Today is Our Day
TODAY IS NATIONAL PIT BULL AWARENESS DAY, and I am just the Pit Bull to tell you all about it. Yep. Me. Bob, Boy Bloginator and Pit Bull Reporter Extra Ordinary (not to mention a Phenomena, per Northern Virginia Magazine). I am so excited I could just pee.
I found my Mouse Person sleeping in a bag of Parrot Food, and put him to work, cause I wanted to see what other people were saying about today and about us Pit Bulls in general.
I visited a lot of my favorite sites and places, and then I found an article written by a very nice person by the name of Donna Chambers who is the Vice-President of the Animal Alliance of Greater Syracuse. If you need to get your map out, that's o.k. - I will tell you that I imagine that Greater Syracuse is near Smaller Syracuse and is in the State of New York. That is just my guess.
I am also guessing that unless you live in or near Syracuse, you may not have read Miss Donna's nice article about us Pits. So here is what she said:
"Today is National Pit Bull Awareness Day, and the Animal Alliance of Greater Syracuse plans to celebrate it!
At heart, American pit bull terriers, American Staffordshire terriers and Staffordshire bull terriers, all also known as “pit bulls,” are happy-go-lucky, fun-loving clowns. When raised and owned by responsible people, they are friendly, outgoing dogs whose worst crime might be that they can’t hold their “licker.”
Over the years, the popularity of various dogs has waxed and waned. Riding the wave of popularity one year, they were feared and despised the next, having been seized upon at the pinnacle of their popularity by those who would use them for their own nefarious purposes, resulting in a degraded reputation as “vicious.” Increased popularity meant increased abuse by substandard owners as bloodhounds, bulldogs, German shepherds, even collies, suffered on this rollercoaster.
Observed against this background, it is easy to understand the inevitable downfall of what is today casually called the pit bull as this cycle again repeats itself. Public opinion regarding the pit bull has gone from reliable “nanny dog” and “hero” to “savage beast” as the breed has been victimized for the practice of dogfighting. Because this smart dog is so eager to please, it is easily exploited for illegal purposes.
It has been said that poor animal behavior results from a failed relationship between pet and owner. A successful relationship entails responsibility. A responsible owner licenses his dog; spays or neuters all pets; provides for the physical, emotional, social and medical needs of his pets; trains his dog, so it does not become a nuisance or a menace to others; and doesn’t put the dog into an inappropriate situation which it is unprepared to handle.
The “pit bull problem” isn’t about dogs at all, but rather people. It is a social problem that compromises the lives of animals, humans and their communities on numerous levels. The Animal Alliance of Greater Syracuse (AAGS) believes creative solutions can only work if they are integrated at all levels. It is with this in mind that we look toward an opportunity to explore, via a collaborative partnership with the city of Syracuse, a variety of approaches that have proved highly effective in other places. We believe they can be successful here as well.
Out pit bull initiative, ’Cuse Pit Crew, will be announced today.
To learn more about the history of the pit bull in America, see the short video at indiegogo.com/pitproud.
To learn more about the Animal Alliance of Greater Syracuse, please check out our website at www.syracuse.ny.us/Animals.aspx, on Facebook, or email us at aags@twcny.rr.com.
I think this article is very well written and says a lot without "getting on a soap box", which is one of those terms that my Mom says everyone understands but no one knows why they say it. In any event, I have never met Miss Donna, but I am certainly going to send her an e-mail and thank her for her nice reporting which appears in Syracuse.com I think it would be a nice idea if everyone read her article and then made a comment and thanked Miss Donna for her nice reporting.
One time, in my Blogging, I did a Blog entitled The Art of Bob. Some pretty wonderful artists have painted me..... and of course I have had my photograph taken by two very wonderful photo grapher type ladies, Ms. Bev Hollis and Ms. Ellen Zangla
Here is one of my favorite photos from Ms. Ellen:
While I have been doing my researching, I discovered an artist by the name of Dean Russo and Mr. Russo has done some very fine art which tells a great story about us Pitties. Here is the one I really love, and Mom says because I have been such a good boy, we are going to order a picture and some greeting cards of this particular art, because it sorta-kinda looks LIKE ME.
What do you think?
I like the little heart on the middle of "my" tongue.I could probably get a sticky on tattoo just like that! HA. I love this picture and I LOVE all of Mr. Russo's pictures. Here is another of my favorites:
Mr. Russo must know me pretty well, cause this is the exact look I get on my face when my "sister" Smudge, the English Bulldog, tries to kiss me. Blah. I have to go wash my face afterwards. So now it is time for a funny story, that would be a lot funnier if it wasn't serious, or could be serious, depending on what happened after my Mom was involved.
