Finding Purpose in our Passion

Passion is defined as any emotions as hate, grief, love, fear, joy, extreme, compelling emotions intense emotional drive or excitement.  We’ve all experienced “passion” at one point in our lives (hopefully on the high side). Passion causes movement; it makes us get involved in whatever it is we’re passionate about.  Some are passionate about cars, video games, sports, clothing, shopping, animals etc.  It’s evident what we’re passionate about here at The Pretty Chic with the Pits LLC.

 At one point we were scared to share our passion because its “unusual” in our culture or circle of friends to love our pets as we do.  Everyone rejoiced with us when we adopted Sasha, it was almost expected  for us to get a dog considering we’re homeowners. The excitement intensified with each conversation.   It was all about Sasha, no more about the kids it was all about Sasha and what Sasha did or what we and Sasha did. Now we know how the young girl from the Brady Bunch felt when she said the infamous saying “Marsha, Marsha, Marsha it’s all about Marsha.”  Sasha was the highlight of our lives and we wanted everyone to know about her.  Sasha bought so much love into our lives that we decided to adopt Krush.  The questions began: Why did ya’ll get another dog? Are ya’ll becoming hoarders? With the questions we began to feel a certain way towards those we thought supported us.

Still feeling more needed to be done we signed up to become fosters.  That was it..it was the end of the world!  “Ya’ll are doing too much; We’re going to call Animal Planet hoarders etc. is what we heard and faced from our circle of family and friends.   To us it was apparent we were passionate and love the feeling of saving these dogs and putting them in loving homes.  Again the feeling of not being accepted was a bit much for us so we became secluded and introverts which isn’t us at all..we are very much extroverts.

 Everyone who would listen we talked about pit bulls and the love we and others have for them.  Many have contacted us after we posted facts about pit bulls saying they didn’t know this or that and wow these dogs sound awesome.  Then the next question comes...Why do they have such as bad rap? We explain and continue to educate & advocate for them.  Some have jumped on the wagon others are ok with the information and keep it moving.

Finally finding our purpose was like being reborn again! We couldn’t stop thanking God for finally showing up and showing out in our lives and the lives of this wonderful, loving bully breed! Once we decided to not allow anyone to steal our joy we moved forward with our passion and to our surprise found was many who shunned or talked about us began showing their support.  We have a vision, a dream, a goal & a PASSION and we’re running with our heads held high!

Stay tuned in there is  much, much, much more to come in the very near future!

Enough is ENOUGH!

With so much going on in the world these days it’s apparent something in the atmosphere is amiss.  War is all around us; people are mistreating and abusing people, parents killing their kids and people are being bullied to give up their beloved pet because they can.  In light of the news of Nick Santino who committed suicide a couple of weeks ago after he made a decision (no pet parent should have to make unless their pet is terminally ill) to put his beloved, healthy, happy go lucky pet to sleep.  Nick was forced into making this horrific decision due to the pressure and bullying of the apartment management company.  They sent harassing letters to Nick Santino siting his dog was a menace, barking all hours of the night, siting other tenants in the building were complaining.  Anyone that’s familiar with pit bulls know they are not barkers (they bark when barking is necessary).  Rocco was not aggressive towards anyone, everyoneappeared to  like Rocco and Mr. Santio yet a decision was made because of prejudice.  After Nick made the decision to euthanizes Rocco, he came back to the same building that betrayed him and Rocco, knocked on the doors of neighbors giving away Roccos’ belongings.  The same folk that did not come to the aide of either Santino or Rocco were being blessed by both.  Many spoke out after the tragedies of both however, like the real world they spoke after the fact.

In the rescue world many believe our pets rescued us instead of us rescuing them.  Nick believed the in this ideology as well.  When is enough...ENOUGH?  How many other Nick Santios have to endure the discrimination because of the breed of dog they chose?  Who is going to be a voice for Nick, Rocco and many others that have crossed over the Rainbow Bridge before their time?  Many cried, blogged about it, shared the story on facebook and twitter, what we want to know is how many are going to do something about it in their community, their home, apartment complex? What will you do should you be faced with this dilemma?  Will you fold or be voice of change?

Speak up...be that voice of change!

McDonald's

What can we say about those golden arches? As a kid we loved to see McDonald’s!!  We might not have been able to spell out names however, we knew what those golden arches said and don’t you dare attempt to distract us or act as if you did not see those golden arches!  If you’re a parent as many of us are you know what we’re talking about because we’ve been there and done that?  McDonald’s have come under fire for a while from the T.V. host who almost died from eating McDonald’s for every meal for 30 days (he didn’t make it to 30 days) to the pink slime and the latest blemish on the golden arches was an advertisement that aired in Kansas, MO where McDonald’s attempted to regain the publics trust by comparing the safety of their chicken nuggets to petting a stray pit bull, shaving your head bald  or naming your son Susan. Please tell us what’s wrong with these statements? First it was apparent no one in the marketing department was serious, professional or thought about the consequences of their “thoughts” which became their advertisement.  We are all familiar with the shame game.  Let’s shame someone or something else to take the heat off of ourselves.  This time it didn’t work for McDonald’s; actually it back to bite them in the worst way.  As if people needed a reason to stop eating at McDonald’s or any other fast food restaurant. McDonald’s was overwhelmed by the backlash they received from the pitbull community.  We are no longer going to sit on the side lines while our beloved breed of choice is bashed.  We were one of many that contacted McDonald’s on their feedback line to inform them of how cowardly, tasteless,misinformed,misguided the advertisement was.  A good tongue lashing is what they received from us and we were nice about it.  After speaking with the customer service representative who offered no solutions, other than “we’re sorry, we didn’t mean to offend anyone” how in the world did McDonald’s not think anyone was going to be offended? You spoke about someone shaving their head not thinking that someone may shave their headd due toa medical issue?  How did they not think someone may not be offended when their patrons or employees may have pit bulls as a pet? These are some of the questions we posed to the customer service  representive who was stomped and reintegrated “McDonald’s was apologetic & they didn’t mean to offend anyone.”  As if the conversation couldn’t get worse...it did the representative informed us she was a pit bull owner.  Again I ask the question really? and how do you feel about the advertisement? Silence...exactly

As if these dogs don’t have it bad already, a very public figure attacks them to build their own self esteem...really if this isn’t corporate bullying we don’t know what is.  We refuse to allow anyone to bully us, say negative and false statements regarding our dog or breed of choice.  This type of thinking is what perpetuates the negative stereotypes.  The Pretty Chic with the Pits and many other pit bull organizations fight against  these stereotypes daily.  If a highly visible organization such as McDonald’s think they can say these negative things and get away with it then law makers feel they don’t have to repeal or stop discrimination against these dogs or others.  McDonald’s posted  an half ass apology on their twitter however, this isn’t good enough for us.  This isn't over...it's only the beginning!