Looking back, looking ahead.

In 2012, Plenty of Pit Bulls helped more than three dozen dogs, mostly as a result of collaborations between that loose collection of volunteers called POPB and a variety of different organizations.  We worked with private rescue groups including the Alachua County Humane Society, Helping Hands Pet Rescue, Marion County Humane Society, Phoenix Animal Rescue, Pit Sisters, Puppy Hill Farm, and Second Chance Farms.  Our initial  -- and continuing -- goal was not to replace these organizations but rather to help them expand their resources so that they could save more dogs.  To this end, we contribute pull fees and veterinary costs as well as connecting rescues with foster homes, transporters, and other volunteers.

Opie went from a cruelty case straight to the arms of his loving foster mom.

We continue to have a close relationship with Alachua County Animal Services, where most of our dogs come from.  The dedication of the shelter staff, especially Dwinnie Slade and Susan Clontz, saves countless animals every month.  They go above and beyond the call of duty to get animals to safety.  We also rely on shelter staff for recommendations about animals’ temperaments – they have never steered us wrong.  Noah (called Berrin at the shelter) received several reprieves from the euthanasia list because Dwinnie knew he was special.  He is an absolutely wonderful dog and we are thrilled that he is alive and enjoying life because we could put together the resources to help him.

Noah was all smiles as he left the shelter.

We also helped dogs from Gilchrist and Levy counties, in collaboration with volunteers and  veterinary professionals who have asked for our help.  And in turn, we were able to send a heartworm positive dog from Gainesville to be treated at the Marion County Humane Society in Ocala.  (That was Lilly, a perfect little dog who was adopted before she could come back to Gainesville!)

Lilly took to the creature comforts immediately.

Of the dozen dogs we took in directly as Plenty of Pit Bulls, eight were heartworm positive and most of the rest had other medical issues, ranging from Ella’s puncture wounds to Satchel’s eye condition.  Several of these dogs have finished treatment and been adopted, while others will continue to need treatment in the new year.

 Roxy came from the same cruelty case as Opie

Both were treated for heartworm at Shelter Medicine.

We ran up a huge debt to the amazing veterinary team at UF’s shelter medicine program.  The debt is psychological, not financial – we paid all the bills, thanks to generous donations and pledges from people in Gainesville and beyond.  Rescue groups put hundreds of dollars into every dog even without additional costs for conditions like heartworm or demodex.  There are pull fees, monthly flea and heartworm treatments, food, microchipping, and supplies like crates, collars and leashes, and unexpected veterinary costs that often arise during the time a dog is in foster care.  (Ella, for example, had a very expensive secondary bacterial infection after her original wounds were treated.)

Lucky Ella had a professional photographer for her foster mom.

We are amazed at how much we can accomplish when we connect people who want to help dogs.  When two young male pit bull mix dogs (Mr Big and Mr Little) at ACAS tested positive for demodex mange, we helped arrange a collaboration with Phoenix Animal Rescue in Gainesville, who took them into their adoption program, and Pit Sisters in Jacksonville, who provided the medicine to treat the demodex.  (Pit Sisters later did the same for another dog who went to the Alachua County Humane Society.)

Mr Big and Mr Little, later Champ and Chase, heading out.

We built relationships with several local dog trainers, who helped teach some of our volunteers and dogs.  Training and behavior work is crucial to making dogs more adoptable and increasing retention in their adopted homes – and it also makes them easier to place and keep in foster homes.  Training is also fun for dogs and handlers alike, adding to the bond and the enjoyment that make it all worthwhile.

Relationships -- between people and between people and dogs -- make everything we do possible.  Building trust and communication helps a lot of dogs, including Bonnie, who was found by a Levy County volunteer and adopted to friends of a Gainesville volunteer, after being vetted thanks to Phoenix Animal Rescue.

Bonnie got a family of her own for Christmas!

