I don’t have anything political to talk about, but I read this article this morning, and I know you-all know a lot about dogs:
For any animal, a stay at a shelter or dog pound is often a harrowing experience. But for one type of dog, the “pit bull,” admittance to a government-run facility in Ohio such as the Lucas County dog pound is almost a guaranteed ticket to oblivion.
Strict state laws regarding ownership of “pit bulls” coupled with widespread public mistrust of the general breed have made it extremely difficult to find homes for these animals. That, together with an overabundance of “pit bulls” because of overbreeding and abandonment, means that when such dogs enter a pound they are the least likely to leave.There’s just nowhere for them to go,” Ms. Lyle explained recently. “There’s just way too many being born and becoming homeless.”
Similarly, the Toledo Area Humane Society destroys more “pit bull”-type dogs than other kinds of dogs, although officials there maintain this is a result of stricter behavior testing for the animals. Kill rates for “pit bulls” at the Humane Society are 18 percent, compared with the overall dog euthanasia rate of 10.5 percent. The society takes in some of the “pit bulls” from the Lucas County pound as well as from people who surrender them.
The situation is mirrored at pounds and shelters across the country, according to Adam Goldfarb, director of the Pets at Risk program for the Humane Society of the United States. An informal survey conducted by the society found that, on average, 30 percent of dogs entering shelters are “pit bulls” — with the rate shooting past 70 percent in some urban shelters, he said. In turn, kill rates for the dogs are high.
I have had only had one dog. She was a rescue greyhound that my daughter insisted we adopt. She was an absolute pleasure to have around, just the sweetest thing, and she lived with us for 16 years. She died fairly peacefully, when we had to put her down. I don’t know how old she was when we adopted her, but she was full grown, so I think she lived to 18 or so years.
Her racing name was “Helloooo Jilly!” We called her “Jilly”. I used to pretend that she spoke to make my kids laugh. I gave her a southern accent.
You can talk about dogs or anything else you’d like.
lamh34
Wow this just pisses me the hell off. TPM has decided to replay the PUMA wars of 2008. They have a post up from one of the editors titled “Buyer’s Remorse” and they are asking people to send them emails
@TPM Talking Points Memo
This has absolutely nothing to do with being an O-bot, I just want to know WTWH is the fuckin’ point of whole shoulda, woulda coulda BS? Does TPM needs page views that badly? Or has everybody in the liberal blogosphere gone fuckin’ crazy?
Mustang Bobby
Kay, re the pit-bull story, I’ve sorta been following the Lucas County dog warden story in The Blade because A) I’m from there and B) I love dogs and the idea of killing them just to make room makes me sad/pissed knowing I can’t do anything about it. I miss my Sam; my little Toto-lookalike who died nine years ago and still graces the masthead of BBWW.
As for the PUMA story, OFFS. It’s not like we’re dealing with rational people on the GOP side. I expected John Boehner to come out of a meeting and start screaming “Attica! Attica!”
Zyla
Potentially disproportionately dangerous dogs are treated differently. News at 11.
Any dog being killed is a tragedy. Dogs that are dangerous to others being killed is a lesser tragedy.
Jewish Steel
Our Spencer looks so much like the Space Coyote from the Simpsons that we’ve bestowed Johnny Cash’s gentlemanly voice on him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtsZj1KN3Pg
burnspbesq
I thought Krugman was going to go across the table and beat the shit out of Norquist on “This Week.”
Wish he had. I would have contributed to a defense fund.
So, continuing the hostage metaphor, it appears that the terrorists released one hostage, and in return got enough groceries to hold out for a year, plus clean clothes, toothpaste, and deodorant. Not a good day for America.
Yutsano
Ugh. Didn’t we have a PUMA fight when ACA passed? I just want to put this crap to bed so I know I won’t be working for free. And we still have zero guidance at work.
4tehlulz
Yes.
kay
I’m so glad I’m not the only one. I gave her a southern lady voice, because she was a very lady-like dog. I wanted to paint her toenails but they wouldn’t let me. They had read “dog care books” and such, the sticklers :)
leinie
We got adopted by a stray cat we named Emma Grace a few weeks ago. Turns out she’s about to have kittens. Like, in the next week or so, according to the vet. WTF do I know about kittens? My cats are always fixed. No good deed goes unpunished I guess. I’ve already got 3, Emma makes four and I’m terrified I won’t be able to find homes for the kittens.
Sarah in Brooklyn
I volunteer at the ASPCA, which is working really hard on spay/neuter of pit bulls. If more shelters could do that (and I know it’s often a question of resources) there might be less of a problem. It’s a tragedy, but one that I hope will get better as time passes.
Heliopause
Lots of big national news today and the FPers seem to be avoiding it like the Plague. How come?
Svensker
@Zyla:
Why are pit bulls more dangerous than other dogs?
We have a cousin who does pit rescue in Philly. She works with Pinups for Pitbulls .
WereBear
The pitbulls (and others) from Michael Vick’s fighting stable were mostly rehabilitated:
The Bad Rap website: lessons learned
So such treatment is basically an excuse to be lazy, timid, morons. There is a No Kill Shelter movement in this country.
The worst part is when they use badly understood temperament grading tests to kill puppies just for their breed. And many shelters do.
Lolis
I have to brag here because nobody else I know would care: My sister bought me a Book of Mormon ticket for when I go to New York. There was no way I could afford to pay this on my own. I am so thrilled.
Lysana
@Svensker: Pits aren’t more naturally dangerous than other dogs unless you want to get into technical discussions about bites. Any pit bull raised by a loving family is a loving dog. I’ve known several pits and pit crosses over time, and they are some of the sweetest dogs ever. In the 1980s, people like Zyla would’ve been similarly callous and dismissive about German shepherds and muttered stuff about breeding for attack purposes and smaller brain cases.
WereBear
Start now! Mark out some territory :) in coffee shops, at work, where the kids play, neighborhood bulletin boards. Post weekly updates, tell a tear-jerking story of Emma Grace’s rescue, and do pictures of the kittens from the time they are born. Take applications now.
By 2-3 months, when they are ready to go to their new homes, you can have people lined up at the door.
Lysana
@Lolis: Oh, that is FANTASTIC! I’ve been checking out clips on YouTube and the show has to be one of the funniest in years.
FoxinSocks
Yep, we liberals are definitely a little loopy today. I called my senators just now and left a message that ended with me bursting into tears and crying out, “Fight for us! Why won’t you fight for the middle class!”
Yeah, not one of my finer moments. (sigh) The debt deal utterly sucks, and I guess we’re giving up on that economic recovery thing, but at the same time, I can see how hard the Dems worked to make an atrocious deal a little less god awful. Still pissed though at this situation.
dedc79
Maybe they should have special licensing to own pit bulls. It’s clearly the owners who are at fault and not the dogs. A pit bull was adopted in my hometown a few weeks ago. It was fine around people but not around other dogs. The owner kept it in the back yard even though the fence obviously couldn’t keep it in. It got through the fence and attacked two dogs being walked down the street and ripped one of them open.
BD of MN
You laid on my naked body and applied your mouth to me without guilt or humiliation. You drove me near crazy while you drained me. Today when I awoke, you were gone. I searched for you but to no avail. Only the sheets bore witness to last night’s events. My body still bears marks of your ravishing, making it all the more difficult to forget you.
Tonight, I will remain awake, waiting for you, you f*cking mosquito…
Emma
Can someone point me to the details of the deal? All day I’ve been hearing ‘the deal sucks,’ ‘a huge defeat for the middle class,’ etc., etc. But nobody tells me what the hell was decided! All I find on the Web is speculation from a number of people who are NOT sitting in the room. What was the proposal?
