As we know, nowadays most families have pets. It could be as tiny as a lizard or as big as a Great Dane. About 3 years ago, we rescued our first pet from the streets. Her name is Rosita and she is our lovely and lazy cat. She loves to crash on our beds, knock down anything that is on top of any counter and she likes to feel that she is the queen of the house. Unfortunately, about a year and a half ago, Rosita felt betrayed when we brought home our second pet. This time a bigger and way more active “creature”.

We brought home a Pitbull mix. She was only 6 weeks old when we got her, and we did not have any experience on how to take care of this active girl.  

In the past, as an uninformed person on the topic of dogs, I had promised to myself I would never get a Pitbull or anything that looked like them. Due to their bad reputation, I was afraid to own one like that.

Truth is that when I saw her for the first time, I fell in love without caring what breed she was. Come on, who can resist to a chubby puppy chasing you and playing around with you. My husband was quietly observing me on how I chose her over her seven siblings. He noticed since the beginning she was going to be trouble, but he stayed quiet.

We had the opportunity to meet her parents and the owners. She is the product of a first and last litter her mom would have. The owners are my mom’s friend. Without the knowledge I now have as a Pitbull owner, we bought her instead of finding one to adopt. She was not cheap but every time I look at her lovely eyes I tell her, “you are worth every single penny we spend on you and you deserve it”.

When we got her, she was still a puppy and she used to cry at nights. We bought her a pretty bed, toys and anything she needed but what she wanted was to be close to someone to feel safe. Me, as a mother, I used to make her sleep in my arms and then put her in her bed, just as I used to do it when my daughters were babies. But that did not work much because as any other baby, she used to wake up in the middle of the nights and cry again.

After she got used to sleeping by herself, she started to feel confident with us and around the apartment. Worst thing was we were not allowed to have dogs, but we got her anyways since we were planning to move soon.

She started to feel happy and active. She did not have dogs around to learn from, but she had Rosita, the cat. She started to copy everything she used to do. Learning on how to go on top of the beds, couch, desks and even on top of the table. Oh boy, don’t ask me how we handled it, but she started to destroy everything. Since we didn’t have any experience we didn’t use a crate for her and every time we went out, we had to be prepared to come back home and find it as a hurricane had passed through.

We taught her not to bark since she was prohibited to be there. We eventually bought her a crate and due to the comments from our own family about her being a Pitbull, we took her to training and puppy classes. She is very smart, lovely and loyal. She was and still is very active.
Her name is Nina and the reason why I think she is a perfect dog is because she is so patient and delicate with my daughters. She likes to play tough but at the same time she is so delicate when she is around kids or little animals. She respects our cat a lot, even though Rosita is always cranky with her. Nina loves to listen and pay attention to everything we command her. She loves to kiss us anytime and her favorite thing, she likes to cuddle with us a lot wherever we are. She is the popular dog around our neighborhood and she loves to wag her tail to everybody without caring if she just met them.

Thanks to the opportunity we gave ourselves on getting her, my thoughts and feelings about Pitbulls changed drastically. I’m not afraid of Pitbulls anymore but I’m afraid that most of them can’t find a family that can take good care of them. I feel sorry for the ones that are abused and that are forced to fight against other dogs. I feel sorry that are a lot of them misjudged just because one attacked a human. A lot of uneducated people, as I was, think that all Pitbulls are bad, aggressive and that they are the worst dogs you can have. I feel bad for them and I hope one day Pitbulls could be considered as pretty and lovely as a Poodle can be.

I love my lovely beast, she taught us a lot. She is our spoiled princess and we couldn’t find a better dog to be around my daughters and my family. Next time you are thinking on getting or buying a dog, have on mind that there a lot of Pitbulls abandoned in a shelter. You will save a life and you will be giving yourself an opportunity on finding out how wonderful these dogs are.