My Rescue Pit Bull Changed Everything I Thought I Knew About the Breed

My mother's exact words when I told her we were considering a Pit Bull were: "Absolutely not."

My wife's parents were more diplomatic. They said they'd "have concerns about the grandkids." My brother googled something and sent me an article from 2009.

Then we actually met Hazel.

We weren't looking for a Pit Bull. We were at the shelter looking for a medium-sized dog, ideally over two years old, ideally already house-trained. The volunteer walked us past kennels of barking dogs to a quiet room in the back where a three-year-old brindle-and-white dog was sitting pressed against the kennel door, leaning into the wire as if she needed to be closer to every human who passed.

"She's been here five months," the volunteer said. "She's extremely gentle. She failed her guard dog evaluation because she tried to lick the evaluator."

Hazel pressed her nose through the wire and licked my daughter's hand.

My daughter looked at me. I looked at my wife. My wife looked at Hazel.

I won't pretend the first weeks were controversy-free. A neighbor left a note. A family member didn't come to our house for three months. One parent at my daughter's school asked us — sincerely — if we were "worried."

What these people hadn't seen: Hazel sleeping at the foot of my daughter's bed every night since week one. Hazel sitting with my wife during a difficult phone call, resting her chin on her knee, without being asked. Hazel tolerating my daughter's friends with a patience I aspire to.

What they'd based their concern on: a breed label and decades of media imagery that bore no resemblance to the actual dog in our home.

My mother takes Hazel for walks when she visits. She refers to her as "my Hazel" on the phone.

There are no dramatic conclusions to draw here about all pit bulls. Dogs are individuals. But the narrative that made five months in a shelter normal for a gentle, house-trained, three-year-old dog — that narrative has a real cost, and Hazel paid most of it.

We got the good end of that deal.

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*Bully breeds are among the most common dogs in shelters. Ask your local rescue about temperament-tested adults waiting for homes.*