Pits

I used to teach at a residential treatment facility for severely emotionally disturbed adolescents. Heather would find them throughout the state of Missouri and then plunk them down in my classroom for me to educate them. It was during this time that I first started looking for a dog. I researched breeds for a long time and I always came back to "Pitbulls". In my mind, they always seemed to have a lot of similarities between the students that I looked forward to working with each day. They were a challenge, and they required a special person but they weren't evil. It kinda applies with the students that I typically deal with now. My students are either emotional, autistic, ADD/ADHD, they learn differently, or they're a combination of these things. I deal with students that many teachers would rather not have to spend time with and that's unfortunate because they really are fun to be with.

Anyway...I got Dharma 6 years ago. She is an American Staffordshire Terrier. I was given pick of the litter from a friend for a house warming gift. She was the best thing to happen to me until I met Heather. We've talked about getting another dog for a while now. Heather wants an English Bull Terrier but I'm fond of the American Pitbull Terrier. Today we met an 8 week old pup that was neither and we both fell in love with him. He's a mix of something but he's got a boatload of APT in him. So we spent the better part of the day with him and Dharma and decided to adopt him. We got him from Mariah's Promise. This is a nearby no-kill shelter that deals mostly with pits that have been wrongly booted out of Denver because of the ban. It's perfectly fine to posess up to an ounce of pot in Denver but you can't have a dog of particular breeds (APT, English Bull Terrier, Am Staff, Staffie Bulls, etc.). I hate breed specific legislation. For some reason I picture a lot of teachers complaining about my students being in their class when I hear people complaining about these dogs. I am not saying, nor have I ever said, that all pits are great (I've owned some dangerous ones). Obviously, there's horrible dogs, and horrible owners everywhere but to perform genocide is pretty drastic. I hope that we'd bat an eye if the idea to kill the race that's statistically involved with murder or even assault was proposed.

I'm as passionate about these dogs, and responsible dog ownership in general, as I am about my job. Here's my new boy. His name is Bhodi. 12.8 pounds at 9 weeks and a handful.