Hi all. My name is Brian and I live in northeastern Pennsylvania, just south of the NYS border where we just enjoyed a winter weather advisory even though the first day of spring has come and gone. I work as a veterinary assistant in a local small animal hospital and also help out at the adjacent boarding kennel, where our most well behaved and sweetest guest is a pittie.
I currently share my home with an APBT mix named Hughes, who I met at the hospital on a saturday morning emergency call. Hughes was a "guest" at an animal shelter in the next county, where he was involved in a scuffle that left him with a total degloving of his bottom lip. The Dr. that I worked for patched him up and he has healed great. The animal control officer in that county is also the sheriff and he wanted Hughes and the other dog put down simply because they are pit bulls, so the volunteer that brought him in licensed him to herself and paid to board him for three months, just to keep him safe. When she called three weeks ago to say he was going to North Shore Animal League the next day, so I may want to say goodbye to him, I got a huge lump in my throat. I didn't realize that a bond had already formed in the months he was at the kennel. Oh, I forgot, Hughes was biting at the kennel fence in frustration on a daily basis. Seeing as how the fight was through the fence, I think the other dog just grabbed his face and wouldn't let go, so he was almost put down for a "fight" that was really a one sided ordeal.
I am currently working on desensitizing him to my two cats due to his prey drive. He's doing much better than he was when he first came here and will actually look at me instead of the cats when I ask him to. I realize he will never be able to be left alone with them, but we are making progress toward my goal of them being able to relax in the same room together.
I also share my home with a walker hound/english pointer mix named Baxter, who I adopted in May of 2007. They both get along great and are around the same age(Hughes is 2 yrs and Baxter about a year and a half) so I look forward to many years of enjoyment with them.
Other than that, I don't have much going on right now except for working towrd my associates degree in veterinary technology and working. Wallace the Pit Bull and Roo have also inspired me to work with Hughes to become a disc dog, making use of his natural athleticism. So far so good and I hope to have made a lot of progress by next year at this time.
Good to meet you all,
Brian