Celebrate Your Pitbull | Chandra

I believe that people are good.

It's easy to become jaded at the shelter, to think people are irresponsible and don't value their animals, especially when you don't really get to hear the stories of how all the dogs end up there.

Certainly there are plenty of cruelty cases and folks who abandon animals for ridiculous reasons. But lots of times, dogs end up at the shelter despite peoples' best intentions. A job is lost, an elderly person dies, a family cannot afford veterinary care or find housing that will accept their pitbull. Someone asks about spaying their puppy and is told that it's best to wait until she's gone through one heat cycle, or is a year old, or even has had a litter. A young man's friends believe in conspiracy theories and tell him that a microchip will allow the government to track him by GPS. A family doesn't know anything about training or socializing dogs and brings in a cute puppy from someone giving away a litter at Walmart who in a year turns into way more than they can handle. Things happen. The dog waiting for her first heat cycle gets pregnant. Another litter is born.

I believe the key is supporting and educating owners who love their dogs, want to do right by them, and could use a little help.

The Celebrate Your Pitbull event, put on by the Sacramento County Shelter, provided microchips, vaccines, name tags and spay and neuter vouchers for Bully breed dogs...for FREE. Over thirty five shelter and veterinary volunteers spent their Saturday morning making it all happen.

A half an hour before things officially started, people were already waiting, dogs beside them. This family was first in line, happy to get shots and spay and neuter vouchers for their two gorgeous blocky headed dogs, Hades and Lily.

Hades & Lily and their people.

All morning I had the privilege of hearing peoples' stories. Almost every person got their dog either as a stray on the street or from a homeless person, neighbor, family member or friend whose dog had a litter. There were a few who purchased their puppies from Craigslist ads, and they mostly said they did it because they fell in love with a picture and couldn't stand the thought of the puppy going to an unscrupulous owner.

This couple's puppy showed up in front of their house starving, emaciated, and full of bugs. They put a bag of dog food out for her and she tore it open and gobbled up every single bit of kibble, one little piece at a time. That did it; she was home to stay. Hoping she would survive, they named her Hope. These two were old school in thinking that they had to let her have one litter so she'd be healthy and get to experience motherhood and were pretty set against having little Hope spayed. We talked for quite awhile about all the reasons spaying is so important, and about how not every little pup is lucky enough to find a family like theirs. After our talk, they filled out the paperwork to get Hope's spay voucher.

Hope and her angels.

I had this same type of conversations multiple times today. A few men thought it wasn't fair to their male dog to get him neutered. One man was worried that his baby wouldn't survive the neuter surgery; that it was dangerous. And every single time, after having a very short talk, their eyes lit up and paperwork was filled out. Every single time.

Cleo & her dad.

There were also quite a few litters of puppies at the event. One young man found a stray pregnant mama dog and took her in; he showed up today with these tiny puppies in a box thinking they could get their shots. He was overwhelmed and doing his best. I'm so glad there was a place for him to go to get help and information, and kind people to give it to him.

Box o' puppies.

A few people had bred their dogs on purpose, again mostly because they felt it was good for the mama. Hopefully we made a little bit of an impact on them too.

Boots & Autumn. Happy to say that Boots, his sibling, and their mama all got their spay/neuter vouchers.

One of many litters today.

Everyone was full of smiles and grateful for the help. The dogs were beautiful and so were their owners.

Puppies and dogs and kind hearted people and the chance to make things a little better. I cannot think of a happier way to spend a beautiful Saturday.

Yin & her brother Yang were adopted from friends. Both puppies are getting spay/neuter vouchers.

For more information on low cost or free spaying and neutering, please visit SacAnimal.org. If you'd like to help out with future events, you can reach out to the Sacramento Animal Shelter Volunteer Coordinator, Celeste Ingrid, at 916-875-5848.

Today's volunteers rocked!

We'd love to have you!

xx

Chandra