December 9, 2015 by Debra

Full Speed Julius

If you follow the boys on Facebook, you’ll already know that Julius took a tumble last night as I picked him up at Day Care. As he was running up the stairs to greet me, he tripped, fell and landed on his jug-head then wouldn’t put any weight at all on his right front leg. The team at Day Care checked it out and collectively we decided that it was being held at an odd angle and given the fact that he wouldn’t try to put weight on it was concerning enough to consider a vet visit.

Even though it was not even 6:00 o’clock, I was just about to rush Julius to the emergency vet knowing we’d be able to have xrays done on the spot whereas Juli’s vet (I don’t believe) has that capability. Julius and Ray have actually always seen different veterinarians but remembering that Ray’s new vet’s office has extended hours and a lot of fancy equipment, I called and implored them to see Julius and they agreed to squeeze him in. I had just enough time to run home and pick up my dog vet record book and make it to the office.

He never just lies on the floor at the vet.

Ultimately there were no broken or dislocated bones, so Julius was sent home with kisses from all of his new RVT friends and a bagful of drugs.

This morning while he is no longer limping or favoring the leg, he tucked himself in bed in the spare bedroom after breakfast so I know he isn’t yet feeling up to snuff.

Brotherly TLC. last night

Thanks to everyone who sent well wishes and who continue to do so. We appreciate the good thoughts.

October 30, 2015 by Debra

“Pit Bull” Awareness Month

Yep, I’m sliding into the wan

ing days of the month with this post but bear with me, I have my reasons. Every October for the past several years I’ve embraced the concept of Pit Bull Awareness Month and celebrated all things Ray and Julius while working towards broad acceptance of seeing my boys and all other Pit Bull types of dogs as individuals, not as lumped sums of their breed, or breeds as the case may be. My boys are both Pit Bulls in the broadest sense of the word and yet they share absolutely no similar breed DNA. They are individuals.

Sugar, Julius, and Ray

In light of all of the ballyhoo with PeTa joining forces with the vitriolic group that I won’t link to here I was planning to sit out this round. I was asked by a friend and fellow Pit Bull Coalition member to help find an avenue to help spread awareness to the right people. Here’s the thing: in person I’m pretty confrontational and blunt. If you threaten or malign my dogs (or anyone I care about) I could very easily try to pull your eyeballs out with my fingernails while trying to figure out ways to really hurt you but when it comes to mudslinging and manufactured “statistics” from zealots, I try not to give credence in the form of attention. Much like when you are training a dog in a positive manner, you ignore the unwanted behavior and reward the desired behavior.

PeTa contends that it would be best to kill all Pit Bull types for their own good to save them from the criminal element who want to adopt them. There aren’t many words in that sentence that I don’t take issue with but many people more reasonable and more informed than I have addressed such lunacy, so I won’t bother other than to point out that of course, I don’t want to see Pit Bulls abused, but I don’t want to see any animal abused. I just don’t think that killing them all will solve the issue.

In the vein of positive reinforcement, I also want to take this moment to write a bit more about what you might and might not see here. Get it? Same message but different delivery. I have a pretty dry and sarcastic sense of humor but you won’t see me engaging in the tongue in cheek “pit bull attack” pictures of dogs licking babies. Here at Peaceabull we don’t “do” the words vicious, monster, attack, or aggressive even if we are describing how heartily we show love and affection and we don’t assume (well maybe we do, but we don’t verbalize it) that you are working from a point of prejudice about our dogs. You don’t like my dog? I’m not going to assume it is because they are pit bulls, and by that assumption I am giving you the benefit of a doubt that you are not an asshole. (Oops! There’s the eyeball pluckers coming out!)

August 4, 2015 by Debra

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way From the Front

The end of July and the beginning of August are definitely times for reflection around here. Two years ago a happy little “scruffian” bound into our lives and never left. Once we decide he was going to stay with us, we had such big plans for our Julius. He would be the ambassador that Ray didn’t want to be and he would open hearts and minds just with his sweet, open demeanor. Well on the way to that were some stumbling blocks like this and many more instances of the same ilk.

