Hannah and her brothers

Hannah (left) is the Lynchburg girl I got last week. She's in the big kennel with Rocky and two recent arrivals, Boo and Max. Next Monday she will start her heartworm treatment and will be confined indoors to a crate for a couple of weeks. She will hate leaving those boys unsupervised for all that time.

Boo finally ended his hunger strike and is settling in pretty well. He is great with the other dogs, and is pretty friendly with me. He went to his first adoption event last weekend and was good. He's a little shy and skittish, but I really think he just needs a confident and watchful handler.

The most recent shepherd to arrive is Max. He's big, ugly, and he smells bad too. Max was an owner surrender and he lived indoors, in spite of a raging yeast and bacterial infection on his skin. I didn't pick him up the from owner, but if this dog was living indoors, I shudder to think what their house must have smelled like. Max is just under 100 pounds and when he grows back some hair on his tail and body I think he will be magnificent. He's very friendly and has fit in well with Hannah, Rocky, and Boo. He gets a fistfull of meds with his food twice a day, but it eats them all up and he already smells better. I guess I should try to move him to another foster home. Luckily, he tested negative for heartworm and he had already been neutered by this prior owners.

Hannah is a sweet girl, and although she is the smallest, she is the only female with 3 boys, so she pretty much rules the roost in that crowd. Still, Hannah isn't overly bitchy and would probably get along with other female dogs as well.

These pics were taken during a romp in the dog yard and pasture Sunday afternoon after the Gainesville adoption event. I took Hannah, Rocky, Boo, and Brody and brought them all back home with me too.

Added to my list of an almost automatic "hell no", are suburban adopters looking for a big dog for "protection" for their family. I think they are paranoid. Besides, it's their job to protect the dog, not the other way around. Dogs are companions, not body guards. That type of adopter would dump the dog if they got a security system or if the dog was too friendly, but also if the dog was too aggressive.