March 13, 2022 • 42 mins
In this week's episode of the Pet Owner Diary Show, Co-Host Tay Shoemaker talks with the Pug Rescue Of Austin’s President Dave Norris. He chimes in about their daily operations, community impact, and great volunteers. Dave explains the pros and cons of the breed, essential pet care common, diseases, and pet care tips for new and seasoned Pug Owners. Other topics include: What are the must-haves to be a great Foster or Adoptive Parent? The reasons for “foster fails” and so much more!. Don’t miss inspiring rescue stories and learn what it’s like to run a breed-specific rescue.
Guest Links:
Website: https://austinpugrescue.com
Instagram: https://instagram.com/pug_rescue_austin?utm_medium=copy_link
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PugRescueofAustin/
Donate here: https://austinpugrescue.com/donate
Guest Links:
Website: https://austinpugrescue.com
Instagram: https://instagram.com/pug_rescue_austin?utm_medium=copy_link
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PugRescueofAustin/
Donate here: https://austinpugrescue.com/donate
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Pet Owner Diary Podcast, a show about helping you become a
better pet parent. In each episode, we deliver raw, honest, funny,
and insightful advice on how to bea great pet parent for any type
of pet. Now here's your host, America's Pet Owner Coach Janelle Young.
(00:20):
Hey, pet family, welcome back. Thank you for joining us again on
the Pet Owner Diary Show. I'myour co host, Hey, and today's
episode is for our dog lovers.We are returning to familiar territory with an
amazing guest. If you're from Austin, like myself, you may have heard
(00:40):
of this rescue. They hold eventsall over the city. Today we will
be speaking to Dave Norris, thepresident of Hug Rescue of Austin. Welcome
Dave, how are you doing today? Great and thank you so much for
having me. I'm doing just great, glad to be here. Amazing,
so, pet Family. I havea personal history with Plug Rescue of Austin
(01:03):
or PRA as will probably refer toit. I've worked some of their major
events like Let It Snore and PugConfest events to help fundraise for the rescue
and also showcase their available foster dogs. So that's my history with PRERA,
but the rescue has a very longhistory of its own. Dave, could
(01:25):
you tell us how the rescue gotstarted? Yeah, I'd be happy to.
In two thousand and nine, seriesof a small group of volunteers who
many are still actively very much involvedwith PRA decided there was a need in
Austin. Maybe they didn't decide,they noticed there was a need in Austin
(01:46):
to rescue pugs. There was justa quite a few who kept popping up
who needed help. And you knowa lot of our original founders, it's
going to be Rita's Sena, MartyJanet, Edie Angie, And if I
named too many people or not enough, I might get in trouble because it
was a great ragtag group of peoplewho just started making it happen. And
(02:07):
really it was breed clubs actually madeit happen funny enough, so there was
a pug club already in the area, and there was also the DFW Pug
Club as well, a pug clubover there, and a lot of the
members from each kind of formed acoalition and started rescuing in pugs and Austin
(02:28):
back in two thousand and nine,and we're still going strong now in twenty
twenty two. Yes, perfect lovely. So I kind of want to touch
on the subject of rescuing pugs becausepugs are often seen as a designer breed,
you know, they're categorized as aas a toy breed, and they're
(02:49):
very well known for their squishy,squashy faces. So I know some people
may ask why a rescue for pugsspecifically. Yeah, it's a it's a
great question and understandable to get that. It does come up, and that
is a common response when I talkabout the pug rescue. People go,
there's a pug rescue. What whythey need to be a pug rescue.
(03:09):
Yes, there's absolutely a need fora pug rescue, you know, and
I'm sure we'll touch on this abit more. But there are a lot
of common, expensive health problems withpugs as they age. There's a lot
of misconceptions about the breed. Aspeople either purchase one or one enters their
home somehow they might not be readyfor a lot of the curveballs this very
(03:30):
special breed throws at them. Butyes, we need this breed specific rescue
because of the I hate to sayat the financial cost that is higher for
pugs than your than your average dog. It's just a it's a truth,
you know. And they have alot of medical needs, and so yeah,
(03:50):
there there is absolutely a need forthis very specific rescue. Now I
could understand maybe people making an argument, are there enough pugs to save?
And yes there are. With thatsaid, we also saved beyond pugs,
and we'll do a lot of pugmixes come into the rescue. We save
them because we do have some extracapacity because on a given month, we
(04:12):
might literally rescue every pug available torescue in Austin. That's that's that's come
to us. You know, wealways say yes to every pug. So
yes, yeah, and I meanpet family. Unfortunately, no matter what
the breed is, there's always peopleout there that are not very nice or
people who are just not prepared forthe responsibilities of owning your dog, especially
(04:33):
pugs, because you know, likeDave said, they have they have a
few needs that should we tended tofor a good life. So what what
are those needs? Could you letus in on some other required care for
a pug to have a happy,healthy life. Yes, you're going to
and you should do this with anydog, but I would stress it so
(04:55):
much more even with pugs is you'regoing to have to do a lot of
preventive dental care. Make sure there'splenty of teeth cleaning going on, because
they on average have far more dentalissues just because the compressed nature of their
face, how their bread. Uh, They're going to have a lot of
dental issues that you just need tofrankly financially prepare for, you know,
(05:16):
start setting money aside for that.Things not to do. They're terrible and
heat. It's not I hate sayingthis. It's not uncommon for a pug
to we hear about one through thegrapevine who's died on a long, long
walk in the summer. You know, it's horrifying. Right, They're just
they're just built differently, right,and so a lot of care and research
needs to happen before you take oneinto your home. Right, that makes
(05:41):
a lot of sense. And Iknow you guys get a lot of senior
pugs in. Would you say thatolder pugs are your most common take ins?
Yes, in a given month,you're looking at around sixty percent plus
of a pug being a senior thatwe take in. And what is a
senior to us, it's in eightyear old or higher. And that's going
(06:02):
to vary per shelter or rescue,whatever they categorize, but we categorize it
as eight and up. And yes, the majority of dogs we take in
our seniors. Why do you thinkyou get so many older pugs? I
believe you know when we when weget them, it's very obvious what keeps
bubbling up, which is health problemsstart popping in, right, Uh,
(06:25):
the they might have a disc problems, uh, spinal issues, right is
not uncommon, eye issues as theyget older. And I think you know
when they're when they're younger, thesemight be dormant or just not there yet.
And and a pug, and anydog is going to cost more the
longer you have them, as medicalneeds come up, typically speaking, but
(06:46):
especially so for a pug. Soit's no surprise. And you know that's
that's you'll see these numbers repeated inshelters too. But I mean that unfortunately,
sometimes people do surrender senior dogs.But we're here to help when people
will need to do that if they'rein a tough spot they cannot afford that.
We are absolutely understanding and are hereto help take in that pug.
(07:06):
Yeah. No, that makes alot of sense. I mean, you
know, a lot of breeds haveproblems as they get older. I know
that I have a bulldog, andthey also have a ton of issues that
you have to look after as theyget older. And I kind of want
(07:27):
to get into some of the amazingpeople that run the rescue because pr A
is a nonprofit, volunteer run rescueand there's like six board members. I
think that's right. Yeah, I'mone of them. I'm president and board
chair. But yeah, we haveI think it's like the dream team on
(07:48):
our board. I love these Ilove I love this group and we've got
such a we all come from differentcareer background so much, and it's myself.
You've got Debbie who's our president andfoster coordinator. Debbie's very much a
huge heart that that just fills ourrescue weekly and it leads our foster parents.
(08:09):
Um. You've got Becky, she'sour tech website person, brilliant in
marketing and she's on the board aswell. You've got Brian. Brian's my
hero. Shout out to Brian.He's he's a volunteer lawyer. If you
can believe it. It was thebiggest heart in law world. And he
loves pugs. He's he volunteers hisexpertise, which you know when contracts are
(08:30):
going out. You've got well overone hundred contracts going out a year,
right, um, close to hundred. You need a lawyer on your board
and we have one and he's amazing. Um you've got shar and she her
background in the rescue is from screeningand so she has a great eye on
applicants and what to do next andmake the adoption process better always we can
(08:52):
always make it better. And thenfinally we have Helen, who's just our
excellent events strategist I would probably callher and she is also wonderful with systems
and how to how to just constantlyimprove our systems at par A. Amazing.
