Kim and Jill....

Holy Cow.... this. is. hard.

This is Kim and Jill!  They were two of the babies we rescued last summer along with 9 other babies and their momma, Duchess.

This was the first litter rescue for us.  It was the beginning of this entire story.  Our inspiration to make this "rescuing thing" into JPW Rescue Ranch!   It was an education we didn't know we needed.  It was hard, it was sad, it was exhausting.... it changed everything.


My friend Dawn posted the picture of Duchess and her babies and I found out that they were rescued from a horrible breeder only to be brought to the shelter in Galveston to be put down.  The reason they were going to be put down?  The simple fact that they were Pitbulls.

I had never had a Pitbull before.  I had never really got sucked into the hype of the breed, but BOY did that change, and fast.   Duchess had been abused her entire life.  She had been locked up in a crate, hiden under a tarp, and bread over and over again.  But when we showed up to get her the heck out of that shelter, what I saw was a brave, grateful, Mother.  She was a sweet as she could possibly be and so, so incredibly loving to her babies.  When we got home, I started the rescue page on Facebook and set out to find all of these sweet babies homes.

Most of you know that story, but there is a part of the story that I didn't share.  I'm going to now.

I was nervous how to put this out there.  How to explain how extremely mad and sad it makes me without coming across as judgmental, stereotypical, or even racist.   If you know me at all you know that those words, honestly and truly, could not be farther from the truth.  I choose love.  Always.  I do not judge and I try to find the good in people at all times.  I believe with ALL MY HEART that you can love the "bad" out of anyone or anything!  I've always tried to set this example for my children.  We do not judge a book by the cover.  We live in Austin for crying out loud!  The city where the soccer moms, the punks, the hippies, the bikers, the thugs, and even the famous; get together as one community all the time!  

But then something happened that tested my faith in humanity. 

Did you know that Pitbull puppies are used as bait for fighting dogs?  Did you know that they are used as fishing bait for big game fishing off the coast?  Did you know that the Pitbull is the BREED OF CHOICE for criminals??


The FB page that I created to find these precious animals homes was suddenly BOMBARDED with messages.  I got, and I am not exaggerating, 10-20 messages or emails a day from people interested in the puppies.  The problem was.... I was literally AFRAID of these people.   Nearly every single one of them.   The way they worded their emails.  The pictures and posts on their FB pages.  These were people I didn't trust, I didn't want to talk to, and I certainly was NOT going to give them any of my puppies. 
Some of them would say "I'm coming to get three of those pits", "Give me the biggest one you got", or even "whats your address?  I am going to come take a look at those Pits and see if any of them will work for me"...... Ummmmmmm, HELLZ NO!!!  

We just had another liter of puppies at our house.  A beautiful liter of lab/catahoula mixed puppies.   Do you know how many emails and messages I got?  About 1-3 a week.  Every single one of them from sweet, generous, grateful, loving families.  Not one single sketchy email.  NOT ONE. 

I just want to scream- "It's not the breed.  It's the PEOPLE"!!!!!!!!! 

This lesson was heartbreaking.  Pitbulls are truly Amazing dogs.  They are loyal, sweet, and Incredible with children!  They've had a reputation as "the nanny" dog for a reason!  Do you know what happens when someone comes to the door at our house?  About fifty million dogs go running to the door barking and acting crazy.... all but one.  Duchess, the victim of so much heartbreaking abuse, a supposedly mean and vicious pitbull that the great city of Galveston deemed too dangerous to live, RUNS to my kids.  Wherever they are in the house, she runs and jumps in front of them.  She is their protector.  She is AMAZING! She is a Pitbull.

 

We ended up finding wonderful homes for all but two of the pitbull puppies.  Kim and Jill were the two all black pits that we had not found forever families for and quite honestly, I couldn't handle searching any longer.  It was emotionally exhausting to deal with these people.  The fear of one of my babies ending up in a fighting ring, or abused haunted me.  The stories I heard, the people that contacted me.... I was done.   I was ecstatic for the puppies that were now in amazing perfect families, and decided to announce that Kim and Jill were not adoptable.  That I had no more pitbull puppies available.   Kim and Jill would live with us.  The emails stopped.

That was one year ago.  Kim and Jill are big beautiful girls now, but still love thier momma very much (as you can see above)!  They are strong, sweet, loving Pitbulls.  They helped us so much during our last litter of puppies when the momma needed a break.  They were gentle and playful.  They were our puppy sitters.  We all love and adore them, but it's become clear that we are no longer the best place for these sweet girls to be. 
I'm literally sobbing while typing this.

 

I think it's been obvious for a while, but we just kept convincing ourselves that they were better here with us.  We have many animals here at our home.  We have a heart for the ones that have no other place to go.   Our silly goat Prancer only has one ear and thinks she is a dog.  Sunshine, is a pit rescue who is only a couple years old, but can barely walk from the abuse and neglect she endured.  Sisco is a little rescue that is afraid of his own shadow.  Cameron is a fourteen year old lab mix that was thrown into a creek and left to die as a puppy. 

We have a heart for these animals and we want to be able to care for and bring in the ones that need us the most!   We love Kim and Jill so much, but they don't "NEED" us.  They are young and healthy and the more animals we rescue the less time we have for them.  The sick and hurting animals tend to come first, there is just no way around that.   We realized that we spend most of our time healing the wounded and training the young, and Kim and Jill are not getting the attention they deserve.   They Deserve families that will snuggle with them for hours a day.  Families that can take them on walks, to the dog park and on camping trips.  Families where they can get constant attention, training, and love. 
They deserve more than what we are able to give them here, and that is so so hard for me to say. 

It's with an extremely heavy heart that I share our story, and that of Kim and Jill, and ask that you pass it along so we can find these sweet girls their "real" forever families.