FAMOUS "DRIVER" ADOPTED BY JOSH HUTCHERSON

Driver and Hutcherson found each other when rescue group Hands Paws Hearts pulled the dog out of a municipal Los Angeles County shelter, as first reported by TooFab.com. The puppy, who has two missing toes, had been dropped off as a stray.

"He sat in the shelter for 11 days with a broken leg, and the injury was already about a month old," adoption coordinator Sasha Rose tells PEOPLE. "He'd been sitting in a great deal of pain."

On the same day Rose went to pick up Driver from the shelter, she got a call from a friend of a friend – who turned out to be Hutcherson. The actor had been looking for a pit bull, and "he wanted a rescue dog, that was a priority."

Hutcherson met the puppy before it went into surgery, and the two hit it off right away.

"Josh is very, very happy," Rose says, and Driver is "very active and playful. He doesn't complain. He's a really nice dog."

"DRIVER" was under Dr. Kumar's & Staff care from Southern California Animal Hospital.