When we were looking for a dog, we came across Poncho and he broke my heart with his sad story and picture! Someone had found him wandering on the road in West Virginia – he had been shot in the head! The vets in WVA did what they could, but the infection was so bad they could only put a drain in it. Homeward Trails came in and got him, thinking he was ten years old and I would have thought he was on his way out. We told HT that we wanted to adopt him, but we needed to get another one just in case he wasn’t with us for too long.

When we met Poncho at PetMAC, we couldn’t believe that it was the same dog. He was jumping around and appeared to be feeling happier. We got him into the vet ASAP for surgery. They were able to take out most of the shattered bone fragments and a lot of dead tissue, but the bullet is too close to his spine to risk taking it out. Poncho is also only about 6 year old now (after 2 years of living with us). He is the sweetest dog, and everyone (2 legs and 4 legs) loves him. His head is almost always cocked to the right because of the way that his bones were healing while in the shelter. He loves to cuddle, but he also loves to play.

The same day we got Poncho, we also adopted Chloe from HT. They love each other and he watches out over her. Poncho also plays very well with the foster dogs that live with us. His tail is always wagging and he loves to go for walks. We even made friends with the person who adopted Chloe’s brother, Deuce. He comes over for playdates sometimes and he and Poncho play ALLLL night!

We couldn’t have asked for a better dog. Take a chance on an older (in theory) dog- they still have lots of love to give.

-Liz and Ray, Manassas, VA