About Us

The Story Behind
Dog Heart Foundation

Eight years ago, I adopted Leia. A 4-year-old mutt rescued on the streets of an industrial area in Mexico with distemper and kennel cough. I decided to adopt her at a difficult time in my life when my heart was broken, and in exchange she rescued me.

She showed me the true meaning of unconditional love and the magic of forgiveness and living in the present moment. And this sweet little mutt that nobody wanted to adopt turned out to be an exceptional dog that with no previous training ended up becoming a therapy dog for kids with autism and a psychiatric service dog. She literally saved my life more than once, from chasing a mountain lion and scaring away a horse running towards me, to learning how to detect a raise on my cortisol levels when an accident left me with PTSD.

This project was born as a dream inspired by her, because in every animal I see on the streets I see an amazing being like Leia, that only needs a home to fill with love the lives of the humans living in it. As a little girl I loved animals and dreamt of helping them. My father showed me the importance of valuing all lives by saving the bees that fell in the pool and petting every homeless cat that crossed his path. My sister and I picked up sick and hurt pigeons and took them home to “cure” them. Of course, my mom ended up taking them to the vet and making us believe we had done it. I also felt deep compassion towards those animals we don’t see but suffer to end up on our plate, so at 15 I decided to stop eating them. Together with my sister we rescued horses that were used for carrying garbage while wounded and even pregnant and sent them to sanctuaries to live with peace and respect. We dreamt of creating a sanctuary someday.

But in 2017 this adventure really started taking shape when I rescued a pack of 5 dogs from the highway while traveling in Mexico. One of them was missing a limb and another one was about to give birth and I decided to bring her home and stay until the puppies were old enough and find them good homes.

Weeks later Mexico had one of the worst earthquakes in its history. Hundreds of buildings collapsed, and thousands of pets and strays were wandering around, lost, and wounded on the streets amongst debris. I decided to help by putting together a rescue brigade.

4 years and about 600 rescues later, AdoptALove was constituted as a legal civil association with the intention of rescuing, rehabilitating, and finding loving homes for more little ones with the support of beautiful people that help in any way they can, restoring my faith in humans.

2020 affected us as much as everyone else. We suddenly had a radical drop in donations and an exponential growth in abandoned animals due to the financial situation and fear. But I was not gonna give up, specially after realizing the importance of our mission in another level: the emotional support animals give us and we need more than ever in difficult times like these. So Adoptalove transforms into Dog Heart Foundation, with the aim of training our rescues as emotional support, alert and therapy dogs to be adopted by families in Mexico and the US that need them. This way we help improve the lives of humans, and find homes for our rescues where they will not only be loved but also valued.

I hope this is just the beginning of a dream that never ends and inspires many people to help the beings that give us the most love, joy, and loyalty we can imagine. Until, hopefully, one day humans learn to value and respect them, and our help is no longer needed.

If you want to be a part of this dream, please join us. Even small actions like sharing our posts, or a small donation can make a huge difference. We can only make it happen with your support.

“You must have enough ego to know you can save the world, and enough humility to know you can´t do it alone.” -Alex Souza