Yeah, you guys sound like youhave a great crew. And um,
I just want to clarify for ourpet family that when you become a
(09:16):
nonprofit, it is a very verylong process, am I right? Yes,
it it's it's not overnight. Itcan take up to a year depending
on paperwork. But to become afive or one C three and I think
the people before me, right,that's that's Rita and Angie who did all
that work. I I walked inhere like a piece of cake three years
(09:37):
after para four, Like, Hi, guys, thanks for doing all the
paperwork. But it's it's it's it'swork. You don't get to do it
overnight. It's not like, uh, you know, starting a website.
M What are some of the requirementsto even start a nonprofit or look at
starting a nonprofit. It's a greatquestion that you've You've got to find a
(09:58):
public need that is a public good. You're doing good in the community,
right, you cannot have certain biases. You've got to You've got to be
providing a service that that is generallygood for the public. Uh. Isn't
that sort of vague and weird?Yes, that's why forming forming nonprofits gonna
be tricky. Um. There's variationsof the five oh one C three and
(10:20):
you could start a club, andyou could there's variations on political groups.
But to get that nonprofit tax deductiblestatus if you if you're forming, you
know, rescues a great example ofsomething that's a that's a clear win right
to start a nonprofit? Um,But yeah, you've got to You've got
to justify your existence as as apublic good, and the government has to
(10:41):
agree with you on that. Sogreat, perfect. Okay, we do
have to take a quick break,but we'll be right back with Dave Morris,
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pet with goodness. Treat your petlike they treat you. Kay, Pet
(12:20):
Family, welcome back. We arehere with Dave Norris from Hog Rescue Austin,
and Dave, I wanted to talkabout the volunteers that you guys have,
because I know you mainly run offof volunteers. Volunteers that help out
(12:41):
with events, transport dogs, matchfosters with forever families, and so much
more. Do you know how manyvolunteers you'll actually have. Yeah, it's
actively. It's probably just under ahundred right now. We have several hundred
who who are sort of on standbyin what we called the Pug Rescue family.
(13:01):
That's that's over three hundred people whowho help and see our transport needs
pop up and might show up.You know, you might have somebody who
adopted three years ago, who whojust does some transport for us this week,
who just sees an emergency and stepsin. But but active people working
weekly I shouldn't say working, butbut volunteering because we are all volunteer run.
(13:24):
It's just under a hundred. Wow, that's actually amazing. That's way
more than I was expecting. AndI know I listed off some of the
jobs, but what are the onesthat the rescue really needs covered right now?
Foster parents is number one what wesaw and this wasn't just a Pug
Rescue of Austin thing. This wasa animal rescue, animal welfare thing happening
(13:46):
in the United States in twenty twentyone, and bleeding into now is a
lack of foster parents. It's justas intake increases. You know, we
just had a record year last year. We saved nearly two hundred dogs,
just under two hundred dogs we savedlast wow. And we want to save
more this year, right We wantthat to be over two hundred this year.
(14:07):
And to do that, we've gotto get more foster parents. That's
the number one need. Other thanthat, of course, we have a
great administrative team who does a lotof the behind the scenes marketing. There's
still a lot of paperwork that needsto happen. So if you're somebody who
works from home, we would alwaystake people up on either writing tasks or
(14:28):
some administrative work that we always needhelp on. Yeah, perfect, you
hear that, guys. You guyscan go to the website Austin Pug Rescue
dot com and you can go andapply to become a volunteer there. But
on top of being a volunteer runrescue, per A is also a nonprofit
(14:48):
that runs off of donations. Soif you want to help out and send
a donation, you can buy someof their merch or you can donate at
Austin pug Rescue dot com. Soanother huge thing that we kind of touched
on that helps you, guys awant is the foster parents. How important
are foster parents to the rescue.Foster parents are are definitely the lifeblood of
(15:13):
our rescue. You know, wedon't we don't have an office and again,
I know I've said it a hundredtimes, but it's so important to
our structure. We have no paidstaff and so we basically have offices all
across Austin and they are at andin San Antonio and surrounding areas. And
those are our foster parents who willdo anything for their foster dog and they
(15:33):
make it happen and they really arejust excellent people. And that's a hard
volunteer role. You've got to seethem get adopted and you might have fallen
in love with them at that point. You got to see the dogs get
adopted, you know, And soit's a it's a tough role. It's
it's it's not for everyone, butit's very fulfilling. Yeah. Yeah,
(15:54):
I know some people might be onthe fence about becoming a foster parent because
like you said, you do haveto you have to find it a forever
home. Um. But for thosewho are on the edge, what would
you say the best things about beinga foster parent are other than I would
say the very the very fulfilling taskof the role itself would be that we
(16:15):
pay for everything. We pay forfood, we pay for medical bills while
the dogs being fostered. And sonone of that is going to be an
issue for you. You know,anybody can apply and and really it's it's
we've got you covered at PREA,we cover everything. So what are some
of the things you look for whenyou're considering someone to become a foster parent?
(16:40):
To us, fosters are adopters andadopters are fosters, right, and
so we actually the application process justhas one alteration of the question at the
at the end if you plan onpossibly at fostering to adopt, because it's
the same, we have the samestandards and those standards are going to be
a bit of knowledge about pugs orat least willing to do the research on
(17:00):
that. In the case of priordogs. We one thing I would say
we're strict on. We do liketo make sure if you've had if you
have dogs or had dogs, thatyou have kept them current on say heartworms
and vaccines. Just to make surethat we're we because that's part of the
role of fostering or adopting, isthat upkeep with the dog and making sure
(17:22):
you're going to care for them.So that's one of our requirements. Other
than that, you know, somevery obvious things like just make sure you
love pugs and then we'll do aquick little virtual home visit and get you
approved. Perfect. Yeah, sowhat what is that process? Like?
I know you touched on it alittle bit, but could you walk us
(17:44):
kind of step by step? Sure, if you're applying to either foster or
or adopt, it's a little bitof time because we're all volunteer run.
I wish we could do it faster, but our volunteers work is as fast
as they reasonably can to get youa proved from the screening team, and
it takes about two weeks. Sometimeswe're much faster, sometimes we're a little
(18:04):
longer, but it takes about twoweeks for the whole process, which includes
you know, calling references, doingthe virtual home visit and all that good
stuff. Awesome, that sounds amazing. Well, if anyone is interested in
becoming a foster, I do believeyou have to be within the Austin area,
(18:25):
though we take Austin people in Austin, but San Antonio. We've grown
hugely in San Antonio. A thirdof all our rescues come from San Antonio,
by the way, so that's that'suh, we're kind of we're called
the Pug Rescue of Austin, butwe're really Pug Rescue of San Antonio as
well. It feels like but andsurrounding Austin too round rock. Well,
(18:47):
we have some fosters theres but yes, generally speaking Austin, San Antonio.
Why where can they go to applyto become a foster. I am very
proud to say we're incredibly easy tofind Punchion Pug Rescue Austin and Google we're
the top five results. But justour website, our Facebook channel, Instagram
(19:11):
as well, we have we reallysince we've been around so long. We're
super easy to find in search engines, and please do check out our website
and our social channels to get involved. Yeah, and guys, that website
again is Austin pug Rescue dot com. You can just type that in UM,
like Dave said, even if youjust look up pug Rescue Austin,
(19:33):
or probably just pugs and the wordAustin, they'll probably come up as the
first thing. But yeah, youguys also have an amazing Facebook. I
think I get a lot of theevents on there. Yeah, Facebook's gonna
be a great place to find ourupcoming events. Instagram as well. We're
very active on both, but thoseare the key places to find anything upcoming.
(19:56):
Even even this coming Tuesday, we'regonna someone invited us to a south
By house. We're going to doa little meet and greet for pugs that's
open to the public. So yeah, that's gonna be fun. But that's
all found on our social media,all right. So just in case you
did not hear that, it isgoing to be Austin pug Rescue dot com.
