At any sign of trouble – real or imaginary – Peaches is gone.

Under the bed. In the tub. In the closet. The 4-year-old rat terrier doesn’t stick around to ask questions.

“She’s a hider,” Lauren Connelly of Special Needs Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation (SNARR) tells The Dodo. “She’s very shy at first, especially with new people and places.”

It’s hard to blame Peaches for being haunted by the ghosts of her past. Her short life has been one trauma after another – starting two years ago when she was found at a hoarder’s property in Louisiana

SNARR took her into its care and found a foster family in Crestone, Colorado. The nightmare, it seemed, was over.

But Peaches seemed to be a magnet for misadventure. One day, while playing in the family’s backyard, she simply disappeared.

How does a 10-pound dog get over a 7-foot-tall fence in the middle of winter? Had she been scooped up by a hawk?

“There was two feet of snow on the ground when she disappeared, but not a single track on either side of the fence,” Connelly says.

For days, people combed through the woods around the mountain community. A week later, a neighbor who lived five miles away heard a commotion outside. She opened her front door – and a tiny, terrified dog came running right past her. At her heels were two coyotes.

Peaches was back. And back to her old ways.

Living the life of a reluctant action-movie star will do that to a dog.

It’s been two years since Peaches was rescued from that hoarding home. Since then, she’s been stolen by what may have been a hawk and stalked by coyotes. But the love of a foster family has been a constant in her life. And it’s helped her make mighty strides.

As her life becomes more settled in foster care, Peaches is becoming the confident dog she was always meant to be.

“Daycare has helped,” Connelly says. “She does great with other dogs. She’s better with meeting new people now too.”

And she could certainly stand to meet new people. Peaches needs to take that last most vital step and find a forever home.

“She doesn’t like small children, so we would like to see her in a home without them,” Connelly says. “And definitely somewhere with a fence, for obvious reasons.”