My family has always had dogs inside and outside - mostly Labradors and Pitt Bulls. As an adult, I adopted an elderly, female Pitt/Lab mix who was rescued from a puppy mill. I had her for 2 years before she passed, and she was the highlight of my after college life. A few years I fostered a Great Dane puppy who was about to be dropped off at our local animal shelter. Rather than let him go there, I offered to take him in and partnered with a local animal agency to get him adopted. We lived together for almost 6 months before his adoption, which, I must say, was the hardest experience of my life. I have 2 dogs now. One is small but rambunctious. The other is large and lazy.