Zaxon's story 

Where to start?

 Little Zaxon came into our lives just under a year and a half ago and he is a precious gift.

 We didn't want to share our journey together until Zaxon had started to believe that he could be loved. And that he is loved.  Now Zaxon believes.

We don't call him Zaxon anymore.

We were told that the previous owner had only kept him for 2 days after rescuing him from a family member.

 This person quickly realised that they weren't equipped to deal with him and took a very responsible and well-intentioned step of putting him into some kennels (not GSRS's kennels) whilst asking GSRS to help rehome him.

 We were told that no-one showed any interest in him before us, by which time he had been in these kennels for nearly 3 months. He was only 9 months old when he was put into kennels.

When we saw his photo on GSRS's website we just knew that he needed us more than we needed him.

We would love any dog, but we knew that not many people were equipped  to understand this little boy and give him the help that he so badly needed.

We knew that we could rehabilitate him and show him that he could be free to hope that he could be happy and loved in his forever home no matter what.

When we first visited Zaxon at the kennels it was a sad experience for us.

 I had a bad feeling about the place as soon as we drove in.

But nothing could have prepared us for discovering how deep the cruelty had been for him.

He was emaciated with a rough, dirty and dull coat and he didn't resemble the same dog that was on GSRS website.

Our first sight of him was when he came round a corner with the volunteer. He was pulling with all of his strength and his eyes were frantically trying to focus on everything around him. But it was clear that he was completely overwhelmed and couldn't process anything no matter how hard that he was trying to. 

He was just trying to run.The destination wasn't important to him. Only that he could get there. For sanctuary....

 It seemed as if he couldn't see or hear anything which is why the volunteer thought that he had a hearing problem.

We knew instantly that this dog could see and hear just fine, but he was in a state of deep and desperate trauma.

At this point we didn't know exactly what had happened to him, but we had a pretty good idea.

The volunteer thought that we might be put off of him because he was jumping up and lunging at us and didn't seem to be interested in anyone. But nothing was going to put us off of this boy.

We couldn't take him home with us that first day because GSRS's policy meant that we had to go home and think it over which we understood.But if we could have taken him with us there and then, we would have.

It was painful to know that he had to go back into that kennel for another night.

And it seemed like forever before we could go back the next day to bring him home.

 We rescued Zaxon 3 days before the previous owner was going to have to stop paying for the kennels because they could no longer afford it. So it was meant to be.

 When we returned to pick Zaxon up, he didn't want to go into our jeep so one of us went to ask the kennel owner if they had something like a  step that we could put in front of the door to make it easier for him to step up into it.

The volunteer was trying to coax Zaxon to go in, but he was adamant that he really didn't want to go in. Then the kennel owner came around the corner and when Zaxon saw them, he lunged into the jeep and cowered down.

He was skin and bone and emaciated.......

We said nothing because we just wanted to get him out of there. When we got him home he was confused, scared and suspicious.

 We didn't care because we knew that this was the first day of the rest of his life with his forever family.

 He weighed around 25 kilos but should have been around 40-45 kilos for  his frame.

Our hands could wrap around his stomach and all of his bones could be seen poking out from his coat even although his coat was stary and standing out at a right angle.

Within 2 days his coat was sitting smoothly against his body and was shining.

Getting weight on him was a slow process as we couldn't overload him with food at first because he was so starved. But we saw the weight come on him even in that first 2 days so that was another confirmation about our suspicions. But he couldn't put any meaningful amount of weight on until after he had been wormed 4 times.

And even then he stopped putting weight on even although we were packing the food into him. It took 11 months before he got to the weight that he should have been at.

His trauma just couldn't allow him to put weight on any sooner.  Watching him eat was another sad realisation. We suspected that he had been starved but we didn't know that he had been tormented with food.

Another tell-tale sign of his weight loss was his chicken neck. He had clearly previously been a good weight as could be seen in his GSRS photo which looked to have been taken in a house. But when he came to us he had a significant amount of loose skin underneath his neck which  proves his enormous weight loss since that photo.

We also noticed that he had an unusual curvature of his spine. The first time that he sat down we realised why. He was sitting in an abnormal position that had likely come from being  in a cage or space that was too small for him. 

Zaxon also came to us with complex PTSD which is still a work in progress.

For a period of his short life, we believe that Zaxon had been abused. From experience we know that Zaxon will need a long time for his rehabilitation.  And he may never fully recover from his past experiences. But we don't care.

 Our boy is the most honest, loving and funny puppy.  He is going through his puppy stage now because he didn't get the chance to be one before.  To us he is precious, super smart and loved.

He is unrecognisable on the outside from when we first brought him home with us. On the inside he is still recovering. He has good days and not so good days because sometimes he can't help being dragged back to that dark place. Sometimes there are triggers and sometimes there are not. But the not so good days are getting less and less. His rehabilitation has been dramatic and so rewarding.

 He just needed that chance to be with someone that understood him. Loving him was never going to be enough to help him recover.  He needed time, patience and understanding.

And for someone to never give up on him. 

 Thankfully that is all in the past as you will see in his photos.

He loves our bed. It's his sleeping place and his play space!!! Even although he has 6 beds of his own???

He gives cuddles and kisses all day long and gets smothered with cuddles and kisses right back.

 We give him a ton of toys, but he prefers a cardboard box!!!

He plays like 'Rhubarb' and loves to be chased!!??

 He learnt all of our 'asks' super quick because we always 'talk real dog' with him.

He's never left on his own and helps us to do our chores every day. His days are full and exciting. And every day is a big day which is why he sleeps like a baby. But snores like an old man!!

 We love him and he loves us. And we couldn't imagine our lives without him. He is the centre of our lives and we revolve around him. 

Thank you GSRS for bringing us together.