I've had a few dogs in my life, but most of them were as a kid. This is the first dog I had as an adult. She was a mix bernese-akita-chow. I adopted her as a pup, so as a first dog of my own, it was a perfect setting to learn, for the both of us. She never caused any trouble. I could leave her for 12 hours while I worked and she would never do anything bad. A real angel. Sweet, intelligent and kind. I was immensely lucky to have her and still miss her so much even after nearing a decade since she left.
This is our present dog, Nala, which is swahili for Queen (if you remember Lion King). She used to belong to a friend of mine. I was there on the day she adopted her. She was 5 months old and already highly traumatized by a bad owner who would leave her in a cage for several days. She was a handful, being a mix pitbull and shepard (we're pretty sure it's an Aussie, more on that later) she had a lot of energy, but add the seperation anxiety, the bad habits, the lack of proper grooming and my friend had more than she bargained for. After 5 years, it became too much and since I'm pretty good with dogs, she asked me if my wife and I wanted to adopt her. Contrarily to my friend, I knew full well what I would be getting into. After a bit of hesitation, we adopted her.
In the 3 years since we've adopted her, she's made incredible progress. It also helped that she was getting older, still that betrays just how much work we've put into her. Her anxiety will always remain, but it's far easier to manage now and her overall behavior is so much better.
When my friend adopted her, she was told it was a pitlab, but I always thought it was just an ignorant conclusion. The pitbull in her is obvious when you see her in person, but the lab part, niente. If you see her next to a Border or Aussie, the resemblance is truly there. First time we brought her to the vet, the old chap took one look at her and told me it's a shepard, which confirmed what I thought. I asked him which and after checking her out, he showed me a golden streak that spirals around one of her hind legs and said it's highly likely it's an Aussie. She also has a few white patches on her chest and and tummy. You can see the streak here (i'm in orlando and she's at a dog sitter right now, so I can't put a clear picture of it):
The most telling thing though is when she's keeping watch. Back straight, ears perked, a typical shepard. She's always keeping watch.