Timber the Pit Bull has the biggest, goofiest grin you'll ever see, but it was hard-won.
According to his rescuers, the now happy-go-lucky pit bull mix was shot in the head and left for dead in April. Luckily for Timber, Unleashed Pet Rescue in Mission, Kansas, took him in and nursed him back to health. Thanks to the organization's care, he's back to being the happy, affectionate dog he was before his injury.
His rescuers, familiar with popular misconceptions about pit bulls, have their own theories about how such a sweet animal came to be so gravely abused.
"I think that someone saw a pit bull ... were fearful of him and had some sort of vendetta for him," Danielle Reno, president of Unleashed's board, says in the video above, which was put together by animal advocate and photographer Jacob Meyer. "They had to have gotten pretty close to him to be within one foot of his head when they shot him, so they would've known that he was a nice dog. So I'm not sure who did this, but I believe it was done with malice."
After a series of surgeries saved Timber's life, Unleashed Pet Rescue placed the still-healing dog in foster care.
"It's unbelievable that Timber is the dog he is after what he's gone through," his foster mom, Shirley Jones, says in the video. "He doesn't care. He doesn't hold any resentment. He lives every day to the fullest."
Good boy, Timber. Good boy.
h/t Reddit
