Roxie is a 2 1/2 year old pit bull/border collie mix- rescued from a shelter in my hometown.

Roxie's story:

Roxie was first at this shelter as a puppy. I don't know if she was dumped off there or was picked up as a stray. She was adopted by an elderly couple. She lived with them for about a year or so, but when the old man had a stroke (he lived, just wasn't all there in the head anymore), his wife decided to get rid of the dog because she had one of her own and hated Roxie. She figured that her husband wouldn't notice or even miss the dog, so Roxie was once again dumped off in the shelter.

The shelter we got her from kept the dogs in an unheated portion of the building. They were to sleep on a cement floor and a pillow and a very thin blanket were tossed in there. The dogs were fed 2 cups (as in the measurement of 1 cup- like a cup of flour for a recipe) of low grade food per day and they were only given water when the caretaker came to take them for a walk. The walls of their cells were covered in led based paint that was chipping and peeling off of the walls and they were only about 3 feet wide, 4 feet long, and 6 feet tall with a metal chain link gate for the door (most shelters use that, which is fine). The dogs had no room to run around and weren't very well taken care of at all. Even worse was the area outside that they were given to run around in. While it was fairly large, it was a chain link fence with barbed wire up top (like a prison) and they were running around on hard blacktop. (The new building the shelter moved into was once a power company's building, so they put this fence out in the parking lot).

The people that took care of the dogs weren't that nice either. The manager of the shelter has tons of animals just running all over the place in both her apartment and her house out in the countryside. You can clearly see that they're not very well fed nor taken care of at all and some of them are super aggressive. Because we lived in a small town, the manager knew who I was and who my husband was and already had a personal vendetta against both us and our families (I can guess why she didn't like me, but him? Who knows. She's pretty nasty toward everyone so I don't think it's that big of a deal.). What's pathetic was because of that, she refused to give us the dog.

It takes 3 signatures from the board members for you to be approved for adoption. My application had all 3 signatures, but the manager still refused to let us take the dog (Roxie was a dead dog if she didn't find a home by Christmas). I had already adopted a cat 3 years prior to applying for Roxie, so I figured no big deal. A year before Roxie, I adopted another cat, a kitten, as a playmate for the one I already had. That was a mistake because my cat overly hated the new one and kept attacking me and swatted the baby one a few times. After spending a day with that, I decided to bring the little one back because it just wasn't going to work out. The very next day that little guy got a home and the couple that adopted him were overjoyed that we didn't keep him because they loved him that much. So everyone was happy and everyone got a happy ending. Ever since then the manager has been a sore loser toward me. (I'm sorry, but it's not my fault if the two didn't get along..) So we cheated the system and had Justin's mother apply for the dog. That worked pretty well.

When we got her the only thing she understood was "no", "sit", and go to the bathroom outside. It appears that she was never taken for a walk before because when we put a leash on her she just sat there and stared at us like she didn't know what to do next. No one took her for car rides obviously because we had to pick her up and put her in the truck at first.

Roxie's a big baby, but also had some abandonment issues because of how she was treated by her previous owners (dumped off twice at the same horrible shelter- how sad). Thanks to some work, she now has a happy life.

Roxie is very playful, loves to run, loves her belly rubs and is as gentle as can be. She's good with kids, other dogs, cats, everything but rabbits, cattle, and other things that could be "food" (horses to her are like giant dogs, she just wants to play with them, but we don't really want her chasing around a bunch of horses that belong to the people who own the campground we're staying at). If you even get your fingers in her mouth due to play time or feeding her something with your hand, she opens her mouth quickly and gently backs away, then licks your hand. When you feed her, she gently takes food from your hand and avoids touching your fingers at all costs.


Today:
Roxie is a healthy 50-55 pounds of solid muscle. When we first got her, she weighed only 30 pounds. She has become a regular couch potato too XD. Loves car rides to no end and is very well behaved. Rarely barks, and rarely tries to escape when we leave now (before she was so clingy that we had issues getting out the door to go to work). Now she can be left outside on her cable without problems (the only time she barks is if she wants in or there's something outside to set her off). Instead of dragging you along for a walk, she will (for the most part) listen when you say easy, and slow down- a big step from when we first got her.