Chewbacca.

Julius started going to Dayplay mostly because whenever he’d see a dog he would go ~~apeshitcrazy~~ nuts to play with them. We figured playing with a multitude of dogs on a weekly basis would cure that, but not so much. I guess the bonus was that in the Vet’s office we usually don’t have to wait because they like to bring him in to a room quickly. Go figure. Then we thought that Pack Walk would be a good way to get him used to being in a crowd of dogs without needing to be all up in everyone’s business. After a full year, I’d say that is beginning to happen.

Leader of the Pack

Over the course of the past year, I have been going round and round about Julius and his need to be in the lead. I don’t really believe that he wants to be “leader of the pack” as much as if he sees a dog he wants to be with that dog, so following just made him strain that much more. I was often told, he has to learn sometime that he can’t always be in front. On one had I agreed and yet on the other hand I thought why does he have to learn that? Was there a hidden agenda? What if he never learned that?

Growing Up

Well a funny thing happened to my ambassador/not ambassador dog. He became a Foster Step Father and his behavior and demeanor grew to accommodate his new status. Although the staff at day play always remark on how “appropriate” he is, it was wonderous to see him in action with not only the Sugar Babies, but also with Sugar herself. He was the self appointed guardian of all things and even kept a watchful eye on his “big brother” Ray to ensure proper behavior towards our guests. While I found this new Julius ~~mindblowing~~ remarkable, I didn’t realize how much so until a recent pack walk.

We had invited the family of one of the puppy’s adopters. They have a Granddog who needed a bit of socialization and like with Ray, the early years, the more full of ~~assholery~~ vinegar he acted, the less I was inclined to socialize him until it became a downward spiral.

Backseat

So this handsome dog, Diesel, brought his family to pack walk and after the first five minutes there my heart went out to the family. I had been there so many times already with Julius. The jumping, the screaching, the all out shenanigans and the tears. I suggested that they lead and while I thought to fall in second with our usual walking partner, I realized that if Julius could see Dahey he might be ok, so we fell into third place and had a very successful walk. Diesel settled very quickly (faster than Juli ever did) and by the end of the walk, smiles were miles wide.

It takes a village..

The following week, we fell into the same order and immediately all could see a vast difference.

The Change

While Julius isn’t done growing and maturing by a long shot, the difference in him is just astounding. Recently I took him to my daughter’s house so he could play mediator between Sugar and the new foster dog, Bitsy. Sugar wasn’t a huge fan yet and through some play and supervision the girls settled into a deeper appreciation of each other but the proudest moment came when the neighbor’s little dog stood on its deck and repeatedly yapped but got no reaction from Julius (or the girls.)

Ladies love Julius

The Icing

Tonight, after taking Ray for his rehab walk, I decided to take Juli around the neighborhood too. This is something I rarely do-walk Julius without Ray’s steady presence however it is impossible at the moment. While he isn’t even close to perfect on leash yet, we did walk past several people, kids and at least 4 barking dogs and Julius kept calm and quiet. I was bursting with pride and possibly strutting a bit. At one point, a neighbor apologized to us about his dog barking. I wanted to ask him to video us!

I don’t know. At two and a half, Julius just seems to have found his stride and because of that we are walking pretty proudly. Happy Gotcha week to my Ambassador.

May 6, 2015 by Debra

It Takes A Village

*Update: Bentley got adopted today. 5/6/15. I won’t pretend that while I’m happy that I might have had just the slightest twist to my heart when I got the news.

Sometimes the stories that mean the most are hardest to write; at least they seem harder to start. This one has been pinging around in my head for awhile and I keep trying and discarding the beginning, so maybe it will help if I just let it flow.

I’m wondering if this story is so hard to start because there are so many morals to it. Maybe it’s just not organized as well as I’d like it to be for the telling.

