~*~BaN tHe DeEd, NOT tHe BrEeD!~*~

*I'm a 25 year young mother of 2 human children. (An 8yr old son, and a 5yr old daughter)
*Offically engaged as of February 14th, 2009, to the man of my dreams.
* We are known as 'out-casts' on the block since moving to a 'higer-class' neighborhood this past August because we are also the PROUD 'parents' of 3 (then 2) pure bred American PitBull Terrier's and 1 PitBull mix rescue that is completely deaf (due to a rare occurence of an anesthetic overdose when he went to be neutered) which we rescued from the Animal Control Facility that I used to work at before I even worked there. (If that makes sense.) Lol.
*Our dogs are VERY well taken care of and maybe a little spoiled to. We consider ourselves to be VERY responsible pet owners, especially when it comes to those 4 specific dogs of ours. (We also have 2 other canine children. A 1 year old English Mastiff and a 5 year old Shihtzapoo as well as 3 cats, 2 turtles, 1 rabbit, a Bearded Dragon, and a Betta fish.)
*I am also a licensed foster care 'parent' through the Department of Agriculture of Illinois. (No fosters at the moment, but that can change at anytime! :))
*I took and completed a 3 year online/at home course in Veterinary Assistance and passed with overall High Honors. (A 98% average throughout the whole course.)

So if you can't tell, I LOVE animals!! When I was younger I'd bring home various strays and beg my parents to keep them. I got my way a few times, but more often than not, they would help me find them new homes if the owner couldn't be found.

My love for the APBT breed started 5 years ago. I used to be a skeptic and said I'd never have one because I knew they couldn't be trusted and were 'dangerous & viscous'. So I will admit, I fell victim to the 'stories', but all it took was 1 to change my mind forever though. The very 1st one I 'owned' was a rescue that was found tied to the back of a house with about 2 inches of slack. She couldn't move. Couldn't sit. Couldn't lay down. Hadn't been fed in probably days. There was no water. No nothing. The people who lived in the house had just left her there to die and they moved like they didn't know she was there or ever existed. Come to find out, she had just had a litter of puppies 4 weeks before. She was a fighter. When she wouldn't fight they took her babies away from her, beat her so severely she had a dislocated hip and wouldn't apply pressure to one of her back legs. She honestly looked like she had no will to live what so ever. She just wanted to die. Despite what I had heard about them, I couldn't leave her there, I just couldn't. So I carefully untied her and put her in the car. My kids were with me. At the time they were 3 and almost 6 months old. The whole way home I was praying she wouldn't see them as a threat and attack. She climbed in the back and laid between them in the back seat. From that moment on she was my daughter's little guardian. It was then that I realized who the real monster's were when it came to them. It was the people that 'owned' them, not the dogs themselves. Since then I have taken MANY into my home and 'rehabilitated' them only to send them to new loving homes. Tori is no longer with me due to some ignorant neighbors that lived behind me who believed their 'sweet little boys' could do nothing wrong even after we confronted them on several occasions asking them to teach their kids some respect and make them quit throwing rocks at her and coming out of their yard just to kick the fence where she was at, with no luck. They let her out of the yard one day and she bit one of the boys on the a** when he tried to kick her and run. Since she bit a child, even though it was provoked, she was deemed a 'viscous' dog and was euthanized a week later. R.I.P Sweet girl! I will NEVER forget you!!

My dream one day is to take my fairly new found passion & love for the APBT breed and turn it into something positive by opening my own APBT rescue (non profit of course) that specializes in rehabilitating the 'unwanted' and 'feared' and offering (training) classes to the misinformed and owner's who are new to the breed but would like to know more than what they already do to have a great bond and be ambassadors of the breed with their APBT. I truly believe you can never learn to much about the breed, or any breed for that matter. I also believe there is no such thing as an 'expert' when it comes to animals. It would be impossible for one person to learn everything there is to know about a specific species or breed in their lifetime, simply because there are so many things we will NEVER know. But as long as I am alive, I will strive to learn as much as I can and apply it when & where ever necessary as long as it benefits the worlds most misunderstood breed, or any animal, regardless of breed for that matter and the people who love them just as much as I do.

