Gary Watkins, eleven years old, was absorbed in chasing lizards when Weela, the family Pit Bull, plowed into him with a body slam that sent him sprawling. Gary's mother, Lori, saw the whole incident and remembers being surprised at first, because Weela always played kindly with children. But her surprise quickly turned to horror when she saw a rattlesnake sink its fangs into Weela's face. Somehow Weela had sensed the snake's presence from across the yard and rushed to push Gary out of strinking range.
Luckily for thirty people, twenty-nine dogs, thirteen horses and a cat, Weela recovered from the snake's venom. Luckily, because that's how many lives she saved a few years later. For her heroism, Weela was named Ken-L Ration's Dog Hero of the Year inDo you want to know why pit bull owners so love and defend the breed?
My dog, Cheyenne, and I walk into a room at the nursing home we visit each month. In the bed, I see a curled up figure barely visible beneath the thin cotton blanket. As I walk around the bed to face the "patient", my eyes meet those of a white haired, frail little woman. In them, there seems to be no expression, no recognition, no emotion. Cheyenne slowly places her paws on the edge of the bed bringing her golden colored head and tender brown eyes into view. The woman's gaze drifts from me to Cheyenne, and I watch as the transformation occurs. A spark of life comes into her eyes, the corners of her mouth turn up ever so slightly and the knees which were tightly pulled to her chest begin to relax and unfold.
The value of animals in promoting healing and growth has become increasingly recognized among professional care providers, clinical practitioners, and educators. Today, trained and certified animal/handler teams are used in medical, psychiatric, rehabilitation, and special education facilities throughout the world to provide a medium for assisting individual where traditional methods fall short.
What makes For Pits' Sake鈩?Animal-Assisted-Therapy unique is that the real work is done by animals, not humans. Time and again, our four-footed "therapists" have elicited nearly miraculous responses from deeply troubled or abused children, physically traumatized hospital patients, and even those who are terminally ill. We have seen a child use a hand that was partially paralyzed from illness strive hard and succeed in stroking our dog, Dakota's, back. On another occasion, we have seen one of our dogs curled up contently in the arms of a man wha had recently had a stroke and was very depressed. Since touch is a powerful sense and speech was unnecessary, the man smiled as he stroked Cheyenne's fur. The nurse told us she had never seen this man smile.
Participating facilities feel the program is a critical part of their total therapy. The consistent, regular visits from both humans and animals achieve lower heart rates, calm disturbed children, get uncommunicative people to convers and increase an ill person's chances for survival. Nursing home patients respond more to visitors when they are accompanied by pets and even physically aggressive patients become more tolerant of others when an animal is present. Convalescing residents, victims of Alzheimer's disease and chronically ill patients look to the visits from For Pits' Sake鈩?volunteers and our companions to dispel loneliness, focus attention on life and bring hope in the midst of their recovery.
Here is another great story
They are warm, loving, sweet, loyal, funny, easy to get along with and they're a great friend.Do you want to know why pit bull owners so love and defend the breed?
I have never owned a pit bull, but I am fully in support of the breed. They are great courageous loving dogs.
well most people think pit bulls are ugly and so how would you feel.. just looking at them and someone throws dirt on them saying they are ugly. wouldnt you defend them?
pit bulls rock and they are NOT agressive unless u train them to be and i have 3 of them and i think my town is putting a ban on pitbulls i love these dogs.
I don't have a Pit - more of a smaller doggie person...have 2 doxies... but I think that rather than the dog...it's more the owner....it's a few owners that are giving the breed a bad name....it's quite sad really. I do realize that the breed itself is more aggresive genetically but alot of it has to do with the way that it was raised....that's a sad story but Weela's a true hero.... :)
Well, it is in the nature of dogs to defend their territory and to defend their people - dogs like and need to belong to a group and they like and need a job to do. There are many, many examples in the news of dogs who have saved kids, homes, owners from one thing or another.
There are also many examples in the news of pit bulls going bonkers and chewing up the kids and whatnot.
The way I look at it, these bad dogs were never domesticated properly by their owners and their social environment, and also their owners in all likelihood unconsciously trained their dogs to be covertly aggressive - many of the people who get them are aggressive-fearful bully types themselves.
It is not that pit bulls are the only dogs that get mis-trained either - many people think they'd like to have a dog, but they just don't do animal training and bonding and so on, and their dogs end up with all kinds of quirks and flukes.
I have had 2 Pit Bulls and I have to say, they are one of the most loving, caring, cuddling, warm animals I have ever met. I feel so sorry for them because people believe that they are nasty and vicious creatures, but they aren't. People make them that way and its disgusting.
That story right there proves that they aren't all horrible. Treat them nice and they'll be 3 times nicer back to you.
Thank you so much for posting this and for posting the link. I have a Pittie who was a rescue that I got at barely three weeks old. She is so gentle and sweet around kids. I have no doubt that she would give her life in an instant if she thought she could save someone. Thanks for the good side of the news. I am horrified by the trend to ban specified breeds with Pit Bulls at the top of the list.
U totally rock!!!!!!! I absolutely adore pitbulls and I love my pitbulls 2 death. I think nobody has a happy life until they fall in love with a pitty :) It's people like u that make me smile and realize that their really r people out there that truly understand the breed! There is no such thing as a bad breed just bad breeding! Pitbulls will do the very best at whatever u ask them 2 do---Be the best companion, they will be the very best that they can be!!! THANK U--- KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!
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