James E. Powell
My sister’s pit bull mixed with who knows what is the sweetest, most affectionate dog I’ve ever known. The only problem is that she believes she is a lap dog.
PeakVT
Details.
hamletta
@Lysana: Or Dobies, or Rotties.
My friend has a pit bull, and she is the biggest affection whore of a dog! She loves cats, and when we met, she smelled kitty and decided to love me immediately.
eemom
durn it Kay, I loves ya to death, but the only thing that could depress me MORE today than what is going on in this abomination of a country is talk of unwanted dogs.
: (
The Worst Person In the World
Kay, you’re trolling for a Pit Bulls: pro/con riot in this thread, aren’t you?
WereBear
@dedc79: It’s almost ALWAYS the owner’s fault. A few decades ago, it was Dobermans who were the craaazeeee breed; and for the same reason as pit bulls. Stupid people being mean to the wrong kind of dog.
If someone is mean to a Chihuahua, you get an annoying ankle biter. If you are mean to a St Bernard, you get a neurotic hulk. If you are mean to a Dobie or a Pitbull or a Mastiff; some damage is going to be done.
robertdsc-PowerBook
@BD of MN:
When you start feeling the itching, apply Vick’s Vapor Rub. Problem solved. Cute phrasing, though.
Bex
Pardon the steam coming out of my ears, but I just listened to Brian Bland and Andrea Greenspan talking about, BUT REFUSING TO NAME, THE TEA PARTY REPUBLICANS. The only thing these two useless media types could say was “some people.” Loose translation, “Some people” are messing this all up.” I give up. And now I need a new TV. I will get one as soon as I clean up the shattered screen and twisted insides…
Neil
I miss my parent’s dog. Her name was Licorice. She was a brown boxer/pointer mix. We rescued her from the shelter. You could tell when we got her that she had been abused. She would shiver and run and hide if she heard someone yelling on the TV, was ultra shy for the first two or three years. She turned into the greatest dog ever. She loved to run, she loved to lick, and she loved to sit next to you and pass silent but deadly gas. Okay, maybe she was just a good dog. :)
She had a spot she liked at the top of the stairs where she’d lay most of the day and keep a keen eye on the front door. For the first 8 years we had her she’d bark whenever she heard a car drive by, the last few years as she got progressively deaf, not so much. When we got her, they estimated she was probably 3 years old. My parents had her for about 12 years. Toward the end her hip was failing her and she got lots of tumors. My parents kept her alive a lot longer than they should have. She was in horrible pain toward the end, crying all night. My dad, although he swore up and down he didn’t want a dog and didn’t care, had taken to hand feeding her and carrying her outside to go to the bathroom; he didn’t want to let her go.
My dad grew up with dozens of dogs. His grandfather lived next door and had a habit of taking in dogs no one else wanted. Dad insists that there was a corner a few blocks away were locals dumped dogs they didn’t want and then his grandfather would find them and take them home, build them a dog house, and keep them fed. My dad and his eight brothers and sisters all had their favorites. He says when grandfather died and the last of the dogs were gone he decided he didn’t want to take care of any more dogs. Before we got Licorice the only pet we had was a cat (also a rescue, found dirty and matted and starving after a flood in Bound Brook. My mom gave the cat the name Kitty because that’s what it responded to when my mom called it with a bowl of milk. :)
I’m not sure what the point of the story is but it was sure cathartic to write.
Alison
Why is pit bull in quotes throughout that article? Do they think the name is somehow invalid or not real? I’ve never seen it put in quotes like that before, on even a single instance, let alone repetitiously…
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
@Alison: Because there are several types of “Pit Bull”
“Pit bull” is a general term that encompasses several different breeds of dog.
The three most common types are:
American Pitbull Terrier
■■Weighs between 35-65 pounds.
■■ Coat is short and smooth; colorings include red, black, fawn, brindle, and solid white.
■■ Head is proportionate to body.
■■ Loyal and obedient but needs a firm owner so it will know who is in control.
American Staffordshire Terrier
■■ Weighs between 65 and 90 pounds.
Coat is thick but short, in a variety of colors.
■■ Muscular body, with a square build.
■■ Very friendly and devoted to its owner.
Staffordshire Bull Terrier
Weighs between 28 and 38 pounds.
■ ■Coat is smooth and short; colors include fawn, white, black, blue, and brindle.
■■ Known for its broad head.
■■ Good with children but sometimes aggressive with other dogs.
lamh34
On possible debt deal:
It’s Not the End of the World
by BooMan
FoxinSocks
@efgoldman
True, true! All my angst may yet be for nothing, but I’m not happy about the hostage situation to begin with.
OK, in some happy news, I do cat rescue and we had a good day today. One of my shy, gentle girls who I’ve been fostering for 6 months got a great app on her. Then a semi-feral black cat we’ve had for ages got a good app too. The lady declared she wanted the black cat and we were like, “Really? You want him? He’s going to need work.” And she was all, “That’s exactly why I want him.”
I agree with her, btw, my favorite pets are the ones that are a little less than perfect. It’s so rewarding when you figure out their issues.
Raven (formerly stuckinred)
I also understand that black dogs are the last dogs to be adopted.
burnspbesq
@eemom:
I can top both of those on the depress-o-meter.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/world/asia/31herat.html?_r=1&hp
I almost hurled when I read this. It really is that disgusting.
kay
@Alison:
Just to give you the background (which you would have no way of knowing) that city passed a very controversial local ordinance that was directed at not just pit bulls, but dogs that are “like” pit bulls, includes some other breeds, etc.
I think that’s why they’re using quotes. “Pit bull” is almost a term of art.
Emma
PeakVT: thank you. So the debt ceiling gets raised, and according to TPM the domestic cuts come from Medicare providers, but Medicaid and Social Security would be exempted. The enforcement mechanism carves out programs that help the poor and veterans as well. And Congress has to come up with a plan for cuts that include tax reform.
Is there a consensus that those are the main provisions?
jenn
Re. pits — some of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever met in my life have been pit bulls. One poor soul had been staked out in some asshole’s backyard on a chain as a puppy – in a pinch collar. Which is bad enough. However, the puppy, amazingly, grew, but her owners failed to realize they had just kept the puppy-sized pinch collar on her, so her neck grew _through_ the collar. I was working at the vet when she came in, the dog was surrendered to the vet, and I got to take care of her for a time. She eventually went home with one of the vet techs. The fact that she could be that much of a sweetheart, after being neglected and abused so horribly, boggles me to this day. That said, I do have a pit next door, who is an incredible sweetheart to people when I’ve been out front bringing his escaping butt back home, but who hits the backyard fence so damn hard when he sees my dogs, that he’s actually broken the fence. (I’ve now reinforced it.) But that’s his owner’s negligence and lack of training – I don’t blame him for that. I feel much better now that I’ve nailed plywood to the fence, though! Not being able to see through the fence has reduced undesirable behavior on both sides of the fence by an enormous amount.
General Stuck
We here in the Land of Enchantment are currently suffering a fever of tea tard wingnuttery from our new Hispanic governor.
.
This has to be a record for requests to “show your papers”, and making folks travel to Albuquerque, instead of local verification. And is completely insane.
Martinez is pissing into the wind in this deep blue state at the state level of governance. She is from Little Texas part of SE New Mexico, where they luvs baby jeevus and porn.
Maybe she is showing her bona fides to the corn fed crackers that infest that region.