If you go into Facebook, youcan also find them there under the
(20:18):
same name, Instagram, same name. Their website is amazing and like they've
said, you can find tons ofevents on there. I think the Facebook
is actually how I found them.So if you guys want to go and
check that out and look at theirwebsite, maybe make a quick donation,
get yourself a cute calendar, andwe'll be right back with Dave Norris from
(20:44):
Austin Pug Rescue. We all knowthat a dog is man's best friend,
(21:07):
won't why stop there? We thinkthat all pets make our lives a little
easier, whether it's a cat,gecko, or even a horse. We
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an eccentric personality or even give goodcuddles. Whatever it is, we want
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(21:32):
pet coach Janelle Young, No matterhow big or small, we'd love to
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(21:52):
at gmail dot com. The possibilitiesare endless. Maybe you and your pet
will be our next featured weekly gueston TV or radio. Let's give our
pets the attention they deserve. Welcomeback, pet Family. We are here
(22:23):
with Dave Norris from Austin Pug Rescueand we were talking about foster parents,
foster dogs, all things foster andsometimes, as you know pretty pretty well,
Dave, there are foster fails.Could you tell us what a foster
(22:45):
fail is, Yes, gladly,and it's one of the best things that
happens at at our rescue. Anduh, it's it's not uncommon at rescues.
But if you're fostering a dog,and of course on pay where your
the goal is to get be hereon the journey to that dog's forever home.
But um, you know, ifthere's a plot twist and it turns
(23:07):
out they are in their forever home, they're they're in their foster home,
which is they're they're rightful home allalong, and then the foster parent immediately
lets us know, hey, youknow what, I've fallen in love or
the dog chose me I you know, I didn't have a choice. They
I want to adopt. And nowwe ninety percent of the time say all
good, all all clear. Sometimesthere can be some some trickiness to that.
(23:30):
If somebody's in the process of adoptingthat dog, we don't allow.
We don't allow that, and thatthat can create some broken hearts. And
you know we we do. Wedo still let an adopter if they're in
the process or taking a dog ona trial. We can't let a foster
swoop in, but that's uncommon.Usually some regret after a trial visit.
But if they let us know withplenty of time, and they they do
(23:53):
almost every time, give us aclear, honest heads up, we are
good to go, and we say, yeah, please you We're good now.
The only uh, negative thing tocome of that is sometimes we lose
a foster parent at that point,right, their house becomes full of dogs
and now we need new fosters.And uh we have this joke where if
you foster fail, you need togo find us another foster, right and
(24:15):
because you know, and and thishas absolutely happened to me. In fact,
I think uh, over the lastten years have been with p R
A, I must have foster failedfor five times, very bad and uh
yeah, and they've all been superseniors. So you know, I still
currently have two with me, twodogs from Pug Rescue of Bust and they're
both pug mixes, and uh theywere foster fails. You know, they're
(24:37):
in my home and you you havethem there and then you're just like,
man, I can't let them go. I can't let them go, and
uh yeah, it's it's a lotof fun and we love seeing it happen.
It happens almost weekly, to behonest, really, and they're they're
the greatest emails to get, youknow, and uh, is this guy
being adopted? I really kind ofwant to swoop in here and keep keep
(24:59):
them. And it's like, yeah, go ahead, we'd love for you
too, because, like I said, a foster parent is an adoptive parent,
right, it's the same process.So they're they're clear to go and
everything all the PaperWorks tied at thatpoint and buttoned up. So we just
we love it and let it tohappen. Perfect. Yeah, I mean,
one of the reasons why I well, one of the many reasons,
but one of the reasons why Ithink I would be a bad foster parents,
(25:22):
because I would definitely love to takein every single one. It happens
when I take in frogs all thetime. Dogs would probably be no better.
But yeah, you said, soyou've taken in four and you have
two right now? Is that Chuckyand Homer? Yes? I currently my
house is a bit of a chaoticsometimes I've not only do I have a
(25:48):
newborn, but I have four totalrescue dogs. Two of them have been
adopted from PRAA. The other twoI've just when you're in the rescue world,
dogs start finding you. So theother two are different rescues. Um,
but two of my dogs, I'vegot Chucky and Homer. Uh,
And they're they're just phenomenal and andI love them and I love to work
our rescue dude, she does,excuse me, And uh, it's because
(26:11):
you know, I love that wetake in pug mixes. I love that.
And these two guys are are halfpug each and they're kind of they're
they're looked like Doctor SEUs creatures.And uh, I just love them and
I love that we were able tosave them. Um. One, particularly,
Chucky, had been through five homesbefore he landed as my foster before
(26:32):
he came into our rescue. Sohe just had a chaotic life. His
previous owner died and that's heartbreaking.And and so we took him in because
he was there. He wasn't anin a shelter, in a in a
in a kill shelter. I hatethat term. Maybe that's a bit harsh,
but there are shelters right with howyouth the nature rates. And we
got him out of there, andand somebody saved him and brought him to
us, and we because he hada curly tail, we were able to
(26:53):
save him. So, yeah,he's here. Yeah. So would you
say a lot of pug mixes,maybe even more than just regular pugs.
I guess you'd be cold. Yeah. It fluctuates throughout the year. That's
a great question. About a thirdof our dogs. About a third of
(27:14):
our dogs are going to be mixesat a given time. But there are
some months and things are certain.Batch gets adopted here and so on,
and then you might be looking atour page and like, holy crap,
like most of these dogs are areadorable mixes. You've got chugs, Chihuahua
pugs. You've got bugs, BostonTerrier pugs. You've got puggles, beagle
pugs, you know, and wetake all these dogs in so you might
(27:37):
at any given month though you mightbe looking at our adoptables page and going,
wow, this is a pug rescue. But it's really just a bunch
of dogs with curly tails. Soyeah, and I also saw that you
guys have a few honorable pugs upfor adoption. Could you tell us about
Bardoux and releg Yeah, I'd behappy to. So. Bardo's a Frenchie,
(27:57):
she's she's great. She needs tobe a solo dog, but we
we taken Frenchies when we can.There's also adjacent to us, there's the
Austin Bulldog Rescue and they're awesome.Uh and and I love them, but
sometimes we're able to help them outif they're if they're at overflow, Um,
we will. We will take aFrench bulldog or a bulldog. We've
(28:18):
done that. Uh and Bardot,I think I need to check on this.
I think, thank goodness, she'sshe's pinning adoption soon here, I
think, yeah, I think,yeah, she's been with us for a
while. She went on a trialand came back just um, so hopefully
she lands in that forever home soon. Uh. Bruley is a beautiful female
five year old looks like a breadloaf, right and very pretty. Yeah she
(28:42):
is. She's great and we don'thave too much information on her because she
just came in, right. Butbut certainly not a pug. Certainly a
dog who would look a little morenatural at the bulldog Rescue right um than
she would at the at the pugrescue. But we we help out when
we can, because, like Isaid, I'm very proud of this certain
months. Maybe I hopefully this doesn'tsound arrogant, but we we take in
(29:04):
every pug that gets surrendered to us. Everyone we say yes, so we
have that overflow, We have thatextra capacity, I mean to take in
a frenchie, a bulldog if andwe respect other rescues, right, if
there's if there's the capacity to helpwe do, that's amazing. Um,
(29:25):
you guys go check out the websitebecause um, well Bardot might be in
a hole bubrules looking for her home. Um, and she's so pretty.
Um. But I also noticed onthe website that there are Berry there.
There's a lot of senior pugs rightnow who has been at the rescue the
(29:48):
longest so far? Yeah, offoff the top of my head. When
I think of our longest a pugright now, I think it's Perry.
Perry is a He's a black seniorpug and he's twelve and he's been with
us since the middle of twenty twenty, so he's been here a while.
(30:10):
He's in a lovely foster home withEadie, but you know, he's still
been here a long time and isready for his forever home for sure,
So it's been a while. Youknow. Our average stay for a dog
gets around six months, that's theaverage, But that includes a pug puppy,
which is rare we get puppies,but a puppy who gets adopted the
minute they're listed on our website,and then a twelve year old who has
(30:33):
been here since the middle of twentytwenty and hasn't been adopted yet, right,
So, so he's a long stay, as we call him. Yeah.
Well, I wanted to bring upsome of the doggies because hopefully someone
here will be listening and go tothe website and fall in love with some
of the dogs there. I wantto touch more on adoption after the break,
(30:53):
but I'm just going to ask,do you guys adopt out to people
from their states or from farther awayplaces. Yes, we do, absolutely
and great question. We do askthat the adoptor provides their own transportation.
