A Redemptive Tale from the Bluegrass

Stranger In A Strange Land – No. 17

We don’t watch the local news on television. We tried when we first moved to the Horse Capital of the World, but there was one story after another of animal cruelty: the dog pitched from the window of a car speeding along a highway, the organized dogfights, the yard dog strangled by his chain, and the dogs dragged for … fun? … from the back of a truck. I couldn’t bear it. And I seriously wondered what rabbit hole we’d fallen down.

To be fair, animal cruelty happens everywhere there are people. I’m sure the Windy City had its share of these subhumans. They just didn’t make the evening news.

So imagine my delight when I read an upbeat tale about a pit bull in Frankfort, the state capital of the Bluegrass. You might have seen it already—it was on the Animal Rescue Site several days ago. Here’s the story from Kenneth Masters and his photo of China:

Second chances and a mission
Driving home from work I used to pass by a house and see a white pit bull in the backyard. One week I realized that no one was living in the house any longer, but the dog was still in the yard. Not really thinking ahead, I stopped and approached the fence and called out. Here she came, wagging her tail, from what looked like a tool shed. She seemed friendly enough, so I invited her to ride along with me and she hopped up into my truck and away we went. As I thought about what I would tell my wife and cats, I looked over at my new friend just in time to see a wet puppy come sliding out onto my seat! By the time I got home we had two puppies and no plan! Panicked, I settled everyone down in the bathtub and rushed back to the empty house just in case. Sure enough, in the shed there were two more puppies. By the time my wife got home there were 6 pit bulls in the bathtub and cats waiting for an explanation! These days China can be found napping on the couch, cats curled up beside her, and my wife? Well, she now co-ordinates the free spay/neuter program for pits and pit-mixes at our Franklin County Humane Society, Frankfort, Kentucky USA.

Thank goodness for people like Mr. and Mrs. Masters.

[Painting by Robin Andreae.]

This is part of an ongoing series regarding my transition from the Land of Lincoln to the Bluegrass State. For a list of previous articles in the series, select Stranger in a Strange Land from the right of Lull, under “Choose a topic that interests you.”