Alex showed up at a rescue shelter in central Illinois and was moved to northern Illinois to live with his foster, Joyce, her two dogs and a cat. He was perhaps 18 months old at the time. Joyce volunteers for Echo Dogs, a group that specializes in White German Shepherds, and for the most part that is what Alex is.

Alex was that heart breaking combination of a wonderful gentle dog beset with near insurmountable medical problems. He had an eye infection that turned out to be blastomycosis, a near fatal fungal infection that led to removal of the back part of his left eye and replacement with a little ball. Treatment of the infection is almost as dangerous as the infection itself but he pulled through. A follow-up X-ray revealed an astounding amount of buckshot in his chest with some lodged in the wall of his heart. He had been shot. That wasn't all. He was heartworm positive and that was treated too.

You can imagine how difficult it would be to hold down a job, maintain a household of pets and treat Alex too so my wife Ellie went up to help Joyce through the worst of it.

He is better now and I had the honor of being part of the relay team that got him down to Georgia where he now lives with Ronnie, a fireman. Alex is now one of the guys at the firehouse. He has found his home.

Alex is a loving intelligent dog. He has every reason to hate humans. But he loves. It is a gift to be with him. We can all learn something from Alex.