You know, we're not in thebusiness of setting up across country. You
(31:15):
know, it'd be too expensive,so we asked they and also if the
trial visit doesn't work out, thatthey return the pr a dog. But
yes, we we adopt out ofcity and out of state. Amazing.
Yeah, guys, So if youwant to go and check out the pug
Rescue again, that is Austin pugRescue dot com. For the Facebook,
(31:36):
Austin Pug Rescue, Instagram, samething, simple google Pug Austin will come
up there. So I know youguys have a lot of adorable pugs waiting
on their forever homes. Do youhave any adoption events coming up? We
(31:56):
do and the close this one comingup is going to be this coming Tuesday,
and that's on It's a south Byhouse on Caesar Chavez. After that,
we have an event close to downtownin April at a pet supply store.
And in May we're doing a greatevent as well. Um, please
(32:16):
do stay stay stay on our socialpages Instagram, and Facebook to to find
the addresses and times for all ofthose, but they're meet and greed events
since we don't do same day adoptions. So yes, yeah, and you
guys can go and meet all thefoster dogs. Do all the foster dogs
come or? Um, you know, are there just a few that can
(32:37):
that can make it that day?No, great question. We we have
a few. We try to getas many as we can. Sometimes we
have a dozen, sometimes we havesix. But certainly don't bring our whole,
you know, fleet of fifty bugs. I wish we did, but
um, you know we we wekeep it around twelve. Perfect. All
right, We'll be right back withDave from Austin Progress. At Nava Pets.
(33:10):
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barkers or those stressed out cats.We also offer a range of flavors including
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com. You can spoil your petwith goodness, treat your pet like they
treat you. Welcome back that family. We are here with Dave Norris from
(34:23):
Pug Rescue Austin. Now, Dave, we were talking about adoption, so
I really want to go into thatagain in case somebody, somebody goes on
the website and see's a cute littlepug um. So if someone wants to
adopt, what is that process?Like? Sure they would go on our
(34:45):
website and set aside about forty fiveminutes or so. It's a thorough application.
Someone fills out and it asks forcurrent dogs you may have. Of
course you're addressed and just standard info, but also things like do you know
about pugs and are can you canyou verify that you know, current dogs
(35:06):
you have or had a are vaccinated, and you've been giving heartwork medication.
If all that checks out, andwe get this application and we do a
virtual home visit, you can expectto be approved in about two weeks.
Now from there you have the abilityand this is the Once you're approved,
it's like the greatest thing in theworld because you can go on our website
(35:27):
and say, I want to trialvisit with that dog. That dog looks
like a great fit, and we'llbe like, yeah, let's do you
know, we'll make it happen.And at that point pretty much and so
you take the dog into your houseand see if this is a good fit,
and if it isn't, that's fine. And a lot of potential adopters
get real nervous about saying, hey, this dog might not be right for
(35:47):
me. We say that's okay,you're approved adopter. We'll take the dog
back and put them back in fostercare and let's try another trial visit and
when it when it works, youlet us know and then you pay the
option fee, which, uh,you know, helps helps us do the
work we do. Adoption fees area huge portion of our income and totally
(36:07):
speaking, and then that that's theprocess and you're approved. Once you're approved,
you're good for a few years.In fact, so you're you're good
for a while. So um,that's about it. Amazing, Yeah,
guys. So again, if youwant to go and check that out,
it is Austin Pug Rescue dot com. UM. If you are not wanting
(36:27):
to adopt a foster, you canalso make a donation. UM. They
also have amazing merch on there.Um before merch, is there one person
who designs the merge or um?Do you guys have a couple people?
Because I know that stuffs are realcute? Thank you. Yeah, I'm
very I'm very proud of our merchandise. You know, pugs are so like
(36:51):
boutique and special and funny. Ithink our merchandise should be special and and
uh, you know, and andand unique and odd and uh. We
have a different We have a variousteam on that right, and my favorite
thing is the Pug Rescue of Austincalendar. In fact, we just sold
out of last of twenty twenty one, so that's that was just taken off
the website. But we do havesome great merch available and we dress our
(37:15):
pugs up once a year. That'sall we ask for. We save their
lives. We can dress them uponce a year, not more than that.
But um, you know we're gonna, of course do another one this
year, Absolutely we will, Andwe have a lot of fun stuff and
shirts come out and uh and ourgreat graphic designer Laura Fisk, who did
our logo, she's involved with alot of them design process. And then
(37:36):
we have we have the most wonderfulperson, Janet. Is this this she
needs? She needs a documentary madeabout her. She is one of our
founders of pr A. But shewill design and make these great calendars.
But what she does for a fewmonths a year is design pug costumes for
those for those fundraising calendars, andshe hand makes them with her sister Nancy.
(37:57):
And again last year's just sold out. But we're going to do another
this year for twenty two of course, and can't wait to work with her
again. Yeah. The twenty twentyone calendar so cute. I have a
hanging up but use it all thetime. It's sports themed and the pugs
just look absolutely adorable. Um,So if you guys want to go there,
(38:17):
go to the website check it out. Um, And so I know
you guys have events. Um,the two biggest ones I would say are
let It Snore and um, Pugkinfest. I would agree with that those and
and we've loved having your help there. By the way, I've got to
thank you. You're you're one ofour awesome volunteers. So, um,
(38:40):
you know Pugkin and and let ItSnore. Those are done in conjunction with
the Pug Club, separate group fromPRAA, but great supporters of us,
and they they will run those two. The falls are the fall here is
so fun at pug Rescue. Sofor Pugkinfest is we do a Halloween costume
(39:00):
competition. I lied earlier when Isaid we only dress up our pugs once
a year, So well yeah maybeyeah, no big deal. Um,
And so we will have a costumecontest and then Let It Snore is a
wonderful holiday event of course, andwe love having those events. They're they're
(39:21):
blast. Always be on the lookoutfor those. They work in conjunction with
auctions and other great things, andthey're just really excellent fundraisers that we need
to run. Actually they're they're fun, but we need them to keep saving
dogs, yes, and they aresuper fun. Um And I mean it's
only the spring, but you knowyou can always plan your ship down to
Austin for some pug infests. Itis worth going to Austin for it is
(39:45):
Yeah, all right, Dave.So just before we go, could you
clear up some of um, Iguess, kind of the misconceptions of what
rescues and shelters actually do. Yes, thank you. What I would like
to emphasize today is that a rescueyou can go directly for them to them
(40:12):
if you for any breed specific needs. So if you have a pug loosed
need, I do want people tobe thinking about Pug Rescue of Austin.
Now, if a pug is surrenderedto a shelter, very often we end
up putting a tag on the dogand if no owner comes forward, we
have a weight period. They're legallymandated, which of course is appropriate,
(40:35):
and we support that that pug mayend up back at at Pug Rescue of
Austin anyway. So where I'm goingwith this is I just would love for
people to be advocates of rescues.All the rescues in Austin are fantastic.
From forgotten friends to the Austin BulldogRescue, and then of course here we
are at the Pug Rescue. AndI'm biased, but I think we're great
(40:58):
too, So you know, Ijust want people to be advocates for rescues
and know that we're all volunteers andwe're out there doing great work. And
shelters support them as well, butrescues rescue support them too, and we're
all in this. We're all inthis to help animals. Please check us
out online and consider becoming a fosterparent or consider donating. Those are our
(41:19):
needs right now. So thank youvery much, and we love the work
we do and we're gonna we're gonnahave another record here. It looks like
this year, so we're looking forwardto it. Yes, definitely. Thank
you so much for being a guest, Dave. I've had a wonderful time
with you. Again. Everyone thatis Pug Rescue Austin dot com. Go
check out their Facebook, their Instagram. Uh, they are everywhere. And
(41:45):
thank you so much pet family forsticking around with us. I've been your
co host, Tay, and we'llsee you back on the Pet Owner Diary
Show, same time, same place, next week. Goodbye, Thank you
for joining us on Pet Owner Diary. Make sure to visit our website pet
ownerdiary dot com, where you cansign up for our newsletter, view show
(42:07):
highlights, and download each episode viaSoundCloud. Make sure to subscribe to the
show on your favorite podcast app too, so you and your pet never miss
an episode Pet Family. If youlike what you hear, please share on
your social media and tell a friendto tune in on behalf of America's Pet
Owner coach, Janelle Young. Wewish you love, peace and harmony with
(42:30):
your pet. We'll catch you inthe next episode.