I don't believe in the uneducated, irresponsible breeding of APBT's, but I DO believe EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM deserves a 'normal' life in the hands of a responsible, educated person. With all of the research I have done over the past 5 years on the breed, I'm sure I could be a pretty reputable breeder, but I choose not to breed due to the VERY high number of PitBulls and PitBull mixes that are in shelters across the world. Why add to that population? Even by charging an outrageous 'sale' price, breeder's are in no way guaranteeing the puppy they place a safe, stable, forever home. Often times a price is just a 'status symbol'. Somebody tells his buddy that he paid $3,500 for his pup and that makes him worthy of the fighting ring because for that price, it's more than likely got 'Champion' bloodlines, and I'm not talking about show quality. Same goes for the 'FREE TO GOOD HOME' ads you see in papers or on the popular 'www.craigslist.com' website. It drives me crazy to see a Pitty being GIVEN AWAY to a 'good home'. They might as well just post 'FREE BAIT DOG TO GOOD HOME'. The only way to insure a good home is to do background checks, home checks, ask for references including Veterinarian ones, ask TONS of probing questions. If the potential buyer/adopter doesn't answer to your satisfaction, move on! By doing this, breeders don't realize they could be saving the lives of their puppies as well as in some instances the lives of people that can be taken later down the road if the dog is trained in an illegal manor. It all comes down to education and training, not how much money you can make off a litter!

Another thing that gets to me is people who are involved in weight pulling, confirmation, and showing there dogs that think they are so much better than the average APBT owner who's dog is just a much loved family pet that lounges around on the couch all day or runs around the yard with the kids on nice days. Kudos to those who have their Pitties involved in competitions and events that are down to earth and don't think they are superior to others because of that. Being a responsible owner is much more than just awards and the like. As for my dogs, the only competition they are involved in is who's going to get to the empty spot on the couch first. : ) I have no desire to get to know anybody who, just because they own a PitBull, think they are better than someone else, often those are the dogs that suffer from the 'owners' egotism. Personally, I think rescuing and fostering are far more rewarding than any competition could ever be.

I would also like to look into what it takes to become an Animal Cruelty Investigator in the state of Illinois. I'd love to be the one arresting a**holes who abuse, neglect, and just plain mistreat their animals, especially PitBulls, and then throw in the media and missinformed people's face's, just who the real monsters are!

Other than that I don't consider myself to be 'normal'. And based on the existence of so called 'normal' people in the surrounding areas, I'm far from it, and I could care less! I'll drive through the 'ghetto' with my dog in the front seat blaring Country music and get out of my Chevy Trail Blazer in my pajamas and slippers just to run into a store to get a 20oz Mountain Dew. Lol. I'm pretty open minded, or at least TRY to be. If I see something I know isn't true, I'll call the person out on it without hesitation. I believe in the saying "Never be afraid to say what you feel because those that mind don't matter and those that matter don't mind!" : ) I keep my private life private and only have a few select 'friends' that I talk to. (You know who you are.) I don't think it's the number of friends you have that matter. It's all in who you can trust, and I've found in groups of many 'friends' only a handful, maybe less, are truly worthy of the title of being a 'true friend'. I prefer the simple life. I don't thrive on expensive extravagant things. I prefer the things money CAN'T buy. I know I'm not always right. I've made mistakes and learned from them just as any human should. Life is a series of trial and error events. I've been through hell and back more than once, but it's not what happens that counts, it's how you deal with situations and get through them that does. I'm a firm believer in 'Everything, good & bad, happens for a reason.' You can't change the past, but the future is up to you.

So that pretty much sums it up...Oh yeah, I'm also pretty random so if you frequent my page you'll notice the layout and music changes on a regular basis...keeps things interesting. Lol. So if there's anything else you want to know, don't be afraid to ask! But most importantly, feel free to...














Due to the growing number of backyard breeders and irresponsible 'owners' out there that apparently haven't visited their local shelter's recently, I am a BIG supporter of ADOPTING! The shelter's are FULL of Pitties or Pitty mixes waiting for 'furever' homes. An alarming percentage of them WON'T make it back out into the safety of a loving home. So if your thinking about adding another PitBull to your home, or you don't own one yet, but would like to, I encourage you to click below and check out the adopt-a-bulls in your area!