As we know, my Mom is a dog-walker for our wonderful company Everything and The Dog
and this is what happened to Mom, just last week.It was in the afternoon around 2:30 pm, and Mom and her two Cardigan Welsh Corgi clients were walking down the street on their usual daily route. One of the pups is truly a pup..... only about 9 months old and he is a bit of a crazy guy, but Mom says he still has some growing to do.
So Mom was walking along, thinking happy thoughts, and she saw a man screaming at her from the other side of the street. Mom couldn't understand exactly what he was saying but as she got closer, she saw a gorgeous red Pit Bull running toward her, and the man was hysterical at that point screaming, "it's not my dog.... he is off leash........ run away..... I have the police on the phone". Well the poor Pit Bull was certainly not happy since he was obviously lost from some place nice, as he was gorgeous, and of course he ran right up to my Mom and her Corgi companions. Just as he got to them, he dropped on his belly and crawled toward them, wiggling all over. Our crazy puppy Corgi barked and snarled at him like there was no tomorrow and of course the Pit Bull turned tail and ran away from my Mom and away from the man who was still jabbering into his cell phone and screaming about the "killer Pit Bull" running rampent in our town.
So we ask you this. If this had been a poodle or a golden retriever or any other breed that we could think of, do you think this man would be screaming about the killer dog running loose on the streets? Keep in mind that the killer dog was obviously well kept, well fed, absolutely gorgeous, and clearly looking for friends to get the crazy man to stop chasing him.
Mom tried to tell him to stop chasing the poor dog as the man was only scaring it more and she was afraid it would get hit by a car; but the last she saw of them was as they rounded the corner onto a bigger street and were soon out of sight.
By the way, both of the Corgies were quite entertained by the whole event and now think that something exciting like that should happen to them every day.
Mom says this kind of stuff is called Breed Discrimination and that Breed Discrimination is something that it is very important that we understand and then abolish.
One of our very favortie places to visit in cyberspace is called Saving America's Dog and this wonderful web site is put together by Best Friends Animal Society in Utah. Many of the Vick-tory dogs as we call them (the dogs abused so badly by evil Mr. Michael Vick and his stupid head friends) are still at Best Friends, but many have finally found a forever home because of the wonderful work that is done at Best Friends.
Best Friends is like National Public Radio. It is one of those places you just take for granted and you forget you should contribute to help them do their good work and reporting.
Here is a great picture from the website for Saving America's Dog:
This PitBull is being hugged by someone who works at Best Friends. And you can tell from it's sad eyes that it would much rather be hugged (and tucked in at night) by it's very own Mom and/or Dad. Think about that when you tuck your pup in tonight, won't you?
One of our favorite Pit Bull places to visit is a great Blog called Have Dog Blog Will Travel and I discovered it because I fell in love with Cici who is the Pit Bull who lives with Ms. Celia Sue who writes the blogging. Ms. Celia is a bit more outspoken than I am. All of my friends know that I am basically a lover, not a fighter, and whereas sometimes I might be thinking things, I try to be gentle in my approach to any subject I encounter.
I have only gotten "really mad at everything in the world" a few times in my blogging and they all involved being cruel to dogs - like my reporting about the horrors inflicted upon The Spanish Galgo and the work of Scooby Medina in Spain; like my reporting on Patrick the dog in New Jersey who was nearly dead of starvation when he was rescued; and of course about Michael Vick.
But today is a happy day! I think that people are starting to discover that us Pitties are the BEST dog (and that just perhaps you should think about having one come and live with you). You won't be sorry, that's for sure.
We want to say thank you again to Donna Chambers in Greater Syracuse; to Ms. Celia Sue and her way with words, especially because she tells it like it really is; and to Ms. Bev and Ms. Ellen for taking great photo graphs of me, Bob. Oh and yeah, a BIG, BIG thank you to Mr. William Gilliam of Hawaii and to the wonderful portrait of me that he recently painted for his amazing Canine Portrait Project:
Happy National Pit Bull Awareness Day to EVERYONE!!!!!!!!
Love and Licks,
Your friend, Bob
Another wonderful portrait of me, Bob, from my friend Angie Ketelhut, Art by Angie
And one of my favorite photo graphs from Ms. Bev Hollis
Categories: We Have a Dream, Our Friends
Tags: American Pit Bull Terrier blogging pitbull Bev Hollis Photography Best Friends Animal Sanctuary Ellen Zangla Photography Everything and The Dog
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