Some people shy away from adopting a shelter dog because they don’t know the dog’s history. In many cases, even if a dog winds up at the shelter because the owner surrendered it (rather than showing up as a stray) we don’t really know the history. We know the provided history only. I guess there are the people who have run out of resources and have to surrender and then there are those who just need to “get rid” of their pet. It can’t be easy and those people may or may not be aware that their words at surrender could possibly condemn your dog unfairly.

The first time I saw Bentley was in a picture that was sent to me on March 26^th.

I had been an official Board member of the Fort Wayne Pit Bull Coalition for a whole five days when a Board member from a neighboring shelter contacted me about an abundance of Pit Bulls currently at their facility. We set a time to come and evaluate possible candidates for our rescue and I was the first to arrive so the Warden’s wife took me on a mini tour and I met the 6 pit bulls in house. Immediately Bentley grabbed my attention. In a large, clean pole barn stood two long banks of double kennels which could be partitioned off in case of a full house. Amid all of the barking and jumping on kennel doors, sat a large red lump with an impossibly large head. As we walked along the line, I was given a brief recap of the little bit of info available on each dog. The majority of the dogs were known by the number on their kennel and not given names, unless they arrived with one.

Bentley and Trina were the only Pit bulls with names. Trina had become the Warden’s wife’s favorite and then there was the large red lump named Bentley. Apparently Bentley was surrendered with nearly the equivalent of a death sentence: “He’s great with people and kids, but tries to kill other animals, including horses.”

When the rest of the team arrived, we began bringing the dogs out to the yard for assessment. The younger dogs, the under one crew were about as expected and pretty much all fun, all the time. The young adult females were also good but with a few slight health issues and all the while we struggled a bit to find a “neutral dog” for the tests. We tried Trina as the neutral dog and she soon showed that not only was she not neutral, but she might not be a very good candidate for …anything. She was returned to her kennel and not evaluated. Finally after all five were seen, the Warden’s wife, turned plaintive eyes to us and asked that we just look at Bentley. Just try.

Long story short, Bentley quickly became the star of the day and left us all wondering about his true past. He and two others were selected for the Coalition-when space became available-but should be left to the adoption floor in the meantime, just in case.

Days then weeks passed and the Coalition, always short of Fosters, did not have space and the Pit Bulls sat.

Waiting.

One month later, I received another message that the same shelter was full and needed some relief and this came at the same time that our own shelter was able to pull some dogs, though with the abundance of abandoned Pit bulls in our community, that type of dog as well as Chihuahuas and a few others was rarely “imported.” However, since Bentley had specially touched me, I was hopeful that he might be among the chosen to come to our shelter.

“What is the benefit of pulling dogs from one shelter just to put them in another one?” the Warden’s wife asked. The Allen County SPCA’s kennels are full of enrichment and some training for their temporary guests. Generally when walking through the kennels, one is greeted with soft music and otherwise silence. Dogs learn quickly that sitting quietly buys treats while jumping and barking brings nothing.

Bentley was pulled (have I mentioned how much I love that Executive Director of ours?) and quickly became a staff favorite as well as a garner of compliments from the Veterinarian’s office staff while visiting for his snip-snip. Even on his first day at our shelter, I got the sense that he was happy to be there and he recognized his good fortune and saw his bright future.

Had we relied solely on the surrender information, and without a good word from the Warden’s wife, Bentley might not have been evaluated and certainly may have languished in the kennel until his space was needed. His big, sweet face haunted my mind, but had we not evaluated him, I might have let him go from my mind. Had he not shown himself to be a huge cinnamon sugar cookie of a dog, he might not have had a champion pulling for him. I don’t know.

What I do know is that despite whatever may or may not have happened in the past and because so many people stepped up and gave him a chance, Bentley’s future is bright.

But it takes a village.

April 20, 2015 by Debra

Expo Time!

What a beautiful weekend it was here in Northeast Indiana. On Saturday the sun was shining, birds were singing and what seemed like the entire neighborhood was outside doing yard work. Sunday was warm but overcast and that lead to rain which lead to good nap taking weather.

