Pitbull Serendipity: Don't Eat My Balls

I can't believe I got a good night's sleep last night. Yesterday, I drove from central Pennsylvania to southern Virginia to pick up a stray dog from Alabama. She was so friendly that when a doctor found her on the side of the road, although she couldn't keep her, Dr. Sue couldn't help but adopt her, get her spayed, and send out a Mayday to Emily, her friend in Vermont. Emily forwarded that note to practically everyone she knew, and because I knew my sister (Greta) was looking for a four-legged companion, I forwarded Dr. Sue's request for love. Greta decided that if she could name the dog Bella, and if I'd pick her up, she'd love her forever.

This sounds like a joke: how many Americans does it take to love one skinny pitbull?

Her head is gigagntic, and she eats a lot--still pretty skinny. She's untrained but surprisingly smart. And she listens, trying to figure out what I want even though I don't think she really knows the words like "come", "sit", "no". Even though she slept all day in the car, we woke up after sleeping a good ten hours (she snores quietly and peacefully), stepped outside for a moment, and got some breakfast: dogfood for her, coffee for me. When she plays, she's got the pitbull instinct to latch on with her huge head and jaws and swing her whole body back and forth for as much leverage as she can get, like the rest of the body in full motion almost matches the power (and size!) of her head. She's a ball of energy, but even though we didn't play much this morning, when I decided to sit down to write, she calmed right down too. Little does she know that once her food's digested a little more, we'll head back outside for some real fun!

Same as other pitbulls I've met, she's quite a lover, and I'm sure she can't wait to meet Greta later today and finally settle into her new home. You can tell she'll take to training like a fish to water. Well, for as much frustration as this new technology can create, some of the connections make it worthwhile, too. Now if only I can find where she hid that tennis ball...