A Massive Thank You goes out this morning to our Volunteers Davy & Susan for giving up their day for us yesterday at Tesco Dalkeith. Will the help of Santos and Rocky they raised £1476 for us and spread the word about our rescue.

Thanks to Tesco Dalkeith for having us in store and for all their fantastic and generous customers for supporting us

A Christmas story about an Angel, told by Angel 

"Hi my name is Angel, humans tell me im a pretty girl. Some time a while a go my family took me to a place surrounded by lots of other dogs. They used to bark and shout at me so I would put my paws over my ears and waited for my family to come back and collect me. I waited a long time and one day the lovely lady told me they wouldnt be coming back, but it wouldnt be long before I was snapped up as I was so beautiful.

I waited and waited, I just wanted to be back by the cozy fire and playing in my garden. The days turned to months and eventually I joined in with the other dogs shouting. I thought if I shouted loud enough my forever home might hear me.

The lovely lady spoiled me in the kennels and gave me lots of treats and toys. She said they were from something called a wishlist……..I wondered if she could put a Home for Angel on that list.

One days the kennel lady noticed my ribs starting to show. I heard her tell the rescue she was worried as I was loosing weight but still eating lots. I was always hungry I love my food.

She took a trip to visit someone called the vet who was also concerned. I was poked and prodded and had blood taken from my leg.

I was a very good girl but kept getting thinner. The nice lady put a cozy coat on me to help me keep warm.

I heard her say the vet man had ruled out EPI (whatever that means?), Cushings (I remember them from my sofa days) and a tumour (that sounded scary). The vet man scratched his head and didnt know what was wrong with me.

The ladies spent lots and lots of money on me, I heard them say they wouldn't give up looking for answers. So they took me on a road trip, I quite enjoyed that.

This time I got to meet a lady vet to see if she had any ideas - to save me I heard them say. The lady vet suggested a new expensive diet and some pills to help reduce my stress. The food was tasty and i started to chill out a bit in the kennels.

I think my heart was broken waiting on my humans coming back.

Today my weight is great so they tell me, my bones are not poking out anymore and they ladies no longer have a worried look on their faces when they see me.

Now I just need to find myself my forever family and everything will be perfect.

I would just like to thank the lovely people who have been looking after me, they spent lots of money making sure I got well again and it would be really good if you could sponsor me on the rescue's website to let them know how wonderful you think they are.

Thanks form the bottom of my doggie heart Angel "

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If you would like to support Angel she is now featuring on our sponsorship page with her sad story attached to her photos!

Angel won't be looking for a new home until the New year when we are sure her weight is stable again.

You can send your love to our Christmas Angel here: 

http://www.german-shepherd-rescue-scotland.org.uk/sponsor-a-german-shepherd/A-Christmas-story-about-an-Angel-Sponsorship-certificate-Angels-story-and-photos-sent-via-email-p714208429

Send a treat to our kennel dogs this Christmas.  You can donate food, treats, toys or vetbed to our kennel dogs via our Amazon wishlist.  (it will go direct to the kennels so dont worry when you put in your address - that just for the transaction)

Check it out here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/9UB4SQLQ4JSV?ref_=wl_share

Are you looking to get something unique for someones Christmas?

Do they already have everything?

How about sponsoring a kennel dog and get their name added to the certificate.

Go to our sponsorship page here: http://www.german-shepherd-rescue-scotland.org.uk/sponsor-a-german-shepherd

Thanks to everyone who took part in our 2024 Auction. We raised £1230 for our dogs. Just a couple of payments still to come in. All the prizes won will be sent out over the next few days.

Thanks to everyone who donated some great prizes to us. We are truly grateful as this wouldn't work without you.

Our Annual auction is taking place on our auction facebook page between 18th - 24th November 2024.

If you own a business and have a prize we could auction please get in touch with us.  All offers are appreciated and 100% of the monies rasied will help keep our dogs safe and sound over the winter.

