Marc and Kristen Peralta met at the NKLA Pet Adoption Center in Los Angeles. They moved to Rhode Island in 2017 and together, they founded Vintage Pet Rescue, a pet-retirement home for senior and terminally-ill pets.
Marc and Kristen have both worked with animals their entire lives. Their house is also home to other animals, but Shorty, a pug that Marc rescued from a Philadelphia shelter, has been with him for 11 years. Marc and Shorty have always been together, but the dog, who is now 15 years old, is not as fit for travel as he was before.
Whenever Marc is away, Shorty hardly rests and is always restless and anxious, “He’s been having a lot of separation anxiety in his senior years and, unfortunately, Marc has to travel a good amount for work. Shorty will bark and cry when Marc is gone and nothing seems to calm him.” Kristen told The Dodo.
Kristen has tried all sorts of ways to calm Shorty down, and even wrapped a pillow with Marc’s shirt, with no results. When everything else failed, Kristen bought a dummy from a Halloween store to disguise it as Marc. She put one of Marc’s worn shirts, a cap and then placed Shorty beside the dummy on the couch. It didn’t take an hour for Shorty to fall asleep.
What’s amusing is that not only Shorty likes the dummy, but all the other dogs in the shelter do as well. “It’s actually been completely adorable. The other pups will lay next to the dummy or on its feet. Last night, five of them were huddled around the dummy.” Kristen said. Check out some photos of Shorty below with the dummy they named Farc, short for Fake Marc.
Marc and Kristen Peralta are the people behind Vintage Pet Rescue, a non-profit shelter that takes care of pets in their golden years who have no home. Marc and Kristen’s house is also home to other pets, and one of those is a pug named Shorty who was rescued by Marc from a shelter in Philadelphia.
Marc and Shorty have been together for 11 years. When he was younger, Marc would take Shorty with him in his travels. Shorty is now 15 years old and isn’t healthy as he once was. Which means, he needs to stay home.
Shorty is extremely attached to his dad. When Marc is away, he would get anxious and won’t sleep!
Kristen, Marc’s wife, she tried all sorts of ways to calm him. She resorted to getting a mannequin from a Halloween store and styled it up with Marc’s used clothing.
Kristen sat Farc (short for Fake Marc) on the couch to see Shorty’s reaction.
In less than an hour, Shorty fell asleep wrapped in Farc’s arms.
He spent the entire night sleeping like this! Calm, peaceful and happy!
Shorty isn’t the only one who enjoys Farc. The other dogs have been cuddling and playing with Farc, too!
As you can see here, Bug, Shorty’s younger brother, thinks it’s a real person and loves to play with the mannequin.
Now, even when Marc and Kristen are both home, Farc still gets a lot of love and attention.
