Pit-Bull Puppy Poop and

Power of Persuasion

A Creative Nonfiction Essay by Gia Lee

The theme for the 2011 creative nonfiction essay contest was “volunteering,” and we asked writers to tell true stories about life events involving offering to do something — volunteering. Entries involving volunteering to be the girl in the center of a knife-throwing bulls-eye and volunteering to attend a funeral with a friend came in among others, but children’s book author, Gia Lee, told her tale of volunteering to take in a seventh pet — a pit bull puppy in to a home of cats — grabbed our editors the most. Lee won a handmade journal crafted by our Art Director, Cyan Jenkins. Additional journals can be purchased on Etsy.com

I already knew I was a Crazy Cat Lady of sorts with six wonderful all-indoor cats ranging in age from 8 ½ to 3 years old, but I had no idea that my volunteer efforts on Monday, October 24, 2011 via our local SPCA would result in my becoming somewhat Canine Crazy, too.  As my handsome husband is the proud papa to our fur kid felines, too, I am fortunately breaking the spinster cat lady cliché, at least.  I went to the SPCA last week to drop off our aluminum cans; we save them so the SPCA can get food, etc. for the animals housed there.  While there, I decided to visit the feline section; I love letting the cats and kittens out of their cages to play in a bigger space for a while.  It allows them freedom to play and interact with other felines outside their cramped cages, and I think it’s great “Cat Therapy” for me. 

I’d probably been visiting with the other kitties for about thirty minutes or so, while talking to various volunteers and shelter staffers coming in and out of the cat play area about topics like how stupid it is that black cats and black dogs are frequently the last to be adopted.  My husband and I have three black cats that are not only loving but extremely intelligent, so that topic I felt quite strongly about.  One staffer in particular kept making an appearance in the “cat room” to talk with me.  She finally asked me if I’d ever considered sponsoring a dog.  I said that I had never volunteered to be a sponsor, but I might be interested.  Then, I asked for specifics.

She basically said that she had a sick puppy who had to be given antibiotics for a week.  She told me he was a lab mix.

I later found out that to make pit-bull mixes easier to adopt out to most, they only said they were a lab mix.  Being a pit-bull mix to me would only make a puppy/dog more desirable to adopt, and not because I aspire to be like Michael Vick was, but because pit-bulls are strong and sweet with the right human parent!    

I told the staffer that I’d try it out, though I had no puppy food, medicine for him, etc.  She hooked me up with toys, blankets, medicine, etc., and I filled out the necessary sponsor-volunteer paperwork before I was taken back to get him.  He was in one of their outside cages, hiding in the cold concrete enclosure in the back.  She went to pick him up and handed him to me; I was alarmed because he was really feverish.  I wondered if I’d suddenly become a bit canine myself and bitten off a bit more than I could chew.  The staffer, seeing my expression, said, “You don’t have to take him after all, if you don’t want to.”

But, the next moment, he wagged his tail, sick as he was, and I said, “I still want to.”  The caring staffer helped me load him in my car, saying right before I drove off, “If you think of a name for him, then we’ll keep it when you return him next Monday.”  Then, I drove home having no idea exactly how I’d break the news to my husband that I had volunteered to sponsor a sick puppy for a week.  But even before I’d arrived at our house, about a fifteen minute drive from the shelter, I’d already thought of a name for the black pit-bull puppy:  Jet…short for Jetavi.

I can’t say that my husband was exactly happy to have had me volunteer to sponsor the pup for a week without his consent, but he slowly but surely fell under Jet’s spell.  It certainly wasn’t from the non-potty-trained part, however, as not only did we have to deal with big super pungent puppy poop for the first time, but we also discovered he had tapeworms as we noticed big wiggly white rice-like strings throughout it.  Not to mention, my husband and I weren’t used to smelling doggie scent on our clothes as he eagerly jumped in our lap and licked us affectionately.  We couldn’t say no to all that puppy love, regardless of strong puppy scent, however, as it’s great to experience boundless affection like that, but I remember holding one of my kitties later on, a black one named Eclipse, and thinking, I never realized that my kitties smell like divine pot-pourri!  Big difference, but my husband and I realized after a while that we didn’t mind smelling a bit “doggie” when we left our house.  And now, we even like puppy scent; we just had to get used to it.

Our kitties have been really well-behaved around the puppy; they have their what I call cat-boards my husband built to retreat to on our walls if he gets too close and their kittie tunnels, etc.  It’s been a pretty pimped out kitty pad for years in our house; it’s their castle and we humans happen to live there!  And, I’ve been proud of my cats for welcoming the strange new creature to their world; I can tell my black cat Anubis Star is already plotting ways to control Jet, however, as he sniffs around his blanket and doggie toys trying to figure out an angle on the big new creature. 

About two days into my volunteer duties of sponsoring Jet, my husband could resist his charm no longer, so we went to the shelter the following day to see about adopting Jet.  We found out then, much to our dismay at it being such a close call, that he would have been put down as a sick puppy in their already over-crowded shelter if I hadn’t volunteered to sponsor him and nurse him back to health. 

All I can really say about that at this point is that I believe that Jet had an incredibly strong desire to live.  First, he made it out in the world as a stray:  probably navigating traffic, surviving colder weather, finding food on his own, etc.  Then, he barely avoided being killed due to shelter over-crowding (not the shelter’s fault, but, rather an argument for spaying/neutering animals so that those who are already living without permanent homes can have a better chance) with his being a sick puppy.  And, finally, he has found his loving forever home with us.  What an incredible will to live and tale of survival.  Yep, he’s an awesome pup!

We gave him his first bath today and boy does he clean up nicely, too.  Plus, no worms as of today’s date and all of his allergy-causing dandruff is mostly gone.  His fever broke days ago, and he holds his head up proudly running around our yard.  Now we have seven fur-kids to get all mushy about and receive love from that is really hard to describe unless you’ve already truly opened your heart to the love of animals.