Who I am

My husband Chris and I grew up with dogs. We had no idea that bringing home a pit bull is more than bringing home a dog – it’s bringing home a culture, an icon (respected and reviled) and a secret society membership, all wrapped up in a shiny fur coat.

Not Toni. Really, this is not Toni.

Chris had never met a pit bull. Since 1991, England has banned four types of dogs: Japanese Tosas, Dogo Argentinos, Fila Brazilieros and Pit Bull Terriers. (Oddly enough, Staffordshire Terriers, very closely related to Pit Bull Terriers, can be seen everywhere in England—just don’t tell their people how fine the line is between them.) But when he met my brother’s pit bull Pearl, he was sold on the breed. We’d been talking about adopting a dog…actually, I’d been talking about adopting a dog and Chris had been putting up a good act of appearing to be dead set against the idea. But when the time came, sooner or later, we knew it would have to be a pit bull.

It's Pearl. You can tell by the ears and the petite stature.

To make a long story short, one birthday surprise later Toni joined our family as our first adopted pit bull. Since then we’ve added both Téa and Strut to our family lineup. We’ve become experts on things we never imagined, had conversations you’d never believe, met some amazing people who work hard to make things better for dogs and have generally turned our lives upside down for love of our dogs.

This is what our family looks like today:

From left: Sarah, Téa, Chris, Strut, Julie (me), Laura, Rob, Toni (Photo courtesy of http://www.amysayre.com)