Welcome Pita the Pit bull

It has been a few intense weeks since Goshen passed away. Already when she was still with us, we discussed getting another dog, so when the sad loss hit us, it came natural to immediately plan for a new canine member in the family. But, what? Puppy, or an older dog? What race? Buy, or adopt? Yoram's ex planned to take puppies from the Dogue de Bordeaux Marta, but now we suddenly found us in a situation with one grieving and lonely Barak, and we felt that we did not want to wait for her to get into heat, be mated and give birth. That would take at least another 3 months.

However, we borrowed Marta for a few days, just to cheer Barak up, and it helped. He did not refuse the food anymore, and he had someone to play with. I started to make plans. Close to Netanya there is a shelter run by Yuval Mendelovitz (Facebook page), aka the Angel of Pit bulls. He is the only one in Israel that in an organized way rescues and rehabilitates Pit bulls and other stigmatized dog breeds. I am well acquainted with the breed and know that it is a superior dog - in the right hands. A Pit bull is a working dog, with a lot of energy and will power, and without proper guidance they can definitely develop out of hand, but that goes for any powerful breed.

The day before we were supposed to visit Yuval the first time, Marta's owner told us to not get a dog, since they did not have room enough for Marta, and that they most likely would like to give her to us. Yoram and Marta share a special love, and we were all happy. She was already functioning in our home and we looked forward to taking her. The next day we were told that they either wanted to take a litter of puppies on her, or have us pay some money for her. We discussed it, leaned towards paying for her. She is pure-bred, but without papers, and I am principally against backyard breeding. However, they asked for much more than it cost to adopt a Pit pup from Yuval, and since that felt more appealing for all other reasons, we were in doubt. The next day, Yoram gets a phone call asking why he is not picking up the "lady", upon he shares that he wants to discuss the matter. Then he is being told to forget that, she is ours, free of charge. He picked her up. We notice that Barak was signalling that she is about to go into heat, and then we decide to neuter her. We thought that just to be nice, we share this with the previous owners, upon which they got frantic and started chanting about "misunderstandings" and that they definitely want to take puppies from her. That made us boiling mad, but the dog moved back home. We don't want to "borrow" a dog! What were they thinking? That they would save some food money from keeping her with us, and then take her back? Heartless idiots, really!

Now, we were determined to go to Yuval, and last Friday afternoon we packed Barak and the kids in the car and drove to his place. We had a discussion about our life, about Barak and our cat Karma, and we all agreed that it would be most appropriate with a puppy. Barak will get used to her in his own pace, and she can also get used to the cat while growing up.

When we saw "our" pup, a female from Inbal's litter, I melted immediately. I noticed that one of her eyes will stay blue, while the other one will turn amber, and that did the trick! She also seemed very gentle. We finished the deal and took off home with our 9 weeks old baby girl. Yuval had given her the name Lynn, but we decided to rename her to Pita! It lays better in the mouth, and cuts better through the air than Lynn. Our little pup got car sick on the way home and threw up all over me, and since she also was very dirty from laying with the litter in the shelter, the first thing she got when she got home was a good bath, and I also cut the tips of her claws with Yoram's nail clipper. She kept us up all night the first night.

Pita, the Pit bull girl

Pita resting in the park

Odd-eyed Pita

Now Pita has been with us for five days and she is making amazing progress, but we are also working determinately with her. She is almost house-broken, except that she still cannot physically control her business all the time. She sleeps all through the night, except that we take her out a couple of times during the night. I am feeding her three times per day, and then she gets to eat as much as she wants during 15 minutes, and then the food is gone until the next meal. I also use her motivation before every meal to do a short obedience session. She already knows "sit", "down" and "come here" (although in Hebrew), and she has started to sit down right in front of me also on other occasions, just to please, so she is a very clever little dog. Now when I have a small pup, I am seriously considering engaging in formal obedience with her, not for competition but just for fun. She definitely has the drive, and the intelligence.

She is also not as gentle as she was the first day. ;) After becoming "warm in her clothes" she has started to show a very high energy and a lot of confidence. When she is not sleeping she is all over the place and the kids have not really figured out how to deter her from putting her sharp puppy teeth in their legs, so we have to supervise them all the time, except when she falls asleep in their arms. She is also getting boulder every day with Barak and she is challenging him to play by nibbling his tail, balls and groins, but he does not play with her yet. He just gently, but firmly, corrects her and his assistance in educating her is invaluable.

Thus, little Pita is not a beginners' dog, but of course we knew that from the start. She will need lots and lots of exercise, boundaries and discipline, but also endless love. She also gives endless love, just like the Pit bull is bred to do. We have a whole dog life of endless love ahead of us. Aren't we lucky?