Almost exactly 13 mos later.....

Rocky "Baby" has gone to his forever home.

From the early days of barking, growling, pacing, jumping at every little sound, no leash manners, too afraid to go through doors and halls, skittish and petrified, through training, name change because I needed to speak to his inner scared child, diet change, training, management, barfing in the car, learning to play, learning to eat a bone, more training, racing him in the morning during Christmas to beat him to the tree - because if he beat me there, he'd pee on it, through more training, more hope, more love, more snuggles, cuddles, kisses, all the way to the end, to tail wags and leaning on legs for bum scritches, to mooching treats from strangers, all the way to his new home, with transition plans, scent therapy, Rescue Remedy, relaxing music.....

Thirteen months of him relentlessly fearing my husband, deliverer of bones, pizza and popcorn, giver of meals, tempter with McDonald's french fries and BaconN'Egg McMuffins - all to no avail.

What a journey, what a learning curve.

I wrote to someone last spring that I was in a limbo: I couldn't imagine him staying and I couldn't imagine him going away. She said, one day, the perfect person would come.

And she did.

Baby has gone to his new life. He's happy and already playing there.

Good boy.