Random Thoughts

My buddy lives out in an area of Howard County considered to be Woodbine. He had a rescue pit bull. It was a good dog, a well behaved dog. But one day it got under the fence of his neighbor and leaped up and latched itself onto the neck of one of their cows. And it wouldn't let go. They tried beating it with sticks and two by fours and what not, and it took a while to get him off. It was a big commotion, lots of drama. My friend apologized profusely, and the cattle farmer took it well because "these things happen," he said. But they had to put the cow down. And my friend had to buy it. So he did end up with a lot of beef. But then he had another problem. He had two little girls at the time. Ages maybe around age 6 and age 9. Something like that. And my friend was afraid of the pit bull's natural instincts. Because now, for the first time, he's had a taste of blood. So he decided to put the dog down. Tough decision, but he felt he didn't have a choice. And so he did. The poor dog was only following its instincts. You know? And he was put down. Very sad. Pete loved that dog. And the dog loved Pete.

So then, later, he told me, he had a dream. He dreamed he was seeing through the eyes of his dog. And he floated down and landed on a grassy field with the sun shining. And he then started running across the field. And he was happy.

He tells me he believes his dog communicated to him, through the dream, that he was in heaven, and he was happy. And it was okay.

We had a pit bull when I was in HS/College. One of the best dogs ever. I used to get on the ground with her and wrestle her with work gloves on. She knew the game and gave it her all. Never once did I fear for my life either. I'm sure my folks were freaking out some when we wrestled.

I'm not sure nowadays I would have another one. Their reputation has been ruined to the point that it's almost impossible to have one.
 
We had a pit bull when I was in HS/College. One of the best dogs ever. I used to get on the ground with her and wrestle her with work gloves on. She knew the game and gave it her all. Never once did I fear for my life either. I'm sure my folks were freaking out some when we wrestled.

I'm not sure nowadays I would have another one. Their reputation has been ruined to the point that it's almost impossible to have one.
Every time I go to the animal shelter sites it's all you see. I don't have anything against the breed, and virtually every one I have met behaved like a Lab. But I just don't want one, for your reason and I just like soft fluffy dogs.

I like to wrestle with my dogs too, or at least play a little hand to face combat. But this latest one, well that's all she wants to do once I introduced her to it. The wife couldn't pet her, she always wanted to play the game. So I had to stop.
 
Every time I go to the animal shelter sites it's all you see. I don't have anything against the breed, and virtually every one I have met behaved like a Lab. But I just don't want one, for your reason and I just like soft fluffy dogs.

I like to wrestle with my dogs too, or at least play a little hand to face combat. But this latest one, well that's all she wants to do once I introduced her to it. The wife couldn't pet her, she always wanted to play the game. So I had to stop.

Maybe wear work gloves when you want to hand to face combat. My pit bull didn't want to wrestle until she saw the gloves.
 
Well, the thing with Neptune (the GS that bit me) is that he's only 3, so he's still in "puppy" phase. He's very well-behaved at the restaurants with patios, I've heard from more than one person (dude takes him everywhere, he's always done that with his dogs). He likes me and just came charging to greet me, but like I said, he's getting bigger and could easily knock me down so I put my arm up and he got it, but he didn't bite down hard...my buddy was very upset with him, but I know that if Neptune wanted to destroy me, he could have...but he didn't. It wasn't malicious, I think he was just excited.
I worked at a doggy daycare/boarding house for a year so I got a sense of how different breeds behave. Never got bitten. Only other dog that ever bit me was my mom's late Dachshund and that dog was spoiled and evil.
 
Well, the thing with Neptune (the GS that bit me) is that he's only 3, so he's still in "puppy" phase. He's very well-behaved at the restaurants with patios, I've heard from more than one person (dude takes him everywhere, he's always done that with his dogs). He likes me and just came charging to greet me, but like I said, he's getting bigger and could easily knock me down so I put my arm up and he got it, but he didn't bite down hard...my buddy was very upset with him, but I know that if Neptune wanted to destroy me, he could have...but he didn't. It wasn't malicious, I think he was just excited.
I worked at a doggy daycare/boarding house for a year so I got a sense of how different breeds behave. Never got bitten. Only other dog that ever bit me was my mom's late Dachshund and that dog was spoiled and evil.
Yeah that sounds like excitement rather than a real dog bite. Mine is 3 as well and very socialized. Perhaps too much so. She gets so excited when she sees someone, I have to warn them. I tell everyone that she looks and acts like a German Shepherd, then when I open the door she turns into a Golden Retriever. She goes crazy which is why I issue the warning, but it literally lasts 60 seconds and from then on she's really well behaved.
 
