I have this dog.
When I wake up, he's there by my feet. He's not a snuggly type dog. In fact, if you try to pull him up by you, he gets really angry and snaps. He comes to you when he's ready.

I enjoy taking him for walks.
On our walk one day, my neighbor was playing outside with her boxers. For some genius reason, I thought Joey (my dog) would want to say a quick hello sniff. (Joe was on a leash, which probably didn't help much). Yeah. I forgot my shelter, puppy miller stud dog doesn't like male dogs. I saw the situation would quickly escalate if I didn't get moving/pull Joey back into walking mode.

I thought to myself how much I would love to have a nice dog, who enjoyed the company of other dogs...male or female. I would love to have a quiet, non-barking dog who enjoyed the experience of intimate morning snuggles.

Ya know what? I love this dog.
He's kind of broken inside. But aren't we all?

He never got to experience morning snuggles until he came into my life. In fact, he never had a bed to lay his sweet moldy face on. The only thing he knew how to do was to bark and try to chew his way out of his little metal crate.

It took Joe one minute to realize that I'm* love. It's ok to love me back. It's ok to lick my face and the in-nerds of my nose. I'll be there when he throws up chicken grain and decides he has to poop (outside) at 1 in the morning.

March, 2014 will mark a year that this puppy miller survivor came to my life.
I wouldn't trade this boy for the world.

*there's a lot of people who got Joe back to health. Including my mom and those at the shelter. There's really no "I" in Joe's story.