A few months ago we received a call from a gentleman who knew of some puppies living under a trailer home. He reported that the pups were in rough shape because the owner refused to feed them.

On a Sunday morning we rushed to the property and the situation was worse than we could have imagined.

A total of nine emaciated, weak, near death, barely six week old pups poked their heads out from under the trailer to greet us. Some could still wag their tails. Some were already too starved and dehydrated to stand up.

We gathered the pups and headed north to Albuquerque.

Within 24 hours of arriving at the ER vet and doing everything we could to help her, one pup passed away.

In the days and months that followed these pups experienced diarrhea from eating sand and gravel, upper respiratory infections, and finally distemper. Our eight survivors were diagnosed with distemper.

Puppies rarely recover from distemper and have an almost 100% fatality rate. We weren’t willing to give up.

Working with our amazing foster home and our vet partners, together we made the decision to continue treatment.

For the last few months we followed new research, new protocol, experimental protocol, consults with “experts” from around the country, everything within our power we did to try and save these pups.

Over the weeks, we lost five more pups. Our foster, our vets, the vet techs, all of us who spent time, loved and bonded with these sweethearts had our hearts broken over and over again. Distemper has been the worst road we could have travelled.

The journey has been a difficult one for all of us but there is some goodness in our loss. They didn’t starve to death under a trailer in the middle of the desert. The pups were all loved and treasured beyond measure. They were held and cuddled. They ate like kings and queens, they played and knew they were safe with good people.

Pictured are our miracle distemper survivors, Sophie, Sebastian, and Sasha. They have now been medically cleared for adoption.

If interested in adopting one of our miracle puppies please submit the online application found on our website www.argosdogrescue.org under Adopt.