Dixie

Rescued White Pit Mix from Fremont, CA October 1997 from Moraga, CA

Allow me to introduce myself and my dog, Dixie. I am a life-long dog lover, a married domestic engineer ;) with one 10 year old son. I am a Bay Area native living in the east bay now and have been fortunate enough to meet many members of Badrap, including Donna and Tim (my personal heroes). I have had many different breeds, but Dixie is by far the smartest dog I have ever owned.

I was one month pregnant, had just lost our great dane, and went on the hunt to find a new puppy before we had the baby and had no time. We searched many shelters (horrific experience!) and it was either get a shepherd/lab mix or pit mix apparently. As long hair was out, it seemed a pit was inevitable, but that didn't bother me at all.

We hit the Fremont shelter one day and passed by a huge window on our way to see the dogs when we heard "yip, yip, yip" from behind the window. We stopped to see what all the fuss was about and across the room was the cutest little piglet - I mean puppy - we had ever seen! When she saw us looking at her, she grabbed a hold of the cyclone gate with her teeth and scrambled like crazy with her feet trying to pull it open and shot the newspaper lining her floor all the way across the room. She was determined to come out and say hi even though she could not have been more than 7 weeks old! Damn if it wasn't the cutest!

There was one name on the list for her already, but we added ours just in case they had a change of heart. Luckily, they never came to pick her up on the morning of her release. Luckily for Dixie, I was there to get her, because the next name on the list for her were two 16 year old boys. It was very tense waiting the hour to see if the first people on the list would show up, but as soon as the hour passed we were on our way to a new addition to the family! Bad news was not far behind, though.

After having her a week and watching her endless energy, we realized she had some serious lethargy after playing and her poop had never been great. Turned out she had a serious case of parvo (and we believe the shelter knew it because they kept strongly suggesting we get her checked out really well). She stayed in emergency vet care for a week. It was terrible, but the vet techs kept telling me she was a little trooper. She was so young, though! But she did pull through!

When she was two she needed surgery on both front elbows to fix small bones that did not adhere. Hmmm...our cheap pound dog is starting to add up. Fast forward three years, lots of love, energy, and play later, and she had a tendon tear in her right rear leg. Ugh!! Five thousand dollars, a steel plate, bolts, and lots of tears later, she is almost as good as new! Fast forward another three years and she has a tendon tear in her left rear leg. OMG, here we go again! My husband calls her our "Camry". ;) After her second tendon surgery, she went in to have the stitches removed. The vet came in from the back laughing and said, "You should see what's going on back there!" Dixie was lying on her back surrounded by three vet technicians working on her and her tail was wagging like crazy. Oh, yeah, she's a real killer!

The cost of our dog? Astronomical. The love she has brought to our family? Priceless! She has been such a great dog and we hope a good ambassador of the breed for others (who are less informed) to learn from. We recently had a party with 50 or 60 people, including kids, and she went from person to person to say hi before playing for hours with the kids. Even one boy, who used to be deathly afraid of all dogs, had no problem throwing the ball for her (again and again and again...). It was so great to watch!

Dixie is now 11 years old and not quite so full of the energy she once had, but she is still ready to play at the drop of a ball!

So, that's her story!

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