Help for Axel

Axel needs your help!

The abandoned German Shepherd Dog from Peverell update.

Hi guys.

Most of you know that LLL , NW and myself have been involved in trying to get Axel to a safe place since last week.

Please note he IS safe now.

This is a small (ok my intention was for it to be small but people keep asking questions : ) ) update, to let you all know what's been going on and a request for your help with a few pennies.

As far as we know and have been told, Axel was abandoned in Peverell and found to be in the traffic and at Morrisons in the car park. Not many people wanted to approach him, as he was very stressed and lunging at people.

A young lady plucked up the courage to approach him and when he lunged at her she got a slip lead over his head. He was fine once he was on a lead.

Not knowing what to do with him and obviously not wanting him to get injured, she took him home. She did contact the Dog Warden who was supposed to visit that evening (Thursday). The young lass got his chip checked out but unfortunately it wasn't registered to his owners.

Somehow she did manage to get in telephone contact with the owners. What we have been told is Axel was bought by an adult son for his mother, who was getting on in years. Axel is now 3

By his looks he has been kept in fairly good condition, well groomed but does have dirty ears but these sheps seem to attract dirt to the ears! It's like their ears are dirt magnets!

Anyway, something happened in the home, Axel either got out or was chucked out (different info) and the Mum refused to accept responsibility for Axel. The son also refused to take Axel back.

He also refused to give his or his Mothers address and surnames (probably knowing that armed with this, he could be prosecuted for abandonment).

So the young lady reached out to us. She had no experience of GSDs and felt overwhelmed, couldn't handle him and he was quite distressed. To keep him safe, she was keeping him in a crate, only let out for pee breaks. He actually rubbed his nose a little raw from the crate. The lady had many other dogs who were loud and also crated. The environment was chaotic and with quite a lot of high energy. This didn't help Axel to relax at all.

The Dog Warden who didn't turn up Thursday night, spoke with the young lady on Friday and refused to take responsibility for Axel. Apparently, there were no spaces for him and as far as they were concerned (we were told) Axel was safe, so needed no intervention.

The lady told us she had secured a rescue space next month. And her plan was to pay for kennels herself from the 21st February, until the rescue could take him. So that meant Axel would still need a foster and still had to stay in a crate. We were quite happy to help with kennel costs but we didn't have a vaccination card. So every which way we turned we got no where.

We tried contacting rescues ourselves and we did manage to get an agreement that if we did the assessment they may take him on.

However, that was complicated by the young lady ringing up the same rescue and telling them she took him from her own family and he was lunging at people and other animals. Someone told her to say this to get around the fact we couldn't get a surrender letter, as the owners wouldn't cooperate. This caused a major issue!

NW did manage to get to take Axel out on her own for walks and he was a delight, really eager to please, loved a ball and being with her. NW was a ray of light in this lads eyes. She took him from a noisy and chaotic environment, where he was too stressed to eat properly and returned him much calmer on the occasions she walked him.

Unfortunately, the young lady was getting very abusive messages from Axel's owners, so we took over contact and received the abusive messages instead.

The lady was getting so stressed and so overwhelmed and the decisions being made were getting worse and worse. It culminated with one of our group members finding Axel for sale on Freeads for £50, apparently put up by the lady's sister. As you can imagine we were devastated and in panic mode. We got reassurances it was a mistake and it was removed from FreeAds.

I was due to do his assessment on Monday. We had a plan, I would do assessment and then we would test him with other dogs to see if he was OK. If he was, then NW would foster until rescue came up.

Monday arrived and we woke up to messages cancelling our assessment and walks. There was a man interested which we wanted to check out as well but who wasn't keen on our interventions or home checks. We worried he had gone there or been sold to someone else.

It turned out that the lady had given Axel to her sister, the one who tried to sell him for £50 and we were getting blanked each way we tried to sort the issue. The lady did have an emergency with one of her old dogs, which meant a quick trip to drop the dog at Bristol.

After lots of assurances he wasn't with this man and wasn't being sold for £50 and he wasn't part of Devonports Dog Fighting ring, we finally persuaded her to let NW take Axel.

I cannot tell you how many tears of frustration, sadness and then joy has been shared by us 3. Yet we still couldn't relax until Axel was with NW.

It was a relief when she got him. But then she had to introduce him to her existing pack of dogs all on her own.

And....

It was amazing. He played, sniffed and relaxed. He ate. He absolutely loves NW and he laughs! Really laughs!! ! You can look at some of the videos yourselves :)

Happy tears flowed! We were all relieved.

This is where we need your help. We have worked our socks off to get this boy to a safe place where he can decompress and chill. He has that now.

He also has 2 balls which are somewhat inconvenient to the ladies he is now residing with! Whether he stays permanently with NW or goes to a new place he will have to be neutered.

He is showing quite a lot of love intentions to one of the gals.

And a rescue would insist he was neutered anyway.

Please could you guys help us to pay for the neutering?

He is definitely old enough.

It is definitely in his best interests.

We are obviously going to contribute to the overall cost but I know a few of you offered to help pay for kennels. Could you contribute to this instead? Please??

I am sure I can persuade NW to join me and LLB on a walk one day, so you guys can meet Axel, (when he is ready and if he wants to meet new people and dogs.)

We are on a roll with him now and we want to give him the best chance ever!

If you can help please let me or LLL know. Obviously we will get a quote snd keep everything we do transparent.

That is Axel's story. The quote is in the picture settings. We have had some donations already for which we are very grateful.

We have set a target of £500 to include his neutering, worming, flea treatment and possibly vaccinations.

Any funds leftover will be sent to Debbie Hill at German Shepherd Dog Welfare Fund.

We are asking for help from Satu rday Plymouth German Shepherds and Plymouth German Shepherds groups .