We have a beautiful room that used to be my office. It's part of the original house and I've always wanted to utilize it as a 2nd living space. I recently got a recliner so that meant I could put my old recliner in this room. I call it the quiet room where I take an afternoon nap. I'm in that room now.

As I said it was my office, after retirement I used it when I did taxes or insurance. You know grown up stuff. I never really partied or even had fun in this room until one night when I had treated the floors in the living room. A tv had been set up for my wife's recovery from ankle surgery so I hung out here. It was really cool, the house was built in 1900 and I kept imaging what the family was doing in this room in 1912.
 
I sort of hate 'aggressive dog breed' conversations because invariably people believe what they want to believe. It is 100% true that a great deal of a dogs personality and behavior is going to be the result of how they are raised and cared for, and there are no universal truths when it comes to which breeds are 'dangerous' (almost any dog in the right circumstances can be dangerous). However, there are breeds that are simply more aggressive genetically. Rottweilers, Pit Bulls, Shepards, Chow chows, Dobermans, Akitas, etc... and of course some smaller dogs can be as well. It's not really open to debate that there are certain breeds that tend to be statistically most likely to bite or attack a human or another animal. But people will argue until they are blue in the face that THEIR dog is different. Any their dog MAY be different, but statistically and genetically they are still more likely to not be a safe choice.

The other thing that gets me riled is that some owners of these breeds have a mindset where they prioritize ownership of their animal over the safety and concerns of other humans. I just think that's wrong. In my little neighborhood, we have a couple who owns multiple Akitas. This is a neighborhood with small children and many household pets. These dogs are so aggressive their owners will scream at you if they are walking them and you happen to approach or come anywhere near them. They have to physically restrain the dogs when you drive by or the dogs will attack the vehicle. What kind of an idiot chooses that type of dog when they live in a residential neighborhood?

I had a neighbor next door when we bought our house. The first time he came over to the property border to say hi, and I reached out to shake his hand, his pit bull lunged at me and bit me. I stood there bleeding and told him I had young kids and a wife and that if I ever saw his dog on my side of the property line I was going to put a bullet in his head and he should know that. Their pit bull ended up biting their 2 year old in the face about a year later and that was the end of that situation.

I'm not saying that if any of you own one of the statistically more aggressive breeds that you are irresponsible or that your dog will ever be anything more than loving and loyal. But there are many many dog owners who ignore the statistics and the known genetic traits of a breed and bring dogs that are at some level inherently dangerous into places they probably don't belong in.
 
I sort of hate 'aggressive dog breed' conversations because invariably people believe what they want to believe. It is 100% true that a great deal of a dogs personality and behavior is going to be the result of how they are raised and cared for, and there are no universal truths when it comes to which breeds are 'dangerous' (almost any dog in the right circumstances can be dangerous). However, there are breeds that are simply more aggressive genetically. Rottweilers, Pit Bulls, Shepards, Chow chows, Dobermans, Akitas, etc... and of course some smaller dogs can be as well. It's not really open to debate that there are certain breeds that tend to be statistically most likely to bite or attack a human or another animal. But people will argue until they are blue in the face that THEIR dog is different. Any their dog MAY be different, but statistically and genetically they are still more likely to not be a safe choice.

The other thing that gets me riled is that some owners of these breeds have a mindset where they prioritize ownership of their animal over the safety and concerns of other humans. I just think that's wrong. In my little neighborhood, we have a couple who owns multiple Akitas. This is a neighborhood with small children and many household pets. These dogs are so aggressive their owners will scream at you if they are walking them and you happen to approach or come anywhere near them. They have to physically restrain the dogs when you drive by or the dogs will attack the vehicle. What kind of an idiot chooses that type of dog when they live in a residential neighborhood?

