Erica’s Blog

OK, for those of you quietly worrying about us in light of the recent highly-publicized alleged pit bull mauling death of the 12-year-old in San Francisco, here’s a bit of information:

• Both dogs were intact (not “fixed”).  This makes them much more aggressive.
• The female was in heat.  This makes the male MORE aggressive.
• The dogs had not been through training.
• Neighbors have reported that they have seen the boy hit the dogs with a stick in the past. (Don’t know how reliable this is; you know how people can be after the fact.)
• The dogs were being bred (this usually means for fighting purposes)
• The police are investigating the possibility that the dogs did not kill the boy.

For the record:

• Jenna has been altered (“fixed”, not that she was broken).
• B/c Jenna has been altered, she’ll never be in heat and therefore not bring out that kind of aggression in a male dog.
• Even before we got her, Jenna had been through training with a well-known, reputable dog trainer.
• We don’t hit Jenna.
• Jenna is not being trained/bred for fighting.
• We don’t leave the girls home alone with Jenna.
• We don’t leave Jenna unattended when we’re not home; she stays happily in her crate with her treats.

There’s all kinds of scuttlebutt going around the local pit bull community.  You should see how many emails we’ve gotten about this in the last couple of days!  Cindy, the lady who runs Reunion Rescue, was on the 11:00 news the day it was first reported, but we didn’t see her.  We’ll keep you posted.  I hate to see dogs as sweet as Jenna get such a bum rap.

Grandma came to town ever so very briefly for a surprise party for Aunt Becky.  To enable everyone to get to see her, RickAdri had a barbecue.  We didn’t tell the girls Grandma was going to be there.  They were really glad to see her, and completely excited when the baby cousins showed up. 

Of course, then there was when Thing One wouldn’t come out of the bathroom b/c she hated the shirt she had to wear for the big “Cousins” picture.  (This is why she looks so miserable in the above picture.)

Then there was when Thing One wouldn’t come out of the bathroom b/c she didn’t want to leave w/Grandma there.  She insisted she was staying right there and not going home.  On the way home, she really scared us b/c she kept saying she wanted to get out of the car and go back to cousins’ house to see Grandma.  We got afraid b/c we don’t have the child lock turned on on her car door, so we were afraid she’d open the door and try to get out while we were flying down the freeway.  It was SO hard to see her hurting so much, but what a nice problem to have — she really loves Grandma and wants to spend time with her.

We stopped at the cemetery on the way over to their house.  As usual, we left flowers for Baby Paul, Grandpa, Uncle Peppie, and Grandma Jennie & Grandpa Paul.  It was interesting, this time Thing One was talking to Paul while we were there.  She hasn’t done that before.  I cried, of course.  Somehow, I always really have to go to the bathroom when we’re there, so we don’t get to stay too long.  I think that’s probably God protecting my sanity.  ;->

Paul’s birthday is coming up in just a few weeks.  It’s SO weird to think it’s been nearly a year!  Hubby’s probably going to take July 12 and 31 off from work.  They’ll be really hard days; we’re both dreading them already.