Some promises are made in words. Ours was made in memory.

In 2010, Theresa Burrill adopted 10-pound Shih Tzu named Phoebe. What happened next was the kind of bond that can't be explained — only felt. Phoebe waited at the window every single day for Theresa to come home. She was loyalty, devotion, and pure love in its smallest, most perfect form.

For eleven years, Phoebe was Theresa's heart dog.

In October 2020, Phoebe was diagnosed with heart failure. Eleven months later, her little heart gave out. The grief was immense — but so was the gratitude. Because Phoebe didn't just give Theresa love. She gave her purpose.

Out of that loss came a promise.

Theresa had long been drawn to the animals others overlooked — the seniors, the scared, the forgotten. She began fostering and rescuing dogs through Muttville Senior Dog Rescue and partnering with Love and Second Chances Rescue, giving older dogs the chance to know what it feels like to be chosen. To be safe. To be home.

And then she learned what was happening in Vietnam.

Her cousin Tram had been quietly doing something extraordinary in Trang Bang — rescuing dogs and cats from the meat trade, from abandonment, from abuse. Every single day, with very little support, Tram was showing up for animals that no one else would save. Feeding them. Healing them. Loving them back to life.

Theresa couldn't look away.

Phoebe's Promise Foundation was born from all of it — from grief, from love, from a cousin's sacrifice, and from the belief that every animal deserves a second chance, no matter where in the world they are. We promised Phoebe we would always adopt. We promised her we would help as many animals as we could. That promise now reaches all the way to Vietnam — and it's just getting started.

"We can do no great things, only small things with great love." — Mother Teresa