Pit bulls' visits heal patients, reputation

[Palehorse]

If I could have another dog where I'm currently living, then I would have brought Doughboy home with me today:



He's a Pit bull/English bull dog mix. What a total sweetheart he is.

This is another dog that we walked today:



Maybe it's his "tuxedo", but he's very refined. LOL So gentle and sweet. He's actually younger than the dog the family was looking about, but very settled.

This one has nothing to do with pit bulls, but I had to share her picture. Her head is really that large and her body is really that small. I have to wonder what the lab mated w/to produce this sweetie. 

They all look so adorable! But umm. . . err. . . . number three looks like a photo shop dog!

[Sandy Eggo]

They all look so adorable! But umm. . . err. . . . number three looks like a photo shop dog!

She does doesn't she! I was thinking that she looks cartoonish. Lol I swear that I saw her with my very own eyes. Lol She has a new forever home, but she's pending approval of the owners.

[Sandy Eggo]

One thing a lot of people who adopt dogs do not think about is how their homeowners insurance will perceive the animal because of his breed. With a pit mix it is far better to tell them it is a mutt, or emphasize the other breed(s) it may be mixed with as opposed to pit bull. Insurance companies discriminate very strongly against the pit bull! My wife and I had a hard time obtaining insurance for our new home because our dog is a pit bull. We did obtain it from American Family Insurance, so that is an option if they are set on the animal and it happens to be a pit bull.

Now that our dog is 4 years old, he doesn't require quite as much exercise as when he was younger. Typically we will spend about 2 hours a day with him outside, during which he gets a lot of physical exercise. Broken down into about 3 sessions a day. I usually run him until he has had enough, which he will signal by taking his toy bone and going out to the center of the yard and laying down. 

One of his quirks though is that while he will urinate whenever he feels the need, he typically will not initiate a bowel movement unless we tell him to. Then he goes right to it. Strange I know, but the dog poops on command! 

These dogs, when paired with a family that takes the time to properly acclimate and train them, are excellent companion dogs and an excellent deterrent to those with skullduggery on their minds.

They also like to have a sense of "responsibility" and for the mindful owner who takes the time to understand their animal, it's pretty amazing what they will do once they understand what is expected of them. Our dog loves the harness and to pull. He will pull a sled or a wagon until he drops if we would let him. Pulling the bicycle is one of his favorites! 

I didn't think of the insurance aspect, but I will next time.

[Palehorse]

Just watched another episode of Pit Bulls and Parolees ! 

[Palehorse]

http://www.indystar.com/article/20101127/LOCAL/11270355/Grieving-dog-drawn-to-grave-of-boy-who-saved-her?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|IndyStar.com|default|t

NOT about a pit bull, but it'll break your heart to read this story -

Boy sees dog on side of the road hurt, while passing with his family in a van. Boy jumps out, rescues dog, and nurses it back to health. Boy dies, dog keeps showing up at the cemetery at his grave. . .

SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Since her best friend's death, Zelda has taken to wandering.

Neighbors spot the one-eyed, rust-colored dog roaming the farm roads near her home, heading in the direction of the cemetery.

Animal control officers say that's where the dog was found recently, roving the grounds of a brick church on Bremen Highway, yards from her owner's grave.

"She's without her boy," said mom Marci Reed. "She just sniffs all over, looking for her boy."

Zelda and her owner, Joshua Reed, 15, had been inseparable ever since Joshua rescued the dog three years earlier, when she was hit by a car.

It had been nightfall when the family drove past the dog lying in the road. Joshua "jumped out of the moving van," Marci Reed recalled. "He yelled, 'Stop! We have to get the dog!' "

The teen brought the bleeding animal into the van, wrapping the dog in his jacket.

The child stayed up all night talking to the dog, his mother remembered with tears in her eyes. "He kept saying, 'I love you. I love you. You'll be all right. I'll take care of you.' "

Zelda lost an eye in the accident, and her tail was broken in several places, but the dog flourished at the Reed home.

Zelda followed Joshua everywhere, waiting for him every day when he got off the school bus.

Zelda and Joshua would roll around in the grass outside the family's Mishawaka farm. They would race down the gravel drive, with the boy on his bike and Zelda sprinting beside him.

So Zelda, along with the rest of the Reed family, entered a world of emptiness last year when, one day, Joshua didn't come home.

When Joshua asked his parents for a four-wheeler, they first said no. But he promised to earn half the money for the vehicle himself, said his dad, and worked extra-hard on the farm to make the wish a reality.

The Penn High School freshman loved his new ATV, riding it with a group of four-wheeling friends in the summer of 2009.

The Reeds will never know why Joshua didn't stop and look when he approached the intersection of Pierce Road and Ind. 331 on the evening of Sept. 3. It might have been because the road had previously been closed and only recently opened for traffic. . .

tate Police said the pickup truck driver reported that he didn't see the boy on the ATV until it was too late.

Joshua was thrown 120 feet, his dad said, and died instantly.

Joshua, the middle of five brothers ranging in age from 11 to 31, is remembered most by friends and family as a great friend and lover of all animals, especially ones like Zelda who needed extra care.

For days after the funeral, Zelda wandered up and down the farm, searching high and low for her boy.

Zelda had never run away before the accident, but now, the Reeds say, the dog takes to the road any chance she gets.

She was taken to the cemetery only once by the family. Marci Reed brought Zelda to St. John's Cemetery on Bremen Highway after the first time she ran away.

Since visiting the graveyard that first time, the dog has been caught twice more near the cemetery route.

"They always say that animals have that extra sense," said Jordan McGuire, with the Humane Society of St. Joseph County. "It's obvious (the dog) is grieving."

"We're going to get a fence," Reed said. "I can't let something happen to her."

[Sandy Eggo]

[Sandy Eggo]

Someone not only turned on the TV last night while I was sleeping, but turned the channel to whichever channel it is that shows "Pitbulls and Paroles" (I suspect Benji ) and I finally was able to catch an episode. It's a good show. I think she and I share a similar compassion for animals.

[Sandy Eggo]

Pit bull saves familiy's life in fire:

http://www.wbaltv.com/r-video/27798107/detail.html

[me]

I have often wondered what happened to that family.  I had posted this in PH's area because I couldn't find this thread for some reason when I ran across the story.  That is sad.