Relationships of mutual trust also make it possible for us to help and be helped by groups out of town -- as in the case of Bandit, whom we pulled from ACAS and then transferred to an out-of-town rescue organization.  In other cases, we have received similar favors from groups that pull from other shelters, such as Levy County.  Working together and being flexible enables us to help more dogs.

A shelter volunteer fell in love with Bandit and made it possible

for him to be rescued out of town when local groups were full.

We worked with Stubby Dog, a national pit bull advocacy organization, to feature both Ella and Sadie as rescue dogs of the week.  (Both were adopted, Ella through POPB and Sadie through Helping Hands.)

Harper sports his tutu with pride.

For 2013?  It’ll start off with a bang, as Harper, a heartworm positive dog rescued from Levy County Animal Services. appears as the new year’s first Stubby Dog rescue dog of the week.

We have applied to pull dogs from Putnam County Animal Services, a neighboring shelter which, like other rural southern counties, has a high kill rate, low adoption rate, and few private or public resources.  The dogs at Putnam are especially needy because the shelter refuses to let any dog labeled a pit bull or bulldog mix to be adopted out directly.  They can leave the shelter alive only if they are pulled by a rescue organization.  We look forward to being able to help a few of these dogs in the new year. 

Like so many of the dogs we helped rescue,

Copper left his difficult past behind.

We have a few other plans we need your help with – all in collaboration with other organizations in Gainesville and beyond.

First, we would like to recruit more committed volunteers.  We need people who can help train foster dogs and also take them on outings to socialize them and expose them to potential adopters.   We also, of course, always need foster homes – both for the dogs we pull as POPB and must keep in foster homes during their treatment and for the dogs who are transferred to rescue partners for adoption.

Sadie was scared and depressed at the shelter.

A loving foster home put a smile on her face,
and Helping Hands Rescue found her a family of her own.

Second, we would like to have some successful fundraising projects, so we are not relying so heavily on individual donations.

Sterling (formerly Jesse) had nearly starved to death by the time he was rescued.

Today he is happy, healthy, and ready for adoption from Phoenix Animal Rescue.

Third, we would like to have some community events that are fun and educational for everyone involved.  In addition to events like Pit Walks, picnics, and dog hikes we’d like to try something a bit more ambitious, like free or low-cost vaccinations in low-income areas.

To us, a "pit bull" is any dog who needs a little extra help,

including our gorgeous hound mix, gentle Jack.

For all of these projects, we need people with all sorts of skills as well as patience, a sense of humor, and persistence.  Please email gainesvillepitbulls@gmail.com if you would like to get more involved!  With your help, we can continue our mission – bringing people together to help the dogs we love.

One-eyed, heartworm positive Asha was dumped from a truck with her puppy.

The puppy was killed by a car, but Asha was rescued and is now safe, happy, and loved.

The Story of Ella

In the first installment, she was a street waif, scruffy and scared and bleeding from deep puncture wounds.  Cue music from any story of a hard-luck orphan who encounters a good Samaritan at the crucial moment.  

She ended up at Alachua County Animal Services (ACAS).   Since the shelter was very full, there was no room for her to stay there while she was recovering from her wounds.  She was placed on the euthanasia list the day her three-day stray hold was up.   Shelter staff sent out an email to rescue groups, which said  “Sweet, sweet pit mix on Friday’s euth list. Gives kisses!!! Needs TLC before and after wounds heal. Interested? Let us know before 8:30 a.m. Friday.”  Her ridiculously cute underbite sealed the deal.

Ella is the only dog we have pulled without a confirmed foster home.  Something about her was special enough to make us take the risk.  We took her to Sun Kiva, an amazing rescue-friendly boarding kennel (thank you, Louise Kuttler) and came up with a plan that was not much of a plan:  we’d get her a Facebook page, call her “Cinderella,” recruit a bunch of fairy godmothers, and hope that her lost slipper would show up one day in the form of a great permanent home.

Maybe we should have named her “Blanche,” because if anyone ever relied on the kindness of strangers, it was this little dog.  Every step of the way, someone came through to get her to the next stage.

