Saturday, May 29, 2010

Living in the Zeitgeist with the Pit Bull Mix Named Tommy Lee Jones

When Michael Vick’s Bad Newz dogs hit People magazine, I felt as if I were in the zeitgeist: My life had recently become all about pit bulls. I’d rescued Tommy off the L.A. streets and changed my life to keep him just a few weeks prior. I’d lived in a studio apartment with two girl cats when I found him. I searched on craigslist for a house that allowed dogs and soon fell in love with a duplex in Pasadena near the foothills of the San Gabriels. I immediately brought a deposit check to the landlord and signed the lease, then went back to take another look at the house. In the bedroom a French door covered by a curtain opened to steps that led to a small, shared yard. I opened the curtain, and there on the steps staring up at me sat a jet black pit bull with cropped ears. He scared the life out of me, despite the fact I was moving a pit bull into this house in just a few weeks. I thought, “I must have some weird karma to work out with pit bulls.” Later I learned his name was Blaze and he was a total sweetheart.