If she slips out of her collar, it's not that big of an issue because she won't go too far from you (most of the time she'll just lay down instantly) and you can just slip it back on. The reflective collar shown is just something she wears for small trips or around the house. Her purple one is a lot thinner and has all of her tags on it. Justin wants to get her a 'show collar' as well (pink leather with some spikes studded in it).

Over all she's a lucky dog that was saved from death row. Just another sad shelter story of an animal that's perfectly fine who was about to die just because of her breed.


Does she bite? No. I haven't seen her even attempt to attack anyone yet. The only time she gets aggressive is when someone is messing with her owners (Justin and his friends were rough playing one time and she ended up growling at the friends because she thought they were hurting him.) About the only thing she'll do is growl and bark. The only thing she attacks are small animals such as rabbits, prairie dogs (if she can catch them), and of course her toys/bones.

Food situation: She's gone from eating just two small cups a day and almost no water to a full food and water dish all day and all night long (we fill it every time it's low or empty). We actually had to feed her puppy food to get her back to a healthy weight because she would hardly eat anything at first (wasn't used to all that food). She'll get some table scraps too, but we watch what we give her. She'll get leftover meat, bones, stuff like that, eggs, sometimes a little milk, and different kinds of bread products. You could make her a continental breakfast and she'd be thrilled to eat it. I guarantee if you put something like that down in front of her face it'll be gone within 2 minutes or less.

Roxie is also very well behaved around other dogs unless they initiate an attack against her first. She has enough patience to put up with Sheba, a 9 month old puppy that I swear never runs out of energy. Roxie's ok with it because she still thinks she's a puppy even though she's about 2 1/2 now.

This special puppy comes on road trips with us as well. She will be going with for the ride out to Anthrocon 2009. You're more than welcome to meet her in person (she won't be at the con of course, but the hotel we're at isn't far away), but be warned, she's so people friendly that she'll run up to you immediately for attention and she might even run you over in the process. She was never taught not to jump up on people and we haven't been able to train her not to, so if you're a guy, protect your balls (unfortunately because she's short, her front paws end up right there). Women have nothing to worry about X3 She does get very hyper when people are around, so just watch where she's running around at because she'll trip you. Other than that she's a total sweetheart. Don't let the breed fool you.

"A dog is only as good as it's owner." - If the owner is mean to the animal and trains it to be a killer, then you'll meet a really mean dog. If the owner is overly nice to the dog and treats it as part of the family instead of an attack machine, your chances of that dog being mean are slim. Pits are territorial, but are lover babies. Most of the ones I've met (and their mixes) weren't aggressive at all. The ONE pit mix I met that was super aggressive was owned by a person who trained it to be a dog for the dog fights. Illegal, yes, but either way, that's the only mean one I've ever come across and sadly, as a puppy, that dog was as nice and as cuddly as my own, but within a year, the owner had her trained and ready to go for a fight. You couldn't even pet the dog without her trying to rip your hand off. Sadly, that dog didn't make it out of the first fight she was put into. In a way, that's a good thing. At least now the poor thing doesn't have to fight or put up with an abusive owner, but it's just sad that people train these things to fight. That same person had tried to adopt Roxie, but after telling the people at the shelter what he does with the pit mixes, they told him to get lost.

No dog should ever be born for the purpose of having to fight for it's owner to make that owner some money. If you know of something going on like that, get some information and report it. Give these guys a second chance at life. If you were them, wouldn't you want a second chance at a better home? That's why my husband and I became members of the ASPCA. We care about the dogs that come from horrible backgrounds, and we're more than willing to work with them and see about getting them a new home where they'll be treated better.

It would be nice if every dog was as lucky as Roxie. If you know any dogs in the same situation, do your best to help them out.