Meet Rufus.
He came from abuse. He was beaten with a 2 x 4, sprayed with aersol spray cans, never fed and left on a chain so tight it had grown into his neck.
Now he is a huge bundle of love. He wasn't always that way. When we first heard about him his owner said "take him or she was driving him out into the woods and letting him go". Well we knew we couldn't let that happen but we were also terrified of this dog. He was on a huge chain in her backyard, surrounded by lumber, trash, paint cans and all sorts of left over building material. He barked and growled at us, spit flying everywhere and we wondered what we had gotten ourselves into. We put him in the back of the van and I said a silent prayer, hoping he didn't attack us on the way home.
Once at our house we took him inside and let him off the chain. It was obvious he had never been inside and he was confused and scared. He ran from room to room, finally settling under the bed. I wondered during the night if he would come out and try to get us or my cats but he never did. In the morning he just seemed to look at us and say "thank you".
The first time I sprayed air freshener in the house, he fled from the room, dropped down and peed everywhere. Seems the lady use to spray him with all kinds of stuff and he was scared to death. I found out he was beaten when we were working in the yard, cleaning up old fallen tree limbs and I picked one up to close to him and he immediately fell to the ground. It was obivious he had been beaten with a stick. But with time and love, he seems to have forgotten the bad days. He loves us and trust us and while he still is timid around spray cans, sticks and sudden movements toward him he knows he will never be hurt again.
He was meant to be our outside dog but that didn't last long, he seemed to want to be in with us. He is a wonderful protector, of us, the kids and the other animals. Whenever the other dogs go outside he stands at the door, doing a head count and waiting until they have all made it back in, only then will he come inside.
The cats are his babies. Once while I was painting a room I had to run to the store for more supplies, I locked the cats out of the room so they wouldn't get into the paint and told Rufus he was in charge. When I got home he was frantic. Running in circles and whimpering, seems his charges had broken into the room and he was like a mother hen trying to gather his flock. Once I got them out and told him it was ok, he collasped onto his bed and slept for hours. Purely worn out from the stress of it all!
I would have never thought I could love this big, scary dog so much. He is an angel with fur and I am happy to call him mine :)
