Please Welcome K-9 Axel #346
Please welcome K-9 “Axel” to the Project K-9 Hero Pack as our 346th Program Member. Axel honorably served with the Lapeer County Sheriff's Office, MI, from 2017 to 2025, as a Dual Purpose Patrol/Narcotics Detection K-9.
K-9 Axel is a 9-year-old German Shepherd, that turns 10 on January 20th. K-9 Axel served his community for 8 years specializing in conducting narcotics detection, suspect apprehension, handler protection, building searches, area searches, and tracking suspects.
During his career, K-9 Axel worked Patrol and was assigned to the Lapeer County Special Response Team. He deployed 820 times with the majority of those tracking felony suspects, article searches, narcotics detection sweeps, and building searches.
On October 21st, 2024, Lapeer County Deputies responded to a missing four (4) year old non-verbal autistic child. The Sheriff’s Office deployed “a child is missing,” a system that calls immediate neighbors in the area, and Lapeer County Search and Rescue was called out as well. Fortunately, after 45 minutes of searching, K-9 Axel and his Handler, Deputy Ruzicka, were able to find the missing child nearby, safe and sound.
K-9 Axel was officially retired from service on May 5th, 2025, and in retirement he has been diagnosed with a severe skin condition and joint issues. We understand that the cost of veterinary care is expensive, especially for an actively-serving Deputy Sheriff working with a new K-9 partner. The very last thing we at Project K-9 Hero want to see is Axel go without the medical assistance he needs just because his bills were not affordable. Therefore, we decided to step up immediately and pay for Axel’s medical care at 100% for the rest of his life.
Please take a moment to welcome him as our 346th Pack Member. It’s the least we could do for this Hero, who protected the community of Lapeer, Elba, North Branch, Hadley, and Metamora, Michigan amongst many others!
Our Medical Fund will help ensure that we always have a place to stay for Heroes like Axel. Please donate today to continue supporting our life-saving abilities.