Short Story. I stayed in a motel once years ago in Carlsbad, the heart of Little Texas, where the vacancy sign was plastered with love of God and such. And the lobby looked like a protestant shrine of sorts. When I went to my room and turned on the tube, there was Pamela Anderson boffing some dude on a hardcore adult porn.
But back to the big roundup,
hamletta
@Alison: Because “pit bull” isn’t really a breed name, but a catchall term for several different breeds.
That’s what I inferred, anyway.
kay
@eemom:
I am so sorry. I thought about my dog when I read the story, so for me, it was sort of poignant or whatever.
As you have probably figured out, I am not a “dog person” although I did like my one dog an awful lot.
Old Dan and Little Ann
My 10 year old lab was attacked by a pit bull when he was only 6 months old. That rotten fucking piece of shit latched onto his snout and refused to relent. The scumbag owner was punching this thing square in the face while I held onto my poor dog’s collar and screamed like a maniac. Another neighbor ran to grab a shovel and was hitting the pit bull on the back. For whatever reason, it unlatched for a split second and I was able to pull my puppy away. The scar remains on his nose and under his chin. It was the most harrowing experience of my life. The pit bull breed makes me recoil with anger and I’d be happier if they were all wiped from the face of the planet. Fuckers. If he had gone for the throat my Mickey would not be sitting in the kitchen now sniffing while my wife makes dinner.
MazeDancer
@FoxinSocks:
Wonderful news about the kitties. And many blessings to you for your good work.
Everyone who loves kitties needs at least one black cat. As you probably well know ridiculous superstition means more black cats in shelters. Absurd. Because black cats are so very lucky for their owners.
Alison
Thanks for the info, Raven, Kay and Hamletta. Makes sense, and I wasn’t put off by it really…it was just something I’d never seen before and it seemed odd.
I just hope they would do the same for “labradoodle” if only because that is the dumbest fucking name ever :P
jenn
BD of MN – HA! THanks for the laugh!
Neil – I loved your story of Licorice, thanks for sharing! :-)
Anne Laurie
The OMG SCAREY PITBULL meme is well known by most shelter workers. One unfortunate side effect (among the many) is that sometimes well-meaning volunteers will just flat-out lie about a dog’s background in order to make it more “adoptable”, or at least street-legal. “Pit bull” is a random designation at best… the unfortunate beasts being held as machismo enhancers by thugs & idiots are a chancy blend of established fighting-dog breeds (bull terriers, staffordshires, Amstaffs, English bulldogs, mastiffs, boxers) crossed with rottweilers for size/protective instincts, plus any large or ‘nasty’ fertile canine that crosses an ambitious human’s orbit at the wrong time. So a “creative” shelter work will try to increase a dog’s chances for adoption by calling it a “Great Dane” or “part greyhound” or any-dam-thing… I saw one particolored, semi-erect-earred, smooth-coated, sixty-pound Missouri animal listed on Petfinder as a “papillon mix“!
This is a tragedy for both the mis-labelled dogs and the clueless humans who end up adopting them. “Pit bulls” can be lovely, wonderful dogs, but they are not a good match with inexperienced people who don’t know what they’re getting into. A big, well-muscled animal with strong protective instincts, terrier tirelessness, and high “prey drive” needs a lot of daily exercise, training, and continual supervision if it’s going to live safely & happily in a modern American community. A dog like this who’s also been, at the least, neglected & malnourished since infancy, possibly tortured, and/or trained to be aggressive towards other animals or humans… should come with a warning label: NOT FOR AMATEURS.
It’s not the dogs’ fault, gods love ’em, but sometimes euthanasia may be a kinder solution than keeping a healthy active animal restricted to a kennel cage for its entire life. It’s certainly preferable to the kind of tragedy that happens when an unsocialized animal goes to live with an unprepared human and ends up on the local news after a “misunderstanding” with another dog, or gods forbid a child. Which will, of course, only reinforce the idea that OMG SCAREY PIT BULL is something that can legislated — not a breakdown on our part of the human-canine contract.
Abomb in ATL
Consider yourself fortunate if your pet had a peaceful end. When we had to put my dog Dusty down a few years ago, our family gathered around him as we said goodbye and “put him to sleep”. It was anything but that. He screamed as the euthanasia shot was administered and the life was sucked out of him. I was utterly horrified. The vet had made no mention that this reaction was a possibility, nor made an offer of any kind for a sedative. We do so much to protect and nurture our pets during their lives, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get over the fact that we failed him in the end. It’s been years, yet thinking about it is still just as painful as if it had just happened. The procedures and chemicals used for euthanasia should be completely reexamined.
Oh, and some of the friendliest dogs out there are pit bulls! Like any other living critter, they are a product of their environment.
Emma
Bex: I have been saying for months that the only way we’re going to make any headway is to clobber the press by any means necessary. Nobody listens, though. Oh well.
Dennis SGMM
@PeakVT:
A few weeks ago I would have said that the threat of default was a sufficiently robust threat to convince Democrats and Republicans to deal fairly with the problem. Even if the commission comes up with a balanced package of entitlement reforms and tax increases the Republican House will vote it down.
MazeDancer
@General Stuck:
Whoa, that is some crazy to do in NM. Can’t believe it won’t have some repercussions.
ChrisNYC
My family had a dog — name was Amber.
Warren Terra
I don’t know the statistics, or the underlying truth, but the received wisdom (the dogma, if you will excuse the pun) is that pit bulls and some other breeds have been bred to be monsters. That even if they are adopted into a loving home, there is always the chance that their internal switch will flip and they’ll commit an atrocity – a switch that’s far closer to the surface than for most breeds. It certainly would be possible to create such a bloodthirsty breed of dog, very much as it’s possible to rapidly breed wild animals for tameness (this, for example, is a fascinating article; ignore the horrible people hosting it, it’s a repost of an article from Scientific American, presumably stolen – but Scientific American’s site is down right now); the question is whether, as is frequently alleged, this was done in creating the pit bull.
The laws that condemn these dogs were written in response to this dogma, and in response to incidents that seemed (correctly or not) to substantiate the dogma. I would contend that if the dogma is true, the laws are just. Moreover, if the dogma is accurate, perhaps pit bulls in general should be confiscated, sterilized, and relocated to designated sanctuaries for their kind, or even humanely destroyed.
Of course, my rhetoric in that last paragraph has horrible echoes of terrible crimes committed against human populations – but pit bulls aren’t human. The monsters here would be the people who continue to inflict these genetically programmed mayhem machines on the planet, not the people who had to undo their work.
All this, of course, only if pit bulls genuinely are such irredeemable killers. I don’t know the answer to that question. I’ve read horror stories of seemingly loving and tranquil homes in which a pit bull went nuts – but then there may be a selection bias; the press might report such a story involving a pit bull more readily than it would for other dog breeds.
Still, it’s a question that you seem to have completely ignored, and it’s rather a critical one.
shortstop
@Jewish Steel: That’s funny. Our Clementine looks just like Santa’s Little Helper, so we have bestowed no voice on her.
@WereBear: “An excuse to be lazy, timid, morons” seems a bit harsh under the circumstances. Most shelters are stressed to the nth in terms of staff, volunteer and financial resources. Almost all of them are doing the best they can; at some point many of them have to make decisions about where their strictly limited time, effort and money can make the greatest difference. Michael Vick’s dogs’ horrifying story was so well known that there were people coming out of the woodwork ready to rehab them. I’m glad they did, but that isn’t true for every one of the thousands and thousands of unwanted pit bulls in the country.
