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alee_grrlSo ages ago, lilmoka posted this meme: Comment on this post with "I love libraries" and I’ll give you seven things I want you to talk about. They may make sense or they may be totally random. Then post that list to your journal with your commentary. Other people can get lists from you and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.
I responded and got my seven topics back, but somehow never managed to get around to actually answering them. Here they are at long last. Sorry it took me so long to respond.
Poetry:
Poetry is one of my oldest loves. Dr. Suess, Shel Silverstein, nursery rhymes, folk songs, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allen Poe, Maya Angelou...so many talented folks fed my love affair with words. I started writing poetry when I was about ten years old. I used to have a journal with a horse on the cover that held all the poems I had written from that age til I went to boarding school my junior year of high school. I haven't seen that journal in years as it was in one of the boxes I left behind at my mother's house that I never was able to retrieve. I had a rough time creativity wise for a period of about eight years starting just after I completed my undergrad degree. I struggled with depression and health issues and stopped a lot of my drawing and writing. I have a small handful of fanfic stories that were written in that period, but they are few and far between. My poetry was almost non-existent during that time. Oddly enough it was joining dreamwidth that rekindled my desire to write. I decided I wanted to try keeping a journal again when I started law school. After some research I found dreamwidth. The wonderfuljjhunter was kind enough to give me an invite code (which I wrote a haiku for). She also introduced me to ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
dreamwidth_haikai and I started to collaborate on haikai with her. This sparked my desire to write poetry again. Then jjhunter started the poetree community, and I have been hooked since. :D
Poetree <3:
A community near and dear to my heart.jjhunter started the poetree community in October, 2011. She invited me to check it out and join the fun, and I am so glad that I did. I have met so many other wonderful poetry enthusiasts and poets, and have read some fabulous poems and poetry meta. The community routinely inspires my own creativity and writing. I pitch hit a few times on things like weekly round-ups (which I need to get caught up again), and in February, jjhunter asked me to officially become a co-administrator for the community. I was honored to be asked, and very happy to take on the task of helping out. In March we introduced two new features in an effort to increase participation and community interaction: The Sunday Picnic; and the Climbing the Poet's Tree Challenges. poetree is developing into a great community and I am so proud to be a part of it. I highly recommend the community for anyone who has any interest in poetry. You do not have to be dreamwidth member or a poet to participate. We welcome everyone with any interest in poetry.
Pottermore:
I signed up for a Pottermore account because a bunch of my friends were posting on Facebook about what house they were in and I was very curious to see what "official" house I would be in. I'd taken a number of quizzes over the years and seemed to get sorted into mostly Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. I had read about the unusual and supposedly impossible to predict test designed for the official Pottermore sorting and was super curious. Since the site was finally open to all I decided to sign up. It took a bit more to get to the sorting than I had anticipated, as you have to explore the first few chapters of the book first. It's kind of fun though, you get more information of various characters, objects and places, and there are some fun animations. You get to set up a Gringott's account and go shopping in Diagon alley. You get a wand, and can read up about the different wand woods and cores. I finally got through the sorting process and was sorted into Ravenclaw. I have a post about my wand and sorting here. I will admit that I haven't really played with the site since. It is rather time consuming, and I have other things that I've gotten sucked into instead (*cough* Avengers fandom *cough*). But I do know that once you are sorted you can do things like practice spells and potions.
Tarots:
When I was a girl, probably about 9 or ten, my dad bought a tarot set (came with cards and a book) from a book of the month club. My dad and I have always been fairly close, and this was a time in my life where we drew a little closer since he was home during the day and worked nights. I sat next to him while he learned to read the cards, and as he learned he taught me a bit. My parents divorced when I was fourteen, and the book and cards went with my dad, which as I did not feel any particular affinity for that deck (the cards are almost too large for my tiny hands, and the art is not my style). When I was 21 I bought my own set while in New York (I had been hesitant to buy one at the local mega-bookstore as I lived in a very Conservative area and didn't want to get into an argument with an enthusiastic Southern Baptist trying to save my soul by explaining how I was damned to hell). I found this absolutely gorgeous art nouveau deck and it has been my deck of choice ever since. A couple of years ago I got my dad the Rider-Waite deck as it suited him better than the old book of the month club set. He passed that set onto me. I don't use the cards from it much, but I do like the book. I think that set was called the Enchanted Tarot. I tend to use that book and the internet when I do readings. I compare the interpretation information and meditate on my own interpretation. It's an interesting process. When I explain tarot to those unfamiliar with it I describe it as a way of understanding the present rather than predicting the future. It may help you understand what the future paths may be, but the cards often reflect a current problem or concern. They are a great meditation tool and can be very helpful for understanding yourself and the questions and concerns that are facing you. It's a bit like Jeopardy! in that you are trying to figure out what question the cards are answering (it isn't always the question you were consciously asking).