Find our auction page here: https://www.facebook.com/GSRScotlandAuction

The last date for order clothing from our website shop is the 6th December 2024.  This allows time to order your item and have it stitched up and sent out in time for Christmas.

Lots of great items for GSD lovers to be found.

Thanks to William Paterson and East Neuk Wobblers trials club for organising and holding a trial recently to raise funds for us. Despite it being a wet and dark night everyone had a great time and they raised £250 for us.

GSRS boy Diesel on tyre checking duties as always.

Our 2025 calendars are now on sale in our webshop. Stock is limited so if your dog is featured make sure you get your order in

http://www.german-shepherd-rescue-scotland.org.uk/shop/products.php?cat=14

The news everyones been waiting on is here!

Our 2024 show total raised was £8500! This is an absolutely fantastic amount and there are many people to thank for helping us along the way.

We were asked at the weekend by some of the stall holders if we would be holding another show this year - the answer to that one is no lol. It takes us 6 months to recover and 6 months to prepare for the next one

*Thanks firstly goes to the Judges who lets face it have the hardest job of the day! Cathy Gordon, Grace & Brian Thomson & Iain Butt.
*Our Vets on call Heritage vets
*All our volunteers and Friend and family helpers who helped us set up and run the day smoothly on our stalls and rings.
*George Bell our fantastic Compere
*The Hoopers Demo team B.K.9
*John McCue for providing our first aid cover
*All our stall holders
*Nick, Esk Valley Dog Training
*Nadia Yellow Dog photography and Riz from PentlandsDog Training for the super Portrait photography
*David from Canis Scotia for our ringside photography
*All our class, ring and show sponsors

And finally thanks to each and everyone of you who came along and supported our event without you all there would be no show. We hope you all had fun.

Our fabulous GSD class winners trophies for Saturdays show at Vogrie Country Park.
Winner of the short coat class will receive the Ben Trophy
Winner of the Long coat class will receive the Abbey Trophy.
See you all there Vorgrie Country Park, Gorebridge Midlothian Saturday 27th July  from 1030am

Did you know there is a Give a car scheme, where the money for your scrap car goes to the rescue of your choice?

Big Thanks to Liz & Derek our volunteers who recently sent their car to the scheme after GSD Bear had decorated the interior with his own uniques design. They were delighted to hear they raised £1600 for us

https://www.giveacar.co.uk/listing/german-shepherd-rescue-scotland/

"WHERE DO YOUR DONATIONS GO?"
We think it is important to tell you where your donations go.
There are the obvious things like food, bedding, kennelling and toys and this all mounts up each month. We also ask trusted trainers to go out to new homes and give advice to new owners to help our dogs resolve their issues so they don't need to find another new home, that can be expensive too.

And then there are the big expenses like the gorgeous white boy Cammy that you all helped with recently when we did a fundraiser for his costly treatment. He is now happy and living his best life in his forever home.

Today's tale of another boy we have just helped will probably make you sad and angry.

This handsome young boy is Noah. And Noah was found straying in the Scottish Borders. He was such a nice natured boy that it was certain that he must have a home that was missing him! Noah was scanned and chipped but the details were for his first owner. He was contacted and advised that Noah and his brother had been bought as puppies to be security dogs but Noah was too nice and wouldn't bite the training equipment. He was re-homed as a pet dog and a contact number was obtained but his new home didn't sound so good. Owner no 2 was contacted and was really abusive (words were used that we can't repeat on here) but he made it quite clear he DID NOT want the dog back!

So we were asked to help. Our volunteer assessed Noah and found him to have the sweetest nature, but seemed a little too quiet for such a young dog. He loved everyone and just wanted to please. He was calm around livestock and kids, his obedience was impeccable and for such a big dog and he was amazing on his lead. We brought him to our kennels to assess him further and test him with other dogs.

He arrived and won everyone over very quickly, he was a little enthusiastic with other dogs initially but did not have a bad bone in his body. He should have been so easy to re-home.

