If you know Destiny, you know her biggest love and passion in this life is animals, especially her dog Axel. Axel was surrendered to the animal shelter where Destiny works, as a sickly, 6 week old puppy, along with his two siblings. His siblings looked visibly healthier and found foster homes right away, so Destiny offered to foster Axel for the night and of course fell in love.

It turns out Axel wasn't just a malnourished puppy; within the next few months we found out he unfortunately had a grade 4 heart murmur and was given an estimate of 6 months to live. Defying his odds, when Axel was 7 months old, he underwent a life saving surgery which placed a balloon to open up his veins (Valvuloplasty). This was successful at first, and allowed him to be neutered at 10 months old. Axel was shortly adopted by Destiny and goes every year for follow up checkups with his cardiologist. Axel is now 2 years and 9 months old and had been doing great up until about a month ago.

Last month he began vomiting after eating and upon further testing, he has megaesophagus, which is a common condition for dogs with heart problems. Due to this, he now sits in a Bailey Chair (doggie high chair) to eat to allow his esophagus to pass food through to his stomach more easily. This has obviously been a challenge but Axel is becoming a pro and Destiny has helped him gain confidence while using it. Now on top of this diagnosis, last Saturday (11/30) while Destiny was at work, Axel collapsed at home. The vet checked his vitals and despite this happening, everything looked normal. Once he was home from the vet, this happened again that same night and Destiny was able to get him to wake up. The following day Axel saw his cardiologist, where a halter monitor was placed on him for 24 hours, and they also ran an ECG and Echocardiogram. Both of those tests came back normal but we are still waiting on the results of his halter monitor. The next steps will be to do a systemic workup (more bloodwork) and depending on results from the halter monitor, a trial of medication.

As you can imagine, not only is this stressful for Destiny worrying about Axel, but his medical bills are quickly rising as well. The holidays are here and this is already a stressful time for many. We created this GoFundMe for Destiny and Axel to help with his incurring medical bills. Destiny goes above and beyond for the homeless animals of Camden County and is always the first person to jump in when an animal needs help. Please consider making a donation or sharing this page to help her and Axel!