As Zully Vasquez Ventura drove along a road in her Cleveland, Texas, community, about an hour northeast of Houston, she saw a flash of something furry dart out in the distance.
“As I got closer, I saw that it was a puppy, and I'm like, ‘Oh my God,’” Ventura
told The Dodo.
Ventura took her foot off the gas, crept closer to the puppy so she wouldn’t scare him and got out of the car to investigate.
“When I saw there was just one puppy, I'm like, ‘That's weird, because usually there are more puppies,’” Ventura said.
Just then, the pup looked at her, turned and headed toward a worn couch dumped along the road.
Ventura followed.
“I saw two puppies on the sofa, then as I got closer, I saw there were three, then there were more and more puppies, a total of seven puppies,” she said. Ventura’s hunch about siblings was right; the first puppy led her to the others.
“When I first saw him, he was standing all by himself like, ‘I'm happy to see you,’” she said. “But then he was like, ‘Hey! Wait a minute, my brothers and sisters are here too.’ I’m so grateful he did. It was a moment that was meant to be.”
The puppies, wiggling and wagging their tails, were overjoyed to see Ventura. But she was struck by their terrible condition — living among trash and eating garbage off the street — she knew she had to come up with an immediate plan to help.
“Their skin was so bad, they must itch, the poor babies,” Ventura said. “I thought, ‘There is no way that I'm gonna leave them here. They're so vulnerable. They're so small. They’re starving.’”
Ventura found the puppies in the Colony Ridge neighborhood, a place where she's helped thousands of dogs due to the high number of abandoned andneglected animals. She feeds strays and networks with rescues to save as many as she can.
But even as a seasoned rescuer, Ventura now faced a challenge: How would she corral all seven puppies into her van? Turns out it was easier than she thought. “I called out, ‘Let’s go.' They all came running and followed me to the car,” Ventura said. “They were like, ‘This is my ride out of here!’”
Once Ventura got the puppies loaded into crates in her air-conditioned van, she drove around searching to see if their mother was nearby.
“I had whistled and called out, but there was no mom,” Ventura said. “I think someone dumped the puppies, but not the mother.”
Ventura posted on social media asking if a rescue could help save the puppies. Who Rescued Who Texas and Puppy Mill Rescue Team heeded the call.
A foster rushed the puppies into the veterinarian. They had terrible cases of mange, some pups had broken teeth, likely from eating trash, and one appeared to have a snake bite.
But now, thanks to the foster, rescues, Ventura and a brave black puppy who helped save his siblings, the entire pack is off the streets and on the road to recovery.
“It feels good to be making such a difference,” Ventura said. “It’s amazing.”