"Why was he found as a stray?" I hear you ask. That was to become quickly apparent the more he exercised. He became lame after just a couple of weeks. Several trips back and forward to the vet and Elbow Dysplasia was suspected. Amongst other things a CT scan at a cost of £1300 was carried out and poor Noah was found to have severe ED which had been left so long that an operation to repair it was now no longer an option. Pain relief and limited exercise was now the only option.

This poor boy it would now seem had been "dumped" and left to fend for himself.
And how does a rescue find a home for a young dog with serious joint issues that can only have limited exercise? With great difficulty is the answer!

But Noah had a guardian Angel watching over him, and a family that met him and fallen in love with him heard of his fate and asked if they could foster him. So Noah has landed on his paws and will be taken care of by the rescue for everything he needs with a loving family looking after him, and a little dog to snuggle up to him.

This sad story is just one of many that comes our way. Noah's vet bills have reached £2311 so far and his pain relief will be costly each month. This is where some of your fantastic donations go. There are lots of ways you can help us.......
*Monthly direct debits (get intouch for details)

*One of donations (Paypal or Go Fund Me details are on our website)
https://gofund.me/4482695c

*Sponsor a rescue dog (great gift idea) on our website
http://www.german-shepherd-rescue-scotland.org.uk/sponso.../

*Fundraise for us - do a walk, run a marathon, have a bake sale or a dog show

*Donate to our wishlists (found on our website)

Thank you to each and every one of our supporters for helping us. As you have read every little penny counts

The news we never wanted to have to share with you has sadly come today.  The best boy and our rescue Ambassador Ileach has gained his wings and gone over the rainbow bridge.  He was the grand old age of 14 years 10 months and decided he had made enough people smile at his gorgeous happy face on this planet and has left a few hearts broken.

 Ileach came to us in 2017 aged 8 after his beloved owner passed away, the family were unable to keep him and asked us to find him his forever home.  Ileach had other ideas and when he arrived at our kennels his heart was broken and he was a bit of a grump.  Everyone who visited wanted to see 'Handsome Ileach' but then Mr Grumpy would come out his kennel and decide they were not the home for him, he would turn his nose up with disapproval and tell them to get lost in his own quirky way.  He disappointed many people who would have loved to take him home with them.  

After many failed meetings, and with a soft spot for a long coat our director Dorothy and her husband George decided to take Ileach on foster.  He would have a massive garden to plod about it and no pressure put on him to like or love anyone.  Just a place to call home.  Slowly though this boy mended his broken heart and won over both Dorothy and George with his quirky ways.

 He was a boy who hated anything going over his head, he hated going in the car, and for a long time he really disliked people.  Getting him to Dorothy's house involved trickery and good timing to get him in to the car - he thought he was going in one door and out the other!  He was wrong and so his journey and new life began.

 Taking him for a walk was the next challenge but he quickly learned that getting something looped round his neck and over his head(his lead) took him interesting sniffy places where he could splash in puddles and smell all the amazing scents the world had to offer him.  He never looked back and loved going out his walks everyday.

He even obliged one day and got back into the car for a special trip to the beach.  He ran and played and splashed in the water and simply had a ball.  Each night his bed time treat was a kindly donated (by you his followers) greenie chew. He turned his nose up at lots of other treats but Greenies got the paws up.

He began to play with toys, and enjoyed getting brushed, and loved human company.  His heart was mended.  This boy welcomed visitors with a smile and a waggy tail.  He relived his youth and lived his best life.  Ileach had found his own forever home.

 He's a dog that celebrated every year with a doggie birthday cake, sprats, liver, carrot scary looking creations but they went down a storm.  

You have all seen Ileach give back to the rescue by posing for photos, apealling for wishlist donations, saying thank you to you all for your generosity and now his head sits in our logo so we can all remember this extra special boy.

 Ileach enjoyed every minute of his forever home right to the end.  And when his eyes told Dorothy he was ready to leave Becky from ICR vet came to his home and sent him peacefully on his way.  We are forever grateful to her for saving him what would have been a stressful car journey.  He deserved the best and the best he got.

Run free handsome boy you have left behind more tears than you will ever know.