Love Was Always in the Cards for Oonagh and Gloria

Some fortunes take a while to turn. For emaciated pit bull puppies Oonagh and Gloria, it took a rescue, expert care and three very special humans.

In 1982, artist and animal lover Robert M. Place started designing tarot decks. By 1995, he was published by HarperCollins, and his deck The Alchemical Tarot became world famous. Today, inspired by his own rescue dogs, you can often find Greyhounds throughout his many decks.

Robert and his wife Rose Ann have been adopting animals together for decades, many of which were Greyhounds who were rescued from racing. Following the passing of their pit bull in late 2025, the couple found themselves without a pet for the first time in 53 years.

“It felt really terrible,” said Rose Ann. “I was looking online a lot for another dog and just got really upset and frustrated. And then I saw her.”

Rose Ann spotted 8-month-old Oonagh, a small white pit bull puppy.

“We read about her online and she sounded perfect,” recalled Robert. “Her personality, the way it was described was that she’s friendly with everybody and she’s friendly to all dogs. Also, a lot of the dogs we were looking were in like California, but she was right here in Pawling, New York, so it was an easy drive.”

So, Robert and Rose Ann set off from their home in Saugerties, New York, to the ASPCA Recovery & Rehabilitation Center in Pawling, New York, to meet Oonagh.

When they met, Robert picked Oonagh up and she started licking his face.

“I said, ‘This is the dog!’” Robert told us. “We didn’t need to meet any other dogs.”

“The thing was, she wasn’t what we wanted at all,” laughed Rose Ann. “Robert didn’t want another pit bull, he didn’t want a female (we mostly have only had males), and we thought we should get an older dog. So here she came, she’s a pit bull, female and a baby! And we just said, ‘Well, that’s it, we want her!’”

Oonagh may not have been the dog they initially wanted but she was exactly the dog they needed.

“Saint Roch, the patron saint of dogs, he was working with plague victims in the Middle Ages and then he got the plague himself, so he went off into the woods thinking he would die,” explained Robert. “Then God sent a dog to him and the dog came and licked his wounds and healed him. Then the dog would bring him bread every day and feed him and got him back to health. That’s what Oonagh did for Rose Ann.”

“She did!” Rose Ann agreed. “I didn’t know how depressed I was until we actually went to see her. All my neighbors were like, ‘Wow! You’re so much better already!’ It just showed how much I needed her. She’s a very special dog. She really healed me.”

But what they didn’t know was that they were doing the exact same thing for Oonagh, who had been through more than any dog should in her short life.

A Reversal of Fortune

In early March 2026, the New York Police Department rescued seven dogs from deplorable conditions. Many of them, including two puppies, Oonagh and Gloria, were emaciated and had untreated medical conditions. The dogs were all brought to the ASPCA Animal Recovery Center in New York City and later transferred to the ASPCA Recovery & Rehabilitation Center in Pawling, New York, for ongoing care.

During their initial examinations, Oonagh and Gloria’s bloodwork reflected malnutrition. They were both anemic and had low total protein, two common findings in malnourished dogs. Both puppies also had skin disease and fecal parasites, likely due to being housed in unsanitary conditions.

Gloria also had an old, untreated fracture in her left hind leg. That fracture plus a lack of muscle due to not being appropriately fed led to a condition called lateral patellar luxation, where her kneecap stuck out.

At the Recovery & Rehabilitation Center, under the care of veterinarian Dr. C, littermates Oonagh and Gloria were placed on refeeding plans.

“A solid protocol for reintroducing starved dogs to nutrition is critical for their success,” explained Dr. C. “Animals that have not had access to nutrition for a prolonged period of time undergo several metabolic changes that allow them to survive but can make introducing them to too much food too quickly very dangerous by causing a complication known as refeeding syndrome. To prevent this, we slowly increase the amount of nutrition a dog receives over the course of two weeks to allow their body time to adjust and shift from breaking down its own tissues for survival to relying on an external source of nutrition.

“These dogs are initially offered a prescription diet that is more easily digested, as their gastrointestinal tract is often compromised from being starved. They are weighed daily to ensure there are no significant weight fluctuations in either direction during this period. They also receive supplementations of two B vitamins, which are quickly depleted without proper nutrition and play several important roles in the body.”

