Tia arrived here in February 2011 as a worn-out oldie with several untreated medical problems and in an immense amount of pain. I'd known her from being about 18 months old - she was my brother's dog, and the dog my two pups grew up with. I won't go into the details here; long story short, I took her temporarily, and refused to give her back after seeing the state she was in. 10 years of neglect, of being ignored, of poor "training" following the advice of a "behaviourist" who clearly knew nothing about fear aggression in dogs; it all ended when she finally came here. In her younger days, her dog aggression was so severe that I'd had to hold onto things before to keep her from pulling me over to attack; I don't doubt that had a small dog been daft enough to come to close to her when she was on lead, she could have killed it. Within about 8 months of her arrival here, though, with her pain under control and her infections cleared up, she made many doggy friends, was going on daily social walks at my local park and even became so good at reading and responding to body language that had she not been so old - about 12 at that point - she'd have made an amazing stooge dog. She was a lovely old girl, affectionate (if a little noisy with it!) and happy-go-lucky. I miss her so much but I am glad she had 15 months of pain-free happiness with us before her old legs became too weak.