5 years ago when Angelie was still a baby we had moved into our first rental house and decided to get a dog. Although I wasn’t too fond of them Luis insisted on getting a pit bull. A friend of his from work had a litter that was about 5 weeks old. So we went to his house and picked out a super cute Tan & white boy. We named him Buster. So we took buster to the vet got all his shots and went and bought puppy stuff. The first 2 days were insane… all buster would do was cry when we would put him in his crate.. so we decided to leave him outside in the screened in patio instead. And so began buster’s life outside. Eventually he got too big for the patio and Luis built him an outside kennel. A few months later we moved to a bigger house with a privacy fenced huge yard. Again Luis set up his kennel. At this point he was outside 24/7. He had a huge doghouse inside his kennel and was allowed to run around the yard. Around this time Luis kept saying that he wanted a girl pit…. to mate with buster.
Around August I went to a birthday party at a friend’s house and in her neighbors backyard there was a whole litter running around. I called Luis to let him know and he went over there and we picked out Princess. She was the cutest little thing .. but was always a wild child. At first we had her in a crate in the back patio.. but after a while of her pooping and showering in her poop in the crate.. she ended up in the yard. Tied to a tree. Luis as well built her a good size doghouse. Princess as well as Buster now spent 24/7 in the backyard. We had the idea that they were our guard dogs.
May of 2006 we decided that we were not going to mate Princess with Buster.. because Buster wasn’t as big as Princess.. so we took him to the Humane Society on Armenia to get fixed. This was the day that saved his life. That day they discovered that Buster had heartworms. So immediately we called our vet and got him in for heartworm treatment. Thanks to this happening we learned that our dogs needed to be on heartworm preventative. Buster thankfully recovered from his heartworms but once he was recovered he went right back outside.
A few months went by and we had to move from where we were living. We had found a new house but Pits were not allowed.. so Princess went to go live at Luis mom’s house in plant city.. and we ended up giving Buster away to a friend who had a farm in Plant City. After a few months we found out that Buster had “supposedly” gone missing.. we looked everywhere for him and had no luck.. 2 months later this so called friend told one of Luis coworkers that Buster had killed some of his chickens so he killed Buster. This really broke our hearts. Although we were ignorant as to how to properly care for a pit it never meant we loved them any less.. we just had not been educated.
We ended up moving back to the house with the privacy fence in February of 2008 and immediately brought Princess back to the house with us. For the whole year that Princess had been at Luis mom’s house we had not given her any heartworm pills. When we brought her back to the house we decided that we were not going to tie her back outside. Instead we kept her in her crate in our screened in patio. As time went by I started to notice that she was having a hard time getting up when we would send her out to the yard to play and run around. We figured she was probably getting Arthritis or something like that.. boy were we wrong. When we took Princess to the vet she was diagnosed with heartworms. Right away Princess started losing weight…and while we tried to come up with the money Princess just kept losing weight.. finally we came up with the money to start her treatment. By this point princess had gone from weighing almost 75 pounds to about 50 pounds. It got a lot worse before it got better. While she was going through the treatment she continued to lose weight. At her lowest point she weighed about 40 pounds and was literally all bones. We even had to help her stand up as she couldn’t do it on her own. It was heart wrenching to see her going through the pain. But sure enough she is a fighter!! She overcame the heartworms and starting putting on weight again. This was the point when we decided that Princess would never have a litter.. as we would never risk her life and put her through that.
We weren’t really planning on getting another puppy .. but I was addicted to going on craigslist everyday to see what was out there. One day I ran across an add for a 15 wk old blue/brindle pit named Scar. He had a face that I immediately fell in love with. The owners wanted 150 for him.. but he had no shots or anything.. so I offered them 50 and promised to give him a good home. They agreed and the very next night we went to pick him up. He was insanely hyper at first.. but soon enough we figured out that all he needed was some exercise. We made the decision that since we didn’t want any babies he would also get fixed.
Researching through the internet I found ACT. It seemed like a great deal and a great place so we went ahead and got both of them fixed and up to date on shots. They both got fixed in December of 2008. We were very happy with out choice and knew that we had done the right thing. Both Princess & Scar were now being kept in the house. They would go outside to play and run around but slept in the house in the crate.
I continued to browse craigslist…. And in February of 2009 came across an add for a pitbull walk. Seeing as it was so close to our house we decided to go ahead and give it try. So we called CJ and she answered all of our questions as to what went on at these walks. All it took was that first walk and we were hooked. We soon realized how ignorant we had been prior to these walks. After talking with other owners and seeing how they were with their dogs we decided that we would start practicing some of the same things. So we started going on walks a few times a week with our dogs instead of just letting them run around in the yard. We got prong collars for them to correct any issues on our walks. On that first walk Allen was our leader and Art was behind us.. both of them gave us lots of great information. The following month we went to the walk again. Looking forward to seeing the great group of people again and seeing all of their beautiful pitties. Again we absorbed all the information we got and applied it to our dogs. We even got some great behavior advice from Jo who was going through classes to become a dog trainer.
