You Can’t Choose Your Family, but You Can Choose to Support Them

by Natalie

No matter what happens in your life, your family will always be there, whether you want them to or not. Even when they don’t support you or you’re fighting with them or you do something they don’t approve of – you can’t get rid of family. The point I’m trying to make with this is that my family members had a choice. They could choose to support my involvement with a misrepresented breed or they could start citing off “facts” about how many people pit bulls have mauled or killed.

When I first told my parents, I was a bit wary of how they would react. Although for many pit bull lovers it seems like a no-brainer about the many endearing qualities to this wonderful breed, convincing other people who have never really been around pit bulls is a completely different story. (I try not to, but I find myself judging people pretty badly when they are so close-minded and unwilling to even try to listen to what I have to say.)

My mom has previously said multiple times that she thought pit bulls were beautiful, but other than that, we hadn’t really talked about them. Thankfully, I was lucky. When I first told them about John, Penny and Elvis, they didn’t tell me I was crazy or ask what I was thinking. Instead, they asked questions. They wanted to know about these dogs (and of course, there’s really not any bad things you can say about Penny and Elvis). And later, when I sent a link to this blog to other family members, I did not see hate, but rather loved ones who were genuinely interested about learning something new.

I don’t know if I’ve told them this, so Mom, Dad, Grandma, Grandpa and whomever else of my family members who are reading this right now: thank you. You all know how big of an animal lover I am, and I try to see the good in everyone. It breaks my heart when people blindly hate these sweet innocent animals and condemn them to death, and they’ve never even met them before. You don’t know how much it means to me that you chose to be smarter and to give them a chance.

My grandparents live in Arizona, but they were in town visiting last week. When talking to my grandma about getting together during their short visit, she also mentioned wanting to meet Sierra, Penny and Elvis. It was the perfect time to bring them and my parents over to officially meet John and his pack. What I saw that day and the memories that were created during that short visit are something I will remember forever.

I saw Elvis “attacking” my family by throwing his body against their legs as he licked them over and over, and literally smiled with joy over their petting him; Penny rolling on her back multiple times because she knows that belly rubs are the only way to get to the sweet spots; my grandma walking happy-go-lucky Ziggy around the park, and him rolling in the grass every chance he got; Wally howling every two minutes and wanting to get out of his wagon, and then back in, and then back out again; Penny and Elvis bringing Sierra more out of her shell so that she was actually playing with them; and best of all, I saw my parents and grandparents smiling, laughing and loving on all these dogs the whole time.

Sometimes it’s hard to think that you can change people’s minds about pit bulls. And maybe that’s not really applicable to my family since they were already pretty open-minded anyway. But what’s amazing is that Penny, Elvis, Sierra, Ziggy and Wally created this wonderful experience for my family just by being themselves. And while it may not have changed their minds, it definitely helped confirm that pit bulls are not evil, and that John may have found some new advocates for this breed. Thank you John, Penny, Elvis, Wally, Ziggy and Sierra.

Natalie

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