She radiates joy. Everything we do makes her happy. She looked so sad in the animal shelter. We couldn't leave her there. They said they were going to put her down if they couldn't find her owner. They found her owner, but he couldn't take her back, so we took her home.
I'm absolutely certain this dog is thankful we adopted her.
We didn't know it when we got her, but she's a pig hunter. That's why she's covered with scars. She's a well mannered dog in the house, she loves people, but we've learned we can't walk her off-leash in the wilderness because she'll run out and round up anything her previous owner liked to shoot, preferably something large and dangerous. Pigs, coyotes... probably bears and mountain lions too. That's why she's missing most of her tail, chunks of her ears, some teeth, and walks with a limp.
Her last encounter was with a bobcat. The cat ripped a huge gash in her scalp before it escaped unharmed. The dog came back and looked at me like I was a moron because I didn't shoot her prey, the same as our encounter with the pig. I looked at her bloody shredded head and face and decided I was never going to let her run free again. My wife is an expert with surgical glue so we didn't have to go to the vet but it was a nasty looking wound, peeled open so we could see the meat underneath. But it's healing nicely...
The only other dog we've had that was this awful was a catahoula, yet another shelter dog. She was the smartest dog I've ever had, with the same extreme enthusiasm for life, but she always had sense enough to keep her distance from whatever she was chasing which was a good thing because my wife's parents' neighbors had some adopted BLM horses that were intent on killing her when they first met, but eventually they became buddies.
This dog seems okay around horses, she seems disinterested when I've got her on the leash and they pass on the trail, but I'm not chancing it.
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