Law school:
My most recent insanity? I completed my undergrad degree in 2003 (a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies--Multimedia Studies was the title I gave my do it yourself degree program and it focuses on how we use different media to tell stories and communicate). I had originally been planning on going into graphic design, web design, or video game production. I hit several problems with this: I didn't have a vast enough portfolio for a lot of jobs, since my degree was interdisciplinary and not as focused as a design majors (we didn't have a design major at my school); I hated the graphic design internship I had; most of the jobs were in places I didn't want to move at the time. I had some friends who invited me to live with them in Vermont. I did that and found temp work. Ended up with a social work type job and fell in love with it. A couple of years later I decided to try for the Peace Corps, a volunteer agency in the United States where volunteers serve for two years in a developing country. I served in Jamaica from 2006-2008. When I got back I lived with my grandmother for a bit as she needed some assistance. I did more temp work, ending up working with a agency that provided appeal hearings for those whose unemployment benefits or welfare benefits had been cut. I realized that I could do a lot of social work with a law degree, and that I was fascinated by the analytic puzzle that legal work presented.
So I took the LSAT (which is the ridiculous standardized test required for applying to law school), and picked four schools to apply to (application fees are pricey). I really wanted to move back to Vermont, or at least as close as I could. My heart-family (the friends I had lived with before plus a few others) lives here. I got accepted to Vermont Law School (and my three other choices, but I picked VLS) and started in Fall of 2010. The first year of law school is crazy and way more stressful than I had anticipated. You really do have to learn a whole new way of thinking. Didn't help that my health problems got worse that year. But I made it through (friends on and offline were huge helps there). I just completed my second year, which went much better. It is still stressful, and a lot of work, but you have a better feel for things your second year. I do not regret my decision, and still feel that a law degree is the best way for me to pursue my passions of helping people and solving puzzles. It may take me forever to pay off the debt that I am incurring, but I have come to terms with that decision and feel it was the right decision for me to make.
For others considering law school I would say think about your choices very carefully. Be absolutely certain that this is the field you want to pursue (there are options other than litigation and you do not have to be in a courtroom to be a lawyer, but you should probably at least be interested in some aspect of researching, policy, or litigation). Think carefully about the schools you apply to. Do your research. Pick a school that is in the area you want to live (unless you are absolutely certain you can be in the top 10% of your class--as a clue, I was in the top 10% of both my high school and undergrad classes, I'm not even in the top half for my law school). You make a lot of networking connections at your school, which makes it easier to get a job in the region that it is located. I chose a school that was located in the area I was hoping to set down roots (though my school does have alumni all over the nation, so there are networking opportunities available elsewhere), and that was in a place where I already had a built in support network. I also chose a school that had a more community oriented collaborative learning outlook, which is very different from most law schools. If you are going to spend three very stressful years in an American juris doctorate program, you should pick a place where you can be happy (and it is possible to be happy and go to law school at the same time).
Feminism:
Feminism, women's rights, and reproductive rights are very important to me. I know that what rights we have now are tenuous and fragile; they are still relatively new. The stories that my grandmothers and great aunt would tell remind me of just how new they are. So do my experiences. My maternal grandmother stayed with an abusive husband until she died of cancer in her seventies. By that point her nerves were so bad she couldn't pour a cup of coffee because she shook so bad (she didn't have Parkinson's, but had tremors very similar at times). My paternal grandmother related a story where my paternal grandfather hit her when he found out that she had gone out and got a job without his permission. He was an alcoholic and drank away the tavern they owned together. She did an amazing thing and divorced him in an era where women just didn't do that. She raised my dad and uncle on her own. At one point she lost her unemployment benefits (this would have been before she divorced my grandfather) because she was pregnant. I've read and heard horror stories of the desperate measures women are forced to take when reproductive rights are taken away. Making abortion illegal doesn't mean people will never get one, they just make it more dangerous. It becomes more likely that the mom will die too. Personhood laws take a woman's right to control her own body away, they turn women back into cattle in many ways. We would be so much better off teaching proper sex education in our schools. I went to high schools where abstinence only was taught, and we had some of the highest teen pregnancy rates. The facts that women still have to prove that they are capable of some jobs, and that they have to work harder to make less, just show me we have so much to work for still. The high rates of violence against women, and the sort of vicious rape-culture that pervades the internet and much of the real world show that we have so much work left to do.
