ATLANTA — A year after they were rescued from a puppy mill, these dogs are making incredible progress.
The woman arrested for keeping them in these horrific conditions will be arraigned next week on 25 misdemeanor charges in one county -- and is facing felony charges in another.
Dozens of dogs were rescued from Angela Powell's properties in South Georgia and sent to rescues all across the state.
Coco's Cupboard took in six of the dogs and told 11Alive News that they're all making terrific progress.
These dogs have come so far -- one of them is even training to be a service dog.
But it hasn't been easy, and many of them still have a long way to go.
"People want a dog they can fix with love. This you can't fix with love. Because love is scary, they don't know what that means," said Suzanne Aaron, Coco's Cupboard founder.
Aaron spends day and night with the dogs confiscated from South Georgia last year.
Day-by-day, they're getting better.
"This takes years to fix. If you can ever fix all of it. Sansa is incredibly coming along. But the truth of it is, when you have a feral type dog who grew up fighting for food, no human contact, it takes years to overcome it. She's amazing," said Aaron.
Sansa has come so far in the past year, they're now training her to be a service dog for a local veteran.
She wears the vest, and is interacting beautifully with people.
"She went to the airport, went to the airport, she loves agility, she's going to want to work," she said.
But not all of the dogs are success stories.
Duncan was taken off the property in South Georgia on the same day, and just can't adjust to kindness.
"He's like a wild dog. He has a pack there that he loves and he trusts them, but he doesn't want any stranger, he doesn't want affection, it's been very challenging," she said.
Cocoa's Cupboard has worked tirelessly with the dogs they took in, but looking at their conditions when they were confiscated, they knew this wasn't the end of the story.
"When we got these Metter dogs, I knew there had to be puppies somewhere. So one of the girls who works for me, we tracked down someone who was selling puppies with this coloring, and we bought a puppy. We didn't tell her who we were, but I have the paperwork, it has both their names on it. You can tell from coloring, it's obvious, they're from the same bloodline," she said.
The rescue group bought two dogs from a breeder identified as Angela Powell's daughter on the paperwork.
They spent $1,200 on a puppy to make sure these dogs have a good life.
But just buying them isn't enough.
"Dani, even though she's been with us since eight weeks, she's still a little squirrely. So they talk about nature vs nurture, but some of that is just bred in. In new situations, she's skittish and frightful," she said.
But they're not giving up on Dani, or Dragon, the two puppies... or the six they saved that night from the puppy mill a year ago.
They believe all of them deserve a chance.
"It's amazing, and to us, it's the ultimate success story for them," she said.
Powell will be arraigned in Montgomery County for her misdemeanor charges on Dec. 11.
The felony charges are still working their way through the courts, but if convicted, she could be facing years in prison.