@DaycareMom : She was absolutely beautiful (and so is that smiling girl - you)! Her face looks very angelic because she is clearly happy being in your lap. She probably read people very well and maybe the people who told you that she was mean were the mean ones or perhaps they just were not "dog" people. She immediately read your heart and knew that you were her human. She was the love of your life, but you were also the love of her life. I am so sorry about what happened to her. I know it sounds corny but I do believe that All Dogs Go to Heaven (just like the movie). I have a recurring dream about my dogs who have passed and they are all in Heaven running & playing in an endless sunflower field with many other dogs on a blue, blue sunny day (can feel the happiness). When we adopted Harley, we had just recently lost Lucky (15 years old). I think my husband thought that it was the only way to get me to quit crying. I cried every day for about two weeks. Before we adopted Harley, a lady who deals with the dogs at the shelter hinted that he was stubborn and would be difficult to train. He was in a kennel all by himself. All the other dogs had one or more kennel mates. When we walked in his kennel was on top and he sat there (all .. lol รขโฌยฆ 8 pounds of him) and looked at us like "What do you think you are doing and What are you doing here?"! All the other dogs and puppies were wagging their tails and whining, but not Harley. He tickled the heck out of me!!! I fell in love with him at that very moment and asked to hold him. Harley was smart because when my husband held him, Harley licked my husband's ear. That was it for my husband. We told the lady that we wanted Harley and she repeated her roll about him being stubborn. I'm thinking that she had to separate him from the other puppies because he was "pushy." I explained to her that it was NOT our first rodeo and that he is probably stubborn because he had a hard time on the street before he got to the shelter and that he is what is known as an "alpha" (always insists on being in charge รขโฌยฆ lol) รขโฌยฆ probably just that way by nature. We had a Border Collie/Black Lab at home at the time named Precious who was also a rescue dog. We did some of the training, but Precious actually did a lot of the training. She taught him that he could not always have his way. And they became friends. (Unfortunately, we lost Precious in 2017 because she got sick รขโฌยฆ vet suspected cancer. We did not adopt another dog because we were not sure how Harley would deal with it). We had to keep a close eye on Harley because when he was only 5 months a beggar came to the truck window on the passenger side (where I was sitting) and he was totally fierce. I thought he was going to break the window! We had some stranger come on our driveway attempting to sell some of that spray cleaner and Harley sprung into action. It's a good thing that we have reinforced backyard fence and the main front door was not open (he knows how to open the screen door). He is better and deals with strangers better now, but he still gives them that sideway glance and is extremely protective of us. He is a big baby to us, but not to strangers. He will sit as told and tolerate a stranger, but nobody better ever (lol) attempt to attack us. If you are like me (and it sounds like you are), you never really get over any of your furbabies who have passed over Rainbow Bridge. I always like to make room for another one who needs a home when at all possible. It seems that all of our dogs have been what they refer to as "rescue dogs." But I have always felt like they saved me, not the other way around.