Pitbulls:
Another topic near and dear to my heart. We had two pitbull type dogs when I was about 7 years old. They were the sweetest pups (Fats Domino and King Soloman, how I wish I still had pics of you two). Just two snuggle bugs who used to pull us around on our roller skates and skate boards. They were high energy and could have used a lot more training. They got out a lot and annoyed our neighbors by chasing cattle. They were not dog aggressive or people aggressive. We found them a loving home when we had to move cross country and couldn't take them. I missed those dogs something fierce. My dad has had two pitbull type dogs in the last couple of decades. Dewey (his first dog after he and my mom divorced) was a kind of a snot sadly, but not due to breed--it was just her personality and her lack of socialization. She was too smart and too alpha for her own good. She was also very jealous of anything that took Dad's attention away (except for me--she loved me, maybe I smelled like my dad). I was the only person she would let into the yard other than my dad. Sadly she was hit by a car one night after she got loose. Although perhaps it was meant to be as my dad got Mini next and she was the complete opposite of Dewey, which meant that it was easier for her to get along with others.
Mini chose my dad as a puppy, crawling up his pant leg and torso til she could get to his ear and then sitting there licking it. She was an absolute love and much more typical of the pitbull type dogs I've met. Dewey I think would have been more of a love if she was better socialized, she wasn't vicious, but she was onery (eating my dad's books, teasing other dogs by acting like she was trapped by her chain and then lunging at the fence when the got close). She never once bit anyone, but she liked to act up. If she had been socialized better (she didn't really meet anyone but me and my dad and the folks who my dad had gotten her from), she might have been much less onery. Sadly my dad got her when he was barely able to take care of himself, and wasn't of a mindset to properly train and socialize a puppy. Mini was socialized better, learning to play with other dogs (mostly big ones, she never quite got the hang of socializing small dogs or cats) and she had more training. She grew into a lovable, hugable, and absolutely spoiled dog.
I keep using the term pitbull type dog because pitbulls aren't actually a breed of dog. The dogs classified as pitbulls are usually one of three different breeds: The American Pit Bull Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and American Bull Terrier. However many other breeds get classified as pitbulls as well, and many mixed breed dogs that have none of the three above mentioned breeds in their DNA are classified as pitbulls. The general trend is to call any dog that is stocky, barrel chested and has a big head a pitbull. A lot of dogs that end up in the pounds and shelters fit this description and are labeled pitbulls.
This makes them harder to adopt since the media has helped sensationalize the term pitbull and promote the idea that pitbulls are inherently vicious and aggressive. Most research shows that no breed of dog is inherently vicious. Any dog can bite, and even small dog bites can be fatal (particularly when involving children). They are not a breed in and of themselves, and none of the breeds that are generally classified as pitbulls have locking jaws or inherent aggression as traits. They have been used for fighting because they are muscular and powerful (like many other types of dogs), they are very loyal, and are not human aggressive at all. Dog fighters do horrible things to the dogs to encourage them to fight and to encourage dog aggression. It is not a breed thing. Some dogs are dog aggressive. But dogs, just like people, have their own individual personalities and issues. The dog may have a reason for being dog aggressive, but can't explain it to you. There are training and socialization techniques that can help with this.
Generally the dogs that are classified as pitbulls are high energy, very intelligent and very affectionate. Even dogs that were once fight or bait dogs fit this category. Given a little love and some care these dogs can overcome their trauma and become amazing family members. Check out how far some of the Vick dogs have come.
Great resources and information on pitbulls:
Stubby Dog: Rediscover the Pitbull
Bad Rap
Pitbulls and Pitbull Type Dogs (The Photo Book Project Volume 3) (an absolutely beautiful photo book with some great stories of the dogs, all of whom are rescues)
Top Ten Reasons Why Can't Trust a Pitbull (cute and very funny)
lilmoka posted this meme: Comment on this post with "I love libraries" and I’ll give you seven things I want you to talk about. They may make sense or they may be totally random. Then post that list to your journal with your commentary. Other people can get lists from you and the meme merrily perpetuates itself.I responded and got my seven topics back, but somehow never managed to get around to actually answering them. Here they are at long last. Sorry it took me so long to respond.