Welcome to the Pet Owner Diary Podcast, a show about helping you become a
better pet parent. In each episode, we deliver raw, honest, funny,
and insightful advice on how to bea great pet parent for any type
of pet. Now here's your host, America's Pet Owner Coach Janelle Young.
(00:20):
Hey, pet family, welcome back. Thank you for joining us again on
the Pet Owner Diary Show. I'myour co host, Hey, and today's
episode is for our dog lovers.We are returning to familiar territory with an
amazing guest. If you're from Austin, like myself, you may have heard
(00:40):
of this rescue. They hold eventsall over the city. Today we will
be speaking to Dave Norris, thepresident of Hug Rescue of Austin. Welcome
Dave, how are you doing today? Great and thank you so much for
having me. I'm doing just great, glad to be here. Amazing,
so, pet Family. I havea personal history with Plug Rescue of Austin
(01:03):
or PRA as will probably refer toit. I've worked some of their major
events like Let It Snore and PugConfest events to help fundraise for the rescue
and also showcase their available foster dogs. So that's my history with PRERA,
but the rescue has a very longhistory of its own. Dave, could
(01:25):
you tell us how the rescue gotstarted? Yeah, I'd be happy to.
In two thousand and nine, seriesof a small group of volunteers who
many are still actively very much involvedwith PRA decided there was a need in
Austin. Maybe they didn't decide,they noticed there was a need in Austin
(01:46):
to rescue pugs. There was justa quite a few who kept popping up
who needed help. And you knowa lot of our original founders, it's
going to be Rita's Sena, MartyJanet, Edie Angie, And if I
named too many people or not enough, I might get in trouble because it
was a great ragtag group of peoplewho just started making it happen. And
(02:07):
really it was breed clubs actually madeit happen funny enough, so there was
a pug club already in the area, and there was also the DFW Pug
Club as well, a pug clubover there, and a lot of the
members from each kind of formed acoalition and started rescuing in pugs and Austin
(02:28):
back in two thousand and nine,and we're still going strong now in twenty
twenty two. Yes, perfect lovely. So I kind of want to touch
on the subject of rescuing pugs becausepugs are often seen as a designer breed,
you know, they're categorized as aas a toy breed, and they're
(02:49):
very well known for their squishy,squashy faces. So I know some people
may ask why a rescue for pugsspecifically. Yeah, it's a it's a
great question and understandable to get that. It does come up, and that
is a common response when I talkabout the pug rescue. People go,
there's a pug rescue. What whythey need to be a pug rescue.
(03:09):
Yes, there's absolutely a need fora pug rescue, you know, and
I'm sure we'll touch on this abit more. But there are a lot
of common, expensive health problems withpugs as they age. There's a lot
of misconceptions about the breed. Aspeople either purchase one or one enters their
home somehow they might not be readyfor a lot of the curveballs this very
(03:30):
special breed throws at them. Butyes, we need this breed specific rescue
because of the I hate to sayat the financial cost that is higher for
pugs than your than your average dog. It's just a it's a truth,
you know. And they have alot of medical needs, and so yeah,
(03:50):
there there is absolutely a need forthis very specific rescue. Now I
could understand maybe people making an argument, are there enough pugs to save?
And yes there are. With thatsaid, we also saved beyond pugs,
and we'll do a lot of pugmixes come into the rescue. We save
them because we do have some extracapacity because on a given month, we
(04:12):
might literally rescue every pug available torescue in Austin. That's that's that's come
to us. You know, wealways say yes to every pug. So
yes, yeah, and I meanpet family. Unfortunately, no matter what
the breed is, there's always peopleout there that are not very nice or
people who are just not prepared forthe responsibilities of owning your dog, especially
(04:33):
pugs, because you know, likeDave said, they have they have a
few needs that should we tended tofor a good life. So what what
are those needs? Could you letus in on some other required care for
a pug to have a happy,healthy life. Yes, you're going to
and you should do this with anydog, but I would stress it so
(04:55):
much more even with pugs is you'regoing to have to do a lot of
preventive dental care. Make sure there'splenty of teeth cleaning going on, because
they on average have far more dentalissues just because the compressed nature of their
face, how their bread. Uh, They're going to have a lot of
dental issues that you just need tofrankly financially prepare for, you know,
(05:16):
start setting money aside for that.Things not to do. They're terrible and
heat. It's not I hate sayingthis. It's not uncommon for a pug
to we hear about one through thegrapevine who's died on a long, long
walk in the summer. You know, it's horrifying. Right, They're just
they're just built differently, right,and so a lot of care and research
needs to happen before you take oneinto your home. Right, that makes
(05:41):
a lot of sense. And Iknow you guys get a lot of senior
pugs in. Would you say thatolder pugs are your most common take ins?
Yes, in a given month,you're looking at around sixty percent plus
of a pug being a senior thatwe take in. And what is a
senior to us, it's in eightyear old or higher. And that's going
(06:02):
to vary per shelter or rescue,whatever they categorize, but we categorize it
as eight and up. And yes, the majority of dogs we take in
our seniors. Why do you thinkyou get so many older pugs? I
believe you know when we when weget them, it's very obvious what keeps
bubbling up, which is health problemsstart popping in, right, Uh,
(06:25):
the they might have a disc problems, uh, spinal issues, right is
not uncommon, eye issues as theyget older. And I think you know
when they're when they're younger, thesemight be dormant or just not there yet.
And and a pug, and anydog is going to cost more the
longer you have them, as medicalneeds come up, typically speaking, but
(06:46):
especially so for a pug. Soit's no surprise. And you know that's
that's you'll see these numbers repeated inshelters too. But I mean that unfortunately,
sometimes people do surrender senior dogs.But we're here to help when people
will need to do that if they'rein a tough spot they cannot afford that.
We are absolutely understanding and are hereto help take in that pug.
(07:06):
Yeah. No, that makes alot of sense. I mean, you
know, a lot of breeds haveproblems as they get older. I know
that I have a bulldog, andthey also have a ton of issues that
you have to look after as theyget older. And I kind of want
(07:27):
to get into some of the amazingpeople that run the rescue because pr A
is a nonprofit, volunteer run rescueand there's like six board members. I
think that's right. Yeah, I'mone of them. I'm president and board
chair. But yeah, we haveI think it's like the dream team on
(07:48):
our board. I love these Ilove I love this group and we've got
such a we all come from differentcareer background so much, and it's myself.
You've got Debbie who's our president andfoster coordinator. Debbie's very much a
huge heart that that just fills ourrescue weekly and it leads our foster parents.
(08:09):
Um. You've got Becky, she'sour tech website person, brilliant in
marketing and she's on the board aswell. You've got Brian. Brian's my
hero. Shout out to Brian.He's he's a volunteer lawyer. If you
can believe it. It was thebiggest heart in law world. And he
loves pugs. He's he volunteers hisexpertise, which you know when contracts are
(08:30):
going out. You've got well overone hundred contracts going out a year,
right, um, close to hundred. You need a lawyer on your board
and we have one and he's amazing. Um you've got shar and she her
background in the rescue is from screeningand so she has a great eye on
applicants and what to do next andmake the adoption process better always we can
(08:52):
always make it better. And thenfinally we have Helen, who's just our
excellent events strategist I would probably callher and she is also wonderful with systems
and how to how to just constantlyimprove our systems at par A. Amazing.
Yeah, you guys sound like youhave a great crew. And um,
I just want to clarify for ourpet family that when you become a
(09:16):
nonprofit, it is a very verylong process, am I right? Yes,
it it's it's not overnight. Itcan take up to a year depending
on paperwork. But to become afive or one C three and I think
the people before me, right,that's that's Rita and Angie who did all
that work. I I walked inhere like a piece of cake three years
(09:37):
after para four, Like, Hi, guys, thanks for doing all the
paperwork. But it's it's it's it'swork. You don't get to do it
overnight. It's not like, uh, you know, starting a website.
