I also have signs with a coiled, ready-to-strike rattlesnake pictured that say "Dead End!"- they're yellow diamond-shaped signs (like traffic signs), lol. I got them
from the gift shop at the Living Desert Zoological Park in Palm Springs. Can't have "too many" warning signs... They really ARE good "burglar alarms" too.
Had anyone entered my house they'd have set off rattling everywhere...snakes that didn't rattle at me.
The Dobies I had: the abused female allowed anything from me but I had to muzzle her for the vet (or men, mostly)- she'd have bitten in fear too. That's so sweet
that you took in Lucy in spite of her nips. I agree- when you help animals, when your focus is helping them, that love or whatever it is comes right back to us.
Speaking of stressed dogs that destroy things: we had a small terrier mix when I was a teen; she'd been abandoned as a pup in a phone booth & we ended up taking
her in. Despite how much we loved her & her playful silly personality, she never got over that abandonment ("separation anxiety") thing: when left alone, she not
only shredded the drapes, but the next day when they were tied up out of her way, she stood on a chair to re-shred them! She also "T.P.'d" the house a few times.