Poetry:
Poetry is one of my oldest loves. Dr. Suess, Shel Silverstein, nursery rhymes, folk songs, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, Edgar Allen Poe, Maya Angelou...so many talented folks fed my love affair with words. I started writing poetry when I was about ten years old. I used to have a journal with a horse on the cover that held all the poems I had written from that age til I went to boarding school my junior year of high school. I haven't seen that journal in years as it was in one of the boxes I left behind at my mother's house that I never was able to retrieve. I had a rough time creativity wise for a period of about eight years starting just after I completed my undergrad degree. I struggled with depression and health issues and stopped a lot of my drawing and writing. I have a small handful of fanfic stories that were written in that period, but they are few and far between. My poetry was almost non-existent during that time. Oddly enough it was joining dreamwidth that rekindled my desire to write. I decided I wanted to try keeping a journal again when I started law school. After some research I found dreamwidth. The wonderful
jjhunter was kind enough to give me an invite code (which I wrote a haiku for). She also introduced me to dreamwidth_haikai and I started to collaborate on haikai with her. This sparked my desire to write poetry again. Then jjhunter started the poetree community, and I have been hooked since. :DPoetree <3:
A community near and dear to my heart.
jjhunter started the poetree community in October, 2011. She invited me to check it out and join the fun, and I am so glad that I did. I have met so many other wonderful poetry enthusiasts and poets, and have read some fabulous poems and poetry meta. The community routinely inspires my own creativity and writing. I pitch hit a few times on things like weekly round-ups (which I need to get caught up again), and in February, jjhunter asked me to officially become a co-administrator for the community. I was honored to be asked, and very happy to take on the task of helping out. In March we introduced two new features in an effort to increase participation and community interaction: The Sunday Picnic; and the Climbing the Poet's Tree Challenges. poetree is developing into a great community and I am so proud to be a part of it. I highly recommend the community for anyone who has any interest in poetry. You do not have to be dreamwidth member or a poet to participate. We welcome everyone with any interest in poetry. Pottermore:
I signed up for a Pottermore account because a bunch of my friends were posting on Facebook about what house they were in and I was very curious to see what "official" house I would be in. I'd taken a number of quizzes over the years and seemed to get sorted into mostly Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. I had read about the unusual and supposedly impossible to predict test designed for the official Pottermore sorting and was super curious. Since the site was finally open to all I decided to sign up. It took a bit more to get to the sorting than I had anticipated, as you have to explore the first few chapters of the book first. It's kind of fun though, you get more information of various characters, objects and places, and there are some fun animations. You get to set up a Gringott's account and go shopping in Diagon alley. You get a wand, and can read up about the different wand woods and cores. I finally got through the sorting process and was sorted into Ravenclaw. I have a post about my wand and sorting here. I will admit that I haven't really played with the site since. It is rather time consuming, and I have other things that I've gotten sucked into instead (*cough* Avengers fandom *cough*). But I do know that once you are sorted you can do things like practice spells and potions.
Tarots:
When I was a girl, probably about 9 or ten, my dad bought a tarot set (came with cards and a book) from a book of the month club. My dad and I have always been fairly close, and this was a time in my life where we drew a little closer since he was home during the day and worked nights. I sat next to him while he learned to read the cards, and as he learned he taught me a bit. My parents divorced when I was fourteen, and the book and cards went with my dad, which as I did not feel any particular affinity for that deck (the cards are almost too large for my tiny hands, and the art is not my style). When I was 21 I bought my own set while in New York (I had been hesitant to buy one at the local mega-bookstore as I lived in a very Conservative area and didn't want to get into an argument with an enthusiastic Southern Baptist trying to save my soul by explaining how I was damned to hell). I found this absolutely gorgeous art nouveau deck and it has been my deck of choice ever since. A couple of years ago I got my dad the Rider-Waite deck as it suited him better than the old book of the month club set. He passed that set onto me. I don't use the cards from it much, but I do like the book. I think that set was called the Enchanted Tarot. I tend to use that book and the internet when I do readings. I compare the interpretation information and meditate on my own interpretation. It's an interesting process. When I explain tarot to those unfamiliar with it I describe it as a way of understanding the present rather than predicting the future. It may help you understand what the future paths may be, but the cards often reflect a current problem or concern. They are a great meditation tool and can be very helpful for understanding yourself and the questions and concerns that are facing you. It's a bit like Jeopardy! in that you are trying to figure out what question the cards are answering (it isn't always the question you were consciously asking).