I had a neighbor next door when we bought our house. The first time he came over to the property border to say hi, and I reached out to shake his hand, his pit bull lunged at me and bit me. I stood there bleeding and told him I had young kids and a wife and that if I ever saw his dog on my side of the property line I was going to put a bullet in his head and he should know that. Their pit bull ended up biting their 2 year old in the face about a year later and that was the end of that situation.

I'm not saying that if any of you own one of the statistically more aggressive breeds that you are irresponsible or that your dog will ever be anything more than loving and loyal. But there are many many dog owners who ignore the statistics and the known genetic traits of a breed and bring dogs that are at some level inherently dangerous into places they probably don't belong in.

I agree with this. As I said every Pitt I have met behaved like a Lab. But I can't ignore the stories of Pitt attacks and recognize you just never see these stories with a Golden Retriever. With that said I will always believe how they are raised is a larger factor. I will give you my entire retirement account if my Nikki were to bite someone, it just would never happen. Unless I am being attacked, then all bets are off.
 
...

By the way we live in Woodbine. Our property backs up to the Howard County line. Technically it's Mount Airy but only because we are just west of Route 94 but we live in Woodbine.

Yeah my buddy lives just west of 94 as well. West of Larrilands. Right up Florence Rd a ways...
 
Agree about the pit bull opinion and that is a tough call to having another one. It's not that I couldn't raise it right but more that they are being banned from places like campgrounds which we use. Yes, they seem to have a switch that could get flipped on against their owner or neighbor and I'm just glad I never experienced the switch.

Speaking of Akitas, they are the only dog that have ever scared me. I worked with a guy that had two of them. One day I was at his place and when he left the room to get us drinks, the Akitas got aggressive with me. No idea what triggered them either but both of them started egging each other on while slowly advancing towards me. I hollered at my bud to get his ass back in here and they calmed down after he did. Beautiful dogs but very aggressive.
 
Dogs, like people, have genetic predispositions that have to be taken into consideration. How a dog is raised can certainly have an affect but that is highly dependent on ‘people’. Therein lies the rub.

The two most aggressive dogs that I have encountered were a pit and a dachshund. At least I could have placekicked that evil little fucker (if I had to). The pit that violently attacked my wife, my small dog, and myself while standing in front of our house in a quiet residential neighborhood was put down a couple of days later.
 
Well, I knocked down on your door, baby
To see if you were at home.
Your shade was down, there wasn't even a sound
But something told me you weren't alone.
What in the world can a nasty dog do
To try to get next to you?

mmm, Well, don't laugh 'cause it ain't funny, honey
Look it how it happened to me.
It could happen to you, you could be a fool too
And it'll leave you in misery.
I guess there's nothin' more a funky king can do
To try to get next to you.




My buddy turned me on to this album when I was on Okinawa. He was from El Paso. I knew him in Pensacola too. Big Dallas fan.
 
The game day thread is a mess
 
Crazy Christmas shopping in the DR today. Food, etc.
 
The game day thread is a mess
One of the very rare times when I didn't watch the game. Right up to the end of the Rivera era I had missed 2 games in 45 years. Then Ron made it easy for me. But last night we had a Christmas party so I watched till halftime, then had to struggle to find it on the radio (I never listen on the radio) as the game slipped away. Glad I didn't have to watch that.
 
So today we were out shopping for decorating the house and the Christmas tree, buying additional items like gifts and food for the dinner... and around 2:30 or 3:00 I got a denial message from USCIS.

It literally ruined my entire day
 
So today we were out shopping for decorating the house and the Christmas tree, buying additional items like gifts and food for the dinner... and around 2:30 or 3:00 I got a denial message from USCIS.

It literally ruined my entire day

We have been dealing with USCIS for around 7 years now with one last step currently in process. That is undoubtedly quite a gut punch and a nightmare. I’m so sorry for you guys.
 
So today we were out shopping for decorating the house and the Christmas tree, buying additional items like gifts and food for the dinner... and around 2:30 or 3:00 I got a denial message from USCIS.

It literally ruined my entire day

Sorry to hear that and sometimes, all we can do is get back up when life smacks us down.
 
We have been dealing with USCIS for around 7 years now with one last step currently in process. That is undoubtedly quite a gut punch and a nightmare. I’m so sorry for you guys.
Found a good lawyer
 

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