I actually didn’t do either thing on either day because it was time once again for the Northern Indiana Pet Expo and as is my custom, I worked volunteered both days. Each year rescues and shelters bring adoptable animals and vendors bring their wares and we immerse ourselves in All! Things! Pet! for the weekend. (Because we clearly aren’t about All! Things! Pet! the majority of the time.)

This year was a bit different because for the first year I split my time between two organizations rather than dedicating the entire weekend to one. On Saturday I spent the day with the adorable handful of love named Benson who became also known as Benny Boo Boo Boo Boo Boo Boo Boo. (Recommend that his be said in your best Kate Hudson voice.)

Benson

The rap on him was that he was a handful, but staff had been working really hard with him on his manners and it really showed. He was a delightful companion who is probably resting comfortably on his own sofa right about now.

Recently, after a bit of soul-searching, I wondered to myself why I wasn’t involved with the local Pit Bull Coalition after all I live with and love Pit Bull-type dogs and am committed to helping them, so what was I waiting for? The truth is, the Coalition has had its ups and downs and until I met one of the Board Members on a Pack walk, I wasn’t sure how the mission was being carried out. After learning more and going through the interview process, I’m pretty proud to say that I am a new Volunteer and Board Member of the Fort Wayne Pit Bull Coalition. As such, I worked at the Coalition booth on Sunday where we hosted the rambunctious but polite Titan (whom I’ve met and transported already)

Titan

and the very sweet and slightly shy Bug-A-Boo (with whom I clicked immediately).

Bug-a–Boo

I was bemused at how many people mistook Benson and Titan for Julius and Boo for Ray. Both received applications and will hopefully be in their forever homes soon as the waiting list for those waiting fosters in rescue goes on and on. In the meantime we do what we can for as many as we can.

We hope your weekend was just as awesome.

February 5, 2015 by Debra

The Vicktory Dogs

If you know me, you know that I’m ~~mildly obsessed~~ an avid follower of the Vicktory Dogs but truth be told, back in 2007 when the Michael Vick investigation took place, I really didn’t give much thought to “those dogs.” I’ve never been a fan of MV, but hey, whatevs. This whole dog fighting thing was foreign to me.

A common question at Best Friends is “how did you hear of us?” and the pat answer for me was through the Michael Vick thing, but really it was this article that set me on a path that has truly changed my life. That was when this gal happily plunged down the rabbit hole of Pit Bull ownership, rescue, volunteerism and became not only a fan of so many dog blogs, but of all of the Vicktory Dogs who have a public persona.

Part of my collection.

(Side note: technically “Vicktory Dogs” is the nickname for only the 22 dogs who went to Best Friends though the other roughly 28 dogs might be referred in a similar manner, I use this term both ways.)

So immersed am I in following the incredible journey of these dogs and their families that I often forget (or it never occurred to me) that some people go to Best Friends for reasons other than the Vicktory Dogs. Still countless others are completely unaware of their existence. That’s just crazy talk to me. Until I read that article about Mel, I really never saw these dogs as the victims, even though I was a dog lover. I just didn’t make the connection. That article was to change my life for the better and as a part of that, it was my hope to someday meet one of these small heroes who endured so much to come out better on the other side and who have directly effected a change in how dogs from fighting busts are handled.

I knew that there are six Vicktory dogs still at Best Friends as well as one that “works” there so it would be a pretty good bet (I hoped) that I would get to “meet” at least one of them but not in my wildest dreams did I expect what actually happened.

Ray the Vicktory Dog

Earlier this week I mentioned that we “encountered a special surprise” at Angel Village. Ray was once and always will be a Vicktory Dog, but he now enjoys not only a home of his own but he comes to work every day with his Mom who actually works at Best Friends. I knew from his Facebook page that he and his Mom walk to Angel Village every day so on Friday, our first day at the Sanctuary, after our tour ended we headed over to Angel Village waiting for lunch to begin. As we sat in the car, I saw from the mirror a familiar-looking woman walking an oh-so-familiar little dog. I may or may not have squealed at Kevin, “There’s RAY!” and then proceeded to freeze in my seat. As they completed their business inside Kevin said, “They’re leaving, you better say Hi,” and I quite literally spilled myself out of the car. I flung open the door, dropped my camera out of my lap and into the dusty dirt, spilled my purse and caused enough of a ruckus that Ray and his Mom stopped in their tracks, presumably assessing the crazy lady.

