These Dominican Republic Rescue Pups Will Steal Your Heart

Megan Rose is the definition of an awesome dog mom: A lifelong animal lover (her mom trained Rottweilers), she’s 100% devoted to her two rescue pups, Pharrell and Rosie, and started a blog called Gal’s Best Friend, all about living that dog mom life.

A post shared by Megan Rose (@meg00rose) on Feb 3, 2017 at 9:04am PST

She had gone to the Dominican Republic before for vacation, and witnessed the poor way many pups are treated there: Stray dogs are often left on the street or beach in the heat, and some resorts even try to poison them by putting pesticides in their food (if they’re fed at all).

A post shared by Megan Rose (@meg00rose) on Mar 6, 2017 at 8:49am PST

"Every time I go, I get attached to a dog and cry on the plane back," she says. "I feel like there’s nothing I can do, take them all?" But this time, when she went to visit in March, was different. First she stumbled upon Rumba on the beach. "She was so sweet, licking my face. We spent the whole day with her, sneaking her food."

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A few days later, after spending them nonstop with Rumba, she says she noticed a "little ball of fur" near some of the tourist shacks, named Papi. The puppy was skinny and hungry, so she gave him the rest of the food she had And then she started her rescue mission.

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Many of the rescues she contacted didn’t have any room or were too far away. "I thought there was no way we could get these dogs out," she says. Over the course of her stay, she was told that Rumba had already been poisoned and that Papi would probably be killed because he was getting big. Desperate, she finally found Collares Rojos, a non-profit organization devoted to protecting rescue dogs by spaying and neutering them, rehabbing them and finding them homes.

A post shared by Megan Rose (@meg00rose) on Mar 9, 2017 at 11:48am PST

The woman behind Collores Rojos, Yalenda, helped Megan negotiate to take the dogs, get them to a vet to get checked out, and keep them safe in a shelter until she could figure out how to get them back to the US. She left them there to be quarantined and get their shots, and returned home to New York City to prepare for their arrival.

A post shared by Megan Rose (@meg00rose) on Mar 13, 2017 at 3:49pm PDT

Working with Global Strays and Collares Rojos, Megan agreed to help out three other pups who had been rescued and were looking for their new homes in NYC. A few weeks later, she went to pick up all five of them at the airport. And brought Rumba and Papi into her home, to join Pharrell and Rosie. The first night back, all six of them slept in the same bed!

A post shared by Megan Rose (@meg00rose) on Mar 28, 2017 at 9:27pm PDT

Papi was almost immediately adopted by one of her friends in Boston (you can follow his adventures on Instagram here!) Though she attempted to find someone to adopt Rumba, Megan says she "kept finding things wrong with them!" Smitten from their first beach encounter, she knew she had to keep her.

A post shared by Megan Rose (@meg00rose) on Apr 3, 2017 at 2:17pm PDT

Now the three pups co-habitate happily in Megan’s apartment. Megan says that Rosie has found her "soul sister" in Rumba, while Pharrell is slowly adjusting to having another sibling. You can follow their adventures together @PharrellandRosie.

A post shared by Megan Rose (@meg00rose) on May 10, 2017 at 5:00pm PDT

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