The Fliers are Printing

I suddenly realized this morning I can't type as fast as I can think, because if I could, I'd be a better writer. I tend to forget those great ideas before I can get them typed. I was gonna wait till I calmed down and write a fitting tribute to our boy Marquis... and I may still do that, but I need to get something off my chest first and unfortunately for anyone who reads this..... THIS is where I do that. Working with the rescue these past 7 months and doing my own sort of dog rescue for the past... well, my life.... I've started to see a new trend in dog mixes. Where it used to be that almost anything questionable in a dog was written off as a Lab Mix, it's scarily becoming the norm to see Pittie Mix instead.

Now I've admitted most of my fear of that terrier breed has been because of the media. This is the same media that made me afraid of PMS and I KNOW they were right about that one. Anyhow, I, being the dog lover I am, quashed the medias attempt at labeling an entire breed aggressive, (not a big fan of labels), and went about merrily socializing these little pit mixes. So far, I think I've had good luck with most of the dogs that've been through this bootcamp. Well Blaze was a completely different story, but that was mostly my fault.... he just wanted to be exactly like me and that's when I was still suffering from Raging Bitterness. Now my therapist calls it psychotic sarcasm. Hmmp!!

More to the point of this chest cleansing post...... My opinion of Pitbulls has been, well temporarily if not permanently changed. Last night a freerange Pitt and its K9 companion, a little sheltie mix were roaming carefree through our neighborhood when they came upon our cat, Marquis, sitting on the open front porch of our home. Marquis waits there every night for me to finish walking the dogs and comes inside with us. Marquis was also raised to like dogs............... my mistake.

I was actually on the back patio with Dash, Roux and Red when Roux alerted me to "something" in the dark. Since she's often the neurotic barker I ignored her. How I wish I had listened last night. By the time I reached the street with MY dogs, the Black and White Pitbull, teeth clamped securely around Marquis neck, was standing in front of our home and had just finished savagely mauling him. Since yelling at and clapping my hands didn't scare off the growling PIT, I rushed my dogs in the house and came back out to give aid to Marquis. This is when the two dogs ran down the hill. Now, The Sheltie mix was easily 50ft from the PIT. At no time did I see the Sheltie grab at or bite my cat. It was the PIT who instinctively attacked. It was the PIT who was barking and growling at me. I grabbed the phone and a flashlight and on my way out called the police. I wanted to alert them to the Aggressive Pitbull that was roaming freely through town. The local police and animal control were dispatched.

I grabbed a better flashlight and went looking for the, soon to be dead, dog myself. I already had blood on my hands, but this time I wanted it to be the dogs. I ran into a neighbor walking his St Bernard down on Potomac St. He had just come upon the two strays and as I approached the PIT charged me. Fortunately the St Bernard in an accidental and clumsy way got in his way and the PIT backed off. I called animal control again.... got the voicemail, so I called emergency one more time. Within minutes they and the Police were on scene. While I was describing what happened and where we had seen the two dogs..... along comes the concerned mommie, wondering where her two babies had run off to. I asked her to describe them. She said one dog was brown and white, the other was black and white. Funny, she wouldn't give their breed. I asked her if her "black n white" baby happened to be a Pitbull. When she said yes, I told her that animal control was at the end of the street trying to catch her aggressive cat killing dog and I was standing by to watch it be put to sleep.

Thats when I got to sit in the back of the police cruiser. Not under arrest, but, like the nice policeman put it... "obviously upset and better off being in a non-confrontational position".

I filled out a report. I chose to not file charges for several reasons. One... they would want me to place a value on my deceased cat.... WTF??? Two... whether or not I filed charges, the dog in question wouldn't be put to sleep if it didn't have any priors. If they discovered it did... euthanasia would be immediate. It would be put on an aggressive dog register otherwise. The next time it bit or killed something or someone, they could finally shoot it in the head. Three.... this is possibly the most important reason I didn't file charges. The look of absolute dread on the woman's face when she found out her dog attacked and killed my cat (OFF MY FRONT PORCH) was all I needed to see, to know...... she would, for the life of that dog, ALWAYS be waiting for that next attack. Knowing she would suffer daily with knowledge that her dog was "One Of THOSE Pitbulls", was enough karma for me. She would, until the day that dog is eventually put to sleep, ALWAYS remember me.... and although she never met him, I will make sure she never forgets Marquis. (The fliers are printing)

Marquis suffered. He was snatched from our front porch by this dog. The evidence for that was his collar I found beneath the plaque hanging on our front wall. Some might say that being an outdoor cat has it's risks. You would think that only applied to cats that roam the neighborhood. marquis was sitting on the porch waiting for me to take the dogs on their evening walk. The Pitbull that attacked him was LOOKING for something to kill. It was an unprovoked attack by an aggressive dog. This dog needs to be put down.