Manu

Manu’s Story

We adopted Manu back in 2013 from Pug Rescue of Austin. He was estimated to be 2–4 years old. PRA rescued Manu from Lampasas Animal Shelter. He had been found as a stray. PRA gave him the name “Rambo”. We brought “Rambo” home on March 24, 2013. His new Dad, Jose, renamed him Manu after Manu Ginobili of the San Antonio Spurs.

Manu was the first pet we adopted together. We were college students living in a small one bedroom apartment at the time. We moved to our first home together in 2015. Manu finally had his own backyard! Later that same year, Manu was diagnosed with mast cell tumors at a local veterinarian clinic. We were devastated. We had no knowledge of mast cell tumors, and could only focus on the word “cancer”. We reached out to Signe and Westlake Animal Hospital. Signe made us feel so much better and assured us that these are common and often not anything to worry about. Westlake did Manu’s surgery to remove the tumors and they turned out to be low grade. This experience with Signe and the other Westlake staff made us really want to give back to PRA. So, we applied to be fosters!

We turned out to not be great at the fostering part, because we “foster failed” with four other pugs and ended up adopting them. We moved to our second home in 2020 with Manu and all of our other pets. Manu was always the leader of the pack despite all these different changes and new additions.

As Manu aged over the past several years, he developed arthritis and eventually lost his mobility. With added care and his perseverance, Manu continued to experience joy and also bring joy to our family. He depended on Jose for so much in his later years, but you could say that Jose depended on Manu just as much in other ways. The extra care only brought them closer.

We had our first human baby, Mila, in November 2025. Manu will always be Mila’s “first pug” just like he was ours. Manu was with us through so many life changes and experiences. He is the reason we adopted four more pugs, and the reason we will always cherish PRA. He also inspired us to start volunteering with PRA again in 2026. We are looking forward to giving back to PRA as a way of honoring Manu.

— Jose & Erin