A ruff start, but happy ending: Abandoned puppies find homes with city staff, community members

The family that owns Butterfly Rose, a tiny black puppy, didn’t realize she was the runt of the litter. Not until she was next to six of her littermates, who dwarfed the pup at a “puppy reunion” at City Hall on Friday.

The puppy hid in Thomas Tozier’s jacket before the start of the reunion in Downtown Albuquerque. But at home, Tozier said, it’s a different story.

“She eats nonstop,” said Tozier, liaison and coordinator of military and veterans affairs at the Mayor’s Office. The family has three other dogs, but despite Butterfly Rose’s small size, she has no problem bossing around the family’s pug.

In December, Butterfly Rose was one of nine malnourished puppies rescued from a dumpster and brought to the city’s Animal Welfare Department. One in the litter died.

But the dogs didn’t last long in the shelter; six puppies were adopted by city staff, including Tozier, and the remaining dogs were adopted soon after at Lucky Paws.

Anitra Jex, who works in the city’s parking division, wasn’t planning to adopt a dog when she came into work.

But that was before Jex saw Rocky.

“As soon as I saw him, he came to me, and he knew that he was mine and I was his,” Jex said. Rocky since has become the “bratty younger brother” to Jex’s three other dogs.

Tails whipped back and forth as puppies, some short-haired and some scruffy, but all with black fur and white markings, wrestled and wriggled at City Hall. Deputy Chief of Staff Miriam Diemer cradled puppy Jonah. His tongue lolled out, exhausted, after playing with his siblings.

“Something about puppies,” said Animal Welfare Director Carolyn Ortega, wistfully. “People just melt.”

Ortega said the puppies were resilient, and the outcome was the “best-case scenario” in an abandonment case. She wanted to stress that there are options to avoid abandonment, including free spay appointments at Animal Welfare and spay and neuter options for low- and moderate-income families at other clinics. The city is also planning a spay and neuter blitz in April.

Ortega also said there are food pantries that provide pet food to help prevent animal surrenders.

“Everyone just jumped in to help this group of dogs,” Ortega said. “If that could happen with every dog in our shelter, this city would be a much better place.”

Visit cabq.gov/pets for resources.