William K. Wolfrum

Sometimes you just put up with things. Certain things become a part of your life, and before you know it, you just can’t get rid of them. It’s almost as if destiny has decreed that you need to put up with it, and you find yourself unable, and sometimes even unwilling to act.

Some things just become a part of your life, whether you want it or not

Like Afonso.

Thanks for a great year, little guy. You’ve become a comfortable, secure, playful and happy dog, and you’ve been the perfect complement to our other dogs and to our life. We are just crazy about you, you little mutt.

P.S.: I just noticed I made it through a blog post without preaching. Let me rectify that: If you’re in the market for a dog, cat or other pet, go adopt and rescue one. You’ll be really glad you did.

P.S. II - P.S. Harder: Also, give some love to Dogs Deserve Better, Tammy Grimes’ great site where she fights against leaving dogs chained.

Now let’s leave Afonso alone in the sun for a while.

–WKW

–WKW

Recently, the story of how Michael Vick’s fighting pit bulls had been rescued and retrained to the point of being adoptable gave all who love the breed a reason to smile.

Still, however, many commentators still harbor a fear of pit bulls to the point of terror. And while these strong dogs can look imposing, and can be trained by ugly humans to kill one another and have violent temperaments, many have come to the defense of the pit bull, pointing out their loyalty, loving nature and intelligence.

And like other mammals, pit bulls dote on their young. Even when their young happens to be a lamb.

From Globo.com in Brazil comes the story of Laika, a seven-year-old pit bull from Mato Grosso, that heard the cries of Tainá, a young lamb. Laika came to the little lamb’s rescue and began producing milk for the lamb to suckle. More than that even, the pair are now inseparable. Laika, who gave birth to her only litter six years ago, is now an adopted mother, as well.

Enjoy the video and photos of Laika and Tainá, and try to remember them the next time you feel an irrational fear of a dog breed that has so much love to share, it’s willing to share it with another species if need be.

See the video of Laika and Tainá by clicking here.

Of course, if pit bulls and lambs aren’t your thing, then maybe you’ll appreciate Nina and her friend Xuxinha the cat, who’ve become close pals at a university in São Paulo:

–WKW

Dear Duchess, I’m sorry I can’t spend all my time playing soccer with you.

And I’m sorry Max’s toy-sucking addiction keeps him from playing with you.

And I’m sorry that Afonso’s recent conversion keeps him from playing with you.

So I’m sorry Duchess, but keep working on your game, you have real talent.

–WKW

When the story of Michael Vick’s dog fighting business came out, I was at once outraged and ashamed. Ashamed of myself for being outraged, in a way. Because I knew there were evil people out there who trained dogs to fight. I knew dog fighting existed. I knew pit bulls were the most abused dogs in the U.S.

But I suppose it took a big media event to take it from the back of my mind where I had hidden said hideous knowledge. And even with Michael Vick and cohorts behind bars, there is very likely a pit bull out there right now being trained to kill another pit bull. Just as there is a pit bull actually killing a pit bull right this very moment. While people cheer and bet.

While one can only hope that Vick’s incarceration will help be the beginning of the end for dog fighting, it will take a lot longer to restore the image of the pit bull. Once the most popular dog in all of the U.S., it is a dog now feared by many, and wanted by few. Having once rescued a pit bull mix, I vividly remember be told at the pound that there was no realistic chance of it being adopted while in their care, and that it would most assuredly be destroyed. People are afraid of this breed. And while pit bulls have attacked people, and will again, it is because they were taught that behavior, not because the breed is somehow flawed. They are not a breed without complications, but they are not born blood-thirsty monsters.

The plight of the pit bull is brought to mind by a story in the San Francisco Chronicle about a pit bull rescue group in Oakland that is putting up five of Vick’s former dogs up for adoption.

“Mike Vick’s pit bulls up for adoption”
Five dogs that were rescued from the most notorious dog-fighting kennel in the country trotted out in Oakland on Friday to meet the public, wag their tails and try to dispel some long-standing human prejudices about canines.

They were, as always, man’s best friend, even if man has not always held up his end of the relationship.

“This dog is somehow able to put its past aside and move forward,” said dog lover Kim Ramirez, rubbing the ears of a 3-year-old pit bull named Teddles. “We humans can learn from that.”

The dogs are pit bull terriers, among dozens rescued in a celebrated raid last year on the Virginia dog-fighting kennel owned by disgraced NFL quarterback Michael Vick.

Ten of Vick’s dogs were awarded to Bad Rap, a pit bull rescue group in Oakland that has spent months evaluating and socializing the dogs and placing them in foster homes.

Friday, the dogs came to the main lounge at the Oakland animal shelter to meet the public for the first time in their new role as pit bull ambassadors.

