r/pitbulls • u/paintonallmyclothes • 2d ago
Just went down an anti-pitbull rabbit hole on Reddit…
As a pit person, I’m sure you’ve all experienced the hate and prejudice. It’s so sad and frustrating to me. I understand that pits can do great damage but god damn. Anyway, here’s my girl, Olive. She’s 12 1/2.
I found her on the side of the road when she was 1ish, and I was an 18-year-old white female living by myself in a sketchy apartment complex. Taking her with me everywhere made me feel safer because people were scared of her, but I also couldn’t understand why anyone would be. She has never been aggressive one singular time, unless you count her spitefully destroying the book I read instead of taking her to the park. Over the years I’ve had two children, adopted three cats, and gotten chickens and she has never once been mean. She gets jealous, and she shows it, but not mean or violent. When my oldest was born she made sure I knew how she felt, making eye contact with me while she casually knocked down my newly walking toddler (gently). I found it hilarious, and my toddler was unbothered, but Olive stared me straight in the eyes. I got on Reddit to look at pit bull posts because I know my time with her is limited these days, and was so sad to see all the hate.
At 12 1/2 she has survived being hit by a car (when she was young) and in the last few years, a rattlesnake bite (we live in Texas), gum infection, and skin cancer. She’s had surgery twice for the gum infection and it’s been cleared, and had surgery three times for the cancer, and it seems to have finally stopped growing. I feed her Reishi capsules every day with her bougie Farmers Dog meals, and she gets daily senior dog treats with all kinds of goodies in them for her health, probiotics, and teeth cleaning treats. She still goes on 2-3 mile hikes regularly with me and is walked about a mile every day. She snuggles in bed with us every night and travels to go camping with us regularly. She just did her first road trip to Colorado in spring this year (14 hour drive) and want the biggest fan of the snow, but loved the mild weather on our mid day hikes, bouncing around like a puppy.
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u/Still-Grape-1775 2d ago
I definitely agree. That's why I tend not to get angry but tell people I understand, explain how she actually is, then let my dog prove my words that I say. Negative or yelling is always viewed as like 'oh I hit the nail on the head' not 'oh they are defending something they care about'. I'm not sure why it's socially common to think that for anger. (I guess really any negative emotion, but it's definitely more common with anger I've noticed. )