This summer when I arrived back from Greece there was one thing I was looking forward to when I got home; see my Pitbull mix Moose. Moose and I had a special bond that no one else had. When we adopted him last Christmas I had done some research and read his story on the Rebari Shelter webpage and it was your typical Pitbull story, found roaming the streets in Paterson. At first my mom was hesitant because he was a Pitbull, which got me a little mad because when someone says Pitbull other’s minds always go to dog fights and people getting attacked because they are so aggressive. The way I look at it, it is the person behind the dog that makes it aggressive, any dog can become vicious and attack someone but Pitbull’s come with the stereo type that they are vicious. Anyways, I had convinced her to at least give him a chance because you do not know what he has been through, he was only a few months when they found him and had scares all other his face and this terrified look in his face and I knew I could fix that. The next day my mom made an appointment to go see the dog (his name was Kinchley at the time because that was the street they found him on). When we walked in all the dogs were barking at the front of their kennels except for him, he was all the way in the back of his. The volunteer took him out of the kennel and brought him and my family to a room so we can play with him and meet him. Terrified was an understatement, he was shaking and my mom and sister were also a little frightened but I was not. I walked right up to him slowly and calmly. As I walked up he backed up slowly like he thought I was going to hurt him which got me a little upset because that told me that he was hurt in the past. As I walked I put my hand out for him to smell me and he came closer. From that point on he started to come out of his shell a little and my mom agreed to foster him to see how he is. We fostered him for about a week and what a difference that made, he was so playful and such a good boy, never had any accident in the house and always listened to us. My mom agreed to adopt him on January 2nd, 2017. I was so happy because we had this unbreakable bond, he always came to me and I always came to him whether I was upset or happy or just needed someone there. We have another dog named Matilda and at first, they got a long fine until they started to fight over dominance. Matilda would start growling and then Moose would get defensive and they would start fighting, but we took both of them to training and the fighting happened very rarely.

A few weeks later it was spring break and my mom, sister, and I planned to go to Miami Beach, Florida. When we go on Vacation we usually board the dogs at a kennel where they are taken care of by people over night for an x amount of time. A week before we left we took Moose and Matilda to the boarders so they can get a feel for where they are going to be for a week. All was going well, Matilda was being her usual playful goofy self and Moose was a little scared and shaky, which was completely predicted because he had never been to a place like that, while Matilda had been going for 5 years. After the tour of the place the owner said to put the dogs in the car so we can talk in the office. We walk into the office and the owner starts off by saying “He’s a Pitbull” and sighed, which made me feel a little worried because I knew he was going to treat Moose differently from Matilda just because he was a Pitbull. My mom then told him that Moose was just a puppy and still was timid because he is still adjusting to everything. After the talk in the office we went home. The week of spring break we dropped off the dogs at boarding and left for Florida. When we got back my mom went and picked up the dogs and said that they were both really good but it took a while for Moose to adjust to the surroundings.

Fast forward to the beginning of July 2018, I was getting ready to go to Greece with my friend, my mom was getting ready to go to Antigua, and my sister was getting ready to go to my grandparents’ house. A week after I left my mom left for Antigua and the dogs were brought back to boarding. I was having the time of my life in Greece, we were going out every night and having so much fun.

After a month in Greece it was time to go back to New Jersey. The only thing that I wanted to do after the 9-hour flight was go home, eat, and see Moose and Matilda. In the car ride back from the airport I told my mom and sister how Greece was and they asked me if I saw any family because everyone usually goes to Greece in the summer in our family. After I told then wat I did and who I saw I asked them how the dogs were and they got silent. I could tell something was wrong, all I thought was “oh no Matilda passed away” because she was very sick when I left. I asked if Matilda had passed and my sister said no and that she was doing better, so then I asked why everyone was being so quiet and my mom and sister just looked at each other. After about 10 minutes of silence my mom says that she has something to tell me and to relax, every other word she said beyond that was like an echo. My mom said that at boarding Moose was eating and the keeper went to walk him and grabbed him and Moose bit him. She then said that the boarding place told my mom that if we did not give Moose up then they would sue us because he is a Pitbull and a vicious dog. After that I felt like someone had ripped my heart right out of my chest, I could not move, every bone, every muscle was stiff. When we got home I did not get out of the car. My sister brought out Matilda and that is when I started to cry. I did not want to see Matilda, I did not want to see any dog or person. I sat in the car all night, upset because my best friend was gone and I did not get to say goodbye and angry at the fact that the people at the boarding thought Moose was vicious. What I did not understand is that with any dog or animal a person should never ever go to grab them when they are eating because any dog or animal would get angry and in this case bite. Should not someone who takes care of dogs for a living know this? Should not they have known better? In the morning my mom came into the car and I started to talk. I started to say how it is not right for them to say that we had to give him up and it is not right for them to call him vicious because he was a Pitbull and Pitbulls are vicious dogs. How I never got to say goodbye to my best friend. How when I was leaving for the airport I did not bother saying goodbye. To this day I’m still upset about the situation, but what I still do not understand is that the owner of the boarding place targeted Moose and called him vicious. I think it was because he is a pitbull, if he was any other dog I think the owner would not have made such a big deal. Pitbulls are just like any other dog. They are not vicious, any dog can be vicious.