Axel

Axel is a homeless veteran living on the streets of Gunnison, Colorado, whose bond with Bella briefly redirects her journey back to Lucas. He has little shelter, depends on the kindness of passersby, and experiences persistent fear and suspicion; Bella, however, comes to know him as a man who shares what he has and needs company. She stays beside him through the cold, and after his death she mourns him as someone she had loved and cared for in her own right.

Identity and Circumstances

Axel is introduced to Bella when he offers her food, recognizes her name from her collar, and treats her as a good dog. He lives outdoors, using a pushcart to collect things from the sidewalk and keeping his blankets near a wall. Their walks are usually short, often ending in a nearby yard where Bella can relieve herself before they return to his place. When Axel leaves her, he ties her to a metal fence. His days also include trips across the street to nearby buildings; one of them provides a bottle whose smell Bella associates with Sylvia.

People who stop to speak with Axel sometimes give him money or dog food, and some pet Bella, but their brief visits do not amount to the lasting companionship she sees him needing. Axel talks to her frequently, repeating her name among words she cannot understand. When he addresses passersby, he presents himself as needing money to feed his dog. Bella gradually learns his name from the people around them. The contrast between his public claim to be caring for her and the care she sees flowing both ways becomes central to their relationship: he provides food and attention, while she offers company and comfort.

Bella’s Companionship

At first, Bella wants only to get away from Axel and continue her effort to return to Lucas. Her understanding changes as she witnesses Axel’s distress, particularly at night, when he seems frightened and agitated. She rests her head on his chest; when he finds her fur, his agitation eases and his breathing slows. Bella recognizes this as the same kind of need for comfort she has encountered in Mack and others she visited while working with Ty. Rather than treating her stay as a detour from her purpose, she understands it as another way of being the good dog Lucas would want her to be.

The relationship is reciprocal and specific. Axel gives Bella sustained attention, calls her a good dog, and makes her feel important. Bella presses against him as the nights grow colder, helping keep him warm. She also alerts him when a car arrives carrying two police officers. Their approach unsettles her because she associates police with the animal-control truck that once took her from Lucas, but she remains beside Axel as the officers speak with him. When asked about the dog, Axel says he found her abandoned. Bella’s wariness does not prevent her from choosing to protect and accompany him.

Offers of Help and Conflict

The officers’ visit exposes the precariousness of Axel’s situation. Tom urges him to consider returning to Denver before winter, explaining that the cold in Gunnison, Colorado, makes outdoor living dangerous. He offers to drive Axel and indicates that Bella could come too. The offer is practical and includes the dog Axel has taken in, but Axel distrusts the people and institutions proposing help. His suspicious ideas about hospitals and technology make it difficult for him to accept assistance, and he rejects charitable support as well.

Other people make efforts to reach him. As the weather grows colder, a man invites Axel to a church where he could shower and find shelter, mentioning Bella as an additional reason to come. Axel refuses, questioning the church’s authenticity. The episode shows a gap between help being offered and help Axel can accept: people around him recognize the danger of winter outdoors, but their concern does not resolve his distrust or change his circumstances.

Axel also faces conflict around the place where he stays. After young men damage his camp, their fathers and Tom make them apologize and arrange for them to clean up and replace the equipment. The young men’s restitution gives Axel a measure of practical redress, though it does not remove his broader vulnerability. The episode places him within a community that can respond to a particular wrong while remaining unable to overcome the isolation and instability of his daily life.

Death and Narrative Significance

After Axel dies, Bella remains beside him through the night, still tied by her leash to his wrist. She remembers the warmth they shared on cold nights and the food he gave her, including his habit of letting her have the first bite. She recognizes that her grief for Axel does not betray her attachment to Lucas: caring for one person does not erase the others she has cared for. In her understanding, Axel had needed her more than anyone else.

When the men return, one woman speculates that Axel may have died of an overdose but makes clear that the cause cannot yet be known. Tom kneels beside Axel and weeps; another man remembers him as a great man, while Tom grieves the tragedy of how his life ended. The scene confirms Axel’s death without establishing its cause. For Bella, its immediate consequence is both emotional and practical: she has lost a companion, and her leash remains attached to him. Axel’s death therefore ends their shared life while marking the depth of the bond she formed during her attempted journey home.

Axel’s part in the story extends Bella’s recurring work of comforting people who are frightened, lonely, or in distress. His circumstances are not reduced to a problem she solves: she cannot make him accept shelter or undo the risks of life outdoors. Instead, their relationship gives her agency within limits. She wants to go home, yet chooses to stay and care for him; after his death, she carries both her grief for Axel and her continuing attachment to Lucas. The episode presents belonging not as exclusive, but as something Bella can form more than once, through the care she gives and receives.