On December 30, 2010, we rescued an emaciated 27lb, terrified feral dog who was found running scared in Gaston. Since he was only about a year old and in obvious terrible condition, we assumed he must have been running for most of his life, living on scraps of food he could find and drinking from whatever water was available. In addition to being skeletal, his tail was matted to the bone and his color was an unusual blond, that made it difficult to tell whether he was a Border Collie, or some other breed. I wondered whether his coloring might have been bleached out from being malnourished and outdoors for so long.

We named him Phoenix. As a reminder, here are a few of his first pics with Indigo Rescue.

Here’s Phoenix on one of his first walks in early February, 2011. He was sooooo scared!

Here’s Phoenix today. Just under six months later, you can hardly recognize him! He’s still petrified to leave the house, he tucks his tail between his legs when he isn’t home, and he hates walking on a leash or going in the car…but he sure loves running and playing with the other dogs!

Now lets see that back to back. Can you believe it!? Phoenix has truly lived up to his name!

Here’s Phoenix giving me one of his goofy smiles…