Three for the road

Toronto Animal Services South is holding three Pit Bulls while they await placement with Bullies in Need.

I always used to hear what seemed to me to be outlandishly biased stories about Pit Bulls and their behaviour and I never really quite believed all those stereotypes but now that I've met Malakai, Nitwit and Spike, I have to admit those stories are pretty accurate. Pit Bulls are the most ferocious cuddlebugs I've ever met.

At the end of every walk, I usually like to bring the dog over to a bench and have a bit of a sit down. Sometimes the dog is affectionate and comes over for pets. Quite often, though, the dog is so starved for time in the outdoors that it's too excited looking around and sniffing the air to pay a whole lot of attention to me unless I make a point of calling it over.

With Malakai and Nitwit, however, they took every opportunity to nuzzle up to me during their walks and as soon as I sat down, they hopped up on the bench and draped themselves across my lap and then they relaxed. It was like they were saying, "Finally!"

They tried to lick me several times but because we were outdoors in Ontario, they had to wear muzzles and so their kisses felt more like nose butts.

The third Pit Bull, Spike, is gorgeous though I can see how he would intimidate some people, especially those who don't really like dogs in the first place. He's got a big honkin' head for starters with small ears which his previous owner cut to make even smaller. He's also ridiculously muscle bound. He's like the dog version of a steroid sucking body builder.

When he jumped up on the bench with me, he didn't slump over my lap and maul me with affection like the other two but instead sat quietly beside me and calmly looked around and enjoyed the feel of the warm sun. We could have sat there all afternoon if I didn't have to go back to work.

Spike had his muzzle on but people were still giving him the eye more out of admiration than anything else I think.

One big guy came up to me, but not too close, and said, "Beautiful dog."

"Yes, he is," I said.

"They're really misunderstood. They've been given a bad rap, those dogs."

"Oh yeah," I said.

"We used to fight those dogs. Long time ago. But they can be great dogs. It's all up to the owner, how they're treated."

"Uh huh," I said and I wondered if when the guy said "we" he meant himself personally or he meant a collective "we".

"Yeah, anyway, great looking dog. See ya later," he said.

"See you later," I said.


I didn't bring my camera with me today to TAS, thinking it was going to rain all day making outdoor picture taking difficult. I'll try and take some photos of the three Pitties tomorrow and post them up.

Photos here.