good mix, and there’s no way we can be anyway near the sand without her wanting to be in the sand. The video below is goofy, I’m not a videographer by any means and you’ll see that fast. But it’s from a past foray to the coast so I thought it would be a good reminder of sun and sand; Lola sat on my lap and we watched it together. Thank you for your continued love and

We start them young at The Pongo Fund. Just a few weeks after he was born, Oliver joined The Little Pongos, our Volunteer Training Program. He started in our Kibble Department, quickly becoming an expert. He then advanced to our Intake Team, greeting new guests and helping them complete their paperwork. When he could not answer a specific question, he just smiled and gurgled. From there he worked in Fulfillment, gently touching each bag to confirm it was ready for Distribution. And at Distribution he rocked it, once again using his Superpower Smile to thank people for taking time out of their Sunday to come to The Pongo Fund and get good food to keep their family pets fed. Sometimes people engaged Oliver in lengthy conversation and you could tell he enjoyed that. Oliver Pongo'd with us again this past Sunday. He is now almost two and he's talking, and he continues to take on more and more responsibility each time we see him. On this day he acted as a Floor Manager, walking the warehouse to make sure things were shipshape. I asked him how we'd know if he was satisfied? Would he tell us in words or some other way? Oliver told me if things looked good, he would dance. Thankfully, Oliver danced. Next time he’ll be driving the forklift. Sit. Stay. Eat. Live. thepongofund.org

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