M What are some of the requirementsto even start a nonprofit or look at
starting a nonprofit. It's a greatquestion that you've You've got to find a
(09:58):
public need that is a public good. You're doing good in the community,
right, you cannot have certain biases. You've got to You've got to be
providing a service that that is generallygood for the public. Uh. Isn't
that sort of vague and weird?Yes, that's why forming forming nonprofits gonna
be tricky. Um. There's variationsof the five oh one C three and
(10:20):
you could start a club, andyou could there's variations on political groups.
But to get that nonprofit tax deductiblestatus if you if you're forming, you
know, rescues a great example ofsomething that's a that's a clear win right
to start a nonprofit? Um,But yeah, you've got to You've got
to justify your existence as as apublic good, and the government has to
(10:41):
agree with you on that. Sogreat, perfect. Okay, we do
have to take a quick break,but we'll be right back with Dave Morris,
President of Plug Rescue Austin. AtNava Pets, we know how important
your furry companions are, so wewant to help keep them happy and healthy.
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(11:31):
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pet with goodness. Treat your petlike they treat you. Kay, Pet
(12:20):
Family, welcome back. We arehere with Dave Norris from Hog Rescue Austin,
and Dave, I wanted to talkabout the volunteers that you guys have,
because I know you mainly run offof volunteers. Volunteers that help out
(12:41):
with events, transport dogs, matchfosters with forever families, and so much
more. Do you know how manyvolunteers you'll actually have. Yeah, it's
actively. It's probably just under ahundred right now. We have several hundred
who who are sort of on standbyin what we called the Pug Rescue family.
(13:01):
That's that's over three hundred people whowho help and see our transport needs
pop up and might show up.You know, you might have somebody who
adopted three years ago, who whojust does some transport for us this week,
who just sees an emergency and stepsin. But but active people working
weekly I shouldn't say working, butbut volunteering because we are all volunteer run.
(13:24):
It's just under a hundred. Wow, that's actually amazing. That's way
more than I was expecting. AndI know I listed off some of the
jobs, but what are the onesthat the rescue really needs covered right now?
Foster parents is number one what wesaw and this wasn't just a Pug
Rescue of Austin thing. This wasa animal rescue, animal welfare thing happening
(13:46):
in the United States in twenty twentyone, and bleeding into now is a
lack of foster parents. It's justas intake increases. You know, we
just had a record year last year. We saved nearly two hundred dogs,
just under two hundred dogs we savedlast wow. And we want to save
more this year, right We wantthat to be over two hundred this year.
(14:07):
And to do that, we've gotto get more foster parents. That's
the number one need. Other thanthat, of course, we have a
great administrative team who does a lotof the behind the scenes marketing. There's
still a lot of paperwork that needsto happen. So if you're somebody who
works from home, we would alwaystake people up on either writing tasks or
(14:28):
some administrative work that we always needhelp on. Yeah, perfect, you
hear that, guys. You guyscan go to the website Austin Pug Rescue
dot com and you can go andapply to become a volunteer there. But
on top of being a volunteer runrescue, per A is also a nonprofit
(14:48):
that runs off of donations. Soif you want to help out and send
a donation, you can buy someof their merch or you can donate at
Austin pug Rescue dot com. Soanother huge thing that we kind of touched
on that helps you, guys awant is the foster parents. How important
are foster parents to the rescue.Foster parents are are definitely the lifeblood of
(15:13):
our rescue. You know, wedon't we don't have an office and again,
I know I've said it a hundredtimes, but it's so important to
our structure. We have no paidstaff and so we basically have offices all
across Austin and they are at andin San Antonio and surrounding areas. And
those are our foster parents who willdo anything for their foster dog and they
(15:33):
make it happen and they really arejust excellent people. And that's a hard
volunteer role. You've got to seethem get adopted and you might have fallen
in love with them at that point. You got to see the dogs get
adopted, you know, And soit's a it's a tough role. It's
it's it's not for everyone, butit's very fulfilling. Yeah. Yeah,
(15:54):
I know some people might be onthe fence about becoming a foster parent because
like you said, you do haveto you have to find it a forever
home. Um. But for thosewho are on the edge, what would
you say the best things about beinga foster parent are other than I would
say the very the very fulfilling taskof the role itself would be that we
(16:15):
pay for everything. We pay forfood, we pay for medical bills while
the dogs being fostered. And sonone of that is going to be an
issue for you. You know,anybody can apply and and really it's it's
we've got you covered at PREA,we cover everything. So what are some
of the things you look for whenyou're considering someone to become a foster parent?
(16:40):
To us, fosters are adopters andadopters are fosters, right, and
so we actually the application process justhas one alteration of the question at the
at the end if you plan onpossibly at fostering to adopt, because it's
the same, we have the samestandards and those standards are going to be
a bit of knowledge about pugs orat least willing to do the research on
(17:00):
that. In the case of priordogs. We one thing I would say
we're strict on. We do liketo make sure if you've had if you
have dogs or had dogs, thatyou have kept them current on say heartworms
and vaccines. Just to make surethat we're we because that's part of the
role of fostering or adopting, isthat upkeep with the dog and making sure
(17:22):
you're going to care for them.So that's one of our requirements. Other
than that, you know, somevery obvious things like just make sure you
love pugs and then we'll do aquick little virtual home visit and get you
approved. Perfect. Yeah, sowhat what is that process? Like?
I know you touched on it alittle bit, but could you walk us
(17:44):
kind of step by step? Sure, if you're applying to either foster or
or adopt, it's a little bitof time because we're all volunteer run.
I wish we could do it faster, but our volunteers work is as fast
as they reasonably can to get youa proved from the screening team, and
it takes about two weeks. Sometimeswe're much faster, sometimes we're a little
(18:04):
longer, but it takes about twoweeks for the whole process, which includes
you know, calling references, doingthe virtual home visit and all that good
stuff. Awesome, that sounds amazing. Well, if anyone is interested in
becoming a foster, I do believeyou have to be within the Austin area,
(18:25):
though we take Austin people in Austin, but San Antonio. We've grown
hugely in San Antonio. A thirdof all our rescues come from San Antonio,
by the way, so that's that'suh, we're kind of we're called
the Pug Rescue of Austin, butwe're really Pug Rescue of San Antonio as
well. It feels like but andsurrounding Austin too round rock. Well,
(18:47):
we have some fosters theres but yes, generally speaking Austin, San Antonio.
Why where can they go to applyto become a foster. I am very
proud to say we're incredibly easy tofind Punchion Pug Rescue Austin and Google we're
the top five results. But justour website, our Facebook channel, Instagram
(19:11):
as well, we have we reallysince we've been around so long. We're
super easy to find in search engines, and please do check out our website
and our social channels to get involved. Yeah, and guys, that website
again is Austin pug Rescue dot com. You can just type that in UM,
like Dave said, even if youjust look up pug Rescue Austin,
(19:33):
or probably just pugs and the wordAustin, they'll probably come up as the
first thing. But yeah, youguys also have an amazing Facebook. I
think I get a lot of theevents on there. Yeah, Facebook's gonna
be a great place to find ourupcoming events. Instagram as well. We're
very active on both, but thoseare the key places to find anything upcoming.
(19:56):
Even even this coming Tuesday, we'regonna someone invited us to a south
By house. We're going to doa little meet and greet for pugs that's
open to the public. So yeah, that's gonna be fun. But that's
all found on our social media,all right. So just in case you
did not hear that, it isgoing to be Austin pug Rescue dot com.
If you go into Facebook, youcan also find them there under the
(20:18):
same name, Instagram, same name. Their website is amazing and like they've
said, you can find tons ofevents on there. I think the Facebook
is actually how I found them.So if you guys want to go and
check that out and look at theirwebsite, maybe make a quick donation,
get yourself a cute calendar, andwe'll be right back with Dave Norris from
(20:44):
Austin Pug Rescue. We all knowthat a dog is man's best friend,
(21:07):
won't why stop there? We thinkthat all pets make our lives a little
easier, whether it's a cat,gecko, or even a horse. We
want to learn what makes your petsso special to you. Maybe they have
an eccentric personality or even give goodcuddles. Whatever it is, we want
to hear about it. After all, our pets deserve a moment in the
spotlight. Why not share an interestingstory about your pet with our host,
(21:32):
pet coach Janelle Young, No matterhow big or small, we'd love to
hear from you on the Pet OwnerDiary Show. We're looking for the next
pet celebrity superstar or that unique animalstory for TV and radio. If you
believe your pet has the it factor, then call our pet line at four
oh seven nine oh six fifty seventwelve or email us at pet owner Diary
(21:52):
at gmail dot com. The possibilitiesare endless. Maybe you and your pet
will be our next featured weekly gueston TV or radio. Let's give our
pets the attention they deserve. Welcomeback, pet Family. We are here
(22:23):
with Dave Norris from Austin Pug Rescueand we were talking about foster parents,
foster dogs, all things foster andsometimes, as you know pretty pretty well,
Dave, there are foster fails.Could you tell us what a foster
(22:45):
fail is, Yes, gladly,and it's one of the best things that
happens at at our rescue. Anduh, it's it's not uncommon at rescues.
