Why's Everybody Always Pickin' on Me?

I'm a dog.  And in case you forgot, I'm a pit bull.  I'm probably (no exaggeration) one of the sweetest most friendly dogs you will ever meet.  I get along great with dogs of every age and size.  When dogs are aggressive with me, I don't respond.  I just back off a little and hope they'll calm down.  I always try again to make them my friend.

It's true, if you're wearing a hat or are entering one of the homes in my neighborhood and I don't recognize you, I might bark at you.  I won't attack. I just want to be sure who you are and maybe scare you off if you're up to no good.  Once you take off your hat, I'll come over and lick your face (or at least I'll try).  If you're a smoker and you try to pet me, I'll probably back off quickly.  It's not because I don't like you.  It's because I have a sensitive nose.  I'm always sniffing, and I don't like smoke.  But I won't be mean to you.  I'll still wag my tail - just from a distance.  I'll admit that I'm not fond of the mailman or UPS man (or the garbage man for that matter!).  They come to our house every day, dropping things off and picking things up, but they always leave in a hurry.  They never stay to chat.  I bark at them.  I'm not sure what they're up to, and I just want to keep my people safe.  I only bark though, I would never attack.  I don't even growl. I just want to let them know I know what they're up to!

But I'm a pit bull.  And because of that, no matter what I say and no matter how good of a girl I am, people think I should be outlawed and put down.  Recently, the State of Maryland (where I'm originally from), ruled that pit bulls and pit bull crosses are inherently "dangerous."  Alicia read a blog about it that was posted on the WTOP blog.  She agreed with everything the poster said.

Then she read the comments.  And she couldn't disagree more with some of the heartless things that people were saying.  She told me all about the people who said that all pit bulls should be killed because they have been bred for ill pursuits.  Have they ever met me? They also said that pit bull owners only get pit bulls to put out a certain image.  Just what image are Matt and Alicia trying to project?

I'm going to guess that they haven't met me.    I'd love to meet them though.  And show them what a loving and good girl I am.  I'd like to change their minds.

I'm Not Lovin' It

I'm a dog.  I haven't posted in a while because Alicia says she's been too busy with work and "life" to post cute photos and dog thoughts.  I called her bluff this morning by showing her the following radio ad from McDonald's. (Note: The image that runs with the audio was created by a group that tried and succeeded in getting the ad pulled.  I appreciate that they chose such a good looking pit bull to make their case.  A picture of me would've been better, but this one was good.)



Now, I'll give them that they said "petting a stray pit bull," as I do not suggest petting ANY stray dogs*, but why did they have to make it a pit bull?  Hasn't Michael Vick doesn't enough damage to our image?

Anyway, they did apologize, and pull the ad, which is nice.  I just wish they hadn't created the ad in the first place.

*If you come across a stray dog, whatever the breed, you should call animal control and observe the dog's behavior for a while to make sure it isn't sick, injured, etc. before even attempting to get close.

Puppy's First Christmas: Decking the Halls

I'm a dog.  It's not Christmas yet, but it will be soon.  I've been picking up the slack around here and getting everything ready for Christmas.  I want it to be perfect.  After all, a puppy only gets one first Christmas!

I began holiday preparations by having Matt and Alicia drive me over to a nearby church to select a Christmas tree.  Last year, they had their tree on the ground in a stand.  This year, I advised them to get a shorter tree and put it on a table so I wouldn't be tempted to eat either the tree or the ornaments.  Here's the one we selected:

In between chasing children, I picked out the tree!

 Ain't she a beauty?  I think I did a really good job, considering that until recently, I had realized people liked to take chopped down trees and feature them in the living room with decorations.

Helping the "old man" put up the tree.

Once the tree was up, it was time to decorate.  I let Matthew and Alicia handle the placement of the lights and ornaments, but provided valuable assistance sniffing and licking (okay, okay, and trying to chew) several of the ornaments.

All decorated!

My favorite ornament is one that Alicia found special and gave me as an early Christmas present.  It's a pit bull puppy made of dough, and it looks a lot like me!  

When Alicia found it on Etsy, she said she gasped and ordered it immediately.  Aside from the brown spot on her face, this pup is almost my spitting image.  The lady who makes them, Judy Caron, was even nice enough to change the pup's red collar to blue, and write my name on it!

And of course no Christmas would be complete without hanging the stockings "with care" from the card catalog.

Another of my early Christmas presents is this personalized "Snow Dogs" stocking from Company Store.  Alicia found last year's designs on clearance earlier this fall and knew she'd struck gold.  My only complaint is that the white puppy with the green scarf is missing her brown cow spots.  I can't wait to see what I find in my stocking on Christmas morning!

Stay tuned to see if Santa decides whether I've been naughty or nice.  On the one hand, I think he has to side with "nice," since Matt and Alicia are always telling me what a good girl I am, and people are still not tired of telling me how cute I am.  On the other hand, I usually jump up on them and try to lick their faces off right after I receive that compliment, and I have munched on my chair a few times, which hasn't made Matt and Alicia too happy.  I guess we'll see!

I Know You Are, But What Am I?

I'm a dog.  Until last weekend I wasn't too sure about exactly what kind of a dog.  But now I'm feeling fairly confident.  The folks at the AWLA knew I was a pit bull terrier mix.  They weren't sure what was in the "mix."  Luckily, whilst walking in DC last weekend on our way to congratulate Ben and Amanda as they finished their metric century bike ride, we came across two puppies who were my spitting image!

They were two-month-old pups out on a walk with their owner.  When Matt and Alicia saw her and her dogs and she saw Matt and Alicia with me, everyone stopped in their tracks.  I was taken back to my earliest days.  The other owner saw a vision of what she could expect in a couple of months.  Everyone was in shock.

Then the humans got to talking.  It turns out those precious pups have a mom who is a Pit Bull Terrier and a dad who is an American Bulldog.  That makes them American Pit Bulldog Terriers.  And I'm probably one as well!  It just makes so much sense.  So much of me is Pit Bull-ish.  The thickness of my coat, my almond-shaped eyes, size and stature, how muscly I am, not to mention my triangular Pit Bull smile all point to Pit Bull.  But I'm also mostly white, which isn't so common with Pit Bulls.  And my snout is kind of rounded, which is also wrong.  And what about my big brown markings? A simple Google Image search for "American Bulldog" reveals image upon image of white dogs with beautiful markings.

So, what happens when you mix this:

[via here]

With this?:

[via here]

It seems to me you would get this: 

Am I right?