Texas Great Pyrenees Rescue

Well, North Texas seriously showed up. But now’s our turn, and y’all, we’ve been waiting for this chance. We’re chomping at the bit! 💪🩵

For The Big Give, let’s show ’em just how big South Texas hearts can be. Every gift, share, and bit of support helps us rescue, heal, and find loving homes for Great Pyrenees across Texas.

TGPR foster Kamryn wasn’t planning to bring home a Great Pyrenees when she volunteered at her local shelter after a storm. Then she saw Wyatt’s big, bony head, and his eyes looking up at her.

He struggled to get up to say hello, but he got up. She was desperate to get him out, couldn’t leave him behind. She called TGPR’s Area Director, Christi, who said “if you’re willing to foster, we’re all in." Wyatt, unseen until then, with no chance of getting out in his condition, was in Kamryn’s car and safe 15 minutes later.

One of our partner vets made room for him and he was there 30 minutes after leaving the shelter. They said he was just 10 months old, still a baby, so thin and weak he could barely walk. Each time he sat, we could hear his bones hit the floor. You could feel, not just every vertebrae, but almost completely to the underside of the bones. He couldn’t be vaccinated, neutered, or get any vetting except the bare essentials; he was too thin to handle it.

Meanwhile the Pyr Protection Army — our amazing community for good, so unique to TGPR, was already rallying behind Wyatt. Donors immediately sent him EVERYTHING: dog beds, over 200 pounds of food, treats enough for a king, and so many toys.

His first toy, from Kamryn, was a little fish. When it squeaked, he stopped and looked around for the sound. Wyatt never heard a squeaky toy- at 10 months old- before tgpr.

Kamryn cried as she opened the packages that kept coming- for days. She read your notes out loud to Wyatt so he would know he was loved by so many people. She’s keeping them in her foster scrapbook to remind herself, on the hard days, that they aren’t alone. 

He’s put on 15 pounds and, next week, he’ll go back to the vet with his head up. 

And just yesterday, we brought in Willow.

Willow was in the same danger, one that’s become way to common across Texas this year…  dangerously emaciated in a shelter with no room, no chance of getting adopted. This time it was Erin, at the shelter to see another Pyrenees, when she saw this skeleton with fur, staring at her, with those big, sweet eyes. Erin, too, called her TGPR South Texas Area Director who said the same — if you’ll foster her, we’re all in. And the next day Willow was standing in the breeze with her head up, dirt instead of concrete under her big feet, with a full belly and clean fur, and a big bed waiting for her inside her first home. 

Thank you Kamryn and Erin for so much but also for sharing Wyatt and Willow’s stories and pictures with all of us. Bless all fosters forever and ever, amen. 🙏

Every year, we take in hundreds of Pyrs in need. Some have lost their families, some are lost themselves. In shelters all over the state, found on nearly every country roadside by Good Samaritans, given away when they're too big or too much. We're here when the people who should have cared for them couldn't, or wouldn't. 

But this year we’re on pace to take in 500 dogs — one of the highest years we’ve had and veterinary costs continue to rise. Many Pyrs arrive needing advanced treatments, complex surgery, or other expensive care before they’re ready for a home.

That’s why we’re raising money for TGPR’s Medical Emergency Fund during The Big Give. Your generosity helps us act quickly, keep intake open, and continue saying, “Yes, we can help.”