True, but I'd still be leery of a dog that showed aggressive (as opposed to
assertive) tendencies. On the other hand, a dog that is unresponsive or
subdued might respond to some attention.  Fagin was the most depressed animal
I've ever seen, and took a lot of coaxing even to get him to the door of the
cage, but Katie was bouncy and very self-confident. Both of them were friendly
and agreeable.

|> P.S.  My wife and I just "lost" a shelter dog.  I don't know what we were
|> going to do with it - we're at our limit now, but we both fell hopelessly
|> in love with him.  We finally decided just to run down and get him.  We
|> arrived 20 minutes after closing - first week of their new hours.  They
|> killed him that night.

This could have been us with Fagin, if my wife hadn't dragged me down to the
shelter on a Saturday morning when I had other plans. My sympathies... I can
imagine how you feel.

We would have "lost" Katie, if we hadn't dropped what we were doing and run
down to the shelter at 6 the evening we heard about her. Fortunately, this
wouldn't have been fatal -- she was a beautiful young dog, very adoptable --
but it would have been a terrible loss for us; yesterday was Katie's second
"gotcha" day (second anniversary of the day she came home with us from the
shelter), and we can't imagine life without her.