Triassic Sands
Define “tough.”
kay
@efgoldman:
I don’t think so, but I’m in one county in one state. I did an hour yesterday at a canvass for repeal of SB5 (which is now issue 2, because it’s on the ballot) and it was all very happy and upbeat.
It’s not a good measure, though. They’re really, really focused on that one issue. I’m the person (locally) who talks about national politics. Half the time they don’t know what the hell I’m talking about.
I think we’re in good shape for the ballot issue. I didn’t hear a thing about the debt limit, but again, that’s not unusual for “our” group. But the ballot issue looks good. It has a nice grass-rootsy underground feel, like there’s quiet support that will actually come through with votes.
robertdsc-PowerBook
I was a huge cat hater until my beloved black cat KC walked into my life. She came to me through a co-worker who found her by his house and thought it would be a good idea to have KC live at the office. Over time, she adopted me and for six years until my departure through layoff, we were inseparable when I came to work each day. I heard from a former co-worker a few months back that KC got out of the office and vanished, so far she hasn’t come back. I miss her so.
Steeplejack
My brother has had a succession of rescue greyhounds, and they have been uniformly great pets. He just got the most recent one a couple of months ago, and she just celebrated her second birthday a couple of weeks back. She has made tremendous progress from being a fearful introvert to a total love hound and people person.
Her housemate is a little male 14-year-old Italian greyhound who has outlived a couple of previous racers but now realizes that this one might be able to take him. LOL. But they get along really well. Occasionally she makes a move on his Kong, but they get it sorted out.
I will send pictures to Anne Laurie when I can get it together.
Sko Hayes
Reading a few right wing blogs, they’re even more outraged and upset than progressives, so I don’t think we’re screwed too bad.
Back to dogs, I love pit bulls, but credit really needs to go to the people (the heros) that rescue them. The people that took on Michael Vick’s poor dogs should be enshrined in a dog park somewhere.
Our former animal control officer had a pit bull and he used to ride around in the truck with her, as her “good will ambassador”. Because of her efforts, my town is one of the few around that doesn’t have a pit bull ban.
Twitter is now saying Pelosi is saying “We may not be able to vote for this”:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/pelosi-none-of-us-may-support-debt-limit-deal.php?ref=fpb
Anne Laurie
@leinie:
If WereBear’s excellent advice doesn’t give you enough adopters, you can email me pics & I’ll put up a Pet Bleg for you!
In fact, once the kittens have their eyes open, you could send pics anyways…
Frankensteinbeck
Alright, I read the TPM article about what’s in the agreement as it currently stands. The debt ceiling is raised enough to get through the next election, which is the first most important point. The currently outlined ‘cuts’ are spread out over ten years and are based off of the ones in Reid’s plan. So they don’t touch the safety net, and they’re mostly empty promises to cut spending in future budgets rather than any changes to this budget.
The big question is the deficit reduction panel, obviously. I notice three things immediately. Its proposals don’t automatically become law, because it’s specifically mentioned they have to go through the bill process and can be vetoed. Half the cuts come from military expenditures if nothing is decided, and the other half from cutting doctor payments in Medicare. BOTH of these are famous political nonstarters, so something will happen to keep those from happening. Don’t ask me what, but unless you still have a Tea Party controlled House when this finally comes due, it won’t go through in that form. And third, there have to be tax increases involved, so the GOP is also likely to try and screw over this panel.
Not entirely sure what to think about the panel. It’s odd. But I see no reason to panic even at first glance. Let’s see what actually passes and give it a week for the experts to comb through it and see if it’s poison or if it’s another fast one pulled on the GOP like the budget deal.
General Stuck
@PeakVT:
Sounds like a decent compromise to me. With an equal opportunity for revenue enhancement, as well as spending cuts, but, BIG But. Exempts medicaid and social net benefits of all kinds. The half and half enforcement cuts to military and domestic spending should keep the fuckers honest, to be responsible and balanced. And no mo debt ceiling hostage taking.
suzanne
Reading stuff like this makes me so happy about our Luna. She’s the pit bull/lab mix we adopted from the AZ Humane Society last summer. She’s been an absolute joy and blessing to this household.
She’s currently at my feet, kissing the baby.
But it makes me heartsick for all the others I couldn’t bring home.
Elie
It ocurrs to me that the revolutionaries among us want the President to overcome the group with the most firmly held beliefs in the current system — those who are the most successful and whose continued success requires a totaly unmovable world view. After all, from their point of view, and the revolutionaries, “compromise”, consensus and negotiation mean you really weren’t serious about your beliefs.. and those beliefs are sacrosanct, non-negotiable principles.
Now, if we could start at the grass roots, we could talk to the everyday people whose lives have been deeply impacted by economic and social inequality and lack of opportunity. This does sink in over time, but shoot, it aint nearly as flashy and obvious and you can’t get to feeling powerful yourself if just some Jo Shmo now feels empowered. Rather, we want the short cut to revolution… by some magical dint of the law of political physics that the people most enmeshed in the Republican and teatard world view are going to give up easily or be pursuadeed of anything by exerting more power.
Obama is a negotiator. Some of you folks thing that the target is the Republican/Teatards. That is not the case. His target is the American people who have to see the ugly pieces of how this comes together. They have to see what it means to have a President follow the law and do his best to negotiate and do the right thing — the Democratic and democratic thing. He has to show what that means both bad and good. There is consequence in this world. Their votes had consequence. If you jump off of a cliff, you fall and it hurts bad. Ok — hate him for it, but you understand what happens when you sit your ass at home to “show him”. Him.
He has to show it, cause Lord knows it would be quite possible not to show it and just get into the war right on the other side of the threat imbedded in this situation. He is selling that the system can still work (see reference to his inaugural address below:)
At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:
“Let it be told to the future world…that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive…that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it].”
That is the hope…and the virtue in that hope. He must uphold the system and the belief that it/we can meet this danger.
shortstop
Entertaining thing about greyhounds: their chests are so deep that they can’t really lounge on their stomachs, so you better buy an extra couch as a platform for the hilarious lankiness that is a grey stretched out on its side.
Clementine also has a deep, narrow chest and narrow back, so much so that she has to form a letter C to lie on her back or she’s tip over. Too funny. She loves to play with greys, who outweigh her about four to one, at the dog park and we think she actually once mistook a pair of does in the woods for greys.
CaseyL
Vicious dogs are almost always made that way, not born that way. The exceptions would be feral dogs and breeds that are so inbred that the animals have major mental and physical disorders. (Further caveat: Truly wild dogs are another matter altogether, Even then, though, they’re not “vicious,” they’re wild, dammit, and behaving as they need to.)
Old Dan and Little Ann: I can understand having a simmering hatred for an animal that attacked your pet, but extending that hatred to all members of the breed is no more fair to the breed than hating all members of any human ethnic/racial/religious group because some of them committed a crime or a terrorist act is fair to the group.
suzanne
Oh, BTW, we’ve decided that Luna has deep, gruff voice, but is very stupid but desperately eager to please.
And her whine reminds me of Mike Tyson: big, black dog with high-pitched little squeals coming out.
PeakVT
@Emma: According to the article, we get
1) Immediate DL increase of $400B
2) Second DL increase of $500B with a scheduled vote in Congress of disapproval
3) Third DL increase of $1500B with a schedule vote in Congress of disapproval (this will probably happen early next year)
4) Immediate implementation of $900B cuts previously identified (probably over 10 years, front/back loading unknown, specifics unknown)
5) Commission to generate at least $1200B in deficit reduction made up of spending cuts, tax increases, or both (probably over 10 years)
6) Trigger of $1500B in cuts if the Commission fails to reach $1200B, 50/50 from Medicare providers and Defense
7) Secondary trigger if the Commission reaches $1200B but fails to reach $1500B that covers the shortfall, once again 50/50
We don’t get:
1) Balanced Budget Amendment vote
2) Guarantee of any tax increases
leinie
@Anne Laurie:
I could do that. She’s an adorable, dainty little grey cat with the faintest hint of tabby stripes if you look closely. We think the baby daddy is a black cat, so I’m worried that they will all be black kittens, and as noted above, black cats are harder to get adopted.
