Tarah Sullivan wrote For the Love of Dobermans Facebook page the following very touching rescue story.

This is Korben “Blitz” Dallas, the first doberman I’d ever owned, and my first furbaby.

This is going to be a long post, so sorry in advance.We adopted him from our local rescue on December 1, 2010. He was roughly 1 1/2. I’m not usually one to talk about fate and all that, but I felt like finding him was one of those cases. For a long time I’d talked about wanting a doberman, I’d always loved the breed. My sister and I went to the shelter a few days before the 1st to look at their dog beds (she wanted to get one for her pointer mix), and while casually looking through the dogs they had there, we stumbled upon Korben.

He was in the very last kennel we looked at, and for the life of me, I swear he wasn’t in there when we first walked in (you could see it from the doorway, the kennel hall makes a large U shape). I wanted to cry instantly when I saw him, and he happily came up to the gate, nub wiggling. It took a couple days of talking with my parents, and they agreed that we could get him. He had some bad food stealing habits, and he wasn’t necessarily great on the leash (loved to try to chase anything on wheels), but he was a sweet, loving dog(those bad habits were getting a lot better with time. Stopped needing the leash to take him out to potty after a year or more of working). I’ve dealt a lot with depression over the years, and having him gave me something to wake up for, something to keep me going some days. It might be sappy or cliched, but Korben was a bit of a life saver for me.

A good year and a half passed and I noticed his front left shoulder was swollen, or looked to be. My biggest worry was that he some how dislocated it or something while playing with the other dogs. So the next day, on July 8, 2012 we took him to the vet and after an x-ray we were told he had bone cancer. After some struggle and many more vet visits, it was decided that it’d be best to end his suffering. On July 22, 2012 we put him down. No other loss in my life has effected me so greatly, not even when it’s compared to family members. It still hits me now, I can’t count the times I’ve had to pause to collect myself just writing this. I always worry I made the wrong choice. He wasn’t the best behaved/trained dog, nor was I best owner/trainer, but I wouldn’t have changed anything of that year and a half with him. https://www.facebook.com/KorbenBlitzDallas – A page from Korben’s point of view. It’ll be a while before the pictures or videos are put of of his last month.

There is a silver lining, as some might already know from a recent post of mine asking for advice on fawn coat care.
On October 15, 2012 I brought home my second rescue Doberman, another adoption from our local rescue shelter. Castiel is a fawn dobe, who was

extremely over weight and had suffered hair-loss and skin damage, likely from being left out side in the sun. He’s improved a great deal since we brought him home, his fur is starting to fill back in and he’s down to a much healthier weight (could probably still lose a pound or too, waiting for his skin to shrink back into place so I can get a better idea of his shape). He’s an endlessly sweet boy and wants nothing more than to sit with you on the couch and be petted. Just like Korben, Castiel is an amazing example of how truly sweet, but also goofy, this breed can be. I can’t even count the number of people who’s opinions of the breed have changed since meeting either of them. They have so much character and personality. I’ll never have another like either of them.