Editor, The News:
Let me tell you about a vicious American pit bull terrier.
About eight years ago, I was contacted by a friend who ran a rescue operation in Toronto, Ont.
They had a female American pit bull terrier about six years old who needed to be placed in foster care. She had been surrendered to the group by a man who had been seen by neighbours abusing the dog.
When confronted, he told the neighbours “take the useless thing.”
She went to the vet where she was diagnosed as suffering from broken ribs, kicked in teeth along with cigarette burns to her neck and body. She was malnourished and dehydrated.
This was nothing compared to the damage done to her beautiful spirit. She was hand shy and nervous.
It would be a week before we could go and pick up our new foster girl. In that week, she became a hero in her new neighbourhood.
While on a leashed walk, she saved her caregiver from would-be muggers. Bravely, she stood in between two men armed with knives and her elderly care giver. Barking and matching their movements she did not give an inch. The men fled empty handed.
The next day, we went to pick her up. She was the saddest little dog I have ever seen.
She had a little brown and white body dotted with angry red marks, unnatural formations on her rib cage, with every bone showing, yet she had the biggest smile a dog could ever display.
She wagged her tail so hard when she met us her whole bum wiggled. There was no question she was going to be a part of our family.
That day she was give the name Kayenne.
After many months her body healed and the light in her soul relit.
Kayenne never once held the fact that humans caused her years of suffering against anyone. Kayenne adopted us, she loved us unconditionally, watched over us like a mother hen, being silly when we needed to laugh, cuddling us when we cried, helping us up when life knocked us down.
We were gifted with her for eight years.
Kayenne was not our family pet, she was our family. We will never live without an American pit bull terrier.
Lisa Traina
Maple Ridge