The entire purpose of this blog is to try to change people's opinions of pit bull type dogs. How am I supposed to do that though when I can't even change my mother's opinion?
When we first got Frederick, my mother thought I was crazy. She kept telling me how dangerous they could be and how we would have to get rid of him once we started having kids. I brushed it off at the time. I have to be honest I was nervous at first too about him being aggressive.
After getting to know him, and as soon as we stopped the wanting to chew on everything including our toes habit, I realized how much he just wanted to be loved.
My mother calls him her grand puppy and she comes over to see him. She is at least willing to be around him now. She pets him, but I can always tell she is still scared. She is tense. This kills me. Frederick loves her and my brother and absolutely loves when they stop by. He is hyper, and tends to still jump on people when he wants their attention at first (something we are working on), but he has never tried to bite her or my brother or been aggressive around them.
A few days ago her, my brother, and my nephew stopped by. My mom and I were packing my nephew up in the car when she asked where my 13 year old brother was. I told her he was out back playing with Frederick and she turned and looked at me and said "Is he OK out there by himself?". I was amazed. It was literally like a slap in the face which is hard to explain why it hurt that bad but I hate when people judge him for his breed. If he was a lab or a beagle like her dog, she wouldn't have thought twice about it. Because he is a pit bull though, she was scared.
 |
| My brother and Frederick |
Every day I try to educate other people about this breed and try to fight to end this discrimination, but how am I supposed to convince strangers that pit bulls can be loving family members if I cant convince my mother?
I am so glad you posted this. I go through the same thing and it's so frustrating. I appreciate your honesty so much because it makes me feel some sort of "oh thank goodness it's not just me" calm feeling =) My step mother refuses to meet my pup and because of this I haven't seen my dad since we got our pit. Our pit is a literally wedge in the family. What kills me is that they have a dog and my brother has 3, but no my dog is the outsider in the family. My cousin got a pit and my step mom did the same thing to her as well, just full of anger and hate. It blows my mind really. I wish I had an answer to this, but I don't. I have tried it all, giving her facts, showing her stats, but nothing works. I hope you hang in there and I hope that one day things change for you and your mom.
ReplyDeleteI cannot agree with you both more! Although I don't have it quite as bad as you do...I still feel that my step mother has this unnecessary negative attitude about my dog and it is SO upsetting. I will not even bring her around because I don't want to put myself in a situation where I get worked up and angry at my own family. My sister and all my friends love my pit. She loves to play with other dogs, but if she were to play with My step mom's dogs at my their house, the whole place would tense up. My parents boxers are at each other's throats all the time and yet my Pit is the "monster"...Thankfully my mother is very understanding (much more so than my step-mom). When she comes over, she is very patient with my pup when she wants to jump and begs for attention. Pitbulls are truly the most loving breed and it KILLS me that there are some people who still refuse to believe it!
ReplyDeleteOK! I'm off my soapbox!