From his rescuer 1/13/03:

King is approx. 5 year old unneutered purebred German Shepherd with  long silver coat.  He has lived in an outside kennel probably all his life.  I met King when he was about a year  old and his living situation has been the same.  I know that he has been allowed in a screened-in-porch when the weather was severe, but nothing much beyond.  The kennel is large enough to hold a filthy dog house but not large enough for King to have any exercises in it.  However, he was frequently allowed to roam free in the vicinity which is 200 or so acres of farm land on a large peninsula, therefore he's had okay amount of exercises ... I suppose. 

His health condition is not very good.  First of all his coat is matted into filthy patches all over his body.  He apparently has worms and who knows what else.  He probably weighs about 80 lb. and doesn't look emaciated.

His temperament cannot be better than what it is, especially considering his history.  To my knowledge he was never abused, but neglected, oh yes.  He has had minimal human contact and absolutely no training in terms of being a companion animal.  Yet, I know for a fact that he gets along with other dogs including an unneutered male Airedale.  When he was young, he overwhelmed my Airedale (a small female) with his overzealousness and got snapped (not attacked, mind you) at pretty severely in retaliation, and his response was that of a very normal male: he backed off without any argument.  Now that he is older, however, he doesn't try to play rough.  He sort of hangs around the dogs he wants to play with but doesn't show any sort of pushiness. 

What started my quest for a new home for King was the party my friend (King's neighbor) had last summer.  There were about 20 people and 4 dogs playing in the yard and King being let out earlier came to see if he could join in.  He gingerly approached people to see if he could get attention, but nobody wanted to touch him.  As I extended my hand to touch him, he looked delighted and tried to snuggle up.  But then I was told that he had worms so retracted my hand.  He looked disappointed and walked away.  The sadness in his eyes has been haunting me ever since. 

One guy at the party who thought it was atrocious to keep a dog in that condition talked to the owner and he agreed to surrender King.  I thought perhaps that guy was interested in rescuing him, but there was no further development.  Upon hearing this, which was probably last July or August, I set upon calling various GSD rescue contacts and shelters I found on internet, but I've had so far no lead. 

2/1/03:

I just wanted to let you know that King has been groomed, neutered and medically treated and is well on the way to become a companion animal.  His new mom reports that he really is the sweetest dog who just adores getting attentions.  He is fairly obedient and willing to please, and his only bad traits are to jump up to put his paws on your shoulders to stare at you in your eyes (I remember this about himfrom a long time ago.  Even though this seems like a dominant behavior, I recall that I didn't feel like I was being challenged in any
way.  I think he just likes to get close to people.)

This is probably going to be the last update as I believe that King has found a forever home.  If for any reason the current situation does not work out, I might contact you again for help, but otherwise, please know that this story had a happy ending.

Tex was tied outside on a runner that Tex hated and would slip or would bark when left out there alone. It sounds like Tex was left alone quite a lot. Previous owner said he has a dog house in the garage were they kept him. They said that he was in a crate 2-4 hours a day in the house.

Owners say that Tex has severe separation anxiety and that he chewed through is crate, 2 doors and jumped out a second story window (though I don’t remember seeing on his write up that they had him in the house much?)

We put Tex in a crate in the shelter and went out of sight for 1 minute. There was no barking or panic at all! Seems with severe separation anxiety, he would have. It is my understanding that separation anxiety happens pretty quickly. Shelter workers haven't seen it either

The separation anxiety…don’t know. Our quick evaluation of that came out fine. He is good in the cage at the shelter. No pacing, not barking or screaming, no chewing the cage….so I don’t know.

I wonder how much time this young 2 year old dog had since the previous owner has a 5 year old child, a 3 year old and a new born! Our feeling is that Tex was regulated outside most of the time.

We thoroughly evaluated the dog and saw no aggression problems at all. On the contrary, Tex seems to be a pretty happy, easy going dog. We never got the feeling that we needed to be nervous about getting bite while we were testing him.