I’m trying to draft the story of her rescue – we were walking home one evening and saw her getting gang raped….
Scott
The only dogs I utterly refuse to trust are Chows. Only breed I’ve seen that seems to be consistently meaner’n spit.
As for talking through our dogs — our whole family does that. My brother’s little rat terrier gets a very high-pitched voice (because my brother and I are both good at speaking in heliumesque voices) and loves to talk about how wonderful and noble and loveable she is, while also dropping the F-bomb and making her plans to eat all of us. His neighbor has a slow, overweight lab whose very good-natured personality gets a very slow country-accented voice. We’ve never settled on one for my sister’s lab — every voice we come up with for her, my sister objects to because “she doesn’t sound like that!” And my brother’s ex-girlfriend had a flat-faced cat who got a growling, grumpy, medium-pitched voice and always complained that someone had stolen his nose.
WereBear
I can see that for some poor unsocialized dog who has been actively abused. But there are shelters who kill puppies because they look “pitty.”
And I’m aware that money and resources can be scarce. Yet shelters remain one of the most popular volunteer opportunities for so many people. Programs that could reach out to seniors or students or local organizations could double or triple their effective staff. That’s what my local shelter does.
The ASPCA and dedicated breed groups helped rehabilitate Vick’s dogs. The HSUS took in money; and worked to rehabilitate Vick. It’s a kind of GOOD/EVIL struggle going on right now, and thinking there isn’t enough room or enough money discounts that there is enough; if it’s allocated properly.
Emma
PeakVT: The devil is in the details, but it feels almost like a stopgap. Though I like the fact that the defense budget gets automatically kneecapped if Congress doesn’t do its job.
As far as what we don’t get, we weren’t going to get it. And all Obama has to do is veto any attempt the extending the Bush tax cuts. Last time, he exchanged that for unemployment benefits, for which a number of my friends and relatives thank him. But this time there would be no reason for him to negotiate. Especially around election time.
Steeplejack
@robertdsc-PowerBook:
You should have taken her with you when you left. Lesson for the future.
WaterGirl
@leinie:
I would suggest that – in your story about how you found your cat – you do not go with the approach of your last line of your comment, which I found offensive. Either explain it or not, but ending with “gang raped…” is pretty awful.
burnspbesq
@Emma:
Erik Son of Erik is spitting mad and muttering about betrayal. That’s a good sign.
WereBear
Once again, I don’t mean to sound harsh; the people who work and volunteer at a giid shelter are most awesome. I am fortunate that my local shelters are like that. But the other side of the coin is terrible.
Lockewasright
Most of the dogs that I have known in my life have turned out to be better people than most of the people that I have known in my life and I like people.
robertdsc-PowerBook
@Steeplejack:
I wish I could have. But I’m not allowed to have cats where I live, so that was not in the cards. I miss my Crankypants.
::sniff::
Alwhite
you know the difference between having a pit bull hump your leg and having a greyhound hump your leg?
.
.
.
.
you let the pit bull finish.
eemom
please, please, this times infinity. And, obviously, that it is not the fault of the creatures that were bred, either.
I fucking hate dog breeding, for this and many other reasons.
Lolis
@Emma, Supposedly Obama promised House Dems that he would not extend the Bush tax cuts again last year. I think he is still going to try to fight for the first 250 K which I am against, but could live with.
PeakVT
@Sko Hayes: Reading a few right wing blogs, they’re even more outraged and upset than progressives, so I don’t think we’re screwed too bad.
The country didn’t screwed as badly as the teabaggers wanted it to be. That’s all. Economically, the deal is bad, because anything that reduces government demand right now is going to throw people out of work. The composition is also bad; if the deficit (aka stimulus, because deficit spending is stimulating the economy over where it would be otherwise) is going to be reduced, it would be better to do it by raising taxes on the rich, not by reducing spending.
I suppose its possible all the changes will be back-loaded, but if the Republicans are willing to go along with that they wouldn’t have provoked this fight in the first place.
MazeDancer
@burnspbesq:
They hate the deal so much at RedState, I’m beginning to reconsider it.
They also think it ensures the Bush Tax cuts will expire.
Canuckistani Tom
@CaseyL:
Seconded
Submitted for your approval:
Bear was the name of a large, black, mean, growling, snapping at children dog that was in the backyard of a house next to the school I went to as a youngster.
Oops, forgot to mention: Bear was a Newf dog.
If someone could do that to a Newf dog, then any other breed would be easy to turn vicious.
Southern Beale
Damn.
Last night my Vizsla-mix attacked my Rhodesian Ridgback mix. We’ve had a lot of problems with the Vizsla mix, lots of aggression issues, been working with a trainer for 8 months. The trainer says she has “confidence issues,” and that seems right, any sharp word or loud noise or rebuke and she’s in her crate peeing on herself. She acts out aggressively because she doesn’t know how to behave not because she thinks she dominant. Anyway, last night my senior citizen Ridgeback/Lab mix growled at her and she lost it and went apeshit. Blood everywhere. It was awful.
Meanwhile, my pit bull has been a gem. No problems at all. A really lover.
I never knew much about pit bulls except what one hears, but I have to say, the one dog I’ve had the LEAST amount of issues with is my pit bull.
Lysana
@WereBear: If you don’t mean to sound harsh, learn how to write so you don’t come across that way. It’s kind of on you to say it properly instead of the rest of the world to assume you’re trying your darndest to keep it all rainbows and clouds.
Tyro
they are not a good match with inexperienced people who don’t know what they’re getting into.
But that’s almost all pitbull owners and covers most of the demand for pitbulls, which end up in shelters and ultimately put down. There are too many people who want pit bulls and shouldn’t have them and too many pit bulls being bred so they can be sold to these people.
Yutsano
@Southern Beale: Vizslas are high strung bird dogs. And they need to be trained young or else it’s very difficult to get them to modify their behavior. My guess is she has a lack of confidence because she has no clear defined role. In other words, she needs a consistent job to do. Good luck.
Alex S.
@PeakVT:
Hmm, I would accept that Balanced Budget Amendment vote. Seriously, there’ll be no two-thirds majority for that, no such majority of the states either. Well, anyway, the expiration of the Bush tax cuts is the make-or-break factor for me. That must not be negotiated away.
Emma
MazeDancer: it was a given that any deal that exempted Social Security and put Defense on the table was going to make them insane.
Anne Laurie
@Svensker:
Big, strong dogs with strong ‘prey drives’ and/or ‘protective instincts’ are more dangerous than little, wimpy, submissive dogs whose instincts are to defer. Because us thumbed primates get to do the labelling, and at leat 27% of us are IDIOTS, “pit bull” is today’s preferred label for big, strong, assertive dogs who look like they might be troublemakers.
@kay:
Quoted for truth! — except it’s exactly a term of art, in the same way “porn” is used — “I know it when I see it”, says the person wanting to legislate against materials, or animals, that don’t meet their standards.
