This morning, I spent a long playtime with the newest member of our household, Sundance, who became a family member at eight weeks of age and is now five months old.
When we first saw him, a beautiful pit bull puppy, locked up and alone at the local animal shelter, with all the negative publicity for the breed, it seemed perfectly in line with my “against the grain ” streak that he was coming home, and be welcomed into “the pack” consisting of our dogs Mitaku(from Lakota language), Dakota(friend) and Houston, son of alpha dog Mitaku.He is now a part of us, and as a person, pet owner and citizen, I thought again of my feelings as I watched the Michael Vick coverage related to dog abuse, and have decided the following is my desire for young Mr. Vick:
Believe it or not young man, your best opportunity is yet to come, and remember the “onion”.Although I despise your conduct regarding these dogs, I am a far from perfect human being, and I refuse to give up on you, and although your behavior shows your shadow side, keep peeling the layers, as an onion, and never give up on yourself, and most importantly,you now have that greatest of opportunities I spoke of earlier, and here it us:
Every child will follow someone, just as you and I did, and by truly changing whatever you need to, you can redeem yourself into a new and and brighter “hero”, about all the right stuff, and join us in fighting for the children sitting on that life fence, watching and deciding who they want to follow.Let’s get it right!
Peace2U,
S Chapman
Today while at the vet with my dog, the vet introduced me to the newest member of his family, an abused pit bull he adopted from the shelter. This poor dog had a large scar straight down his back and was very fearful of people.
I shudder to think of anyone hurting an innocent animal and although I admire your hopes for Michael Vick’s rehabilitation, the fact that he is capable of abusing and killing dogs gives me very little reason he is capable of any compassion, whether toward an animal or a human being.