Weekly The Star-News runs a feature courtesy of the Chula Vista Animal Care Facility.
The Pet of the Week typically highlights dogs and cats available — along with a few other animal options — for adoption.
The cats offer quiet if aloof companionship, and the dogs may provide the sort of loyalty depicted in Hollywood buddy action-adventure movies.
But it is the pitbulls that get most of my attention.
Like people, not all pitties are the same, but generally speaking their massive boulder-like heads and squat muscular bodies make them distinct from their canine brethren. They are to dogs what marble is to putty. They are brick walls with fur, four legs and wiggly hips.
A pitbull’s square head houses a jaw that is shaped like any other dog’s jaw but its wide head gives it the illusion that its smile is wider than a jack o’lantern’s candy-eating grin.
And yet what I appreciate most about the lumps of skin, bones and muscles is the contradiction they are.
Iron Mike Tyson in his youth was a ferocious and devastatingly talented boxer. He combined speed and agility with massive power. If anyone could knock down a wall with his fist it would be Mike Tyson.
And yet the first time I heard him speak, in a soft falsetto-like voice with a subtle lisp, the destroyer of all things breathing was remarkably human, especially when he spoke of his love for pigeons and a desire to be loved like anyone else. Power and grace. Destruction and love. The beauty of yin and yang.
At first glance a pitbull is as intimidating as a MAGA hat- wearing patriot carrying his assault rifle into a superstore because he loves the Constitution’s second amendment.
But spend a little time with a pitbull and the biggest injury you’ll come away with is a sore hand from all the belly rubbing you’ll do. And yet there are people who continue to fear what they don’t understand.
While there are instances in which a dog that happens to be a pitbull has bitten someone and caused injury, the act is not exclusive to the breed. Reputable organizations such as the SPCA will provide statistics showing that particular breed is not more likely to attack someone than, for example, a retriever, greyhound or Chihuahua.
As with people, dogs are not driven by their DNA alone; their environment and the way in which they are raised also determine how friendly or dangerous they may be.
Someone somewhere with good sense decided October would be National Pitbull Awareness Month. I’d encourage everyone not to dismiss a pitbull as a companion if they are considering adopting one from the Chula Vista Animal Care Facility or anywhere else.
If I could I would adopt all the pits. I’d rather hang out with a pitbull than a man with a MAGA hat and a gun. After all, I know pitties like belly rubs and ear scratches. The other guy, I’m not so sure.