Responsible dog owners & organizations are dead set against any form of “breed specific legislation”, because we know that the people looking to ban ‘pit bulls’ today will be just as happy to ban ‘public nuisances’ or ‘antisocial parasite animals’ tomorrow. (There are still laws in China against owning any kind of pet dog on those grounds, although enforcement is obviously as spotty as with any other laws in the New Libertarian Utopia.) Our local papillon organization sends delegates to speak against the breed-specific bills that keep popping up, even though some members have had their dogs attacked by ‘pit bulls’ whose humans were clueless or incompetent.
Good dog legislation mandates that owners should be able to keep their dogs from hurting other dogs or people. Bad dog legislation randomly assigns “no go” labels to certain breeds, usually on the hallowed I-know-it-when-I-see-it word of whatever low-ranking bureaucrat is having a bad day when somebody’s petshop labrador nips the neighbor kid who grabs its ear or other sensitive spot.
Unfortunately, IRL, there are too many big, untrained, underexercised dogs with strong prey drives running around unsupervised in precisely those circumstances where they’re most liable to make (at best) nuisances of themselves. I hate to see dogs killed for no other reason than “we can’t find a safe home for him/her“, but sometimes that’s the least bad choice of a sorry list.
cmorenc
I have an Italian Greyhound, which are identical miniatures of full-sized greyhounds, including sweet, gentle temperament. They are true full-blooded genetic close relatives of the full-sized greyhounds, identical in every respect except for their diminutive size. I.G.s are very attached and close to their people, and are bouncy-playful and lightning fast when playing, but love to snuggle with their owners. With their soft, short hair, it’s like having a living teddy bear. You have to keep em on a leash or a fenced yard though…squirrel! and bang! they’re off to the chase, damn the cars or anything else.
Southern Beale
So on a non-dog related front, anyone else see this op-ed piece in the NY Times?
Why Voters Tune Out Democrats
Meh. That sounds like a lot of horseshit to me. Voters don’t tune out Democrats because they associate Democrats with government, and they intrinsically hate government. They tune out Democrats because a) Dems are really bad at presenting their ideas; b) The world is complicated and Dem views/solutions don’t always fit on a bumper sticker; and c) too often Democrats are indistinguishable from Republicans, anyway.
I dunno whaddy’all think?
SiubhanDuinne
I refuse to link (heck, I didn’t even read it!) but someone on my Facebook feed referenced a HuffPo headline that the debt deal gives “super powers to a new Super Congress.” If true, that really doesn’t sound like a good thing.
PurpleGirl
Kay — not reading all the comments yet so this may have been remarked upon already. Friends did placement of retired greyhound racers. Typically a dog leaving the tracks is 2 yrs old, maybe 3, 4 at the oldest if it was a really good runner. Their first racer (Sardi) was 2 yrs old and her mother was still being bred. Teddy was the oldest racer they fostered, probably 4 yrs old. Despite his blind left eye (at the track he ran in the outer most right lane), he was a good racer. Red was also probably 2 yrs old.
I like people who foster retired racers. They are very gentle critters.
Mark S.
@Alex S.:
Prepare to be disappointed next fall. There’s no way in hell Obama and the Dems are going to let the Republicans base their entire campaign on “The Democrats are going to raise your taxes!”
It probably wasn’t a good idea to let them expire so close to an election.
Southern Beale
@Yutsano:
Sheesh. Now I need to find a job for my fucking DOG? I can’t even find one for myself!
:-)
Seriously, I don’t know what “job” she needs or even how to go about it. She’s a mix, got a lot of stuff in there. Didn’t know Viszla’s were bird dogs though. Mostly she likes chewing on her squeaky toy.
Mnemosyne
@leinie:
Facebook page and YouTube channel. If people can see and hear the kittens in all of their adorableness, they’ll be lining up to adopt them.
And as WaterGirl said, I think that you, um, misinterpreted/overinterpreted what was going on when you found Emma Grace. Because of the way cats breed, it’s extremely common for kittens in the same litter to have different fathers because the female wants to keep going until all of the eggs are fertilized. That’s right: your sweet kitty was hostessing an orgy right there in front of you.
Southern Beale
Well, since we’re talking pit bulls, here’s a fairly recent update I posted on mine …
eric
Expect kabuki now. All the libs will blast this as a non-starter. Remember the TPers can’t write or even read complex legislation. Now there is no time for Heritage and the like to read it in advance of the votes. I suspect it will be far less bad than the howls you hear from dems
Frankensteinbeck
@Alex S.:
The Bush Tax Cuts? Good lord, why? I care less about them than practically anything else. There’s still a deficit for the GOP to demagogue about without them. They ought to be let expire, sure, but it’s the GOP who really, really care how much rich people pay in taxes. I care about what services are provided for the common man. I don’t want the cuts extended again, but it’s waaaaaay down my list of priorities.
PurpleGirl
The friends who worked in placing retired racers owned the Dobermann I’ve often talked about. Hugo was a gentle, marshmallow at heart. If he liked you, he was so sweet. For years he slept with me, either on the bed or next to the couch when I slept there. People watching us on the street walking were also AMAZED that he obeyed me — I’d been trained in how to handle him and he was trained to respond to me. (He passed about 20 years ago and I still miss him.)
Alex S.
@Frankensteinbeck:
Here’s why:
http://www.cbpp.org/images/cms//5-10-11bud-f1.jpg
http://www.bradblog.com/Images/FederalDeficitChart_BushTaxCutsWar_052511.jpg
Mnemosyne
@Southern Beale:
Who was this guy polling, Uncle Clarence Thomas?
I don’t think he’s totally wrong, though — the Republicans have been running a 30-year-long campaign to prove that the government is incompetent, so obviously the party that wants to show that the government is still useful and can accomplish things is going to have an uphill battle trying to prove that the problem is with the way Republicans govern, not with the idea of governing per se.
Kay
I felt like she was around two, but I honestly don’t remember. The vet didn’t want us to get her. He said they don’t live long and she’d break our heart.
She was actually really healthy. She didn’t have a single health problem until she got really old. She was a (dark) brindle and she went almost completely gray and white. The saddest part of her getting older was that they’re actually great runners. It’s what they do. She was fast as hell, as a younger dog. Like a blur. Just lovely to watch. By the end she was sort of strolling around, slowly.
We have a female UPS delivery person and when Jilly came down the (darkened) hall once, towards the door, the UPS driver said “what the hell IS that?” I wanted to say “an antelope”.
quannlace
Guess I’ll add my onion to the stew. Adopted my Kate, a pit mix, from our local shelter. Most of the adoptees we viewed were pits. I passed most of them by; not from fear of aggression but that they were too muscle bound for me to control. (I can be a bit wobbly on my feet.) Kate was the last we saw, sitting in a large crate in their tub room. Head bowed; looking as gloomy as Snoopy when he’s trying to imitate a vulture. ‘Want to take her out to the yard?’ asked the Tech. Kate was absolutely joyful on the leash, and danced around the shelter’s back yard while we talked and….well, that was it.
Her picture could be the dictionary insert for ‘love sponge.’ I can’t think of a creature, four or two footed that she hasn’t loved. Or been determined to make them love her, dammit!
What’s her makeup? Who knows. For people who are nervous about Pits, I always say she’s part greyhound. (Cause everybody loves a greyhound.) She’s just tall and lanky enough in the legs, and narrow chested to make it believable.
burnspbesq
@Mnemosyne:
Naah, UCT can’t form a thought that complex. Must have been Trollenwhosis.
