YOU HAVE A *GASP* PIT BULL??

Since I was at my first big family event since adopting my pit bulls, many of my family members asked what was new in my life so I of course told them about my dogs. There was a mixed bag of reactions. Some thought it was great, with some the breed did not even come up, some seemed wide-eyed until I showed them pictures, and a couple just refused to believe they could be good, safe dogs. But all of them seemed shocked when I showed them pictures of my dogs cuddling with the cat.

My uncle and I had the most interesting/strange conversation. He lives in Ft. Lauderdale and says there is a huge problem with pit bull attacks. That may be true, but it also may just be the case that he is hearing a bunch of hoopla from the media. Pit Bulls are banned in Miami and there are a lot of lower-income areas in Florida where these great dogs may not be raised or treated right. So our conversation went something like this:

Uncle: How do you walk 2 large dogs at once?

Me: It's not very hard but I mostly have them off leash.

Uncle: How can you do that? (Flabbergasted)

Me: Well, I just take them to places they are allowed off-leash like parks, hikes, lakes and beaches.

Uncle: But what if there are other people and dogs around?

Me: Then my dogs will probably say hi to them. They have many friends.

Uncle: And they don't fight?

Me: No, they play.

Uncle: (Moving on in disbelief.) How do you keep the dogs separated from the cat?

Me: I don't.

Uncle: But don't they try to kill the cat?

Me: No, they love the cat.

That was pretty much it. The ironic thing is that my Uncle has one very angry and evil Jack Russel Terrier who has bitten and attacked many people. But hey, that's just who he is.

Unfortunately all of my family are east-coasters and the odds of them coming west to meet my k9/feline family are slim to none. Oh well.

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