I Love My Pit Bull (and why you should, too)

I just learned that today is National Pit Bull Awareness Day and that October is National Pit Bull Awareness month. I am so glad that these under appreciated and totally misunderstood pups are getting some national coverage for being fantastic family dogs!!

Bowie and Alice

A number of years back, my best friend had a pit bull named Bowie and this dog was the exact opposite of what I'd heard about pit bulls. I mean, c'mon, I literally spooned with this dog when the Baconator and I visited Harlem. 3 people and a dog in a full-sized bed made for tight quarters, but this dog was the best. It was during this one little weekend that pit bulls started sneaking up the potential breed list for me.

Before we had fully decided to adopt a dog, I was volunteering at a no-kill shelter here in Chicago, PAWS.  It was there, that I became fully sold on adopting a pit. I fell in love with not one, not two but 4 different pit bulls there that, while very energetic, were extremely loving and eager to please. PAWS has a dedicated program for pit bulls that fully vets potential owners and dedicates an entire course to educate new owners on how to be responsible with their new pit bulls. (In Chicago, there is still quite a bit of illegal dogfighting, so shelters need to be extra cautious when vetting owners for pits to make sure the dogs are going to good homes.) When the time finally came time to adopt, we actually chose to go with one of the smaller pit bull specific non-profits in Chicago to ensure that we would get a puppy and since the smaller ones need more help. (You can read all about adopting Leia here and here.)

Leia's first day with us!

We adopted Leia last April and she has turned our lives upside down, in the best possible way. She is on the small side for a pit (47 lbs), but full of wiggles, doggy kisses and the occasional snore. Everyone that comes to our house has been converted into a pit bull lover, and that includes a number of folks who were afraid of all dongs before meeting her. She loves people and practically throws her whole body into you because all she wants to do is be near you and get some puppy pats. In fact, I've never seen a dog that is so patient - all winter long she is dressed in sweaters (and sometimes booties), and she has a costume every Halloween! Leia loves to play with other dogs, our cats and will do anything for a good scratch behind the ears... well, maybe not fetch... that classic dog game seems to have alluded her...

Trying on Costumes at Petco

She is nothing like the growling, snarling, angry, biting, terrible and terrifying dog that is on the news, and let's be real, most real life pit bulls aren't.  Take for example, Miss M and Mr. B in the amazing blog, Two Pitties in the City - they are stand up citizens here in Chicago that are just fabulous dogs, I'd even put them in the column of "rolepups" for Leia. They are well mannered, sweet, obedient PIT BULLS that are happy to wear doggy goggles and trek around town meeting people. Of course, much of their great training comes from their really wonderful owners, but the owners aren't master trainers with their own video series. Nope, they are regular people that love their dogs and decided to tell their story online. I'd highly suggest checking out their blog if you are a pit lover or a pit skeptic.

I love the infograph that Huffington Post shared earlier this month. I think it really encapsulates what we've been trying to tell the world: Pit bulls are great dogs and they deserve the opportunity to become family dogs.

Source: The Huffington Post

So this month, tell someone about the pit bull breed, and remind them that breed specific legislation is unfair, unjust and kills thousands of dogs every year, just for being born.

Here are some other great links on why pit bulls really just are great dogs:

Huff Post: 17 Pit Bulls That Prove Breed Specific Legislation Doesn't Know What It's Talking About
Petfinder: 10 Reasons Why Pit Bulls Rule
Dogster: 10 Common Misconceptions About Pit Bulls
Buzzfeed: The 20 Most Adorable Pit Bull Puppy Pictures Ever
Buzzfeed: 37 Pictures That Will Restore Your Faith In Pit Bulls

Just enjoying the sunshine

Love and Bacon,
Kelsey (and Leia)

Wordless Wednesday: Post-Op Puppy Tee

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Our Very First Wordless Wednesday

Sweet Sixteen

It's hard to believe that we've already had Leia for two whole weeks! I swear that she's already gained at least 5 pounds and must be a foot taller than when we first brought her home. The last couple of weeks have been pretty awesome - really, truly, awesome.

