Rescued from
Villalobos Rescue Center
Puma suffered from PTSD. At a very young age — approximately 8 months — she experienced severe trauma alongside her original owner and her siblings. Many very loud noises occurred that day, leaving Puma to grow up completely shut down and frightened of the world she lived in. She was taken into the rescue world after that event.
Then she waited.
Nine years in rescue. The team at Villalobos accepted that she would never find someone to take her on with her severe fear. She passed out at thunderstorms, cars backfiring, even an item dropping on the floor.
In May of 2013, Jacqueline traveled to New Orleans to intern with Villalobos Rescue Center — now widely known from Animal Planet’s Pit Bulls & Parolees. Puma was one of the special-needs dogs. The two formed a bond of trust.
Jacqueline knew that Puma was meant to live out her life in Michigan.
Puma arrived in Michigan in May 2013. Over the next 15 months, with science-based, fear-free work — desensitization to the sounds that terrified her, counter-conditioning, a predictable routine, and a lot of patience — Puma made extraordinary progress. The dog who had passed out from thunderstorms began to rest through them.
Despite perfect health check-ups with her veterinarian, Puma had a silent cancer in her heart — hemangiosarcoma — that had spread quietly and then caused her spleen to rupture in September 2014. Jacqueline made the very tough decision to let Puma leave this world in peace, at home, surrounded by those who loved her. Puma was 11 years old. You never would have known.
After Puma’s passing, given the huge support from the original adoption story airing on Animal Planet’s Pit Bulls & Parolees episode “Can’t Give Up,” Jacqueline ran a fundraiser selling bracelets with the words “Never Give Up” in black and pink.
Puma is the face of Jacqueline’s business — because it’s very important to Jacqueline to help the dogs who struggle the most in the world with fear, anxiety, and stigmas.