By April we decided it was time we do more. We had made a lot of changes and by this point also considered ourselves responsible pit bull owners. So when Aprils walk came around we talked to CJ and told her that we wanted to try to foster a pit.. this is when we were introduced to Ashlie. We had seen her on the previous walks but didn’t really know who she was. We talked a bit with her.. went home a filled out the app to become foster parents. The next Saturday was the Arthritis walk at Al Lopez. It was great to walk with the group and our beautiful dogs. After the walk Ashlie came over for a home visit and brought our first foster Dutchess. She was a dutch shepherd mix. I must admit that we were very inexperienced and being as this was something completely new to us we were a little scared. Although we tried I honestly in my heart have to admit that we felt like failures with Dutchess. We were never able to accomplish much with her. After a month of having Dutchess she was taken to another rescue that had mixed dogs and would be able to find her a home. And then came Molly.. we were unsure if we were going to foster again.. and I thought Ashlie would be upset with us because of our failure with Dutchess.. but thankfully she didn’t give up on us.. and we agreed to foster again. So a few days later we got Molly. From the minute Luis walked in the door with her we were all in love with her. She has such a sweet nature about her and is so gentle. We called Ashlie that same night and told her not to even bother listing Molly.. she had found her forever home!!
Although Pitbulls pounding the pavement was on a hiatus.. another group was made. This new group was made of some of the members from PBPP. We just attended their second walk this past weekend and will continue to attend any future get togethers. This wonderful group of people means the world to me. They have opened our eyes.. educated us.. and welcomed us into this wonderful community. We have made many new friends through them .. and they have truly made us feel like part of the family. We consider ourselves their success story. Because of these great people we are no longer ignorant. We are educated and responsible pit bull owners. We will forever be thankful to them for showing us the right way to raise a pit. Now we are the ones that educate our friends and families about this wonderful breed that we love so much. We try every chance we get to break these barriers and show people how wonderful this breed is. At work I proudly display pictures of our beautiful dogs and educate anyone who questions why I love this breed so much. I as well have signed up with the SPCA to take the classes to become a dog trainer. This will not only be to benefit our own pack .. but to also help with the rescue and anyone else who I can help.
I know we have come a long way.. and we owe it all to PBPP, Bay Area Bullies and Pit Stop Bully’s Rescue.
Today we can hold our head up high and proudly say that we are responsible pit bull owners!!
Around August I went to a birthday party at a friend’s house and in her neighbors backyard there was a whole litter running around. I called Luis to let him know and he went over there and we picked out Princess. She was the cutest little thing .. but was always a wild child. At first we had her in a crate in the back patio.. but after a while of her pooping and showering in her poop in the crate.. she ended up in the yard. Tied to a tree. Luis as well built her a good size doghouse. Princess as well as Buster now spent 24/7 in the backyard. We had the idea that they were our guard dogs.
May of 2006 we decided that we were not going to mate Princess with Buster.. because Buster wasn’t as big as Princess.. so we took him to the Humane Society on Armenia to get fixed. This was the day that saved his life. That day they discovered that Buster had heartworms. So immediately we called our vet and got him in for heartworm treatment. Thanks to this happening we learned that our dogs needed to be on heartworm preventative. Buster thankfully recovered from his heartworms but once he was recovered he went right back outside.
A few months went by and we had to move from where we were living. We had found a new house but Pits were not allowed.. so Princess went to go live at Luis mom’s house in plant city.. and we ended up giving Buster away to a friend who had a farm in Plant City. After a few months we found out that Buster had “supposedly” gone missing.. we looked everywhere for him and had no luck.. 2 months later this so called friend told one of Luis coworkers that Buster had killed some of his chickens so he killed Buster. This really broke our hearts. Although we were ignorant as to how to properly care for a pit it never meant we loved them any less.. we just had not been educated.
