A guide · German Shepherds of Australia, Volume One
German Shepherd rescue: what happens after the adoption, in the families' own words
Search for German Shepherd rescue and you will find adoption profiles: a photo, an age, a line about whether the dog is good with cats. Every one of them stops at the same moment, the day the dog goes home.
What happens after that is harder to find. So here are three German Shepherds from German Shepherds of Australia, Volume One, in the words their families printed on their pages.
Jesse: shy and uncertain, then Best Dog
Jesse's page is written in Jesse's voice, and it starts with the rescue:
My first year wasn't the best, but German Shepherd Rescue Victoria came to my aid and helped me find my forever family.
The rest of the page is about what came after: adventures, holidays, cuddling up on the bed, and being made Best Dog at the family's wedding. Jesse sums it up like this:
I have transformed from a shy and uncertain pup into a confident and beloved companion.
Cherokee: the profile, a year later
Cherokee's mum saw her adoption profile and could not take her home at the time. A year later she happened to look again:
it was meant to be and I was still waiting for her by the time she happened to check!
Chez is now a working-line shepherd with a job of her own, helping her mum, a dog trainer, socialise other dogs. Read Cherokee's story.
Tilly: the dog who changed their lives
Tilly's family put it plainly:
Since we rescued Tilly, she has shown us so much love and what an amazing dog she truly is.
Their page ends with a line many adopters would sign their own names to: Tilly is "one of a kind and has changed our lives". Read Tilly's story.
What the three pages have in common
None of these pages spends long on the hard start. Each gives it a sentence or two and then gets on with the good part: the beach, the bed, the job, the wedding. If you are thinking about adopting a German Shepherd, that is worth knowing. Jesse remembers being "shy and uncertain" at the start. The pages are about the years after.
Where to start
If you are in Victoria and looking to adopt, start with German Shepherd Rescue Victoria, the volunteers who pull shepherds back from being surrendered, abandoned or put down. Outside Victoria, look for a breed rescue in your own state.
And if you would like to read more pages like these, German Shepherds of Australia, Volume One holds more than 200 German Shepherds, each with their family's story. It has raised over $22,000 for German Shepherd Rescue Victoria.