A Pit Bull Changed My Life

The Mom here.

I just had someone recently ask me where and how do I get the ideas to do all the volunteering (I'll save that for another post later) I do. I could easily list off several names of people that have helped me get to where I am today, but the more I thought about it I realized that everything I do now is because of my dogs; who knows where I'd be today if it wasn't for rescuing a pit bull we named Emma.

I was heading down a long road of schooling towards a career as a psychologist, just got married 6 months prior, was a homeowner for about 1 month, and was thinking about getting a dog in about 6 months when I got word of a dog that needed a home. My brother had been taking care of this 5 month old puppy that his roommates had got from a humane society; the roommates decided they were not ready for a dog and wanted to return her. My brother loved the goofy girl that he'd been caring for and did not want to see her returned to the humane society, so he called me asking if I wanted a dog. We were not ready for a dog, but his story about her was tempting, so I asked what breed she was....a pit bull. I was just like many of you that believed the media about pit bulls; I was unsure if they could be trusted and be good dogs. I decided to give her a chance and go and meet her. She was not what I expected! I'm not sure what I expected; maybe a shy, fearful dog or a dog that would growl and bark at me. She was neither. As soon as I walked in the door she bounced off the sofa and tried to jump in my arms because she was so happy to see me. She was a goofy girl because she couldn't get her legs to work right on the hard wood floors and was slipping and sliding everywhere. I fell in love with her immediately and took her home. It didn't take us long to see that she was an awesome dog; she didn't bark at anyone and loved everyone she met. Our minds were changed forever about pit bulls.

From there on out we became huge pit bull advocates; fostering pit bulls and getting our beloved Mikko. My career path has changed over the years after falling in love with pit bulls. I thought I wanted to have a career working with animals and therefore got off my path to be a psychologist and went towards vet tech or vet. It quickly turned into loving how to train dogs and I started working and training with a dog training facility. My final stop on my career path is social work. I came to this stop from my therapy dog work with Mikko and the shelter/residential kids we visit.

It's weird for me to think back at how different I was just 5 years ago and how it was changed by a pit bull. I wish everyone would take the chance I took to get to know a pit bull because they just might change your life. :)