Here at Project Pet, we love all animals... but have a special place in our hearts for the misunderstood, sweet, snuggly pit bulls. Here are a few who once were in danger of being euthanised and are now loved unconditionally!
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Sake - 2 yr old pittie
Adopted January 2010, happily living in CT with 3 cats! Sake was found abandoned in the lobby of a building in the Bronx after being hit by a car. She was almost euthanized because of her injury.
Our adoption story of how we found Sake started months before we actually took her home on January 10th 2010. My wife had planted the seed about g
etting a dog around the fall of ’09 but I wasn’t interested in having another responsibility in our already too busy lives. I said no way. We had adopted two retired racing Greyhounds when our kids were small and I was well aware of what was involved in bringing home a new dog. We are both softies for “underdogs” so to speak and through watching TV shows about Pit Bulls, we became drawn to the breed and their horrible plight and misrepresentation. One night after watching an episode of “Underdog To Wonderdog” about a Pit Bull who had been treated so poorly and how she had gotten a second chance and rebounded so well with the help of a loving family, we knew what kind of dog we were going to get. The funny things was… I became the one who was on a mission now to save a Pit Bull and get a dog!
Right after New Years, we started searching the internet and found Sake’s picture on Petfinder. That picture and her story hooked us and we contacted Project Pet. I guess it was about a week after contacting Project Pet and here we were driving 3 hours to NYC from our home in CT to ride home with a Pit Bull Terrier we knew virtually nothing about! Tell that to your friends and family members and see what looks and responses you get. Sake had been found abandoned in a building with injuries to her right hind leg. She was brought to a kill shelter and would have been put down if it weren’t for Project Pet. Sake got Kennel Cough that developed into pneumonia and nearly died. She was lucky she met Emily and her Foster Dad Matt who nursed her back to health
Sake came home with us that Sunday afternoon and has been nothing but the opposite of what the media portrays these dogs as. She took to us almost immediately and has been our constant companion ever since. We feel very fortunate that her Foster Dad Matt had her before we got her because she was really well adjusted. We have two cats that thought their world ended that day. We didn’t see them very much except for when they flew out the back door to go in or out. We decided to rescue a kitten with the hope it might help the other cats adjust and in February we got Fender, an 8 month old kitten from the Providence Animal Control Center. From the moment I brought that kitten home, Fender and Sake became best friends. They played together and slept together and Fender helped the other two cats realize that Sake was cool and wasn’t going to kill them!
Since we brought Sake home in January, she has learned to do so many things. She learned to sit, stay, lie down and a few other dog tricks within a few weeks. She loves to ride in the car and take walks. She loves to have her belly rubbed and give an unlimited amount of her dog kisses! She is also a good sibling to her brother cats. We don’t recommend this to everyone but Sake is very obedient and has learned to be outside in our yard without a leash. We live on 2 ½ acres in the woods and watching her run free and play ball in our yard is a proud feeling for us. She knows how good she has it and we know how lucky we are for finding her. This didn’t happen by luck. We worked hard with her to make her listen to us and stay close by. But we now have a well behaved, good mannered Pit Bull who people are in awe of.
We had a fairly large get together for Easter and another for my daughter’s Graduation. Sake was the star on both days. Many of our friends and family who thought we had lost our minds got to see what we knew. She played ball with everyone and ran around loose in the yard which blows people away. In our little part of CT, we’re trying to change people’s perception about Pit Bulls. One of the best things we’ve done in our recent memory was to decide to adopt a Pit Bull Terrier.
I once heard a woman on TV say that “Pit Bulls aren’t monsters, they are victims”. This has become my message whenever someone wants to talk about our Pit Bull Sake. We both wish we could do more to help these wonderful animals and help spread the word to people that they are best breed of dog you could call your companion. We are lucky to know Emily Tanen of Project Pet and Dr. Matt Cooper who saved Sake and fostered her. It’s funny how if you let life guide you instead of trying to control it, the wonderful things that can happen and the wonderful people you meet along the way.
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Simon Whiteowl the Great - 4 month old pittie mix!
Adopted November 2009. Living in Syracuse, NY with another dog and two awesome parents. Simon was brought into the city kill shelter by his previous owner, almost dead. He has huge bite marks, was unconscious and bleeding to death. The shelter rushed him to the emergency hospital where his life was saved. Then Project Pet put him in a wonderful foster home until he was adopted!
We each grew up with dogs in our family and each missed our family dogs when we went away to college. Old age claimed our old pals. The demands of college and graduate school did not allow us to have a dog and we waited until we were ready. Our first wedding anniversary came around and the final day of Stacey’s bar exam: it was the day we brought home our Penny. We found Penny on Petfinder.com. We knew this wild, energetic, crazy, grumpy girl was ours from the start: half pit, half vizsla. Her personality is a reflection of both of us. Our lives have never been the same since Penny became part of our family. Penny turned Long Island City into a neighborhood and introduced us to human friends through a local dog park that have withstood both time and distance. Penny did so much for us and we wanted to do something for her. We brought her daily to the dog park in our Long Island City neighborhood and Penny adapted well to our daily family runs and apartment living. After a long day of work it was soothing to watch dogs play and be a part of their game sometimes.
Jobs, family, and yearning for more green space brought us upstate to Syracuse. We trained for the NYC Marathon with Penny. She is serious about her runs: they are our family pack activity. We took Penny hiking in the Adirondacks. Penny visited all her grandparents’ homes and ran off leash on their farms, frolicking in the fields, racing through the vineyards, and dashing madly around the ponds.
