I'm in love with a pitbull.

My friend, Kelli, who runs the dog rescue I have fostered for in the past, was going on vacation to see her son and needed to piecemeal all her dogs out to friends and family for a little over a week.  I volunteered to take one.  I asked for a small female; one who would fit the doggie door but not cause the male canines in my house to go on a mass peeing spree as they competed for turf.  She said she had just the dog; a little sweet youngster who just wanted to be loved - and she would fit through my doggie door.  Sounded perfect!  Another girlfriend of mine had just adopted a lhasa apso mix that was just precious so I was secretly excited for a young baby to come stay with me for a while.   

I met Kelli the other night at Petsmart (our usual meeting spot) to make the exchange.  She got out of the car and out behind her trotted a gorgeous pittie.

Shit.  That was not at all what I was expecting.

I had only that morning sprung it on KC that we were going to have another dog for "about a week," I had not prepared him that it would be a pit.  My husband's experiences with pitbulls have not been what one would call positive.  They have all been while he was at work on the Southside and they have all belonged to dopers or gangbangers who haven't exactly trained them to be friendly to the Boys (and Girls) in Blue....Less than a week ago he made a comment on one of my Facebook posts about getting chewed up by a pitbull.

"Your dad is going to kill me."  I said to Dear Daughter before I exited my vehicle.

I walked up to this beauty and her butt started to wiggle.  And I mean wiggle.  Like she could be in a Sir Mix-A-Lot video with her moves.  I knelt down and was met with a big ol' wet, sloppy kiss on my face.  Dear Daughter saw that as her cue that it was safe for her to get out too.  She listened as Kelli told us more about 'Brindie,' who was named for her wonderful fur; this included a lot of gushing about how great a pup she is.  Brindie jumped in the backseat of my car, put her nose between the two fronts seats, looked eye-to-eye with Dear Daughter and immediately kissed her, then turned and laid down.  She didn't make a noise the whole ride home.  We got out and DD ran inside to shut the door to the dog's room.  (Yes, my dogs have a room - don't judge.)  Brindie came in, sniffed around, then I let her outside - where my pack, that knew something was up - they could just smell it, charged through the doggie door and up into this sweet girl's business.  I had kept her on a leash; I wasn't yet sure how things were going to go between her and my rude brood.

Pepper, who I was most worried about, was surprisingly the most welcoming.  Frank and Baxter were complete jerks, to say the least.  Tink just saw this giant and ran to hide out of her way.  Zippy quickly followed Tink's lead.  Daisy, my old lady, wasn't sure what to think.  After letting them sniff her, she then tried to sniff them.  They were not very reciprocating in that department.  When I saw that she wasn't going to instigate any fights, I took her off her lead.  She shyly made the rounds around the yard and then came to me immediately upon being called.  We introduced her to the doggie door.  It took one time through and she had the hang of it.  So far so good....

I waited patiently for KC to come home.  Soon, I hear his car pull up and so do the dogs.  They start barking, spinning, and jumping.  He walks through the door and is swarmed by his furry babies - all vying for his attention.  He goes through his hellos to all of them, taking the time to pick up his favorite dog, (yes, he openly has a favorite) Frank, the poodle.  Brindie approaches him cautiously and he says out loud, "Oh boy.  Who's this?"  He makes the mistake of kneeling down and is immediately rushed by the pack, each aggressively wanting his affection.  He pushes them all out of the way and approaches Brindie, who promptly takes the submissive posture of laying down and showing her belly.  He rubs her belly, gives her a couple of pats, and gets up.  Taking that as an invitation, she gets up and jumps on him.  "No, get down," he sternly tells her and she runs off.

Whew.  Next step - feeding time.  Kelli must have fed her before bringing her to me because she took a couple bites and spit them out.  I didn't know it at the time and was worried she wasn't going to eat my food.  I found out the next morning that I had nothing to worry about; she ate like a champ.

She has continued to charm us.  Kelli wasn't lying - she is a big, goofy lovebug.  She sleeps on the couch in the dog's room (she is sacked out as I write this) and follows me whenever I change rooms.  She's got "the lean" down; whenever she's near, she has to be touching me by leaning against me to let me know she cares.  She wants to play with the other dogs so badly but she's so big, she's like the dog version of  Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer in that my dogs "never let poor Brindie, join in any doggie games."  She also loves Dear Daughter, so much that DD came in my room last night to let me know how upset she was with me for bringing this dog home.  "How am I supposed to let her go back in a week, Mom?  She's such a good dog!  Why can't our dogs be that well-behaved?  I just love her!"

And that seems to be the consensus in the house; at least the human consensus.  Even KC.  Of course, he remains steadfast in his favoritism of Freakin' Frank.  Which probably contributes to Frank's continued jerkiness.  But that's another post.

Beautiful Brindie

If you are looking for an amazingly sweet, loyal, well-behaved,
gorgeous canine addition to your family - I highly recommend you meet Brindie.  She converted KC, who was staunch in his "no pitbull" stance.  She will steal your heart the first day you bring her home, if not before.   This angel deserves a family where she will be loved forever because she will definitely love and be loyal to you forever.  We love her and if we were a bigger dog family, she wouldn't be going back to Kelli.  Our loss is your gain.