Winnie the Pibble

American dog breeds inspire all kinds of hot debate. Search on the registries (AKC, UKC, ADBA and AADR), and you’ll find debates raging from points on Italian Greyhound conformation to Irish Wolfhound features. No breed generates as much discussion, though, as the Pit Bull or the American Pit Bull Terrier (APBT) or the American Bully. I don’t want to try to resolve any of the debates about which dog is which or if any is the same as another (in fact, I’ll just call the various dogs that go by these names as “pibbles”), but I do want to point out that the American public thinks that there is one breed that goes by several names. Moreover, the American public believes that, for the most part, it’s a bad breed of dog. Now, no one can deny the viciousness of the attacks associated with pibbles. The images available online can be horrific and terrifying. And they break my heart, which is why I currently feature pibble art on my FB page for my dogsitting businessCreature Comforts. The slogan on the picture, “Beware Pit Bulls — They Will Steal Your Heart” is taken from a list of top ten reasons not to trust pit bulls. This list is everywhere on the web, but here it is again, if you haven’t seen it yet:

Top Ten Reasons Why You Can’t Trust Pit Bulls:

10. They will steal your spot on the couch while you are up getting a soda.

9. They will take the treat you give them and bury in the back yard like a paranoid crack head hiding their stash.

8. They will jump on your bed with muddy feet. Making you do the laundry…again!

7. They will lick visitors with an uncontrolled passion only they understand.

6. They will cause children to smile.

5. They will make you feel horrible for not walking them by looking at you with deep sad eyes.

4. They will look at you like you committed a crime against them if you don’t let them lick your ice cream bowl.

3. They will cause wide spread happiness in large group settings.

2. They will crack you up by shaking their butts so hard you think they are going to snap in half.

And the number one reason why you can’t trust vicious Pit Bulls…

1. They will steal your heart like a thief in the night, showing you complete and pure love that only a Pit Bull can show.

One of my favorite dogs these past few years has been a pibble. Her name was Winnie, and she made my trips to the barn extra-special. She was extra-sweet, had an extraordinary fondness for horse treats, especially carrots, and never failed to make everyone smile. She stole our heart like a thief in the night, and we lost her a few months ago. It’s hard for me to reconcile my memories of Winnie with the images of snarling bully dogs, and I know that the most vicious of them have been raised and trained to be aggressive. I also know that many, if not most, of the dogs in the pound are pibbles, and I worry about their future. I find myself wishing that we would stop breeding these dogs. Their potential for being abused and misused is so great. But I also think of Winnie and the complete and pure love she showed us.

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