I am pretty sure this story counts. It is long but the tl;dr is Dogs are awesome.
I was a teenager at the time, my family had 2 dogs which we got about the same time I was born. They both died after long lives when I was around 11 ish years old. After a year or two we decided to get 2 more.
We went to a rescue shelter, the Dogs Trust (UK) and started looking. I'm not sure how strict they are now but at the time they had many "rules" for people wanting to adopt. They even come and inspect your home first. They told us to get 1 dog and let it get used to us and our home first, giving it a few months to do so, then come back for a 2nd dog.
We got 1 dog and he was awesome, Bailey was what we called him. We had him for a few months and he was doing great, so we went back to look for a 2nd dog. It was just me, my mother and my sister. They found this dog, sort of medium size and it was very young. I think still technically a puppy but it had grown almost to full size. It was extremely hyper and not trained in any way which includes house training.
My mother and sister loved this dog but for some reason I never quite warmed up to her, I never said anything though because I could see how much they loved her. We made the decision and began going through all the paperwork to adopt. They never let you just come in, pick a dog and leave there is a whole process between finalising your choice and actually taking your dog home. So we left while that process was under way.
After a few days, maybe a week or two I don't remember, my mother got a phone call from the shelter. The staff there knew us well by now, we took Bailey for training classes and we had been for many visits looking at the dogs and just visiting our final choice whilst waiting for the adoption to finalise. The woman on the phone told us that the Police had taken the 2nd dog we were looking at to train as a sniffer dog. The police get full and immediate priority on that sort of thing, understandably so I guess. My mother and sister were so upset and the staff seemed just as upset as they were, because they knew us so well by now. They were mortified by it and urged us to come back and hopefully find another. So anyway after a few days we did go back.
We knew every dog they had there by now, we had seen them all. We would have no doubt picked another but when we arrived they told us of a dog they had literally just brought in that morning. Apparently they make frequent trips to dog pounds and takes dogs away that are due to be put down, particularly ones they believe are highly adoptable. The lady who made the visit that morning had gone for a specific dog that was about to be put down but while she was there she saw a different dog in a cage, with its paw stuck in her collar. She felt so sorry for it and found out it was due to be put down the next day so she took that dog as well despite not planning to beforehand.
Well they hadn't even had time to put this dog in a cage yet but they brought her out for us to see. We were greeted by a quivering mess of a dog. Poor thing was terrified of everything, she had no name but according to the pound and from the dogs nervousness she had been with an abusive owner beforehand. We spent some time with the dog and basically all of us fell in love instantly. We reserved her immediately and began the paperwork process, which they did very quickly for us as a way of apologising for the previous attempt.
She was about 1 year old when we got her. We called her Tara. Medium size dog, some kind of terrier mix breed we don't know exactly. She has very thick, long and amazingly soft fur with a beautiful colouration. Each individual hair has black, dark brown, light brown, cream and white colouring on it creating a beautiful colour on her.
It took her a while to warm up to us and stop being so nervous all the time but she got on brilliantly with us and Bailey. Sadly we lost Bailey a few years ago now but I still have Tara.
I've been living on my own for several years now and Tara came with me as the family branched out in their own directions. She is still with me, just me and her and she is the single most wonderful dog I have ever had the pleasure of knowing. My entire wider family are all dog people so I've known so many dogs and I say it honestly about Tara.
She is calm and likes to just lie with you. She loves hugs, is always so amazingly friendly and gives you the best greetings when you return home, even if you were only gone 10 minutes. She cries and whines all the time for attention and it is completely adorable, she is also a master of the puppy dog eyes technique. Perfectly behaved in every way too.
She is completely different from the poor wreck she was when the Rescue shelter showed her to us. She still shows some signs of nervousness, especially with strangers and even more so with men (which supposedly is related to the previously abusive owner) but they aren't severe. She warms up to new people fairly quickly now. With dogs she is awesome too, she can be enticed to play fight but she acts more like a Matriarch to the many many dogs my family has. Getting all bossy with the younger sillier dogs, barking at them when they do something dumb like jumping in a river. Its so hilariously adorable to watch.
She is approximately 10-11 years old now and still going strong, just me and her, she is lying by my feet as I type this. The best companion I have ever had by far. I will always be a dog lover, they are simply incredibly creatures.