You have a treasure. He's gorgeious. It sounds like you had your hands full when you got him. He makes my dogs look like wimps.
Query: while you were vetted by the rescue group, did they have anything against you for being over 29? I found a lot of that with hound rescue groups-yet most hounds don't live that long. You know that movie-"Christmas Story"-where the boy wants a B-B-gun and the neighbor's hounds run through the house? Well, we're sort of like that here. I had the flu pretty bad for over a week, and a walk was too much. Finally, Stonewall jumped on top of the back of the couch and bawled until I got up and got the walking collar and leash out. He had been standing next to the leash box and bawling for almost a week.

 out of  found this valuable. Do you find this valuable?