All APBT owners have interesting and humorous anecdotes
to tell about the behavior (and misbehavior) of their dogs! Well,... WE
WANT TO HEAR THEM! Right folks? So this feature will be for all our Pitbull
owners to tell us their stories, so send ëem in, and--
NO EXCUSES!
"LIGHTNING" and the BASKETBALL
I would like to share a story with the readers of PBR about my dog, "Lightning",
a well-bred bitch that just happens to be out of Rushin Billís "Sugarcane"
and sired by the "Journeyman" dog. She is a black bitch of about
50 lb. or so chain wt. and has been my pet since she was about a year
old.
"Lightning" is a very out-going and fun-loving dog and lives
to play games, especially with a ball. Trouble is, since she has a pretty
hard mouth, any ball she sees that is inflated with air is in immediate
danger of deflation if she should get a hold of it. Knowing this I usually
take "her" ball (an already deflated one) with us when I take
her to play. This was the case one nice sunny day when I took her to the
high school baseball field for a little exercise. Taking "Lightning"
off her chain, I put her on lead, grabbed her ball and off we went to
have some fun. She was so excited about getting to go play I had a heck
of a time keeping the ball away from her all the way to the school.
We had to walk past some tennis courts, a football field and another baseball
field before we got to the place where I wanted to exercise her. We also
passed a small basketball court where three guys were involved in a game.
In retrospect I have to admit that my dog showed more than a passing interest
in their basketball as we went by. I tugged her along though and finally
we reached our play area.
I threw her old ball as far as I could and she seemed to have her complete
attention on it and went racing out in that direction. Dutifully she grabbed
her ball and headed back toward me. However, to my (almost) complete surprise,
"Lightning" had a different plan and, ignoring my commands to
stop, she got up a full head of steam and shot straight past me in the
direction of, you guessed it, the basketball court! I realized immediately
where she was going and why and took off after her as fast as I could
run.
I started yelling to the basketball players who had by now spotted her
coming their way, but all they could see was the on-rushing, 50 lb. pit
bull and fear compelled them to ignore me completely. One jumped and climbed
the chain-link fence to safety and another grabbed the basketball rim
and pulled himself up to a sitting position there. Unfortunately the third
guy, too big to run or climb, and who just happened to be the one left
with the ball in his hands, just stood there frozen with fear!
Finally he heard what I had been screaming all along, "Throw the
ball, throw the ball!" and tossed it off to his right. "Lightning"
like a "smart missile" changed course in the direction of the
ball, closed, and POW! So ended another basketballís days of plump inflatedness.
I quickly put her back on lead, explained that she was only after their
ball, and tossed it, now a flat and slobbery pancake of vinyl, back to
them. Well, thatís why we say: Pits will be pits! Lesson learned... be
careful with your "pit" in public!
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