This is Max! my 4 year old long haired Chihuahua.

I saved him from being PTS at the pound. I adopted him when he was a year old. I found him through Petharbor. The shelter workers were refusing to let me adopt him at first.. after I had to wait a week for him to become available, on the day I was supposed to meet him, they deemed him too aggressive, and a liability if they adopted him out because he tried to bite every single person that got close to him, I begged and pleaded with them I told them that I would be willing to sign papers, whatever that I wouldn't sue them if he bit me, I could handle him, and in fact he was very friendly with me, but for some reason, with every other single person in that shelter, he wasn't, I told them this, but they only said "well that's because you're on the other side of his cage... try coming in here, and it'll be a different story" I continued to fight for him, and I think they thought they were going to finally shut me up, because one of the workers had finally offered me to go into his kennel to try to grab him myself, she must've thought that if I went in there and saw that he was indeed aggressive, that I'd finally give up.. as 3 other workers had already tried grabbing him but he freaked out completely on them, screaming, backing himself up into the corner of his kennel, shaking, and actually bit one of them on their finger, and he's a 5 lb dog....Well.. I went into his kennel, like the worker had asked me to, and I remember she had a smirk on her face... I knelt down to get underneath the metal divider, and I called him over, "Come here boy!" and without hesitation he immediately ran over to me wagging his tail, and literally jumped into my arms, and gave me the most kisses any dog has ever given me, I got the biggest smile on my face and the lady's mouth literally dropped, I was like "See, I told you guys he wasn't mean." And she just said "Wow! you are the first person that, that dog has let anyone come near him or touch him, and he's been here 2 weeks, even when we found him, he had to be caged and grabbed with gloves, well that's good enough for me!, go ahead and take him inside and tell them that you're going to adopt him." so I did, and all the women workers inside were so shocked, "omg! he's letting her touch him without any issues!, look, look!" and they all just stared, and then after I filled out all the paper work, and paid $50 for him, which included neuter fee, they had ordered someone to come out and take him in the back, and then back to his kennel as he was not allowed to leave yet because he wasn't neutered so he had to go to the vet first, plus they needed to micro chip him, and I'd have to wait another 4 days before I could take him home. Well Max put up a fight, he was clinging on to me for dear life, he did not want to go with them at all, I felt so bad for him, he was freaking out, and tried biting them all, they got frustrated and came out with a small cage, and put on gloves and put him inside of it, poor guy was frantically looking around, and stood up on his little hind legs while looking at me, like as if he was saying "Please don't let them take me away." it was heartbreaking, but after 4 days, I finally got to pick him up, but not without more difficulties... because the shelter had kept him an extra 4 days, he developed a URI.. in which the vet did not neuter him and in fact told me that he needed to be treated first but before they would do that, I would need to pay $300 + an extra 50 for take home medication, and that if I wanted him to become my dog, I had to pay it, or else if I refused, then he'd have to go back to the shelter and be put down, and they were very rude to me when they said it, and it frustrated me pretty bad because I was not expecting them to tell me that, I didn't even have $300 on me at the time, and had to borrow it, which caused a fight between a family member and I, after I signed a bunch of paper work and paid all of the money, they had me follow into the back, where a lady started explaining to me about his URI.. as I sat down, they brought him in the room, and I could tell he was very scared, when the lady that had been explaining grabbed him roughly and tried to give him a shot when he FREAKED OUT, and tried to bite her, causing the needle to come out, and half of the shot squirt out onto the metal table, she then proceeded to grab him even rougher, holding him up by his scruff , while giving him the rest of the shot left in the syringe and then tried to say that he was a red flag dog, that the shelter must've made a mistake in letting him out, this frustrated me even more because she tried to make it a big thing by saying that I shouldn't be allowed to take the dog home, and in fact they needed to call the shelter to clarify that he was safe to release, she asked me are you sure this dog doesn't have rabies?.... I swear I was never going to be able to take him home, I thought that they were all seriously trying to keep him from being released, they even called the shelter to clarify that I was allowed to take him home, luckily the workers at the Pound said yes, and so the vet gave me the all clear and FINALLY I got out with him, he was scheduled to go back to that vet a month later to get neutered as he was on meds for his URI so his surgery was postponed until then, but I never took him back... the shelter ended up calling me threatening that if I didn't get him fixed within 10 days, I was going to face a $1000 fine and they would come and confiscate the dog... I told them that it was never my intention to not have him neutered but that I just didn't want to take him back to that particular vet, that they're very rude and mean with the animals,, the lady said there was nothing wrong with their vet but that she didn't care where I took him, just that he needed to be fixed and I would have to come in to their office and show proof, which I did, and I brought him along to, and the weirdest thing, its like Max knew where we were, because he was fine and happy one minute in the car but as soon as we pulled into the shelter parking lot, he immediately became nervous and started shaking real bad, I reassured him that everything was okay and showed him to the shelter workers, they all recognized him and asked me to keep them updated on him with pictures.
Before Max, he was almost a Rusty because he has little rust color eyebrows and leg hair.. he was Gizmo for a few hours but it got annoying to say quick.. so I decided to name him Maximus, after Russell Crowe's character in the movie Gladiator, but now I just call him Max for short.

And that is Max's story, sorry for it being so long.

These are two of my 3 kitties, Dexter and Guppy <3.
Guppy has gotten used to the dogs, but Dexter has not and thinks he's super tough when a dog comes around, he'll fluff up and try his hardest to scare them off lol. Guppy was named after a dear friend of mine that recently passed away, she was his kitten and so I adopted her from his family that were giving her and 2 others away.

And this is Shibby!
my baby girl! she loves Jester and Loki and rubs up on them all the time, sometimes Loki can get a little rough and it will cause her to run away and hide for a bit. Shibby is sister to Dexter, they are Lynx point Siamese cats, I got them both from Northern Calif when they were tiny babies. They're 5 1/2 months now, and Guppy is 4 months. All my kitties are strict indoor, never let outside.

Wow what a story and what a fight you put up for Max. im sure he is very thankful!

Thank You!, sorry for it being so long, I just always love sharing his story because he's a breakout dog that almost didn't make it out, but proves that even a shelter dog deemed "aggressive" and unadoptable can be turned around into a happy lovable pet with the right kind of care, attention, and love.

This story is wonderful because he knew you were the one to help. I probably would have lost it on the vet for grabbing him like that. You have strenght thats for sure. I'm glad you have him and he is happy.

Thank you very much, and yes I almost did, but because she was trying to keep me from taking him home, was trying get him sent back to the pound, I didn't want to give them a reason to go through with it, so I bit my tongue the entire time. I very much dislike that vet... I've rescued other dogs from that shelter before and the vet they use is always so rude, and they over-charge like crazy. There's a vet that's about a 6 minute drive from me, that's way better, knowledgeable, and friendly, affordable too, so I take my dogs to him.