Law school:
My most recent insanity? I completed my undergrad degree in 2003 (a BA in Interdisciplinary Studies--Multimedia Studies was the title I gave my do it yourself degree program and it focuses on how we use different media to tell stories and communicate). I had originally been planning on going into graphic design, web design, or video game production. I hit several problems with this: I didn't have a vast enough portfolio for a lot of jobs, since my degree was interdisciplinary and not as focused as a design majors (we didn't have a design major at my school); I hated the graphic design internship I had; most of the jobs were in places I didn't want to move at the time. I had some friends who invited me to live with them in Vermont. I did that and found temp work. Ended up with a social work type job and fell in love with it. A couple of years later I decided to try for the Peace Corps, a volunteer agency in the United States where volunteers serve for two years in a developing country. I served in Jamaica from 2006-2008. When I got back I lived with my grandmother for a bit as she needed some assistance. I did more temp work, ending up working with a agency that provided appeal hearings for those whose unemployment benefits or welfare benefits had been cut. I realized that I could do a lot of social work with a law degree, and that I was fascinated by the analytic puzzle that legal work presented.
So I took the LSAT (which is the ridiculous standardized test required for applying to law school), and picked four schools to apply to (application fees are pricey). I really wanted to move back to Vermont, or at least as close as I could. My heart-family (the friends I had lived with before plus a few others) lives here. I got accepted to Vermont Law School (and my three other choices, but I picked VLS) and started in Fall of 2010. The first year of law school is crazy and way more stressful than I had anticipated. You really do have to learn a whole new way of thinking. Didn't help that my health problems got worse that year. But I made it through (friends on and offline were huge helps there). I just completed my second year, which went much better. It is still stressful, and a lot of work, but you have a better feel for things your second year. I do not regret my decision, and still feel that a law degree is the best way for me to pursue my passions of helping people and solving puzzles. It may take me forever to pay off the debt that I am incurring, but I have come to terms with that decision and feel it was the right decision for me to make.
For others considering law school I would say think about your choices very carefully. Be absolutely certain that this is the field you want to pursue (there are options other than litigation and you do not have to be in a courtroom to be a lawyer, but you should probably at least be interested in some aspect of researching, policy, or litigation). Think carefully about the schools you apply to. Do your research. Pick a school that is in the area you want to live (unless you are absolutely certain you can be in the top 10% of your class--as a clue, I was in the top 10% of both my high school and undergrad classes, I'm not even in the top half for my law school). You make a lot of networking connections at your school, which makes it easier to get a job in the region that it is located. I chose a school that was located in the area I was hoping to set down roots (though my school does have alumni all over the nation, so there are networking opportunities available elsewhere), and that was in a place where I already had a built in support network. I also chose a school that had a more community oriented collaborative learning outlook, which is very different from most law schools. If you are going to spend three very stressful years in an American juris doctorate program, you should pick a place where you can be happy (and it is possible to be happy and go to law school at the same time).
Feminism:
Feminism, women's rights, and reproductive rights are very important to me. I know that what rights we have now are tenuous and fragile; they are still relatively new. The stories that my grandmothers and great aunt would tell remind me of just how new they are. So do my experiences. My maternal grandmother stayed with an abusive husband until she died of cancer in her seventies. By that point her nerves were so bad she couldn't pour a cup of coffee because she shook so bad (she didn't have Parkinson's, but had tremors very similar at times). My paternal grandmother related a story where my paternal grandfather hit her when he found out that she had gone out and got a job without his permission. He was an alcoholic and drank away the tavern they owned together. She did an amazing thing and divorced him in an era where women just didn't do that. She raised my dad and uncle on her own. At one point she lost her unemployment benefits (this would have been before she divorced my grandfather) because she was pregnant. I've read and heard horror stories of the desperate measures women are forced to take when reproductive rights are taken away. Making abortion illegal doesn't mean people will never get one, they just make it more dangerous. It becomes more likely that the mom will die too. Personhood laws take a woman's right to control her own body away, they turn women back into cattle in many ways. We would be so much better off teaching proper sex education in our schools. I went to high schools where abstinence only was taught, and we had some of the highest teen pregnancy rates. The facts that women still have to prove that they are capable of some jobs, and that they have to work harder to make less, just show me we have so much to work for still. The high rates of violence against women, and the sort of vicious rape-culture that pervades the internet and much of the real world show that we have so much work left to do.