But if you're fostering a dog,and of course on pay where your
the goal is to get be hereon the journey to that dog's forever home.
But um, you know, ifthere's a plot twist and it turns
(23:07):
out they are in their forever home, they're they're in their foster home,
which is they're they're rightful home allalong, and then the foster parent immediately
lets us know, hey, youknow what, I've fallen in love or
the dog chose me I you know, I didn't have a choice. They
I want to adopt. And nowwe ninety percent of the time say all
good, all all clear. Sometimesthere can be some some trickiness to that.
(23:30):
If somebody's in the process of adoptingthat dog, we don't allow.
We don't allow that, and thatthat can create some broken hearts. And
you know we we do. Wedo still let an adopter if they're in
the process or taking a dog ona trial. We can't let a foster
swoop in, but that's uncommon.Usually some regret after a trial visit.
But if they let us know withplenty of time, and they they do
(23:53):
almost every time, give us aclear, honest heads up, we are
good to go, and we say, yeah, please you We're good now.
The only uh, negative thing tocome of that is sometimes we lose
a foster parent at that point,right, their house becomes full of dogs
and now we need new fosters.And uh we have this joke where if
you foster fail, you need togo find us another foster, right and
(24:15):
because you know, and and thishas absolutely happened to me. In fact,
I think uh, over the lastten years have been with p R
A, I must have foster failedfor five times, very bad and uh
yeah, and they've all been superseniors. So you know, I still
currently have two with me, twodogs from Pug Rescue of Bust and they're
both pug mixes, and uh theywere foster fails. You know, they're
(24:37):
in my home and you you havethem there and then you're just like,
man, I can't let them go. I can't let them go, and
uh yeah, it's it's a lotof fun and we love seeing it happen.
It happens almost weekly, to behonest, really, and they're they're
the greatest emails to get, youknow, and uh, is this guy
being adopted? I really kind ofwant to swoop in here and keep keep
(24:59):
them. And it's like, yeah, go ahead, we'd love for you
too, because, like I said, a foster parent is an adoptive parent,
right, it's the same process.So they're they're clear to go and
everything all the PaperWorks tied at thatpoint and buttoned up. So we just
we love it and let it tohappen. Perfect. Yeah, I mean,
one of the reasons why I well, one of the many reasons,
but one of the reasons why Ithink I would be a bad foster parents,
(25:22):
because I would definitely love to takein every single one. It happens
when I take in frogs all thetime. Dogs would probably be no better.
But yeah, you said, soyou've taken in four and you have
two right now? Is that Chuckyand Homer? Yes? I currently my
house is a bit of a chaoticsometimes I've not only do I have a
(25:48):
newborn, but I have four totalrescue dogs. Two of them have been
adopted from PRAA. The other twoI've just when you're in the rescue world,
dogs start finding you. So theother two are different rescues. Um,
but two of my dogs, I'vegot Chucky and Homer. Uh,
And they're they're just phenomenal and andI love them and I love to work
our rescue dude, she does,excuse me, And uh, it's because
(26:11):
you know, I love that wetake in pug mixes. I love that.
And these two guys are are halfpug each and they're kind of they're
they're looked like Doctor SEUs creatures.And uh, I just love them and
I love that we were able tosave them. Um. One, particularly,
Chucky, had been through five homesbefore he landed as my foster before
(26:32):
he came into our rescue. Sohe just had a chaotic life. His
previous owner died and that's heartbreaking.And and so we took him in because
he was there. He wasn't anin a shelter, in a in a
in a kill shelter. I hatethat term. Maybe that's a bit harsh,
but there are shelters right with howyouth the nature rates. And we
got him out of there, andand somebody saved him and brought him to
us, and we because he hada curly tail, we were able to
(26:53):
save him. So, yeah,he's here. Yeah. So would you
say a lot of pug mixes,maybe even more than just regular pugs.
I guess you'd be cold. Yeah. It fluctuates throughout the year. That's
a great question. About a thirdof our dogs. About a third of
(27:14):
our dogs are going to be mixesat a given time. But there are
some months and things are certain.Batch gets adopted here and so on,
and then you might be looking atour page and like, holy crap,
like most of these dogs are areadorable mixes. You've got chugs, Chihuahua
pugs. You've got bugs, BostonTerrier pugs. You've got puggles, beagle
pugs, you know, and wetake all these dogs in so you might
(27:37):
at any given month though you mightbe looking at our adoptables page and going,
wow, this is a pug rescue. But it's really just a bunch
of dogs with curly tails. Soyeah, and I also saw that you
guys have a few honorable pugs upfor adoption. Could you tell us about
Bardoux and releg Yeah, I'd behappy to. So. Bardo's a Frenchie,
(27:57):
she's she's great. She needs tobe a solo dog, but we
we taken Frenchies when we can.There's also adjacent to us, there's the
Austin Bulldog Rescue and they're awesome.Uh and and I love them, but
sometimes we're able to help them outif they're if they're at overflow, Um,
we will. We will take aFrench bulldog or a bulldog. We've
(28:18):
done that. Uh and Bardot,I think I need to check on this.
I think, thank goodness, she'sshe's pinning adoption soon here, I
think, yeah, I think,yeah, she's been with us for a
while. She went on a trialand came back just um, so hopefully
she lands in that forever home soon. Uh. Bruley is a beautiful female
five year old looks like a breadloaf, right and very pretty. Yeah she
(28:42):
is. She's great and we don'thave too much information on her because she
just came in, right. Butbut certainly not a pug. Certainly a
dog who would look a little morenatural at the bulldog Rescue right um than
she would at the at the pugrescue. But we we help out when
we can, because, like Isaid, I'm very proud of this certain
months. Maybe I hopefully this doesn'tsound arrogant, but we we take in
(29:04):
every pug that gets surrendered to us. Everyone we say yes, so we
have that overflow, We have thatextra capacity, I mean to take in
a frenchie, a bulldog if andwe respect other rescues, right, if
there's if there's the capacity to helpwe do, that's amazing. Um,
(29:25):
you guys go check out the websitebecause um, well Bardot might be in
a hole bubrules looking for her home. Um, and she's so pretty.
Um. But I also noticed onthe website that there are Berry there.
There's a lot of senior pugs rightnow who has been at the rescue the
(29:48):
longest so far? Yeah, offoff the top of my head. When
I think of our longest a pugright now, I think it's Perry.
Perry is a He's a black seniorpug and he's twelve and he's been with
us since the middle of twenty twenty, so he's been here a while.
(30:10):
He's in a lovely foster home withEadie, but you know, he's still
been here a long time and isready for his forever home for sure,
So it's been a while. Youknow. Our average stay for a dog
gets around six months, that's theaverage, But that includes a pug puppy,
which is rare we get puppies,but a puppy who gets adopted the
minute they're listed on our website,and then a twelve year old who has
(30:33):
been here since the middle of twentytwenty and hasn't been adopted yet, right,
So, so he's a long stay, as we call him. Yeah.
Well, I wanted to bring upsome of the doggies because hopefully someone
here will be listening and go tothe website and fall in love with some
of the dogs there. I wantto touch more on adoption after the break,
(30:53):
but I'm just going to ask,do you guys adopt out to people
from their states or from farther awayplaces. Yes, we do, absolutely
and great question. We do askthat the adoptor provides their own transportation.