 The shelter is not going to put him out for adoption because of the owner’s story of separation anxiety.  They will put him to sleep. It would be nice to give Tex a chance as I think he is a nice dog.

This is a case for somebody who lives at home, who can slowly, slowly, slowly desensitize the dog from being left alone and being ok in a heated kennel run (and they'd need to be somewhere that  his barking out in the kennel wouldn't matter)  to being ok in a crate, to being alone in the house in a crate or room, to being alone in the house loose. 

If  he could be crated without wrecking the crate, OR he could be loose in a house without freaking, that could be ok. But I don't know about either one. I also don't know if having other dogs around would help him or not.

Tex only has a few days to live. He will probably be PTS Tuesday, Nov.12, if someone doesn't come forward and agree to take him and work with him. Can you give him a chance?

Bill Newell and a friend came to meet Maggie this morning, and it's a done deal!   

Maggie did better with them than anyone I've seen her around
since she came into my home.  In 3 weeks - when she's completely vetted -
she will go to her new home in East Cobb County, where she will be an indoor
dog, a companion to Bill, who will be able to spend all days with her, and
will have a large fenced yard to play in.   They will provide her with the
home she deserves, and now Maggie will never be alone either!   A happy
ending.

PERMISSION GIVEN TO CROSSPOST. All responses please to
SShaw@KilpatrickStockton.com
phone: 404-758-7164

Maggie is a Beautiful and sweet 9 month old German Shepherd who is getting healthier every day. She's beginning to act like a puppy now that she doesn't have to struggle for food and water. Will be a fabulous companion.

Last night we got the "starving German Shepherd chained to a tree" from the county that does not have an animal control and a sheriff who doesn't care. She is a purebred -- is emaciated, was aggressive out of fear initially, and is now very safe at my house. She's in the backyard right now, and I'd really like to bring her inside, but don't have a crate big enough for her.

I think she will live, and she's eating as much as she possibly can. In fact, this morning (after eating all night), she's been picking up bites from the bowls and taking them into the yard to bury for when there is no food again. She doesn't realize yet that she will never go hungry again.

We picked up the other two strays who were running around the German Shepherd's tree -- we believe all three dogs are under 1 year old, and all are Extremely affectionate and starved for love.

The German Shepherd just curled up on me and stayed until I had to move due to body aches. Not a mean bone in their bodies, and all will be perfect pets once the excitement of being cared for subsides a little. Here are their photos. Beth, you add whatever comments you want. We are thinking of taking the other two to the Atlanta Humane Society, but I would really prefer to get them into foster homes.

Please help! I've got 9 dogs at home who all want to be loved at the same time. We need to find homes fairly quickly. I'm sure I missed something in this email, but will let others add -- I'm exhausted right now because the excitement did not wear off all night.

(PS: I have the large, 30lbs+ chain that was tied around this poor girl's neck, and plan to show it to the new parents so they see what she's seen.)

Hi, my name is Nicolas Grimes, and I live in Troy, OH (near dayton).  I  attend the University of South Carolina, and have been put in a very  tight  situation. My friends and I found an abandoned and beaten German  Shepherd (Mix?) puppy this summer. We brought her back to great health, and she  became  an awesome dog. Right now, she is approximately 10-11 months old.  The only problem is, when I graduate in May, I'm up for jobs that require a lot of traveling which won't allow me to keep this great dog. I had a home lined up for her on a ranch in Penn., but the guy called me yesterday and reneged on his promise to take her. We were supposed to meet tomorrow, Jan. 2 to get her to her new home, and I go back to South Carolina this weekend. So, as you can probably tell, he screwed me big. I now have 3 days to get her somewhere where she will be well taken care of. I will send a jpg of her with this e-mail. Please, if you take good care of your dogs, and feel that you can prove to me that you will find her a good home, and you have any space for her, write me back or call me. you can reach me @ 803-622-0981 cell or @ 937-335-0331 home. I am in a desperate situation right now. Thank you

Nicolas Grimes

616 Meadow St. Apt 1
Columbia, SC 29205
(803) 622-0981