Meet Hunter!

Hunter is a 12 year old Rottie/Lab mix.  Twelve years ago she was rescued from an apartment where she had been abandoned with no food or water.  The apartment was filled with dirty diapers and other human filth.  My husband was working in the building and heard a puppy crying.  He had the apartment manager open the door and there was the cutest little puppy ever tied up with no food or water.  A week later the humans who lived in that apartment saw Hunter with my husband and insisted that she was their dog.  A bit of “discussion” ensued, police were called and the other humans decided he could keep her for $35.  Best $35 ever spent.

Hunter overcame major separation anxiety to become a well-adjusted mellow doggie.  She is sweet, loyal, fierce, intelligent and playful all rolled into one perfect dog.  She’ll lay around and snooze all day (probably the Rottie in her) or she’ll be the fastest dog at the dog beach, fetching balls and swimming in the ocean, jumping in the air to catch Frisbees (the Lab no doubt).  The neighbors love her.

Neighborhood kids come over to play with her (she does “tricks” like high fives, etc.).  She was the star of her obedience and agility classes when she was a youngster.  She our kids use her body to pull themselves up when they were learning to stand as babies.  And she will kiss you from head to toe if you let her.  But she is also very protective.

One of my favorite stories is the time my husband was back working at the same apartment where he had found her and she revealed her fiercely protective side.  He had parked his truck in an alley behind the building and was letting Hunter out of the passenger side of the truck.  Two guys approached him on either side so he was penned in between the truck, a wall and the two creeps.  One pulled out a knife and asked for my husband’s wallet.  Before anyone really knew what was happening Hunter launched up in the air and grabbed knife guy’s forearm.  She shook her head back and forth with the guy’s arm in her mouth like it was a toy –  my husband said it looked like something the trained Schutzhund dogs do.  The second guy took off and when Hunter finally let go of the first guy he took off too.  Someone in the building heard the guy screaming in pain and had already called 911.  The cops caught both suspects a few blocks away and the knife guy was carted off in an ambulance.  The police hassled my husband very briefly to see if Hunter was licensed, etc. but ultimately just patted her on the head and that was that.