The adoption fee at my shelter is $150 for dogs. Dogs are chipped, fixed, and up-to-date on vaccines. The day my wife and I adopted our guy, they were taking a hundred bucks off the adoption fee for large dogs. We walked in expecting to adopt a small dog, but the one we wanted to meet was adopted out and left ten minutes before we got there. So we went and looked at the other dogs. And then we stumbled across this big guy in the back of his cage, head cocked to the side, ears way too big for his head, not making a sound. My wife tells the staff she wants to meet him. We spent a whole 90 minutes trying to coax him out from under chairs. He was terrified.

Naturally, we took him home. And here he is an hour after getting there.

He stayed under my desk for the next three days.

He goes to the park once or twice a day, daycare once a week, and was in weekly group training for four months. He is so so so much more confident now. It's been just the most rewarding thing watching him come out of his shell.

Bonus: Here he is a couple weeks ago being murdered to death by one of the puppies at the park.

We've had him for about a year. He turns 2 in a few months.