A loooooong night

I don't remember Dharma being as much work at night. I know she wasn't the first night I brought her home. But Bodhi had the run of the place where he was from. He stayed with his dad at the shop where there were about 3 adult pits, and 5 other pups so I'm sure they partied the night away. He did well though in the new setting. He slept in his box and I took him out 3 times to poop and pee. He's a pooping machine.

We really wanted to get pics of Mariah's Promise yesterday. What a scene. It's a house and some acreage up in Divide, CO. There are day pens outside (maybe 30) and they housed up to 3 dogs in each. So we toured that area and saw some neat dogs (particularly this Pit/Bull Terrier mix that was awesome but older than I'm comfortable with) who spend their days in those pens. Each dog had plenty of water, food, and hay to stay warm and they all looked great.

We were then invited into the house where ALL the dogs stay at night. There are easily 100 dogs there. Most of the dogs are "pits" but there were some other ones as well. There was even a Shepherd there that had just arrived. Toni had been called to come pick him up from Denver (where they said he was a pit). Most people don't know dog breeds from a hole in the ground.

Once inside we were greeted by about 15 pits in the first room. Each room is the same as it would be in your house except that each "door" is a massve, locking gate. Each room has some furniture in it and also 15 or so dog crates. Unlock the gate and move into the kitchen where there were 10 more pits (some running free, some in their crates). Same thing with the bedrooms. In the bedrooms, all closets had been removed to make room for more industrial cages. I walked into one of the rooms and there was several big cages built and I found a Presa Canario that was probably 1 year old but Heather said no way.

Normally I'm not at a loss for words but I was speechless as I walked from room to room and I knew Heather was too. Hats off to Toni and her husband Mike for dedicating their lives to saving the dangerous "pits" of the world. Even the dogs that had clearly been fought were very nice (look at all the dogs they saved from the Vick house). The pups are just too little to be in the house with all the big dogs so Mike lives with them at his shop in Woodland Park.