Yoki
Picked out a puppy in a litter years ago. She was supposed to be all lab and golden. Yeah, right. Make that pit bull and golden. She was sweet but almost impossible to manage. She snuck out the door one day and nailed the neighbor’s cat. We put her down because we could never fully control her and never guarantee that she would not attack anyone or anything again. We have a half chow now and wouldn’t trade her for the world. I think maybe it’s about the dog and not the breed.
WereBear
Chee, there are people on the thread saying “all pit bulls should be killed” and I get singled out for harshness saying it’s stupid to euthanize salvageable dogs? I didn’t know that was a controversial position.
Anne Laurie
@Scott:
After 20 years amateur-assisting at open-to-the-general-public “obedience” training classes, the only breed that I refuse to trust are Boxers. Pit bulls (registered & otherwise), rottweilers, dobermans, at least one genuine wolf cross — those I can deal with. I’ve had less-than-positive experiences with malamutes, dobies, briads, cockers, and lhasa apsos, but every dogdamned Boxer I’ve ever met has been a menace. Strong, fast, low-IQed, thick as two short planks, resistant to new information (vets say that boxers are the only dogs who habitually attack porcupines more than once), and just a burden to live with. Of course, our own beloved LitleBrit will tell you that Boxers are the best dogs, and I am just letting a few (dozen) bad experiences color my judgement!
@Southern Beale:
IIRC, your pit bull “found” his best home by wriggling in through your cat door, right? So, even at an early age, he demonstrated good reasoning and social skills (“here are people who treat their pets well; I will go make nice at them”). And you were diligent in training him up the way he should go, and (important!) had him neutered before those teenage hormones had him making bad choices about who was in charge & what he could get away with. In other words, you were chosen by the best little pit bull and have been the best owners for him… YAY, you!
As for your Vizla-cross girl, I know where you’re coming from, and wish I had an easy solution for you. Counterintuitively, low-confidence dogs are a lot harder to “cure” than over-assertive dogs. Vizlas tend to be what their boosters call “reactive” and the neighbors call “neurotic” at the best of times. The one professional Vizla breeder I knew would only place some of her dogs as “only dogs”, because she said that they needed to know they would have all their peoples’ attention. You’re already working with a trainer you trust, which is great, and I hope you can find ways to make your girl’s “issues” less of a strain for the whole household. If the dog she’s attacking is slowing down with age, that may involve keeping the two of them separated at all times, unfortunately. Because the inborn ‘wolf instincts’ are telling your girl that she should be able to improve her social status by beating up the Old Geezer just once, and then everybody goes for tea & cookies afterwards… which doesn’t work reliably with the rewired dog instincts we’ve bred for, since the older dog (especially one with a Ridgeback’s assertive tendencies) ‘doesn’t know how to lose gracefully’ and the younger dog ‘doesn’t know when to quit’.
(If schadenfreude helps, it was our 15-pound “submissive” dog who put me in the hospital with an infected puncture wound, not our genuinely dangerous resource-aggressive 20-pound papillon/(probably)border collie mix. Bad Big Girl got into a spittle-flecked spat with Stanley-the-Hall-Monitor; I lifted her off the floor by the back of her harness & shoved her in her crate to settle down. Stanley went to grab the towel on top of the crate to shake it fiercely in demonstration of his authori-TAY, and punctured my hand right through it. He was immediately embarrassed & scared by this faux pas, but neither that nor my diligent first aid efforts over the course of the next week were sufficient, alas.)
TooManyJens
@lamh34: What makes TPM think we’d have had such a strong Tea Party backlash if Hillary Clinton had been elected? Yeah, there would have been some, but she lacks the crucial characteristic that cranks the Tea Party up to 11.
Mister Papercut
@leinie:
That’s such a shame, though I’ll cop to almost not adopting my first black cat simply because I nearly didn’t see him (he was in the rear of his cage at the SPCA, in shadow, in the litter box chasing his tail — it was such a harbinger of eccentricities to come). Fourteen-and-a-half years later, though, and the most evil thing about him is his insistence on marching headlong into Danger at every oppotunity and worrying the shit out of me.
Jim Snyder
Munich
WereBear
@leinie: just call them “little panthers” if some turn out all black. Some people love them!
And yes, Anne Laurie, I have to add that several decades ago, I was raised by several lovely Boxers. I’m really sorry to hear that the breeding must have gone downhill.
shortstop
@Southern Beale: A “job” can really just be a lot of play that allows her to use her problem-solving skills as well as her body. For instance, our dog has some real issues with severe anxiety around metallic noises; since we live in a very dense city neighborhood, we need to teach her to cope better with these constant stimuli. Our wonderful trainer gave us some great exercises for building her confidence; for example, she’s currently learning one-word names for all her toys (which I’m not going to reveal to you guys because they’re so embarrassing).
Once she’s learned one of them, we play increasingly more difficult games of hide the toy followed by, “Go get Embarrassing Name!” It really works — she has such a (dogly version of) pride of accomplishment after she locates EN that it spills over into her other activities. And then when we go outside for walks, we take one or two of the Embarrassing Names with us and that helps her focus on something she’s confident about.
That’s just one example, and it’s more tailored for a dog who has fear as well as low confidence, but you get the idea. Dogs really do love to use their brains and we’re (at least I’m) always having to be reminded of that.
Anne Laurie
@Kay:
I didn’t think I wanted to live with dogs until I was almost 30, when I started watching my closest friends in obedience classes with their newest dogs. I have a particular weakness for sighthounds (Greyhounds, Whippets, Afghans, Basenjis, Wolfhounds, even Great Danes) — one devoted owner described his retired-racer Greyhounds’ personalities as ‘part toy dog, and part cat‘, which seems to be generally true. They’re love sponges, except when they’re ignoring you completely, they’re usually quite bright, and they all seem to have a sense of humor, which not all dogs do. But they’re sooo fast, it scares me; I know I’m too lazy to give them the exercise they need to be happy, and I’m not organized enough to stay viligent 24/7 about keeping them out of trouble. Someday I may be living in a less urban setting, and the right retired greyhound or whippet or IG will come along…
Which isn’t to say that I don’t love and adore my Papillons, and just about every Pap I’ve ever met. Right now the Spousal Unit and I are sharing our home with three Papillon rescues, including the neurotic puppy-mill three-time-loser from a shelter, and the seized-in-a-police-neglect-case “Pap cross” who was supposed to be temporary until we realized why the original rescue org had offered to euthanize her. It’s reciprocal; they make us happy, or at least keep us occupied, and if we’re not the “best” homes they could have we’re at least the best they can achieve!
Southern Beale
@shortstop:
Yeah our trainer gave us games like that to play with her, and I play hide and seek with toys (and with myself too — I’ll hide in the house and then have her come find me. She loves that one). It’s just so fucking time consuming to do that every day. Oy.
Southern Beale
@Anne Laurie:
No, that wasn’t us. He just showed up at our neighbors’ house last winter, 5 mos. old. I don’t know if he’d been dumped in our ‘hood or had escaped his house but regardless, he was hanging around and we took him in once we knew he was homeless. But yeah he always acted really well socialized. Mostly just needed to learn some manners and mostly some self-control. He needed to learn that he was stronger than everyone else and to hold back in play time. And yeah we got him neutered right off and have been working with him from day one. I was told that with pit bulls you need to start training right away and be extra, extra dilligent on the consistency. You can’t let up for a minute.
He’s been a real gem.
You’ve nailed the Viszla mix though. She just requires four times as much attention and energy as everyone else.
PurpleGirl
@Anne Laurie: Some retired racers take the “retired” to heart and they just want to lay around the house and sleep. At least the 4 greyhounds my friends had spent a lot of time sleeping. YMMV
becca
IIRC, the French woman who had one of the first face transplants had her original one torn off by her pet labrador.