via Instagram

via Instagram

Leia is a puppy who likes to play at 3 minute intervals every hour or so and spends pretty much all other times asleep.  She doesn't fetch; she doesn't get excited by a Kong stuffed with treats; she could take or leave a rawhide;  she doesn't gnaw on her nylabones (in fact, she doesn't chew on anything that she isn't supposed to); and she's not so fond of walks.  She's one strange little puppy.

via Instagram

via Instragram

These past two weeks have had their fair share of "OMG, dog poop in the bathroom!" and "Ugh, she peed as I was putting the leash on her," but after nearly half a bottle of Nature's Miracle, our potty training is doing pretty well. It's been hard finding a balance of the right number of walks, when to put her to bed, when to set my alarm for her first walk of the day, but we're getting there slowly but surely. Not gonna lie, there has been a lot of espresso in my life lately to combat my newfound early mornings.

Thankfully, the cats aren't reacting terribly to their new sister and after a night of shunning us completely are back to sleeping with us at night and are slowly getting to be more comfortable with Leia. Of course, we aren't at snuggling besties yet, but it's only been two weeks. For now, there's lots of hissing from under the bed, swats from the bench in the kitchen and bouts of growling from the bed, but Leia takes it all in stride and only has a couple scratches to show for it. Just watching her with the cats you can tell that she came from a home with cats; they only hold her attention for a few minutes at a time, and she has never snapped back at them. Mostly, she reacts to their attitude with extra excitement, a couple of barks, and that trademark pitbull frog leg stretch.

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via Instagram

Sixteen snuggly days later, we could not be more happy to have brought our little pittie princess home. She is just about perfect for us and we can't wait to see what hijinks she comes up with as she gets bigger.

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Star Wars Collar via FauxPaws on Etsy / Felt flower so that folks don't think she's a boy via me

Puppy Posies

I've been reading Two Pitties in the City since we ran into them and their foster, Levi, during our wedding last September. Since then I've been inspired to go out and become involved in a local shelter, fell in love with the pit bull breed, adopted our own pittie and have pined for a delightful flower for her collar, just like their foster, Bessie, sported throughout the winter.

Moments after adopting Leia, I was online checking out some of the great flower options available on Etsy:

From Little Blue Feather

From Doodle Pup Designs

From Bow Wow Couture

From Pecan Pie Puppies

From BonChien

But you know what I realized? I'm pretty darn crafty and spending $10-$15 per flower, so if I want to swap them out, I could spend a small fortune on flowers.  Instead, I scoured the internet and found a bevy of tutorials! 

I'm pretty proud of the way these turned out - what do you think?

Tutorial: I Am Mommy

Tutorial: Keeping Life Creative

Tutorial: See Vanessa Craft

Tutorial: Craft Snob

Tutorial: Creations by Kara

She looks pretty lovely, right?  (And not like a boy dog!!)

In a Galaxy Far, Far Away

After spending the evening with dear, sweet, goofy, snorting Jonas, we drove down to Matteson, IL the next day to meet our last few candidates for our new puppy. We took the day off for the excursion and started our day  with cinnamon rolls at Ann Sather's (a Chicago tradition) then were off to Wicker Park for a wander around. After spending a couple hours enjoying the beautiful weather in our future neighborhood, we settled into the car and were off for the 'burbs.

The Baconator's mom had come up with a kennel, a jumbo dog pillow, a food and water bowl and (of course!) lots of doggy treats and I'd ordered a whole host of things from Amazon, so by the time we got to the Petsmart where we were meeting the pups, we only had a short list of things left to get. We were about 20 minutes early, so we filled our cart with a leash, a collar, a harness, more chewables, more treats, some grooming accouterments, and a couple bags of food. A few minutes before 7:30, we saw a couple of pittie puppies that looked awfully familiar and they were from It's a Pittie and they were there for us!

