Shady's badge of courage

Thank you very, very much Maryann for the merit badge. Please, I hope you understand why I'm doing this. I accept with open arms gratefully, your hugs and the merit badge. This is wonderful!

My best friend and Bella's best friend, Shady, is to whom the merit badge should be awarded. He is the one who over came many difficulties and trials. True, I went through challenges, but, Shady has had more challenges than me and has had to persevere through many years of not having his needs met. I'm sure this was not done on purpose. Many people do not know and actually don't know they don't know. And, because they don't know, they don't know to ask, ponder, research, find out what ever it is they don't know. For Shady, his people didn't know about how dogs see he world. They didn't know about the very basic needs of a dog. They didn't know they didn't know so therefore Shady had to live without the basics that dogs need. What happens when this is life for a dog? The dog becomes unstable. Instability can cause many unwanted behaviors. Shady had many unwanted behaviors, fears and uncertainties, and much more. He spent years luike this and through these years became worse and more fearful. By the time i met him, he was a very dangerous unpredictable dog, who was very close to being put down. He was with me for almost a year and a half. During this time of rehabilitation, bonding, friendship building, and learning how to be a dog, shady became the almost perfect dog. During our too short time together he changed from a dog who out of extreme fear would bite, changed from a shaking quivering stressed out dog who when pushed to his limits would become catatonic; then if pushed just the tiniest bit further, would bite and get more defensive. He would defend himself from anything that frightened him no matter who or what was involved. He bit a groomer and I found out quickly why. Apparently he had his nails cut too short too many times which caused him to not allow anyone near his legs or feet.
With very, very small steps and a lot of time, Shady was able to tolerate going to the vet without being super dangerous. He went to the groomers and did not bite anyone. He learned to enjoy walks and meeting people. He learned so much, that I would have to write a book here and this isn't where I'm going to write the book. Shady went through many wars, trials, tribulations, and still after all this and most likely more, her learned to be a trusting almost perfect dog in a very short time. This takes a mega amount of courage. I salute you and honor you Shady.
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I've been writing what flows and goes round in my head with out being concerned about details of form, function, and the right way to do this. I do not want to lose these thoughts because I may not have them again. There fore, I will in the future return to all my writings and edit them in the future. I'm going to wait a while before I do this.