Newsweek piece on pit bull affection 9/17/07 edition

September 20, 2007

I am the adoring adoptive mother of a pit bull. (You can see beautiful Paula pit-girl and me together on my website at http://www.dawnwatch.com/about_karen_dawn.htm .) So I was particularly moved by the "My Turn" column in the September 17 edition of Newsweek. It is written by another pit lover, Ben Rehder, and headed, "A Dog Who Was Pure Muscle And All Heart; Pit bulls get a bad name, but Esmerelda's only 'killer instinct' was to overwhelm us with affection." (Pg 19)It opens:"Some people love poodles. Others go crazy for cocker spaniels. When it comes to my canine breed of choice, I tend to prefer a rarer dog: the pit bull. For 14 years I owned a friendly, loyal pit bull named Esmerelda."Ezzy--as I called her--was a gift from a girlfriend. I was 21 at the time and I'd made a few remarks, driven by testosterone, about wanting to own a pit

bull someday. The truth is, I probably wouldn't have followed through on getting the dog on my own. Now I hate to think what I would've missed. "I didn't know what to expect when Ezzy arrived. Would this dog--this sweet, frisky pup--rip my throat open while I was sleeping? Would she terrorize toddlers or attack my mailman? It's bred into them, right? The killer instinct?"Well, no. Not this one, anyway. What she did do was annoy my visitors with her overaffectionate personality. She was stealthy about it, though. 'Oh, pay no attention to me,' she seemed to want to say. 'Just continue with your conversation, and forget the fact that I'm creeping onto your lap. Just scratch my ears and everything will be OK.'"Rehder describes Ezzy's power and gentleness as she play-wrestles with neighborhood cats, or smashes through fences and walls to escape the terrifying noise of fireworks or thunder, but never hurts a flea. You'll find the whole lovely

article on line at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20643577Please give it a five-star rating at the bottom of that page.And it provides a great opportunity for letters from animal lovers. Positive feedback for animal friendly stories encourages more of them. Newsweek takes letters at lettersAlways include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more likely to be published. I send a big thank you to Tia Triplett for making sure we saw this positive pit piece. Yours and the animals',Karen Dawn(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this

parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)To discontinue DawnWatch alerts go to http://www.DawnWatch.com/nothanks.php-------You are d to DawnWatch using the following address: dogs_goodDate: Wed Sep 19 21:29:25 2007

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