Let me introduce The Editor to you here, who is the true owner of Sophie (I was adopted by Sophie as her friend and caretaker, as I mostly work from here at the house whenever possible, and caretaker is a rank I hold with some honor, thank you very much.) Along the post here are pictures of the safe-at-home Sophie, just click on them to see larger images and I'd like to add that I hope The Editor could find the time to blog more often, but she is a most busy woman: (NOTE: the story of Sophie's misadventures begins here and continues here. Now, The Editor)
To everyone:
Thank you so much for the outpouring of support while Sophie was missing. It meant so much to all of us here at Casa de Fleaflicker.
When the phone rang this morning and Joe held the phone up to the bowl where Sophie was gulping down water... well I can't tell you how much happiness and relief I felt. It was better than 1,000 Christmases. When I got to the vet and saw my poor beat up baby, I cried tears of happiness as well as worry. Although she is "OK" in the sense that she has neither internal damage or broken bones, she is pretty tattered after her "adventure." think it almost compares to what she looked like when I adopted her--but not quite. The $200 vet bill wasn't much of a surprise (of course, Kelvis topped me on big vet bills when she told me about her cat, Dynamite's, little string incident--this may force her to comment on or write about it herself), but I was more than happy to pay it if it meant by baby was home.
Right now Sophie is sleeping likes she deserves it (and dammit, she does), and I suspect she'll be doing quite a bit of sleeping to make up for lost couch time (and then some). She'll be going back to the vet in 2 weeks to see how she's doing (she takes thyroid medication and was off it for 3 days, so we have to get her back up to snuff on that) and to get her nails clipped (I wasn't about to bring that "injustice" upon her today--it can wait). (Joe adds, no I had her nails clipped today, as the vet recommended.)
Any way, while I have you all here huddled around what is normally Joe's soap box, I wanted to say a few words about pit bulls.
A long while back on my oft-ignored blog, I ran a post on pit bulls after Sophie tagged me in a friendly wrestling match. Link
Over the course of the last 21 years, I've owned or co-owned or co-habitated with a number of pitties, and let me tell you: they are my number one choice of dog. Not as a watch dog, because most all of the ones I've known have been piss poor watch dogs. Sophie is the case in point: she didn't scare intruders out of our house. An intruder had to manhandle her out onto the deck where I imagine her general freaked-outedness at the prospect of thunder and rain finally frustrated the bastard (for the sake of you humble readers, I am not using nearly as strong of an expletive as I'd like in describing this perp) to the point where he (she? nah... HE) gave up.
Pits are the most misunderstood, maligned, misrepresented, and mistreated dog breeds out there today. Shelters all over have no adopt policies on them (mo matter how socially well-rounded the dog). Denver and a number of other cities have banned them (and any dog that even "looks" like a pit). Drug dealers and other criminal elements buy them up, breed them with bull mastiffs and other large dogs and then call them pits, which leads politicos gunning for some half-assed public safety vote to call any dog that is bred with a pit bull a "pit bull" (so if I breed a chihuahua and a Great Dane, then it's still a chihuahua, right?).
American Pit Bull Terriers (real pit bulls, not these 130 lb testosteroid mixes) aren't BIG dogs. They should weigh about 55 - 70 lbs max (Sophie is 70 lbs, but she's also a chubber wubber). They shouldn't stand to your waist; they should be about knee height, and they SHOULD LOVE PEOPLE. They are a terrier breed, so their original purpose was to go after other animals--on the pit bull's case, to take down 2000+ lb bulls for farmers or to aid hunter downing wild boars. But the breed was also meant to be the family dog. Bad people have exploited a pittie's strengths. Stupid people have disregarded a pittie's positive attributes. One of my great worries while Sophie was out and about was that some chucklehead would see a "crazed pit bull," pull out his shot gun, and shoot her. I'm already fairly sure that whomever broke into Casa de Fleaflicker came exclusively for the dog--probably to use as a breeder (until they maybe discovered she was fixed) or as a bait dog.
I'm going to put some links on this site for you to check out if you have a few minutes. I will fight for the healthy continuation of this breed. PeTA won't, and for that reason won't ever get my support. How is calling for the euthanasia of an entire breed "ethical treatment?" Pit bulls continue to rank as amongst the highest scoring dogs in canine temperament.
For the Love of Pit Bulls is a great site if you want the real score on what these good ol dawgs go through.
Pit Bull Rescue Central will help hook you up with a pit.
This site gives an excellent overview of The APBT.
There are LOTS of good sites out there.
But here are some videos I want you to see. (Warning: the second video is HARD to watch if you aren't ready... get a box of tissues if you are prone to tearing up.)
Otherwise, be kind to your animals, and they will be kind to you. Love your animal, and they will be kind to you.