We ended up moving back to the house with the privacy fence in February of 2008 and immediately brought Princess back to the house with us. For the whole year that Princess had been at Luis mom’s house we had not given her any heartworm pills. When we brought her back to the house we decided that we were not going to tie her back outside. Instead we kept her in her crate in our screened in patio. As time went by I started to notice that she was having a hard time getting up when we would send her out to the yard to play and run around. We figured she was probably getting Arthritis or something like that.. boy were we wrong. When we took Princess to the vet she was diagnosed with heartworms. Right away Princess started losing weight…and while we tried to come up with the money Princess just kept losing weight.. finally we came up with the money to start her treatment. By this point princess had gone from weighing almost 75 pounds to about 50 pounds. It got a lot worse before it got better. While she was going through the treatment she continued to lose weight. At her lowest point she weighed about 40 pounds and was literally all bones. We even had to help her stand up as she couldn’t do it on her own. It was heart wrenching to see her going through the pain. But sure enough she is a fighter!! She overcame the heartworms and starting putting on weight again. This was the point when we decided that Princess would never have a litter.. as we would never risk her life and put her through that.
We weren’t really planning on getting another puppy .. but I was addicted to going on craigslist everyday to see what was out there. One day I ran across an add for a 15 wk old blue/brindle pit named Scar. He had a face that I immediately fell in love with. The owners wanted 150 for him.. but he had no shots or anything.. so I offered them 50 and promised to give him a good home. They agreed and the very next night we went to pick him up. He was insanely hyper at first.. but soon enough we figured out that all he needed was some exercise. We made the decision that since we didn’t want any babies he would also get fixed.
Researching through the internet I found ACT. It seemed like a great deal and a great place so we went ahead and got both of them fixed and up to date on shots. They both got fixed in December of 2008. We were very happy with out choice and knew that we had done the right thing. Both Princess & Scar were now being kept in the house. They would go outside to play and run around but slept in the house in the crate.
I continued to browse craigslist…. And in February of 2009 came across an add for a pitbull walk. Seeing as it was so close to our house we decided to go ahead and give it try. So we called CJ and she answered all of our questions as to what went on at these walks. All it took was that first walk and we were hooked. We soon realized how ignorant we had been prior to these walks. After talking with other owners and seeing how they were with their dogs we decided that we would start practicing some of the same things. So we started going on walks a few times a week with our dogs instead of just letting them run around in the yard. We got prong collars for them to correct any issues on our walks. On that first walk Allen was our leader and Art was behind us.. both of them gave us lots of great information. The following month we went to the walk again. Looking forward to seeing the great group of people again and seeing all of their beautiful pitties. Again we absorbed all the information we got and applied it to our dogs. We even got some great behavior advice from Jo who was going through classes to become a dog trainer.
By April we decided it was time we do more. We had made a lot of changes and by this point also considered ourselves responsible pit bull owners. So when Aprils walk came around we talked to CJ and told her that we wanted to try to foster a pit.. this is when we were introduced to Ashlie. We had seen her on the previous walks but didn’t really know who she was. We talked a bit with her.. went home a filled out the app to become foster parents. The next Saturday was the Arthritis walk at Al Lopez. It was great to walk with the group and our beautiful dogs. After the walk Ashlie came over for a home visit and brought our first foster Dutchess. She was a dutch shepherd mix. I must admit that we were very inexperienced and being as this was something completely new to us we were a little scared. Although we tried I honestly in my heart have to admit that we felt like failures with Dutchess. We were never able to accomplish much with her. After a month of having Dutchess she was taken to another rescue that had mixed dogs and would be able to find her a home. And then came Molly.. we were unsure if we were going to foster again.. and I thought Ashlie would be upset with us because of our failure with Dutchess.. but thankfully she didn’t give up on us.. and we agreed to foster again. So a few days later we got Molly. From the minute Luis walked in the door with her we were all in love with her. She has such a sweet nature about her and is so gentle. We called Ashlie that same night and told her not to even bother listing Molly.. she had found her forever home!!
Although Pitbulls pounding the pavement was on a hiatus.. another group was made. This new group was made of some of the members from PBPP. We just attended their second walk this past weekend and will continue to attend any future get togethers. This wonderful group of people means the world to me. They have opened our eyes.. educated us.. and welcomed us into this wonderful community. We have made many new friends through them .. and they have truly made us feel like part of the family. We consider ourselves their success story. Because of these great people we are no longer ignorant. We are educated and responsible pit bull owners. We will forever be thankful to them for showing us the right way to raise a pit. Now we are the ones that educate our friends and families about this wonderful breed that we love so much. We try every chance we get to break these barriers and show people how wonderful this breed is. At work I proudly display pictures of our beautiful dogs and educate anyone who questions why I love this breed so much. I as well have signed up with the SPCA to take the classes to become a dog trainer. This will not only be to benefit our own pack .. but to also help with the rescue and anyone else who I can help.
I know we have come a long way.. and we owe it all to PBPP, Bay Area Bullies and Pit Stop Bully’s Rescue.
Today we can hold our head up high and proudly say that we are responsible pit bull owners!!
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