Last year Ray and I attended the first annual Pits in the Park,which was truly a labor of love by the folks in the Fort Wayne PitBull Coalition, and we plan to attend again this year but really, stepping out of our truck to see this many responsible Pit bull owners/lovers was kind of overwhelming.
It's a good thing I was wearing sunglasses, because I will admit to tearing up a little at such a sight. Not only were there an incredible amount of beautiful Pit Bull types, but I saw a poodle or two, a Westie, two Saint Bernards, some Beagles and other non Pit bull dogs all there to join in this wonderful walk for solidarity.
There's a photo on Ray's Facebook page by NZ Photography showing a group shot of the majority of walkers after the "parade." Just go check them out and look at all of those beautiful Pit Bull types grouped together to celebrate themselves and their loving families. Yeah, it was an emotional day, but a very good day.
I have to say, with Ray still being so young and somewhat socially awkward, I didn't know if we'd be making the two hour drive just to sit in the car and watch the parade go by. Lately (and I mean at least once every day) I marvel at how mature Ray is becoming. At home he is AWE.SOME. Out and about he is usually really, really good. In crowds? Wasn't sure but really wanted to give it a try and I'm glad I did.
I love that we were able to go and be a part of this and we really are looking forward to being there again next year.
What types of Pit Bull related activities do you participate in?
FUN!! We have a group called the Portland Pit Bull Parade here that gets together once a month to walk together and sometimes puts on special walks that really bring out a lot of pit bull owners and supporters. To be honest though (and I really hope the founders of the group don't read this), we have made a decision that we will no longer attend any of the walks with this group. The last one that we attended was for Valentine's Day and there were over 100 dogs there. That was WAY too many for Athena. Not to mention that many of the dogs should not have been in such close proximity to other dogs (there were some aggressive ones and for some reason nobody seemed to notice...). There has also been some MAJOR drama with the group recently after their March walk...I'm sure you could find out about it if you visited their Facebook Page.
ReplyDeleteSo, anyways (lol), even though there are quite a few pit bull related activities in our area, they are mostly all put on by the Portland Pit Bull Parade whose group rules seem to be very loose. We now walk once a month with RespectaBulls in Portland which is much smaller and everyone really has the same mindset and training philosophy for their dogs which is great.
That is so great that you're noticing Ray maturing! He's such a good boy!