“I couldn’t even fathom that kind of forgiveness ... but then I’m not as pure a soul as that pit bull.”

We entered the New Friends building to see a new plastic fence had been put up inside, partitioning the right side of the room off from the rest of it. Inside were two dogs that weren't there the day before; a Beagle puppy and a beautiful gray pit bull. Michelle, one of the caregivers in Dogtown, told us that the Beagle puppy had been adopted and was being picked up shortly, and the gray pit bull was her own dog.

I asked if I could pet them, and she said it was fine. The dogs had already come over to the fence and were wagging their whole bodies at me, so I indulged them, and myself. The Beagle puppy was very cute and loved the attention. The gray pit bull was just the sweetest, most gentle dog I've ever met. She licked my hand and enjoyed the petting. She enjoyed it so much that she didn't want me to stop. When I took my hand away, she lifted her muzzle up to nudge my hand, and of course I gave in and began to pet her some more.

We were waiting for one of the other caregivers to bring some whistles up from the main office, and we chatted about where we came from and what we were hoping to do while we were there at Dogtown. An was petting the pit bull and she noticed something was wrong with her ears.

"What happened to your ears?" she asked the dog.

"Oh, somebody cut them off with scissors," Michelle replied. "She was going to be a fighting dog."

"A fighting dog?" I asked incredulously. I felt like I had lost some of the color in my face as I tried to push away the vision of this gorgeous, loving dog being brutalized and mutilated.

"She never fought, but they bred her," Michelle continued. "They bred her a lot."

I was beginning to feel a little queasy as I looked down at the pit bull lapping at my fingers and trying to get me to rub her head some more. I stroked her head and body softly as I tried to keep my feelings of disgust and anger below the surface. I sat down on the floor next to her, and Michelle chuckled.

"You're in for it now."

And she was right, as the pit bull took the opportunity to lick my face relentlessly, and I smiled and felt my anger melt away. After all that humans had done to her, after all she had been through, this is how she treated me, a total stranger. I couldn't even fathom that kind of forgiveness. I know I would never be able to forgive whoever had done those things to her, but then I'm not as pure a soul as that pit bull.

"She's so vicious," I said sarcastically to Michelle as the dog made sure that every part of my face was soaking wet from licking.

"Oh, I know," she replied with a grin.

Amy, one of the caregivers, arrived shortly afterwards with the whistles, and we went over to the "walk chart" to pick out some dogs that hadn't been walked yet. Since it was only about 9 AM, most of the dogs still hadn't been walked at that point and we were able to choose just about any of them.

We asked if there were any pairs that we could walk together like we had walked Pacer and Lola the day before, and they told us we could walk Cinderella and Mr. Chips together, as they lived in the same run.

So we marked off Cinderella and Mr. Chips, and then picked out two more dogs that we would walk after the first pair. We chose Annie and Dexter, who couldn't be walked together but as long as we kept them far enough apart, like Andy and Orlando the day before, we would be fine. This time I had a water bottle with me so we could give the dogs (and ourselves) some water while we were out.

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