It was not long before we were in a position to buy a house. The night we closed on the house we came home and started talking about a playmate for Penny. We had the space and Penny LOVES other dogs. At first, we were thinking of getting a pure breed dog and even went to see pups at a breeder. We did not walk away with a puppy that day because we were two weeks away from running the NYC Marathon and could not meet the time demands for a puppy at that point. Something also made us feel wrong about the whole pure bread experience. The mother dog had howled like we were taking her heart and soul at the breeder when her puppy came over to us. We needed a puppy who needed us.
We turned to Petfinder again. We did not see what we were looking for in the Syracuse area, so we put in our old Long Island City Zip Code. We saw a picture of a little injured pit/lab mix. Something about his injuries, sweet face, and the pictures of him licking Emily melted us enough to send an e-mail. We figured someone that cute was probably already adopted. He was not though. We filled out the application, but still had 10 days to go before we would be in the City and could pick him up. Time passed and no one had come forward that could provide Simon Whiteowl a home.
It was not long before the weekend of the Marathon had arrived. We went to see Simon the day before the Marathon. Seeing him sealed the deal for us. Each step of the Marathon was one step closer to getting our new puppy. We picked him up the day after the Marathon: both of us sore and hardly able to walk.
At first, Penny was very suspicious of who is this little guy taking up her space in the car. The car ride was fairly uneventful however, sprinkled with pee breaks about every one to two hours resulting in a trip of around six hours to get home. When we got to our home we walked Simon around our yard with Penny and showed him the boundaries. We then brought him in and Penny raced down to her play room. Simon ran in the house, but stood at the top of the stairs crying. We carried him down. Penny was thrilled to share her toys and play with the little guy. Her entire body was wagging with joy at her new found playmate.
We picked Simon up a crate to match his big sister’s crate and placed them side by side. We also picked up a huge dog bed shaped like a biscuit that both dogs can sleep on. They sleep mainly in their crates now, but both come up on our bed for snuggle time on weekend mornings. Simon has figured out the stairs. He is not a fan of the cold, but is okay when he gets in a coat. For now, he is growing like a weed and getting his big sister’s hand me downs. He is about 26 lbs now. He outgrew his first coat which now resembles a muscle shirt on his quickly growing torso.
Penny was sick with a virus in mid-November. She was so sick we took her to the emergency vet in the middle of the night. She is fully recuperated now, but little Simon snuggled with Penny to help keep her warm when she was sick. He seemed to know Penny was not well. Penny now mothers Simon a little by cleaning him paying particular attention to his teeth, jowls, and head. Thanks to Penny he is a clean little boy. They also love to play tug of war against each other, we are sure that it will be a fairer match in a few months.
Simon and Penny are also going to K-9 Kamp twice a week together. Recently they had their pictures taken with Santa to raise money for the local animal shelter. Frequently when we pick them up after a long hard day at camp they are curled up on the couch together: the staff are amazed and say they must get along great at home. Penny is the Queen still of our home: her kingdom. She can be grumpy and is stingy with her kisses. Simon is a great contrast! The tail thumping starts from the first second in the morning. The kisses are endless. He is a happy, friendly little guy and growing up to be a great big boy. We are thrilled to have our little snuggle monkey and looking forward to many years with him.
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Jasmine - 8 month old pittie!
Adopted September 2009, living in NYC with another dog, a cat and two loving parents. Jasmine was surrendered by her previous owners to NYC's kill shelter in the middle of the night. She said in the back of her cage, so down and out. She was rescued day's before going on the euth list for having kennel cough.
My boyfriend and I adopted Jasmine an 8 month old pittie mix in September 2009. She is our third rescue animal and has completed our family. Jasmine was dropped off at the New York City Animal Care & Control in the middle of the night with no information on her past her and had some health issues. She did not have much time left and was lucky enough to be rescued and go into a foster home. Today, Jasmine is a healthy, high energy, outgoing and happy dog. She is a giant mush. Jasmine is always in the mood cuddle, play and fights her way though her brother and sister to be the first to greet you at the door with her tail going a mile a minute.
This is how our Jasmine came to complete our family:
One day at the dog park and we started talking to someone who just rescued their dog and telling us happy they are. My boyfriend and I thought about getting a second dog for a while but we had some concerns. We live in a small one bedroom apartment and also have a cat. Our dog Louie and cat Chinel are best friends and we were worried about making a wave in the house, so we put off getting a second dog. At same time we also thought a second dog would help Louie. We moved from South Carolina where Lou grew up, to New York City and she went from an outgoing dog to a shy nervous dog when we went for walks, and wouldn’t play at the dog park. In SC the dog park was one of her favorite places. We felt another dog may boost Louie’s confidence. Both Louie and Chinel are shelter animals and we felt we could help another shelter dog and help Louie at the same time. We would start looking and if we found a fit then we would adopt. We met Jasmine two days later. Jasmine’s foster mom bought her over to meet our family. We knew once Jazzy walked in she was our girl. We bought her home the next night. Jasmine got along with Louie and Chinel right away but had some trouble adjusting to new home. Jasmine was as happy as can be when were all together but as soon we started to get ready to leave the apartment Jasmine would start display nervous behaviors and while we were gone she would bark and cry until we came back. We did some research and also was referred to a dog behaviorist: Jasmine had separation anxiety. We were given some things to work on with her while we were home and special toys and treats for her to have while we were out. We also enrolled her in puppy preschool and found an amazing dog walker. After some hard work and consistency in a routine Jasmine realized that we always came home for her. Now Jasmine goes right into her crate and lays down and looks so cozy when we leave. Her nervous behaviors are gone and has became a well rounded adjusted happy dog. Our dog Louie came out of her shell too and became that outgoing dog we once knew. Seeing all this success is what makes Jasmine and any shelter dog worth it!! We strongly believe you should never pay for a dog or cat. There are so many dogs and cats that need loving homes and so many wonderful loving dogs like Jasmine that are over look.
