As you may or may not know, I’m on the board of directors for Project Rescue Chicago (PRC). Among my friends, this role lends a little clout to my role as The Dog Pusher. For me, it means that I have a unique and rewarding opportunity to meet some amazing people and to help some very special dogs who might otherwise not make it out of the city-run shelter system. The first sentence of PRC’s mission statement resonated with me: “We believe all dogs, no matter their breed or background, deserve the chance to live as pets.” Yes, they do! Sign me up!
In my short (so far) tenure with PRC, I’ve had the chance to meet some amazing dogs (including currently available Noomi, Hunk, Trevor and Mouse); I’ve been part of a unique broken dog rescue; and I’ve seen a few heartbreaking cases, including a trio of Dogo Aregentinos who touched every volunteer who met them, which you can read about here. But maybe my motivation hasn’t been entirely altruistic. Maybe part of it has been to feed my canine fixation. We tried fostering, but found that Toni has a low tolerance for house guests—dashing my hopes for following in the footsteps of Love and a Six-foot Leash. So instead I educate sixth graders, inspire teenagers and otherwise do my best to satiate my canine needs. But maybe what I was really doing was waiting to receive a photo like this:
"Whoo hoo! Goodbye shelter life, hello world!"
Maybe I’ve been hoping to find a meathead just like this and discover a sweet, well-mannered pit bull who is a gentle as he is playful; who has a naughty streak but is so mortified when he’s scolded that scolding him is as fun as playing with him; who can tumble around the yard for hours with Téa but still respect Toni’s smack-down ways with good humor. Maybe I ‘ve been secretly hoping to find a dog who can rock accessories:
"What? Too big for my face?"
Maybe I’ve been hoping to find a dog who would use the baby pool (since Toni doesn’t seem to care about it and Téa seems to think it’s a bathtub in disguise):
Maybe I’ve just been waiting to fall in love again. I think you’ll understand why!
confessions of a pit bull addict 