Tabytha C. Dunn
Mrs. Messer
Composition & Reading
February 1, 2015
1,000,000 Things to Love Trying to think of one million different things to love can seem a little daunting I know. Most individuals would start their list off with family, friends, significant other, a specific color, smell, taste, view, hobby, etc. Usually my list would sound a lot like that as well, but there is something else that needs and deserves my love more. There is nothing more deserving to me then my dog Lola, and she is an American Staffordshire Terrier (mixed with Chihuahua,) or more commonly known as a “Pit bull.” She is one of the lucky ones that is cared for and lives a happy life. Unfortunately, over one million Pit Bulls are killed every year just because of misrepresentation and false stereotypes when they are the best family dogs. I would like to get one fact out of the way before I start going into detail. Pit Bulls aren’t vicious and aggressive unless you train them to be! Blame the horrible owners that treat the dogs like garbage not the breed. If treated with love, kindness, and compassion then Pit Bulls by nature are very intelligent, courageous, patient, energetic, loving and gentle. These qualities make them excellent family dogs. They are the best with children. If a child pulls on their ears they lay there and let them do it, if they want to play a Pit Bull will play lightly with them while they are young and increase as the child grows, and if they just want to sleep then like clockwork the dog will be right there at the end of the bed sleeping with them. In reality most people get Pit Bulls for protection and to be a guard dog when they are horrible at the job. They are more likely to run up to the door barking and wagging their tail to greet whomever is at the door showering them with kisses than to attack. Though if need be they will protect their family with their lives. We rescued Lola from the Gasconade pound in St. Louis. It was a high kill animal shelter. In 2003 (year we adopted her,) 2,823 animals were euthanized at this facility which was 44% of the total number of animals that came to live (and die) at the shelter. The shelter itself was in deplorable conditions with inadequate ventilation, plumbing, and tiny cages that let disease run ramped. If that wasn’t enough for these poor animals to go through the facility also had an extremely inhumane way of euthanizing them, the gas chamber. Luckily as of 2010 the facility was officially closed and this horrible practice was put to an end. When Lola first came to her new home she was a bit shy as most dogs would be if they came from that kind of hell. She didn’t eat very much, play with toys, or leave the presence of humans for fear of being left again. She would even follow us into the bathroom. After about a month to a month and a half she finally warmed up and started getting that at home feeling. By this time she was probably a year old and boy did she make up for the time she lost not being able to be a puppy.
Lola had more energy than a child hyped up on caffeine. She would run back and forth in the house like she was training for a marathon. God forbid if you gave her a stuffed animal that had a squeaker embedded in it for a toy. If you even blinked she would have already chewed through the toy, removed the squeaker, and gotten the stuffing absolutely everywhere. She still does that to this day which, by the way, is extremely irritating to clean up but she loves it.
In the mornings when my sister and I had to get up for school she would jump up on our beds and try licking us to death and nibbling on our ears to get us out of bed (trying to hide under the covers did not work by the way.) When one of the family wasn’t feeling good she would be by our side all day trying to make us feel better. Also when it came to our other animals and foster animals (we fostered a lot of cats and dogs throughout the years) she had a very strong maternal instinct even though