My High Horse

There are very few things I am absolutely opinionated about to the point where I will argue my point to the death. I am obviously opinionated about many things, but I am mature enough to accept other peoples point of view and value their opinion as much as my own. Except for this one subject........DOGS!

To be more specific, dogs that have been found to be vicious. I will never own any of these three breeds; pit bulls, rottweilers, or dobermans. I understand that not every single one of these dogs is going to kill someone or even hurt someone, but for me the risk is just not worth it. I can not be that irresponsible with my children. Why am I getting up on my high horse today? Because I walked outside this morning and noticed my new neighbors have a brand new puppy. I knew it was a pit bull, I can spot one from a mile away. So can my children, adult ones that is. Puppies they can't tell, so they were asking what kind it was. I say to my neighbor (I am sure I had a very uneasy and a look of disdain on my face, you can read me like a book by looking at my face.) "It's a pit bull, right?" I know I had a tone, I tend to do that when I am not in the best of moods. "Yes" she replied. "Great, just great!" I replied back. And she started in with "we can have him adjust to the kids now" and "he's not bad at all." Yeah lady you will never convince me of that. 1) My kids will NEVER go near a pit bull. 2) My dad is an EMT and has run way too many kids whose face, arm, finger, etc has been ripped off by "Rex" the loving family pit bull who was raised from a puppy with the child. 3) Yeah, he's "not bad"......YET.

No they don't have children and it's their right to own whatever vicious creature they wish, within the rules of our housing contract. So I can't do a damn thing about the dog living next door to me. I even called housing to make sure it wasn't against the rules to own them on post. Unfortunately they have a policy that only bans creatures that have already maimed children, pets, or adults. Now I will just take comfort in the fact that we should be moving very soon to Senior Enlisted housing and away from all this mess. I know I either hurt her feelings or angered her, I really don't care. My number one job is to take care of my children and I am pretty sure letting them get bit or eaten by a dog would constitute a failure on my part.

Now pit pulls are the worst in my opinion. I don't care for rots because they have a rep, but I am not as vigilant about them. Dobies are another story, I was nearly attacked by my uncles as a child. It chased me down the hall and I had to stand on the back of the couch to get away from her until my uncle could grab her. It wasn't long after that she attacked my 4 year old cousin and they had her put down. Now my cousin (the brother of the one attacked) owns 2 dobies. The male is nice enough and seems to be harmless. The female however is a viscous beast that almost bit Aidan on the face. His fiancee has already warned him they will go when they have children, smart girl in my opinion. My aunt still doesn't think they are a threat, but in her own admission Aidan was doing nothing but trying to pet the dog when she tried to bite her. My dad has already warned my aunt the children are to NEVER go around those dogs again. He is even more passionate about this subject that I am. But most people would probably be that same way if they have seen what he has in his 20+ years of being an EMT.

My motto is "I don't trust a big dog with no tail."

Anyone is welcome to disagree with me, but they will never change my mind. If you own one, fine by me, my children will just never be around it. I am opinionated about this, but I still respect other peoples rights to own these dogs. I just personally choose not to put my family at risk. I will climb down off my high horse or step down off my soap box, whichever you prefer. :P