They approached and let us pet Ray who leaned against me (swoon) ~~as I gushed~~ we chatted a bit and then Ray’s mom said something magical and so generous to me. If we finished with lunch early enough, we could come take Ray for a car ride. He isn’t so keen on leash walking with strangers but he will ride in a car with anyone. Naturally we made sure we were done so that we could have the honor of driving Mr. Ray about the Sanctuary. He definitely loved his car ride and effectively ignored his chauffeurs!

Ray the Vicktory Dog

I’m sure you’re dying right now, right?

Meryl

Lucas and Meryl were court ordered to live out their lives at Best Friends. Lucas was the grand champion and deemed to be of great value “on the street” so lived out a good life at the Sanctuary.

From Best Friends website:
“Meryl has worked so hard at Best Friends to overcome her painful past as a fighting dog rescued from the property of Michael Vick. It took a lot of effort, time and patience, but Meryl can now meet new people (staff members only) very politely. She can also allow new people near her octagon without having a panic attack. That’s tremendous success for a dog who once equated people with terrible pain and suffering. And now the student has become the teacher! She’s been paying it forward here at Best Friends. Because she has such good leash manners around other dogs, she’s been used as a model for others without the same grace. Meryl’s calm, cool and collected nature puts the other dogs at ease, so they no longer feel compelled to react when passing another dog. Meryl was court-ordered to live at Best Friends for the rest of her life.”

I was fortunate to volunteer at Meryl’s octagon and snap a few pictures of her. I called her name and she faced me with her ears perked and a friendly countenance.

Meryl

She is beautiful, fit and seems like a very happy dog..

Mya and Curly

Meeting Ray and being allowed to take him for a car ride was more than I had ever hoped for. Seeing pictures hanging in tribute to Lucas in Dogtown’s headquarters was touching, spying Meryl through the fence of her run was very cool and all of those things combined could have been enough to send me home with an overabundance of the warm fuzzies. But then, there was that one last volunteer shift.

Mya and Curly live in Dogtown offices during the week to help them with their social skills but return to The Clubhouse on the weekends. The striking thing about all of the Vicktory Dogs was that they are all so tiny; none of them were taller than knee-height to me and I’m only 5’3″.

When I met the caregiver that Sunday morning and we talked about the agenda for the day and my ~~slight obsession~~ interest in the Vicktory dogs he said we would try to get me some time with them. Just that glimmer of a hope was pretty cool and seeing them in their run was enough to make me happy. Mya is short and stout with bowed legs and Curly is even smaller and more compact and together their presence could be mistaken for two little shy dogs of no notoriety at all. When it was time, the caregiver, T, brought them both out on leash. His plan was that we would walk side by side and if the dogs didn’t seem too freaked, I would take a leash. I waited outside with my back turned (non-threatening body language) and he stopped next to me. Both dogs effectively ignored me as much as I struggled to ignore them so he handed me Mya’s leash and off we went for a walk. The trail for The Clubhouse like all of the others I had seen have a short version and a longer one, so the caretaker decided we would let Curly and Mya decide which way to go and to my delight, they chose the long path.

I didn’t take any pictures of them. These two brave little souls are still struggling with strangers and this big world and it wasn’t in my nature to disrupt them at all. Throughout our walk, “T” and I chatted about all things V-dog while Curly cast backward glances at me as if to insure that I was keeping my distance while Mya stoutly refused to acknowledge that anyone was on the other end of her leash, so there was no need to look around. I, on the other hand was on cloud 9.

