I've been away from the forum for a little while and I'm amazed at some of the negative pit bull articles and info being posted.
I know there are alot of pittie owners here, so I thought it would be nice to start a thread about the GOOD things pit bulls do, and the ways they've affected our lives. It doesn't have to be anything that would necessarily be considered "heroic" or newsworthy- just post your good experiences with pit bulls, and the ways meeting one or having one as a part of your life has done something positive for you.[
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I'll start with my dog, Culley. I've told this story before, but I think in light of all of the negativity lately it bears repeating. I adopted him the first week in June of this year, after desperately wanted a pit bull for years. He had been picked up as a stray, and was listed on Petfinder with a local shelter. We went to visit him in his foster home, and after passing the adoption process, we brought him home.
He settled in nicely, and about two weeks after we brought him home, he quite possibly saved my life- or, at least saved me from serious physical injury.
I had taken my parent's neglected Lab mix, Madison, and was trying to fix her up. She was underweight, had a horrible case of sarcoptic mange and a host of allergies, and had been seriously neglected socially. She had *alot* of problems.
I had been trying to help her for a while, but her behavior was getting progressively worse and she was becoming more and more aggressive towards us. Her physical wounds healed, but her mental ones just seemed to grow bigger. She started snapping at us, and came at us on several occasions. She bit us and drew blood more than once. [
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On this day, I was getting ready to take Madison out to potty. The other dogs were all napping. Culley was on the other end of the house asleep on my bed. I was standing several rooms away, by the back door.
As I clipped the leash to Madison's collar, she attacked me. I don't know why, but I suspect her aggression was due to a combination of things- years of abuse and neglect coupled with, possibly, a brain tumor or other neurological problem. All I know is, one second she was wagging her tail and pressing her nose to the crack of the door waiting to go out, and the next second she had me pinned to the floor and was biting at my arms and roaring at my face. I was terrified. I tried my best to get her off of my, but she was 70+ pounds of solid muscle and wasn't budging. It was all I could do to hold her back enough that she couldn't bite my face, which is what she was trying to do. I was home alone, and the other dogs weren't doing much. Axl was still fast asleep on the recliner 3 feet away, Ogre was locked in his crate, Butter was bouncing around playfully, and Pepito was barking.
All of a sudden, Culley came out of nowhere. He came flying from the other end of the house, a total blur. He didn't make a sound- instead he launched himself like a missle at Madison's chest and headbutted her. This little 35 pound dog sent her flying across the room and then he immediately took up a position between me and her as she rebounded, giving me time to get up and scramble away.
She came running back, trying to get at me again, and he leapt at her. She redirected her attack onto him and they started to fight- but when I screamed for them to stop, Culley immediately dropped onto his belly, let go of her, and took the onslought from her as it kept coming. The fact that he had stopped when I asked meant that they were no longer a whirling mass of dog and I was able to reach in, pull her away, and lock her in a crate.
This little dog, who I hardly knew at the time, quite possibly saved my life. Maybe I would have been able to get away from Madison, maybe I wouldn't have. I wasn't having much luck at the time holding her off of me, and when Culley came barreling in she was getting closer and closer to my face. I have no idea whether I would be okay or not had he not been there- but something tells me that I wouldn't be.
Not only did he selflessly step in and fend off a dog much larger than himself, he listened to my command to "stop" and did so the second I said it. For him to be able to stop what he was doing, to "turn off" when I asked him to, the *instant* I asked him to, demonstrates an enormous amount of control over himself- it still amazes me that he was able, and willing, to stop in the middle of a fight and take an attack from another dog, all because I asked him to. I was hardly more than a stranger to him at the time.
The next day, at Petsmart, a woman grabbed her daughter's hand as she was reaching over to pet Culley and dragged her away. "That dog will bite you!" she said. "Never, EVER, touch that kind of dog again. You're lucky it didn't take your arm off!" [&o]
Pit bulls give so, so much to their people- and they seem to get nothing but grief in return. They will do literally anything their owners ask of them- they don't have a concept of what we consider to be good or bad, they only know that they want nothing more than to please their masters.
For every "bad" pit bull, there have to be thousands more like Culley that you never hear about- so everyone, please post your GOOD pit bull experiences. How have these amazing dogs touched your lives, or the lives of someone you know. I know it's a long shot, but maybe the stories in this thread will change the mind of someone, somewhere. [
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