You know, we're not in thebusiness of setting up across country. You
(31:15):
know, it'd be too expensive,so we asked they and also if the
trial visit doesn't work out, thatthey return the pr a dog. But
yes, we we adopt out ofcity and out of state. Amazing.
Yeah, guys, So if youwant to go and check out the pug
Rescue again, that is Austin pugRescue dot com. For the Facebook,
(31:36):
Austin Pug Rescue, Instagram, samething, simple google Pug Austin will come
up there. So I know youguys have a lot of adorable pugs waiting
on their forever homes. Do youhave any adoption events coming up? We
(31:56):
do and the close this one comingup is going to be this coming Tuesday,
and that's on It's a south Byhouse on Caesar Chavez. After that,
we have an event close to downtownin April at a pet supply store.
And in May we're doing a greatevent as well. Um, please
(32:16):
do stay stay stay on our socialpages Instagram, and Facebook to to find
the addresses and times for all ofthose, but they're meet and greed events
since we don't do same day adoptions. So yes, yeah, and you
guys can go and meet all thefoster dogs. Do all the foster dogs
come or? Um, you know, are there just a few that can
(32:37):
that can make it that day?No, great question. We we have
a few. We try to getas many as we can. Sometimes we
have a dozen, sometimes we havesix. But certainly don't bring our whole,
you know, fleet of fifty bugs. I wish we did, but
um, you know we we wekeep it around twelve. Perfect. All
right, We'll be right back withDave from Austin Progress. At Nava Pets.
(33:10):
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com. You can spoil your petwith goodness, treat your pet like they
treat you. Welcome back that family. We are here with Dave Norris from
(34:23):
Pug Rescue Austin. Now, Dave, we were talking about adoption, so
I really want to go into thatagain in case somebody, somebody goes on
the website and see's a cute littlepug um. So if someone wants to
adopt, what is that process?Like? Sure they would go on our
(34:45):
website and set aside about forty fiveminutes or so. It's a thorough application.
Someone fills out and it asks forcurrent dogs you may have. Of
course you're addressed and just standard info, but also things like do you know
about pugs and are can you canyou verify that you know, current dogs
(35:06):
you have or had a are vaccinated, and you've been giving heartwork medication.
If all that checks out, andwe get this application and we do a
virtual home visit, you can expectto be approved in about two weeks.
Now from there you have the abilityand this is the Once you're approved,
it's like the greatest thing in theworld because you can go on our website
(35:27):
and say, I want to trialvisit with that dog. That dog looks
like a great fit, and we'llbe like, yeah, let's do you
know, we'll make it happen.And at that point pretty much and so
you take the dog into your houseand see if this is a good fit,
and if it isn't, that's fine. And a lot of potential adopters
get real nervous about saying, hey, this dog might not be right for
(35:47):
me. We say that's okay,you're approved adopter. We'll take the dog
back and put them back in fostercare and let's try another trial visit and
when it when it works, youlet us know and then you pay the
option fee, which, uh,you know, helps helps us do the
work we do. Adoption fees area huge portion of our income and totally
(36:07):
speaking, and then that that's theprocess and you're approved. Once you're approved,
you're good for a few years.In fact, so you're you're good
for a while. So um,that's about it. Amazing, Yeah,
guys. So again, if youwant to go and check that out,
it is Austin Pug Rescue dot com. UM. If you are not wanting
(36:27):
to adopt a foster, you canalso make a donation. UM. They
also have amazing merch on there.Um before merch, is there one person
who designs the merge or um?Do you guys have a couple people?
Because I know that stuffs are realcute? Thank you. Yeah, I'm
very I'm very proud of our merchandise. You know, pugs are so like
(36:51):
boutique and special and funny. Ithink our merchandise should be special and and
uh, you know, and andand unique and odd and uh. We
have a different We have a variousteam on that right, and my favorite
thing is the Pug Rescue of Austincalendar. In fact, we just sold
out of last of twenty twenty one, so that's that was just taken off
the website. But we do havesome great merch available and we dress our
(37:15):
pugs up once a year. That'sall we ask for. We save their
lives. We can dress them uponce a year, not more than that.
But um, you know we're gonna, of course do another one this
year, Absolutely we will, Andwe have a lot of fun stuff and
shirts come out and uh and ourgreat graphic designer Laura Fisk, who did
our logo, she's involved with alot of them design process. And then
(37:36):
we have we have the most wonderfulperson, Janet. Is this this she
needs? She needs a documentary madeabout her. She is one of our
founders of pr A. But shewill design and make these great calendars.
But what she does for a fewmonths a year is design pug costumes for
those for those fundraising calendars, andshe hand makes them with her sister Nancy.
(37:57):
And again last year's just sold out. But we're going to do another
this year for twenty two of course, and can't wait to work with her
again. Yeah. The twenty twentyone calendar so cute. I have a
hanging up but use it all thetime. It's sports themed and the pugs
just look absolutely adorable. Um,So if you guys want to go there,
(38:17):
go to the website check it out. Um, And so I know
you guys have events. Um,the two biggest ones I would say are
let It Snore and um, Pugkinfest. I would agree with that those and
and we've loved having your help there. By the way, I've got to
thank you. You're you're one ofour awesome volunteers. So, um,
(38:40):
you know Pugkin and and let ItSnore. Those are done in conjunction with
the Pug Club, separate group fromPRAA, but great supporters of us,
and they they will run those two. The falls are the fall here is
so fun at pug Rescue. Sofor Pugkinfest is we do a Halloween costume
(39:00):
competition. I lied earlier when Isaid we only dress up our pugs once
a year, So well yeah maybeyeah, no big deal. Um,
And so we will have a costumecontest and then Let It Snore is a
wonderful holiday event of course, andwe love having those events. They're they're
(39:21):
blast. Always be on the lookoutfor those. They work in conjunction with
auctions and other great things, andthey're just really excellent fundraisers that we need
to run. Actually they're they're fun, but we need them to keep saving
dogs, yes, and they aresuper fun. Um And I mean it's
only the spring, but you knowyou can always plan your ship down to
Austin for some pug infests. Itis worth going to Austin for it is
(39:45):
Yeah, all right, Dave.So just before we go, could you
clear up some of um, Iguess, kind of the misconceptions of what
rescues and shelters actually do. Yes, thank you. What I would like
to emphasize today is that a rescueyou can go directly for them to them
(40:12):
if you for any breed specific needs. So if you have a pug loosed
need, I do want people tobe thinking about Pug Rescue of Austin.
Now, if a pug is surrenderedto a shelter, very often we end
up putting a tag on the dogand if no owner comes forward, we
have a weight period. They're legallymandated, which of course is appropriate,
(40:35):
and we support that that pug mayend up back at at Pug Rescue of
Austin anyway. So where I'm goingwith this is I just would love for
people to be advocates of rescues.All the rescues in Austin are fantastic.
From forgotten friends to the Austin BulldogRescue, and then of course here we
are at the Pug Rescue. AndI'm biased, but I think we're great
(40:58):
too, So you know, Ijust want people to be advocates for rescues
and know that we're all volunteers andwe're out there doing great work. And
shelters support them as well, butrescues rescue support them too, and we're
all in this. We're all inthis to help animals. Please check us
out online and consider becoming a fosterparent or consider donating. Those are our
(41:19):
needs right now. So thank youvery much, and we love the work
we do and we're gonna we're gonnahave another record here. It looks like
this year, so we're looking forwardto it. Yes, definitely. Thank
you so much for being a guest, Dave. I've had a wonderful time
with you. Again. Everyone thatis Pug Rescue Austin dot com. Go
check out their Facebook, their Instagram. Uh, they are everywhere. And
(41:45):
thank you so much pet family forsticking around with us. I've been your
co host, Tay, and we'llsee you back on the Pet Owner Diary
Show, same time, same place, next week. Goodbye, Thank you
for joining us on Pet Owner Diary. Make sure to visit our website pet
ownerdiary dot com, where you cansign up for our newsletter, view show
(42:07):
highlights, and download each episode viaSoundCloud. Make sure to subscribe to the
show on your favorite podcast app too, so you and your pet never miss
an episode Pet Family. If youlike what you hear, please share on
your social media and tell a friendto tune in on behalf of America's Pet
Owner coach, Janelle Young. Wewish you love, peace and harmony with
(42:30):
your pet. We'll catch you inthe next episode.
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