We met a brother and sister who were being fostered together. The brother was really adorable, but he was due to the doctor because of a lump on his head (and in all honesty, if we decided on a boy, my heart had already been handed off to Mr. Jonas). Instead, we turned our attention to his beautiful white snouted sister. She had the most amazing wrinkles across her face and that mug of hers was so stinkin' cute I couldn't handle it. The thing was, she didn't seem that interested in us; in fact, she was more interested in everything but us - her brother, the floor, the aisles of food and goodies, her foster parents, the other dogs in the store, the other customers in the store. But she still had this sweetness about her that I couldn't ignore and I was really looking for a girl dog.

So we chatted and we waited until her sister (who had been fostered with another family) bounded into the store. Suddenly, this sweet pup that we had been considering for a good ten minutes was a snarling, snapping, barking ball of fur.

Um, What?!?!

We tried let them work it out for a little while puppy-style, but she just wasn't settling down. She took a walk around the store and we got to know the new puppy a little bit. This new pup, Stella, couldn't keep her paws and kisses off us; she was loving and interested in us and not aggressive to any other dog in the store. From a few minutes talking with her foster parents, we learned that they have two adult pitbulls, two cats, and an 18 month old baby; she was already crate trained, was getting to know basic commands like "Sit" and "Come;" and she was great with every animal she came into contact with. Suddenly, this girl was lookin' pretty good - Stella had even settled down a bit in the store and was hanging out with the baby.

We, the Baconator, his mom and I, took a quick chat and knew that the brother and sister combo were out. It was really down to Stella and Jonas, those other two couldn't hold a candle to the goofy pup that came by first and the sweet pup that came in last. We needed to know more about Stella before we could choose Jonas, so we found out more about how she'd been trained - was she food motivated or socially motivates? and found out more about her routine - is she good on a leash? Does she do her business right away or is she a dawdler? In the meantime, Stella was doing her own sales job which was comprised mostly of kisses and belly rubs.

By the end of it, the Baconator looked at me and said, "Well, honey, what do you think?" I looked down at the fawn, white pawed puppy in front of us, and I pulled out my photo of Jonas on my phone, and I said with some trepidation, "I think that we've gotta get Stella." Then that was it, with some paperwork behind us and solemn promises to love her like you'd never believe, not to crop her ears or tail and to get her spayed in the next two weeks (at the rescue's vet), she was ours.

We have a puppy!!! Her momma is a pitbull and her pappa is Darth Vader... oh wait, probably not. But either way, her new name is Leia and the Star Wars puns might never end.


And now for some gratuitous Instagram photos of Leia...

The Puppy Reality

Have you ever prepared so much for things that you've convinced yourself that you're totally ready... Only to have your bubble burst the moment you get close to making that thing a reality? Well, tonight was one of those moments. We have been buying doggy toys and water bowls and pet gates and training books, but tonight we met our first "candidate" to be our pup, Jonas. There was this moment when we were downstairs taking a potty break and he was more interested than the local flora than coming back upstairs that it hit me that we are going to be dog owners this weekend. WOW.

I mean, we knew this was coming; we have been preparing for weeks. We submitted an adoption application to It's a Pittie Rescue in March, I had a phone interview, we had our references checked, the folks at the rescue spoke to our land lady, and we had a home check. The fact that we are getting a dog is old news, but actually having a little guy that might be ours really brought it all home.

via Instagram

Meet Jonas. He is a total goofball that's laid back and sweet and adorable and mellow and energetic and curious and full of puppy grunts, snorts and pitbull wiggles. He spent a luxurious two hours with us in our little third floor apartment and while he spent the first few minutes sniffing about, he really spent most of it  sprawled out across our laps and the floor with a rawhide in his mouth. Isn't that what you want in a puppy? He was fascinated by the cats for a few minutes and did the obligatory handful of barks and whines, then he went back to his squeak toy. Watching him so at ease in our humble abode was just so common place like we've had a dog all this time and while the realization that we'll have a dog soon was jarring, it is also so uplifting and exciting.

By the end of this week, well, just 24 short hours away, Jonas or one of his litter mates will be our new pup. And I can't wait!