Saving The Great Freddie Albert William

The shelter manager was out & about doing her checks & chores when she came across a dog on the grassy verge of a busy highway.

A beautiful shepherd mix who was very thin & very afraid.

He was so afraid he backed off whenever the manager went anywhere close to him.

The manager does not force frightened dogs as it could spook them resulting in them running to danger AND it sets them up for future failure. Any force exerted over a very frightened dog should be avoided & in our educated experience it is very bad practice.

She had her lunch with her so she gave him some bread which he gobbled up eagerly & she sat & waited for him to start to trust her.

We named the dog Freddie Albert William after Freddie Mercury & a dearly loved gentleman relative of one of our followers.

FAW as he became known eventually trusted the shelter manager enough for her to gently put a slip lead over his head & lead him to her car.

She took him to the shelter clinic where he had a health check & then on to a private kennel.

Thankfully he was in good health aside from his body condition.

He remained alone in the kennel for a few days to become familiar with the shelter & then, as she always does, she started introducing friendly dogs with very placid natures to him.

While this was going on FAW began to gain weight.

Once the shelter manager felt FAW was ready to join the main pack, she moved him to a social group consisting of around a dozen or so dogs.

Obviously FAW was a little worried at first, not knowing if these new dogs would accept him.

Little Snowy, who had stayed in the private kennel with FAW in the early days went with FAW when he joined the larger group of dogs.

Dogs are amazingly good at helping each other & Snowy was no exception to that rule. He knew FAW & he knew the other dogs & reassured FAW more than once that everything would be fine.

As the days passed Freddie Albert William blossomed. He became the dog he was always meant to be.

His weight normalised, his fur gleamed with health & vitality & his confidence grew.

FAW made lots & lots of friends. He is here with Amari, Albie Ayla & of course his best buddy little Snowy.

When the parvo pups as we call them grew in to rowdy teenagers FAW was given the job of minding them

A kind gentle boy the shelter manager knew he would teach them their manners in a gentle, non aggressive way, and he did!

Sometimes dogs like FAW don’t do well in a shelter environment. They aren’t well adapted to being part of a huge free roaming pack, its not for everyone. But, FAW aced it.

Friend to everyone human & dog.

We use this picture quite often in our booklets & other marketing material.

Its one of my favourites as it shows that despite the shelter grounds being surrounded by a perimeter fence it doesn’t stop the dogs from being happy, even those who are not used to confinement.

FAW is one of the shelter manager’s successes, no longer with us, we miss him every single day.

Its so easy to become attached to dogs who stay for long periods due to lack of homes in Turkey. And Freddie Albert William was one of them.

So good we didn’t just name in twice, we named him three times.