![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
I happened to be perusing a friend's journal and stumbled upon this:
http://www.pitbull.us/
And it made me cry.
Here's my story:
I've always had dogs. My entire life. First was Heather, a golden retriever/lab mix. A dog that we rescued from abuse. She used to let me read to her with a blanket draped over her and her head on a pillow. She used to share her toys with me while I was in my swing. She passed away when I was 10. I still miss her very much to this day. She was my sister and my first best friend. About a year later, we adopted a Long-haired retriever named Sammy. She was a total ditz, but we love her anyway. She's now almsost 14 years old, and lives with my dad. I miss her and her lethal tail of death, but I still visit her and her new shitzu (sp?) brother often (as much as I can deal with my father).
About 4 months ago, I adopted a 6 year old black chow-pitbull mix named Blackie. He was quickly renamed Ozzy as we found that his name did not fit at all (nor did he answer to Blackie). I quickly learned that my new love had a fear of men and children. We quickly deduced that he had not only been beaten, but also confined to a garage (in the fl heat) while no one was home, and left outside for 6-8 hours a day while they were. It became aparent as well that he was never properly house trained either, considering where he lived most of the time.
Unfortunately, one day while walking him in my apartment complex, one of the neighbors kids ran past the two of us quickly, startling both of us. Of course, Ozzy, who would protect me with his life, jumped and snapped, protecting his mommy. This lead to a hole in the boy's sweater and a slight scratch on his arm. Ozzy immediately let go as soon as he realized what it was, and cowered behind me. While the boy was scared, he understood that he had startled Ozzy, after I had already informed the children around me to keep a wide berth and to not startle him, he had been abused. His mother agreed that it was her son's fault, and nothing came of it.
Except now, my poor dog has a bad rep in my neighborhood, because all the big mouthed children (especially the one who was chasing the kid who got snapped at) are saying my dog is mean. My dog is NOT mean, he is protective, and scared. Just because he enjoys sitting at the window and barking at anyone who stands infront of it and taunts him, it does not make him mean.
And now that I am moving, I'm encountering another problem. My dog is 45 lbs, not overley large, and he's 6 yrs old, a very mellow dog all in all. A few of the apartment complexes I have looked at have had something known as "breed restrictions", which of course include pit bulls and chows. My dog has the sad privellage of being both. Now tell me that this isn't wrong? My dog, who insists on being near me every second of every day, and even sleeps at the top of the stairs even though he has a nice comfy bed in his crate, just because I am upstairs? No, it's not. And it's not fair to anyother dog who just happens to be of a certain breed.
I have been bitten by a dog twice. And do you know what their breeds were? A fricken poodle and a dalmation. My boyfriend's overprotective, half-blind poodle left a nice nasty scar on the top of my hand that took forever to heal, and hurt like a bitch, as well as put a hole through one of my fingers (which I admit was my fault, I should have known better, but there's no scar, so I don't care). And my grandmother's 2 year old dalmation got spooked while half asleep (i didn't realise he was) and bit the glasses off my face. A poodle and a dalmation..... not my pitbull/chow mix...
That is all.... I must now go shoot my gerbil who is banging his FULL waterbottle on the side of the cage repeatedly at 1:30 in the morning.......
The Mighty Oz!!!
I need to get some updated pictures of my baby boy!
http://www.pitbull.us/
And it made me cry.
Here's my story:
I've always had dogs. My entire life. First was Heather, a golden retriever/lab mix. A dog that we rescued from abuse. She used to let me read to her with a blanket draped over her and her head on a pillow. She used to share her toys with me while I was in my swing. She passed away when I was 10. I still miss her very much to this day. She was my sister and my first best friend. About a year later, we adopted a Long-haired retriever named Sammy. She was a total ditz, but we love her anyway. She's now almsost 14 years old, and lives with my dad. I miss her and her lethal tail of death, but I still visit her and her new shitzu (sp?) brother often (as much as I can deal with my father).
About 4 months ago, I adopted a 6 year old black chow-pitbull mix named Blackie. He was quickly renamed Ozzy as we found that his name did not fit at all (nor did he answer to Blackie). I quickly learned that my new love had a fear of men and children. We quickly deduced that he had not only been beaten, but also confined to a garage (in the fl heat) while no one was home, and left outside for 6-8 hours a day while they were. It became aparent as well that he was never properly house trained either, considering where he lived most of the time.
Unfortunately, one day while walking him in my apartment complex, one of the neighbors kids ran past the two of us quickly, startling both of us. Of course, Ozzy, who would protect me with his life, jumped and snapped, protecting his mommy. This lead to a hole in the boy's sweater and a slight scratch on his arm. Ozzy immediately let go as soon as he realized what it was, and cowered behind me. While the boy was scared, he understood that he had startled Ozzy, after I had already informed the children around me to keep a wide berth and to not startle him, he had been abused. His mother agreed that it was her son's fault, and nothing came of it.
Except now, my poor dog has a bad rep in my neighborhood, because all the big mouthed children (especially the one who was chasing the kid who got snapped at) are saying my dog is mean. My dog is NOT mean, he is protective, and scared. Just because he enjoys sitting at the window and barking at anyone who stands infront of it and taunts him, it does not make him mean.
And now that I am moving, I'm encountering another problem. My dog is 45 lbs, not overley large, and he's 6 yrs old, a very mellow dog all in all. A few of the apartment complexes I have looked at have had something known as "breed restrictions", which of course include pit bulls and chows. My dog has the sad privellage of being both. Now tell me that this isn't wrong? My dog, who insists on being near me every second of every day, and even sleeps at the top of the stairs even though he has a nice comfy bed in his crate, just because I am upstairs? No, it's not. And it's not fair to anyother dog who just happens to be of a certain breed.
I have been bitten by a dog twice. And do you know what their breeds were? A fricken poodle and a dalmation. My boyfriend's overprotective, half-blind poodle left a nice nasty scar on the top of my hand that took forever to heal, and hurt like a bitch, as well as put a hole through one of my fingers (which I admit was my fault, I should have known better, but there's no scar, so I don't care). And my grandmother's 2 year old dalmation got spooked while half asleep (i didn't realise he was) and bit the glasses off my face. A poodle and a dalmation..... not my pitbull/chow mix...
That is all.... I must now go shoot my gerbil who is banging his FULL waterbottle on the side of the cage repeatedly at 1:30 in the morning.......
The Mighty Oz!!!
I need to get some updated pictures of my baby boy!
mood: 
sad
sadmusic: Uverworl- D technoLife
leave your mark
tired
ecstatic