About tlua 🐾

They Loved Us Anyway exists because dog rescue is often reduced to happy endings — and that version of the story is incomplete.

This space was created to tell the truth about what happens before the adoption photos. Before the polished bios. Before the words “happily ever after.” It is a record of the dogs who were failed by humans long before they were ever “rescued,” and of the people who stepped in after the damage was already done.

The title matters.

They Loved Us Anyway speaks to a devastating truth: dogs continue to trust, attach, and love — even after neglect, abuse, abandonment, and betrayal. Even when the systems meant to protect them fall short. Even when humans walk away. Their loyalty isn’t a miracle. It’s a burden they carry quietly, often at great cost to themselves.

This blog is not about saviors or hero stories. It’s about accountability. It’s about examining how well-intentioned advice, profit-driven breeding, convenience-based decisions, and systemic gaps create situations where both humans and dogs are set up to fail. It’s about honoring the grief — for the dogs we couldn’t save, the ones we carry with us, and the ones who needed more than the world was willing to give.

It also exists to spotlight the good people. The fosters who say yes when it’s inconvenient. The volunteers who answer the phone when no one else does. The strangers who pick up the pieces, not for praise, but because walking away isn’t an option.

These stories may be uncomfortable. They may challenge assumptions. They may sit heavy. That is intentional.

Because dogs don’t get to tell their side of the story.
Because loving us anyway deserves to be witnessed.
Because truth is part of compassion.

This is for the dogs who paid the price for human failure.
This is for the people who stayed.
This is They Loved Us Anyway.