Be Careful What You Wish For

I heard about this story early on Monday before it came out in the media. (The picture in that story? A heartbreaker.) It lead the 11:00 news that night, so I stayed up to watch the footage. The whole thing makes me so sad. I don't know what would have made these dogs do this. I mean, these dogs were obviously NOT family pets. They were breeding dogs owned by an irresponsible owner. They could just as easily have been any large breed of dog. This man chose not to have his dogs spayed/neutered. He chose not to have them vaccinated. He chose to let them out, unattended, into an inadequately fenced yard. But I have to wonder what must have happened to an otherwise happy go lucky even tempered dog to make them behave this way? Pit bulls are not inherently human aggressive or violent like this. Were they trained to be aggressive to strangers? To anyone who approached the house? The thought makes me so sad. Ultimately, I have to believe that this man chose to let this happen to this woman and the blame needs to lie with the him.

Of course, I can't read any of the comments that people have left to that story. I just can't. I've learned that there's nothing I can say to get people to listen to logic when they are utterly convinced that pit bulls are a threat to their well-being. And that's fine. I just have to go home, hug my dogs, and remember to be the picture of a responsible pit bull owner with well behaved dogs each time I step out in public.

So when talking to zlionsfan that night, I made the half-hearted wish that some major story would come through within the next 24 hours to wipe that story off the front page. I think my actual words were, "I hope something horrible happens. Well, not really horrible, but..." This breed doesn't need any more bad press.

BAM.

And then? BAM.

The first story made me feel the type of fruitless anger that I always feel when hearing about screw-ups by others that I'll have to pay for. (Ask the Colts or Pacers for more money? Of course not. Why would we do that??)

The second story, well, I'm sorry to say that I didn't believe it. I shook my head, laughed at the shortcomings of weather-people, and went about my business.

And then the snow started.

And then I was late to class because people can't drive in 2 inches of snow in Indiana. They panic like it's the end of the world coming.

And then I left class and it wasn't snowing any longer. (And my walk was shoveled*) And I thought to myself, "Two inches? They were freaking out about two inches??"

And then I was awakened by a phone call this morning (at 6:40am!!!) telling me that classes had been cancelled. I laughed at the silliness of people in Indiana and how we freak out when there's such little snow on the ground, luxuriated in the fact that I have AWD, and then proceeded to lounge with my dogs until it was time to get ready to go to work.

When I let the dogs out, Blue was completely buried in snow. He had to hop like a rabbit to get into the backyard. Hilarious and adorable. I wish I could have captured it on film. It was then that I had some inkling of what was going on outside. Perhaps I should have looked out my window at 6:40am. If I had, I would have seen that Curvy, who usually looks like this: looked like this: Please note the snow that was (and still is) coming down. The only reason why I made it into work today is because of Curvy's AWD (we almost didn't make it out of our parking space there) and because I live a mere four miles from work.

Well, at least the pit bull story is old news. And I don't have class to worry about tonight.** And now the sun is coming out, so I might just be able to make it HOME from work too!***

*Before you go getting all "the boy is awesome," know that he was apologizing for something. (I'm looking at you, J)
**I got a text message, a phone call, AND an email. The university did an awesome job of getting the word out that campus was closed.
***I'm being somewhat ironic there. I can already see Kat(i)e getting all ready to yell at me about how it could be so much worse. I know it could be. This is rough, but it's worse elsewhere. Like for my parents. Or like in Chicago where it's much colder... All I have to say is that your plowing/road clearing system is better than ours.****
****Not that I'm bad mouthing our salt trucks and plows. I love all of you guys. Especially the ones that lift the plows and swerve out of my way when they see me instead of spraying snow all over my car for my already overworked wipers to remove.