jackflak.com: The Missing Pitbull Puppies

When the police arrived, Erin says the police hurriedly took her report on the front porch. She says the police then left, only quickly walking through the house, and asking silly questions. After two days, she realized a bunch more things were missing, and tried calling the police to report this. She says she was greeted with the same indifference the police initially showed.

About one week later, she called the police again to see if there were any leads on her case. She says there were not, and it was obvious there was not going to be. She had replaced some of the missing items, the TV, fixed the window, and made a makeshift Christmas for her daughters. And that's when the lead finally came, but it wasn't the kind of lead one might have expected.

* * *

Erin's daughter came home from high school and told her that some kids at school were bragging about how one of her fellow students' mom had robbed a bunch of houses. The gossip was that this woman had a bunch of pitbull puppies. Erin again called the police. The police asked to talk to her daughter, and asked her exactly which kids had told her about the puppies and the robberies. She says her daughter refused to tell on which kids it was, for fear of retribution, and the police said their hands were tied. It seemed they would never see all their puppies again. But a few days after that, another lead came, again in an unsual form.

* * *

Erin says she was coming home from work, about one mile from her home, when she was cut off in traffic by a truck. Naturally, stressed out by everything that had happened, she foolishly decided to pursue the truck. She followed the truck to a nearby gas station, and, when the truck stopped, she got out and decided to confront the driver. The driver was a woman who looked strangely familiar.

"I absolutely couldn't believe it," Erin said. "I was so angry. I made two fists, and said to her, 'Are you the [expletive] who robbed my house? I swear to God, I will [expletive] you up!'" The woman did not deny it. Instead, she calmly returned to her truck and hurried off, with Erin in quick pursuit.

* * *

"I probably should not have threatened her like that," Erin said, "but damn, I was mad!" "I recognized her as the woman who came to look at the dogs, and I'd be damned if I wasn't going to find them, so I followed."

* * *

Erin followed the woman to a house nearby, which, ironically enough, was within eyeshot of the police station. When she angrily got out of her car, the police were already there. She ran up on the front porch of the ramshackle house, and was greeted by an officer. Inside, she saw her TV. She was sure the dogs were there.

So I take it these are your's, then?" the officer said. All the puppies rushed up to here, surrounding here and jumping up.

"I was so happy," Erin said. "I knew it!" Erin says they dogs were dirty, and it was obvious that they were not taken care of. They were rather skinny, and seemed lethargic.

"So what happens now?" she asked the officer.

* * *

It seems the woman was rather shaken by the encounter at the gas station, and immediately returned home and called 9-1-1. The woman told the police that she feared that she was in posesssion of stolen property. Some "friends of hers had 'left it there'" she claimed. When Erin asked the police what they were going to do about it, she was told that there was nothing they could do. They would have to catch the thieves in the act. Since these people had pretended to be honest, there was no more evidence they could act on.

Angrily, she brought all the hungry, dirty puppies home, with her TV, and got them something to eat.

* * *

She got out a huge baking tray and filled it with dog food. All the dogs gathered around, and ate until their hearts were content. Her daughters were happy the whole gang was back together, and all was right. While she initially wanted some justice, Erin says she is now just happy to have all the puppies back.

"I'm just glad everything worked out," she told me. "Now, I've still got to find homes for ten more of these puppies."

Erin has since adopted out one puppy, and faces an uphill climb to find homes for the others. They are not fixed, and she is afraid to surrender them to a shelter, on account of their possibly being euthanized.

* * *

Pitbulls are a really great breed, whose reputation has been sullied over the last twenty years.

In 1987, Sports Illustrated capitalized on the media hysteria about a few well-publicized maulings with the cover at left. That led to the pitbull becoming popular with so-called "hip-hop" culture embracing the breed as a status symbol. And, after a few more years, the now well-known case of Michael Vick. Happily, many of Vick's dogs have been rehabilitated and adopted. It would seem Sports Illustrated has tried to make up for their mischaracterization of the breed.

In December of 2008, they published this cover about Vick's surviving dogs:

The pitbull remains a stable, highly trainable, and intelligent breed. They are high-level dogs who require an owner willing to give them the high amount of exercise they require. They are among the most loyal breed of dog, and make excellent animal companions.

In the 1930s, pitbulls were well-regarded as fanastic family pets. The most famous pitbull is Petey, of Our Gang's Little Rascals:Perhaps the lesser-famous Pitbull ever is a dog named Stubby, who served in World War I. In 1917, he was smuggled aboard the USS Minnesota, and fought in France, alongside American troops for 18 months. In April of 1918. Stubby was wounded in his forearm by German Troops. When he recovered, he learned to warn his fellow Americans of poison gas attacks.

When he died in 1926, he was the only dog to be promoted to Seargeant.

* * *

Abby and I adopted a pitbull puppy from the Capital Area Humane Society one year ago. While Bella has required a lot more attention, time, and especially money that we were ready for, she is my best friend in the world.