After a week at Sun Kiva, we moved her from the kennel to a temporary foster home, where we learned that she is house-trained and that she is a very picky eater.  After a few weeks there, she moved to another temporary foster family, where we learned that she adores children. 

Fortunately for us, everyone who spent time with Ella fell in love and both her temporary fosters kept her long past their initial commitments.  Ella is typical of many of the pit bulls we have pulled from the shelter – affectionate, athletic, full of energy and enthusiasm for people and life in general, which she demonstrated with a constantly wagging back end and energetic kisses.  But Ella also had a certain je ne sais quois, manifested in her characteristic head tilt. 

The story of Ella is a tale of two rescues – the good and the bad.   The bad part was that we had no plan, and this is a crazy-making and expensive way of doing rescue.  The good part was, well, Ella.  Not once did anyone involved with her rescue regret going out on a limb for this little bundle of charm.

After about a month and a half of antibiotics and temporary foster care, Ella was ready to go to a longer-term foster home and to get ready for adoption.  Once again luck was with us, and Ella became Hillary’s very first foster dog.  Hillary fosters like she’s been doing it all her life.  She took Ella to obedience class, where she learned about being with other dogs, among other things. Because of the attack she had suffered, we were afraid she would be scared of other dogs, but it turned out her barking was friendly excitement.  With a lot of work on Hillary’s part, Ella learned to sit quietly (more or less) when she met new dogs. 

Thanks to generosity of Phoenix Animal Rescue, she spent every Saturday at Petsmart, and every time she was better and better behaved.  Still, no one seemed interested in adopting her.  Ella was black, she was a pit bull, and she tended to express her enthusiasm a bit too forcefully when she came out of her crate at adoption events.  She had some interest, but nothing came through.  Still, we held out hope that our little gremlin princess would have a fairy-tale ending.

Then one day we got a message.  Could it be THE message?  It came from someone who sounded like the adopter ever rescuer dreams of.  Nanci described her life with her pit bull, Bella, who was the love of her life and had recently been diagnosed with an aggressive form of bone cancer.  Nanci’s first response was “I can never go through this again with another dog,” but then she realized that the joy Bella had brought into her life made her never want to be without a pit bull.  Fearing that Bella did not have long, she was starting to look at Petfinder, and had been struck by the pictures and descriptions of two of our available dogs – Lilly and Ella.  As luck would have it, Lilly had just been adopted (through her foster in Ocala), but Ella was still waiting.  We talked, Nanci thought, and she decided to meet Ella even though Bella was still very much with her and loving life.  Could she possibly handle two dogs?  Could Bella, who was sometimes dog-selective, adjust to life with another dog?  Would Ella create stress for Bella or perhaps add to her quality of life?

Nanci met Bella at an adoption event, liked what she saw, and we moved to the next stage: a meeting between Ella and Bella on neutral ground, a park.  That worked out pretty well, so we tried a longer walk together.  So far, so good.  Nanci decided on a trial week at her house.

Nanci did everything right.  Because Bella was fragile due to her illness, and because Bella was sometimes selective about which dogs she liked, she and Ella did not meet face to face immediately but instead got to know each other through baby gates and crates.  The fact that they had already met on neutral ground helped a lot, as well.  Soon Ella and Bella were lying nose to nose on either side of the baby gate, and Nanci let them meet face to face, leashed to make sure that play did not get too rambunctious for Bella.  It was a brilliant success – the girls had a great time play-biting, chewing, and head-wrestling.  Both dogs were extremely gentle with each other and followed all the rules. 

This was a great lesson for everyone involved: two female pit bulls, one young and goofy (that would be Ella) and one older, sick, and dog-selective, showed us that they can live together just fine, thank you very much, as long as the humans don’t do anything stupid.

So it’s official.  Ella’s ship has come in and everyone is riding off into the sunset.  The story of Ella is now the story of Ella, Bella, and Nanci.  The end.