Pitbulls:
Another topic near and dear to my heart. We had two pitbull type dogs when I was about 7 years old. They were the sweetest pups (Fats Domino and King Soloman, how I wish I still had pics of you two). Just two snuggle bugs who used to pull us around on our roller skates and skate boards. They were high energy and could have used a lot more training. They got out a lot and annoyed our neighbors by chasing cattle. They were not dog aggressive or people aggressive. We found them a loving home when we had to move cross country and couldn't take them. I missed those dogs something fierce. My dad has had two pitbull type dogs in the last couple of decades. Dewey (his first dog after he and my mom divorced) was a kind of a snot sadly, but not due to breed--it was just her personality and her lack of socialization. She was too smart and too alpha for her own good. She was also very jealous of anything that took Dad's attention away (except for me--she loved me, maybe I smelled like my dad). I was the only person she would let into the yard other than my dad. Sadly she was hit by a car one night after she got loose. Although perhaps it was meant to be as my dad got Mini next and she was the complete opposite of Dewey, which meant that it was easier for her to get along with others.
Mini chose my dad as a puppy, crawling up his pant leg and torso til she could get to his ear and then sitting there licking it. She was an absolute love and much more typical of the pitbull type dogs I've met. Dewey I think would have been more of a love if she was better socialized, she wasn't vicious, but she was onery (eating my dad's books, teasing other dogs by acting like she was trapped by her chain and then lunging at the fence when the got close). She never once bit anyone, but she liked to act up. If she had been socialized better (she didn't really meet anyone but me and my dad and the folks who my dad had gotten her from), she might have been much less onery. Sadly my dad got her when he was barely able to take care of himself, and wasn't of a mindset to properly train and socialize a puppy. Mini was socialized better, learning to play with other dogs (mostly big ones, she never quite got the hang of socializing small dogs or cats) and she had more training. She grew into a lovable, hugable, and absolutely spoiled dog.
I keep using the term pitbull type dog because pitbulls aren't actually a breed of dog. The dogs classified as pitbulls are usually one of three different breeds: The American Pit Bull Terrier, Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and American Bull Terrier. However many other breeds get classified as pitbulls as well, and many mixed breed dogs that have none of the three above mentioned breeds in their DNA are classified as pitbulls. The general trend is to call any dog that is stocky, barrel chested and has a big head a pitbull. A lot of dogs that end up in the pounds and shelters fit this description and are labeled pitbulls.
This makes them harder to adopt since the media has helped sensationalize the term pitbull and promote the idea that pitbulls are inherently vicious and aggressive. Most research shows that no breed of dog is inherently vicious. Any dog can bite, and even small dog bites can be fatal (particularly when involving children). They are not a breed in and of themselves, and none of the breeds that are generally classified as pitbulls have locking jaws or inherent aggression as traits. They have been used for fighting because they are muscular and powerful (like many other types of dogs), they are very loyal, and are not human aggressive at all. Dog fighters do horrible things to the dogs to encourage them to fight and to encourage dog aggression. It is not a breed thing. Some dogs are dog aggressive. But dogs, just like people, have their own individual personalities and issues. The dog may have a reason for being dog aggressive, but can't explain it to you. There are training and socialization techniques that can help with this.
Generally the dogs that are classified as pitbulls are high energy, very intelligent and very affectionate. Even dogs that were once fight or bait dogs fit this category. Given a little love and some care these dogs can overcome their trauma and become amazing family members. Check out how far some of the Vick dogs have come.
Great resources and information on pitbulls:
Stubby Dog: Rediscover the Pitbull
Bad Rap
Pitbulls and Pitbull Type Dogs (The Photo Book Project Volume 3) (an absolutely beautiful photo book with some great stories of the dogs, all of whom are rescues)
Top Ten Reasons Why Can't Trust a Pitbull (cute and very funny)
no subject
Date: 2012-07-03 10:24 am (UTC)Glad you found my info on pitbulls helpful. :D
Lets see seven things I would love to hear more from you about:
Wales
Your postgrad degree (it sounds interesting)
King Author
Favorite Video Game(s)
Favorite Book(s)
Fandom (and how did I not know you wrote fanfic ::bookmarks fic to read later::)
Knitting/Crocheting
no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 12:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-07-05 12:38 am (UTC)