MEADOWVIEW -- A stray dog shot by a Washington County sheriff's deputy last year on the Emory & Henry College campus finally has been caught.

"We've wanted this to happen for so long," said Dirk Moore, spokesman for the college. "Getting her a home would be the next thing."

In recent weeks, Moore said Dingo the dog has been friendlier and less evasive, playing more often with students -- though she remains nervous around men, particularly tall men.

Speculation is that the dog had an abusive owner. Late last year, a deputy shot Dingo after a complaint was filed about a stray dog harassing students. Some students contend that the deputy shot the wrong dog. Dingo has been roaming the campus ever since with the gunshot injury.

"People love her and play with her and feed her, and she's been a real fixture for a while, but nobody's been able to get near her," Moore said.

Candice McFadden, the student who caught Dingo after months of efforts by college staff members and students, said she waited for the dog to come to her.

"She actually was just sitting in the parking lot when I pulled in to school to go to class," said McFadden, a senior psychology major from Mathews County. "I just sat really still and let her come to me on her own terms. I didn't try to go after her."

McFadden said although Dingo, who she estimates to be 2 or 3 years old, still limps sometimes, she's in good health and is slowly gaining weight.

Dingo was scheduled for a visit to a spay/neuter clinic and a veterinarian, where she will be given shots and her healed injury examined.

"I would love to keep her. I can't because I'm in school and an internship, and I work -- because I'm not home all that much," McFadden said.

She says she learned to build trust with animals because her father is an animal-control officer in Mathews County, where she was in constant contact with critters while growing up.

She says she's going to be picky about Dingo's adoptive home.

"She's playful, she has so much energy . . . as soon as she gets used to somebody, she wants to play with them," McFadden said. "So if someone agrees to take her, it has to be someone who's interested in spending a lot of time with her, because she's really hyper."

Debra McCown writes for the Bristol Herald Courier in Bristol.