Her sentences arrived like poetry. It wasn’t intentional. It was just the way she spoke. A woman with many years who remembered a time before texting and tweeting. A time when words were investments. Spoken carefully. Irreplaceable. And she did it beautifully.

Describing the son she had lost years before that still leaves an open hole in her heart. That’s what she said. It was only when I asked a question that I learned the truth.

The son she missed had four legs, not two. And there was never another. Until now.

A friend had passed away. “They all seem to do that, you know?” she said. But this one left behind her son, her dog. And that dog had no one. And that’s why she said she needed to be there for him. But like many of her generation, the money did not meet the need. And the daily cost of caring for her new friend was often beyond her means. And that’s why she turned to The Pongo Fund for help.

But then she needed to move and her new home was not conveniently located for her to get to Pongo. So we went to her. But where she lived, she told us, there were many more just like her that struggled to keep their pets fed.

What about them?

“The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

So we started with one building housing dozens more like her, delivering to them food and hope regularly. The amounts change. The delivery days change. But what doesn’t change is that we are there for them when they need us most.

But there were more buildings just like this one throughout the city. Providing stable housing for those that would be homeless otherwise. Hundreds of people with hundreds of pets.

People that face a myriad of physical, financial, mental and emotional struggles daily. Senior citizens. Veterans. Victims of domestic violence. And so much more.

Their pets their only stability. Loved with all the love possible. And they needed help. So we worked to find the way to help these people with their pets that no one else helped.

Despite The Pongo Fund being a tiny tot of an organization we leaped. Because, as the saying goes, leap and the net will appear.

As the hard winter months near, The Pongo Fund continues the program to reach these wonderful people and pets that had gone unreached before. If they could not get to us we would get to them. We have not named the program yet, but we will.

Because doing it is more important than naming it.

“Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” – Leo Buscaglia.

Delivering food and hope to the doorways of our most fragile families. Keeping so many beloved animals safe at home and out of the shelters. Keeping people and their pets together.

And this is why we Pongo.

Sit. Stay. Eat. Live. Together We Pongo. thepongofund.org

#ThePongoFund #Rescue #Seniors #Helping

***The Pongo Fund is Oregon’s Pet Food Bank. Because hungry people have hungry pets. Our award winning and volunteer driven group helps more animals than any other group in Oregon by providing high quality food and vital veterinary care for the family pets of anyone in honest need, keeping them safe, healthy and out of the shelters. 90,000 animals helped; 9,000,000 healthy meals provided. We would be honored if you SHARE this post so that others will also know of our good work***

(This story is reposted due to special request)