The Grandmaster Meets his Match in a Pitbull

Bonnie- Her third day with O'Sensei

Clyde- on his third day with O'Sensei

O'Sensei looking at Bonnie with Clyde in the background when we found them

Bonnie and Clyde loving their puppy bed from Petsmart the first evening at our house

Tug-o-war with O'Sensei three days in

Littermates make the best playmates. She started this one by pouncing on him while he was just chilling out- as usual.

Bonnie decided to walk Clyde to help us out (Day 6)

It's hard work being so cute all day. (Some dogs and cats get better care than humans.)

I will be the first to say that I never considered having a pitbull as a pet. I had dogs as a kid. We had one black lab that we had to get rid of because it nipped at a kid who walked up on her when she was eating. Labs are supposed to be super mellow family dogs who are good with kids and other animals. Our lab would surprise us at least once a week with half of a dead rabbit in our yard- the half she didn't eat.
I heard the stories on the news about how pitbulls are horribly vicious and not suitable for pets. I heard about a great aunt of mine who at one point loved pitbulls, but that was before I was born, so I never met them.
I bought into the hype around them and would never have sought out a pitbull on purpose to take home.

Then one day all of that changed.
O'Sensei and I drove up into east Texas on a mini-road trip with my aunt and mother. After we had lunch, we decided to stop by Cold Spring to take a picture near the large Pistol BBQ statue. When we got there, we found two puppies sleeping at the base of the gun statue. They were skinny, hungry and a little skidish, but they took to us immediately. The boy went right up to O'Sensei and snuggled up next to his foot. The girl came over to me and started playing with the bottom of my pants and rubbing up against my leg. We liked them immediately. All of the preconceived notions I had about pitbulls started to fall away.
We had discussed getting a dog a few days earlier and decided that we probably weren't ready for that yet. So we tried leaving them there, but we just couldn't do it.
We packed them into the car with us and fed them leftover catfish on the way back to parents' house. Because we found them at the base of the large gun statue, we decided that Bonnie and Clyde would be fitting names. We left them at my parents' house while we proceded to buy what seemed like half of Petsmart's puppy supplies.
An aside here, I first thought that the puppy bed was a little pricy and would probably be wasted money, but it was worth every penny. When we put the bed down, they recognized it as their's and immediately climbed in.
We have had them for about 6 days now, and we have found them to be playful, rambunctious and curious- like other puppies. We have also found them to be extremely smart, quick learners who are eager to please. They are the most loving puppies I've ever seen. Clyde is almost fully potty trained. His last accident in the house was 2 days ago- and that was right after we bathed him. Bonnie is getting there. She hasn't had an accident at night in about 4 days, but occasionally gets too excited and doesn't let us know in time that she needs to go out.
They absolutely love being snuggled, petted and played with. If they don't see you in more than 10 minutes or so, they act like they haven't seen you in days and want to give you kisses.
O'Sensei was hooked almost immediately. He is a tough guy by profession. He trains people to fight and to protect themselves. He very rarely shows his softer side- hardly ever at work, but I think he has met his match in these puppies.
We decided to create a blog about them and about our experiences bringing up two pitbull puppies so that others who feel as I once did that pitbulls were not good pets can see how it really is to have a pitbull rather than just believing the hype that they show in the news. Are they strong dogs? Yes. Can they be dangerous? Yes, but so can other breeds. As I once heard, anything with a mouth can bite- especially humans. There are always negative stories about the outliers, but these outliers do not represent an entire breed.
We invite you to read our blog and follow our experiences so that you can make your own conclusions about pitbulls. I didn't think I would ever say this, but I have been shocked to find out in less than a week that these dogs in a loving environment almost match my personality to a T and that of O'Sensei as well.
We hope you enjoy our story and will try to post as many pictures as possible.