Will you please help my brothers and sisters?

Hi, my name is Largo and I am writing you as the ambassador to my brothers and sisters.


Eight weeks ago we were born on the streets. My mom took as good of care of us as she could, but really she can only do so much. PJ knew we were born because my mom disappeared for a few days, but she was unsure if we were in a place she could rescue us. Luckily, my mom was smart and she had us in a place that PJ could find us.


Over the course of a few days, once we were located, PJ was able to rescue all of us! We were loving life, awaiting something PJ kept talking about...our foster homes. We couldn't wait! It sounded so wonderful.



Until, one day the sickness hit us. BLAM! All of my siblings were getting so sick. I didn't know what to do. We were rushed to the vet and they said that 4 of the seven of us had parvo. I didn't know what that meant, but I was pretty sure that it sounded expensive.


Gateway Pet Guardians is doing everything they can do to save my brothers' and sisters' lives. Parvo is a very serious virus.

I am here to ask you to please donate so that Gateway can continue to help my my brothers and sisters.

Whatever you can donate will be of use. Whether it is $1 or more they will be forever grateful for your generous gift. And so will I and my siblings.

We are some very lucky pups, rescued just in time.

Thank you for your help.

Sincerely,

Largo
Ambassador to my siblings
Gateway Pet Guardians

Agnes

Agnes has been on the streets for quite a few years now. PJ was the only person that she would let pet her. There was this guy who she followed around every day, but she would not let him pet her. I would like to draw you a picture of Agnes and this fellow: We would see this man who dressed everyday in a one piece, red type button up pajama suit,  always with a bottle of whiskey. If we saw this gentleman walking around, lo and behold, there was Agnes, following 10 feet behind. She would not let him touch her, but she was always there. PJ would give the man Agnes' treats if she was not around, and he would always say, "when you gonna bring me something?" But, he would laugh and give the treats to Agnes. At least we assumed he gave them to her. One day when PJ pulled up to give Agnes her love and her treats, the man came out to tell her that some fellas had been throwing bricks at Agnes and that she was really being picked on by the locals. PJ just could not stomach Agnes being left to the fate of these mean people. Next thing I knew, PJ called me on her ride home, "Guess who I have in my car!" I was so happy to hear that she had rescued Agnes, even though our rescue has had to put rescuing on hold since we have had 6 parvo puppies in the last month. There is always room for an animal who is being abused on the streets of East St. Louis. Now we just need to find a permanent and loving home for Agnes and life will be happily ever after for this special dog.

UPDATE: Thankfully all of our parvo pups survived. Hopefully it will be the last that we see of parvo for a while. Unfortunately, meanwhile, we have lost a lot of our puppy fosters due to the fact that parvo lives in a yard for up to 6 months. We cannot risk putting puppies in homes that have been exposed to parvo. If you have been thinking about fostering a puppy, now is the time that we need you. We cannot pull any more puppies until we have more money and more foster homes. But, like I said, the good news is that everyone survived and most are in their forever homes by now.

Hector

Hector is one of those puppies who knows what he wants and knows how to ask for it. We have this soft blanket that we folded up on a chair for him to lay on. He goes to the chair and begs for us to put him on his soft blanket. If we try to trick him with a different blanket he cannot get comfortable and lets us know. He must always have a pillow in his kennel to lay on. If I don't have a soft pillow for him he barks and wines and moans until I bring him one. The other night, I was so tired in the middle of the night and Hector was not happy about not having his pillow (that he had soiled on and was in the wash), that I sleepily got out of bed and brought him my extra pillow. That pillow is now and forever a dog pillow. Hector can tell you what he wants just by looking at you. He is the most inquisitive puppy I have ever had. When he came down with Parvo, I was in the middle of writing a plea for money for Lester, our other Parvo puppy. Poor little Hector looked at me with those eyes in the picture above, the entire ride to the emergency room. It broke my heart. Fortunately, Hector pulled out of the Parvo, much sooner than Lester was able to. Today, Hector is still at the vet, driving them crazy with his loud bark, and entertaining them with his big personality. His I.V. was removed and he will be coming home soon, I am sure. Lester is still at the vet and just ate for the first time this morning in 7 days. We think he is going to pull through, but we were not sure of his fate for the last couple of days. Between the two of these dogs, we are going to have close to $3000 in vet bills. We have had about $300 in donations since I sent the newsletter plea out. Thank you for that. If you have not donated yet, and were thinking about it, please do so as soon as you can. We do not have an account with the emergency hospital, and they do not give us a break. We have to pay them to continue treatment. Thank you for saving these sweet puppies.

Something About Lester

Let me give you a little background. About a week and a half ago, it was a Friday morning, I received a phone call from North County Animal Control. Petey, a dog we had adopted out a little over a year ago had been seized in a drug raid. What? A drug raid? That is what I said, from a house in Wildwood of all things. I immediately went to get pictures of Petey so I could send out a plea for a foster. They would not let me take him that day, but no worries, I was able to go back and get him the following day, thanks to our wonderful resident lawyer, Jonathan Beck.

Meanwhile, I saw a Lester in his cage, so cute and excited. He reminded me of my dog Floyd. I told my husband, and his response was, well, looks like we have no choice but to rescue him. They would not let me take Lester the day I pulled Petey because there was no vet on staff and "those are the rules." But, they did show me Melvin, whom I said I would be back on Monday for, along with Lester. When I showed up on Monday, the vet said, "You can't take these dogs yet, they have to be held until Thursday." Mind you, this is about an hour drive both ways for me. I already had Hector, PJ had rescued ten more puppies on the street, so I took one of them, and we have Hooper because he was getting picked on at PJ's. Gateway is totally strapped for cash with all of the pups we pulled last week, so I told myself as I pulled into the parking lot of animal control, that I would not be taking Lester (whom I had not named yet). When I got in there, and saw him again, I just could not refuse. There is something about this dog that just makes me melt. He is the happiest guy. Loves life. Unfortunately, three days after I got him, he started vomiting. I rushed him to the emergency room in the middle of the night and spent four hours getting him admitted and taking care of paper work. He has been there since. The vet bills for just Lester's care alone are astronomical. We are talking around $1300. We don't even have that much in the bank account at this time. We are struggling. All we want to do is rescue more animals, but without the money to do so, our rescue is at a stand still. This rescue will not make it unless we have money to pay our vet bills. Not to bore you with the gory details, but just to give you an idea, on top of what we owe for Lester, our current outstanding vet expenses are $5000. All I can say, is please help. We really need you this time. Please be part of of what we are doing. You can have a piece of what we are doing if you just donate whatever you can. I can't tell you how important you are to us. Lester would have been put down had I not pulled him. Lester would like to thank you for saving him.