As an ASPCA veterinarian, Dr. C has witnessed some of the worst humanity can do, and she finds starvation, especially that of a puppy, to be a level of cruelty all its own.

“Cruelty is hard to witness, regardless of what it is. However, I personally feel emaciation is a different level of heartlessness,” she said. “To walk by an animal every day, day after day, week after week, and see it wasting away before your eyes and do nothing is a level of callousness that I cannot begin to understand.”

But it’s the work she does to help save these victims that keeps her going. Watching Oonagh and Gloria slowly gain weight, seeing their fur grow in full and lustrous and witnessing Gloria build enough muscle that her luxating patella improved without surgery is what inspires her important work.

After just a few weeks, the sisters were healthy, and though they will always be smaller than other pit bulls due to the lack of nutrition at such a critical age of development, they were ready to find homes!

And while Oonagh waited for Robert and Rose Ann to spot her online, Gloria didn’t have to look very far at all.

Drawn Together

Gabrielle J. was Gloria’s behavioral caseworker at the Recovery & Rehabilitation Center before she decided to adopt her.

At the time, Gloria was very stressed out by the shelter environment.

“Some dogs shelter better than others, and with Gloria and the trauma she endured, she just simply wasn’t able to cope with the isolating nature of the shelter environment,” explained Gabrielle. “When she was alone in her kennel, she would climb the bars, bite at the metal, she was really distressed. It wasn’t until she was co-kenneled with Oonagh that she was able to finally relax. They were always snuggled up together. It was really cute.”

Gabrielle found it hard to watch Gloria have such a hard time in her kennel.

“I thought about the empty space on my couch at home next to my dog Diane. I could see them being compatible as sisters,” said Gabrielle. “Plus, I have such a type when it comes to dogs. Big pointy ears and brindle. So, I thought she was the cutest thing I’d ever seen.”

Once Gloria was available for adoption, Gabrielle jumped at the opportunity.

“About two hours after we got home, everything just unclenched from being in the shelter, even her ears, they just went floppy. Now I think it’s the cutest thing about her.”

The Fool’s Journey

As for Oonagh, once Robert and Rose Ann met her, there was no turning back! The three packed up in their Subaru and headed home to Saugerties, with Oonagh sitting on Rose Ann’s lap the entire ride home.

When they got home, Oonagh was inquisitive but calm, settling in very well.

“In fact, we took a walk down the street and she went right to one of our neighbors’ houses to say hello,” recalled Rose Ann. “She ate really well and slept in her crate upstairs.”

Oonagh’s personality was there right from the beginning: strong-willed, stubborn and incredibly charming.

“If Oonagh was a tarot card, she’d be the Fool because the Fool always has a dog with him. The Fool is the first card in the series; it’s the beginner that goes through the journey of the trumps,” explained Robert.  “The thing is with Oonagh, she’s a beginner, she’s a puppy so she’s still at the beginning, but she has a certain wisdom in that she charms everybody. There’s a certain wisdom there in the beginning.”

“She has a very young spirit,” Rose Ann told us. “All of our dogs have been like our children, but she’s like our grandchild! I think it’s because of our age and her age, and we bought her so many things and we dote on her just like people do their grandchildren.”

Today, Robert and Rose Ann take Oonagh on hikes (or at least try to — she mostly prefers to sit down) and play recall games with her.

“She’ll do almost anything for a treat,” joked Robert.

She’s also teaching her new “grandparents” every day.

“I think all of our dogs teach us things, they come and give us a lot of wisdom,”
 said Rose Ann. “By learning to work with them, they’re teaching us how to work with others.

Helping More Animals Like Oonagh and Gloria

Thanks to the dedication of our staff and their doting new families, Oonagh and Gloria are now living the happy, healthy lives they always deserved, no longer worried about where their next meal will come from.

At the ASPCA, it’s our mission to help as many animals like Oonagh and Gloria as we can. That’s why we have set an ambitious goal for our annual Holiday Meal Drive to provide 200,000 meals before Thanksgiving for hungry animals. Your gift will help us give more rescued animals the care and meals they need. Learn more at aspca.org/hungryanimals.