Block Headed Bully Love: Pit Bulls I've Lived With And Pit Bulls I've Loved

Over the years I've lived with many pit bulls. These two are the latest: Petri (above) stayed with my roommate and I for a month and a half recently and Tovah (below) belongs to his girlfriend but often visits or stays over.


Above: This summer I lived with a giant mastiff/pit mix, Elle (you might recognize this photo from earlier on this blog). But the biggest, most muscular pit bull that I ever lived with was Pete, who belonged to my friend Dr. Cool in San Jose. I even wrote a post back then about how much I liked pit bulls.


Above: This lady is the reason I fell in love with pitties. Nibbles was a backyard dog living in my old neighborhood in San Jose. The very first time I met her, I was walking down the sidewalk and she came charging at me from out of nowhere, totally terrifying me. She stopped at the end of the driveway, just a few feet from me.
I had no intention of befriending her, but I was lonely and she was lonely and when another neighbor introduced us in a friendly way, I was hooked. Nibbles was unsocialized, but underneath her fearfulness and bad manners, she was a sweetheart just longing for belly rubs and attention. I would bring her over to spend time in my backyard, take long walks with her, or go spend time with her in her backyard. Sadly, she never went inside anyone's house. When I broke up with my significant other, one of the hardest parts about moving was leaving Nibbles behind.

Below: I can't forget to include the two best trained pit bulls that I know, Lilo and Zrrbrt, who belong to EB and D:

This isn't a breed that everyone cares for. They have a bad reputation in the media and that makes many people afraid of them. However, they've always been one of my favorite breeds because they bond so closely with their people. Sadly, in the past two years I've had a few bad experiences with pit bulls myself and have come to realize that there are quite a few unstable pit bulls out there. I think this is probably due to the massive overbreeding that has been going on for quite some time now.
It takes a dedicated and responsible owner to have a pit bull, especially because they have a tendency to be dog aggressive, which can make them difficult to manage. But if you're interested in learning more, I highly recommend BADRAP's website as a source of good information about the breed (not to mention they are a fabulous rescue group that pulled the most solid, stable, sweet dogs from the San Jose shelter when I was there).