“He’s experiencing normal life now,” said Ramirez, a Fremont resident who is looking after Teddles until a permanent adoption can be arranged. “He follows you into the kitchen. He’s very gentle. He likes oatmeal. He likes rope toys. When you’re a dog in a dog-fighting kennel, you don’t get a lot of toys.”

Bad Rap founder Tim Racer, who was holding another ambassador, Hector, in his lap and scratching Hector’s ears, said dogs fight because dog owners train them to fight.

“Dog fighting is cruelty, which is a human activity and a human illness,” Racer said. “It’s not the dog’s fault.”

According to Racer, hardly any of the dogs at Vick’s kennels were dangerous or unfit to be pets.

The dogs that will be put up for adoption by Bad Rap will be adopted. They are famous, after all, and that helps. But there’s a long way to go for this breed. There are literally countless pit bull rescue groups all over the U.S., looking to help a breed that has been badly abused by humans.

It’s heartening to know that these groups exist and are fighting voluntarily for dogs that were forced into fighting. More important, however, is that we don’t forget what the dreadful Michael Vick story taught us - that we can’t pretend that pit bulls and other dog breeds are tortured by sick individuals who will make them fight for their own pleasure.

And we can’t hide from this knowledge any longer. Because at this very moment, a pit bull is getting its throat ripped out by another pit bull. And while that’s horrifying to think about, it doesn’t make it any less true. And it doesn’t make it the pit bulls’ fault. Hopefully, thanks to the work of Bad Rap and those like them, eventually we’ll all come to recognize another truth - that pit bulls are good dogs.

Find out more about Bad Rap and the good work they do for pit bulls by clicking here.

My thanks to Shaker Vicster for the heads up.

–WKW

It’s understandable, I suppose, why female polar bears some times eat their young. I’d like nothing better than to chew on the one above for a while. Sadly, though, nature is as nature is and the little bears do sometimes have an enemy in mom. Find out more at The Huffington Post.

–WKW

It is once again celebration time in the Wolfrum household, as we celebrate the birthdays of two of our four canine companions. Jan. 5 was Max’s (front) 10th birthday, while Afonso turns one today (he was a street dog, so we have no clue. He’s likely a little older than one, but for record keeping and such, his birthday is now officially Jan. 10, unless we decide to change it next year.)

Sidenote to Dog Owners: Giving a dog a present that’s in a box and tied with ribbon, is the exact same thing as giving them nothing. Unless you open the box for them, of course.

–WKW

Do you ever put water on your dog’s dry food. You know, to make a gravy? I do. Or mix an egg in? I do that too. Left over meat? That goes in there too.

Because she’s a good girl.

–WKW

Yes, my wife and I are, in fact, crazy dog people.

–WKW

The Mainstream Media in the U.S. is broken. Completely and utterly broken. And it’s helping to create a nation of imbeciles, plain and simple. Because when a woman shows off pictures of a dead dog and declares that she’s found some type of supernatural beast, real journalists are supposed to shun her. Perhaps even mock her before slamming the phone down.

But not the Associated Press. And now MSNBC, Fox News and countless others are running the story about this lady and the dead dog, and treating it like some type of actual front-page news event and some type of issue that deserves debate and thought.

“Monster or dog? ‘Goatsucker’ tale debated”

CUERO, Texas - Phylis Canion lived in Africa for four years. She’s been a hunter all her life and has the mounted heads of a zebra and other exotic animals in her house to prove it.

But the roadkill she found last month outside her ranch was a new one even for her, worth putting in a freezer hidden from curious onlookers: Canion believes she may have the head of the mythical, bloodsucking chupacabra.

“It is one ugly creature,” Canion said, holding the head of the mammal, which has big ears, large fanged teeth and grayish-blue, mostly hairless skin.

What tipped Canion to the possibility that this was no ugly coyote, but perhaps the vampirelike beast, is that the chickens weren’t eaten or carried off — all the blood was drained from them, she said.

Chupacabra or not, the discovery has spawned a local and international craze. Canion has started selling T-shirts that read: “2007, The Summer of the Chupacabra, Cuero, Texas,” accompanied by a caricature of the creature. The $5 shirts have gone all over the world, including Japan, Australia and Brunei. Schaar also said he has one.

There’s pictures at the story if you want to see. It’s basically a story being used to showcase pictures of a dead dog or perhaps a coyote. In order to sell T-shirts. And AP is bringing the story to the masses, and the mainstream media is lapping it up like sad fools.

Seriously, it’s literally embarrassing seeing what the big news corporations thing the public should view as “news.” In fact, MSNBC has it listed under its “Science” section.

No wonder Weekly World News went out of business. All other forms of media lowered themselves to its standards.

–WKW