Oh, how do I end this post? How do I end this adventure? Eventually our walk came to and end and we returned Mya and Curly to their area where they skittled away quickly and after about a 10 second try to coax them back, we respected their wishes and moved on. I walked a few more dogs and too soon Kevin came back to collect me and though I shook hands with the caregiver and left politely, inside I was kicking and screaming and refusing to leave.

We were off to the next part of our adventure and with but a small exception were both wishing we were back in Angel Canyon.

In case you’re wondering, here is a list of V dogs Facebook or other sites to the best of my knowledge and in no particular order.

Ray the Vicktory Dog

Oscar

Cherry Garcia and Cherry Garcia

Hallie and Friends
If I’ve missed any, be sure to let me know!

January 16, 2015 by Debra

Dogs as Art

While I do have some dog-centric art in our home, I don’t feel like there’s too much or even enough yet. (The hubby might disagree). The thing is, until recently I had lots of photos of other dogs in our home.

Recognize any of them? This is a portion of a collection I’ve gathered from participating in fundraisers, whether it’s been for Handsome Dan or Strut Your Mutt or even smaller fund raisers for blog dogs.

Well, I finally found some frames I like and made some prints of the Peaceabull boys to adorn my shelves and will be planning to commission some more art this year.

Hmmm…is this post s hint of some sort?

November 3, 2014 by Debra

In the Interest of Fairness

I’ve known that PetSmart had BDL pretty much ever since I had Ray, so close to three years. While I know it is wrong, I didn’t really give it too much thought for two reasons. One, there isn’t a PetSmart doggy daycamp near us and even if there were, we wouldn’t use them. We are so in love with the care, attention and socialization that Julius receives at Paw’s-n-Claw’s that we wouldn’t go anywhere else. And two, it’s hard to get past the fact that PetSmart does a lot for homeless animals. Even for homeless Bullies.

Proud to be a Pit Bull

There’s a huge push this week to urge PetSmart to rethink their policy to reflect a more open admission that is based on temperament and not on breed/looks.

After all, people look at these two and think “they look the same to me,” but they are as individual as a fingerprint with their own personalities, likes, dislikes and behaviors. Neither is better or worse than the other, but they are different. A passive solution would be to boycott PetSmart but to be honest, I don’t shop there very often at all. I’m there more often to participate in adoption events and there have been only two instances that I have not handled a “bully” at these events. Would PetSmart notice if I discontinued shopping there? Nope. Will I continue to handle dogs at adoption events held at PetSmart? Yep, however I won’t be spending money there nor am I asking you to boycott, that is a personal choice for everyone to make individually. I am asking you to voice your concern if you believe that all dogs should be seen as individuals.

Discrimination is discrimination and whether you would take advantage of their day care, or Pet hotel or not, I urge you to stand against this by posting your pictures to the PetSmart Facebook page with the hastags #SeparateIsNotEqual #WhyCantIPlay #EndBDL #PetSmart

October 31, 2014 by Debra

Happy Howl-oween

Naturally since Juli’s day care is so much fun, I knew there had to be some great festivities planned for Halloween and I wasn’t wrong. I had a couple of ideas for costumes but then like a shot it hit me.

Julius was going to don a wig and dress up as one of his day-play buddies, Jack the black standard poodle.

I’m pretty sure he nailed it. Do your pooches dress up for Halloween?

October 23, 2014 by Debra

Ray’s Rebuttal

So, my little brother thinks he’s sooo smart, eh? Here are some examples of why I disagree. He’s always goofing off when Mama tries to take pictures of ~~our~~ my handsomeness.

Derp Face

And he gets these looks on his face that just seem so…simple.

Simpleton

And he has no dignity.

Really?

But I guess even though he’s silly, he IS my little brother and ~~I love him a lot~~ I guess we might as well keep him.

Because like Mama says, we are yin and yang. He puts himself out there and meets people like a good ambassador so that I don’t have to. I prefer to take my time and hide behind my Mama for a while, so we suit each other just fine.

Yin and Yang

Peace-a-bull Assembly

Volunteer, Rescue, Adopt

american staffordshire terrier