Even very good dogs can be unpredictable.
As for pits, I have Stella, a rescue mix my daughter picked up on the street but didn’t have time for. So we took her in. Stellijellibelli gets on great with the cats and her four canine sibs and takes a treat from your hand in an almost painfully gentle manner. She just exudes gratitude.
I love her to pieces and trust her as much as all the others, which is to say Stelli is really just like any other dog.
Mohmlet
I can’t believe my first actual comment to BJ is about dogs (okay, yeah, I can), but, in response to this:
They’re sprinters. They don’t need a lot of exercise. I can wear out my girl throwing the ball for 15 minutes in the morning. A good 2/3s of the day, they’re sleeping in undignified positions (search for Greyhound Roaching) or curling up on their beds. They make excellent city dogs, even apartment and condo dogs. Trust me on this: I’m the most scatter-brained person out there, and I’m able to keep 70lbs of retired racer safe.
shortstop
@Southern Beale: I know, it really is time consuming. I struggle to get it all in, but the guilt when I don’t keeps me going.
wonkie
@Alison: It is very appropriate to put “pitbull” in quotes becuase few of the dogs called “pitbulls” are actually either American Pitbull Terriers or American Staffordshire Terriers. A “pitbull” is a smooth coated dog with a rat tail and floppy ears. It might be a dalmation mix, a greyhound mix, a boxer mix, ad American bulldog..it might even be partly APT or AmStaff. Very rarely is the term used to label a dog that is actually pure bred or even nearly prue bred.
Pitbulls are mutts.
wonkie
@CaseyL:
I want to add on to what Casey L said. Dogs are aimals. Many have a prey drive. It is the ower’s jhob to maage that behavior. If a dog kills aother dog, it is the ower’s fault. To generalize ad hate a whole breed…
My German shepard would kill a cat if I let her. Does that make all German shepards bad dogs?
It’s especially a mistake to generalize about “pitbulls” becaue most of them aren’t pure breds ad many aren’t eve partly APT or Amstaff. An American bulldog could have a prey drive. At our rescue the dog with the biggest prey drive is a boxer lab mix.
I have a Malteswe and I keep him away from big dogs. Fortuatley our Germa shepard doesn’t thi k of him as a cat.
Jasper
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
Similar thing happened to me, except I had a rottweiler attack me and a schnauzer mutt. I picked up my dog as we saw the rottweiler running toward us, so the rottweiler bit my dog AND my arm, and held on, and held on, and shook us both. After what seemed like forever, but was probably 5-10 seconds, the owner came running up and the dog released. What was really scary is the dog never barked, not even a growl, and when it let go, it just sort of looked at us like we were a chew toy. No apparent anger at all, just doing what those dogs do, bite down with massive force and hold on.
So I go to the ER vet to get a gaping hole in its hindquarters stitched up and some woman says, “rottweilers are fine, it’s just bad owners…” I told her to F off, it wasn’t exactly the right time to be telling me that crap after I just got attacked by a dog the owner swore to me then and later was gentle as a kitten up to then. The owner was a good person, her husband was a cop who was a nice guy too, paid my vet and doctor bills no problem, like the good neighbors they were.
My current next door neighbor had a pit bull mix. It attacked another little mutt I was walking after dark, and again the scary thing was there was no warning at all. It was dark and I see this streak, and the next thing is my dog is rolled over and the pit has my dog’s shoulder in his jaws. Like the rottweiler, after he let go, he just walked back to the house like nothing had happened. My dogs and theirs had been around each other for three years….
Sorry, but I despise those breeds. They’re no safer than having a loaded gun laying around the house, which is also VERY safe almost all the time, until it’s not, then someone is dead or severely injured.
clayton
(Didn’t read all of the comments since the thread got hijacked right off the bat.)
Some years ago, I found four five week old pups that had been dumped in our neighborhood park. Two of them could pass for generic terriers, one could pass as a Lab, the fourth one was all pit but for his Lab ears.
I got the first three adopted out. The fourth I kept. He is all muscle and spring, like a pit. He has a temper. But I paired him with the sweetest pup on the planet, and he has learned from her.
Sure he gets mad. We laugh at him and calm him down. He loves to bark for barking’s sake. He has all the different barks for different reasons. Did I mention he was the only solid black dog in the litter I found? I kept him for that reason too. Black dogs get put down more than any others.
He is loved and trusted. Even when his pall found a way out of the yard recently, he didn’t follow. He is a good dog, and being part pit is why.
The trouble with any traditional fighting dogs is that they get crappy owners who don’t treat them right.
With love and encouragement, they turn into the most amazing dogs. Wide ranges of emotion.
clayton
@leinie: Some may have already responded to you, but you don’t have to do anything but take care of the mom’s needs. She will take care of the kittens.
Handle them often and then take them to your local SPCA so they can be adopted.
It’s easy. I’ve done it twice.
Then after the mom’s milk has dried up, either get her fixed and keep her, or take her to the SPCA to be adopted as well.
Our local SPCA is very good about matching up people and animals. Your experience may vary.
clayton
@Yoki: In your case, I think it’s about the owner. Why did you let the dog you had get out and kill a cat? If you know your dog, you don’t let them get out. But the dog had to die and not you. You got another dog.
clayton
@Yoki: And just so you know, one of my dogs (no not the pit mix, it was the pointer) killed one of my neighbors dogs when it got into the yard. I had asked them to keep their dogs in their yard and to fix the problem, but they thought it was ok for their dogs (little dogs) to come into my yard — not knowing if my bird dog was out there or not.
I didn’t put her down.
Why again did you put your dog down?
Mary
@WarrenTerra
“All this, of course, only if pit bulls genuinely are such irredeemable killers. I don’t know the answer to that question. I’ve read horror stories of seemingly loving and tranquil homes in which a pit bull went nuts – but then there may be a selection bias; the press might report such a story involving a pit bull more readily than it would for other dog breeds.”
It’s more than selection bias – it’s typically some combination of shoddy, lazy reporting and outright lies. Anytime a dog attack involves a dog of indeterminate breed, newspapers will almost certainly refer to it as a pit bull or pit bull mix. If the dog’s breed CAN be determined and it is anything other than a pit bull, the breed will probably never be mentioned at all.
Also, if anyone can find me a single VERIFIABLE story of a family’s beloved pet pit bull that suddenly and without provocation went crazy and attacked a person, I will donate $50 to the pit hating assholes at PETA. A resident dog that spends its life tied up in the backyard or the basement/garage without regular human contact is not a beloved family pet and cannot be expected to behave like one no matter what its breed.
wonkie
@Jasper:
You might as well say that all large dogs are like loaded guns. Small dogs would be too if they weren’t so small.
travis
I have a pit bull rescue in Colorado (www.alpinedoghouse.com when you are ready to adopt) . We take any dog who needs help but in practice, that means we have a bunch of pit bulls because they have been collectively abandoned by our society. They are the newest scapegoat, a way to punish the wrong sort of person in proxy. They are the result of fear-mongering and ignorance, the same time tested mix that gave us the house of shit flinging howler monkeys currently running congress. The dogs I have here would all gladly die before hurting a human though I know any dog can by trained by someone to do whatever you want it to do, including to attack humans. Killing these dogs as a way to prevent future attacks is contrary to how we do things, in theory, in America. In reality however, it is exactly how we do things;
The poor and the powerless will live by a set of laws that the fat and rich will never have to live by. My experience in saving these dogs has, unfortunately, reinforced my dim view of humanity.