Saving Sunny
The lead story in this week’s pit bull news comes from the hometown of our own occasional guest blogger Bauer. Saving Sunny, a new non-profit aimed at reducing animal cruelty, held its launch party in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday.
The group is named after Sunny, a pit bull thrown off a bridge into the Ohio River last July, and has adopted the motto “Bridging the Gap for Abused Animals.”
For anyone wondering, Sunny was indeed saved. She was later adopted by Kelsey Westbrook, a server at Joe’s Crab Shack and the founder of Saving Sunny. So if you’re ever in Louisville and have the time, you might want to contemplate visiting that restaurant and leaving Ms. Westbrook a healthy tip. The fully recovered Sunny made a visit to the party as its guest of honor and spent hours greeting visitors.
“Can you imagine anyone throwing this dog off a bridge?” asked one participant. No, I can’t.
Midnight Raid at NZ Animal Shelter
From the department of “kids, don’t try this at home,” an unidentified New Zealand man broke into a Whangarei, NZ animal shelter at 12:05 a.m. on June 5, and made off with a pit bull authorities believe to be his. Closed circuit surveillance cameras show the man cutting through bars on a window, climbing in, and going directly to the enclosure of a tan male pit bull. The man released the pit bull and the two then went out the window together.
Shelter officials emphasize that daring midnight raids are not the best option for people who can’t afford the cost of recovering their dogs. “We would rather reduce fees and have a dog taken home than have to put it down,” said Keith Thompson, manager of the company who runs the shelter, adding that the man would be prosecuted if caught.
Pit Bull Saves Pet Sitter
On a more upbeat note, the Las Cruces Sun News published the story of a pit bull who saved his pet sitter from going into a diabetic coma.
Sam, an 8 year old American Staffordshire Terrier, is never allowed on the bed and always follows the rules. But when the blood sugar levels of his sitter dropped dangerously low, he somehow knew and jumped on the bed, where he nuzzled and tugged at her until she roused herself and dizzily staggered to the kitchen.
She managed to eat and drink just in time to bring her blood sugar back up and avoid an almost certain coma. She now credits Sam with saving her life and calls him her guardian angel.
Humans saving pit bulls in Kentucky, pit bulls saving humans in New Mexico, and a man possibly thinking he had to break the rules to save his dog in New Zealand. Last minute rescues seem to be the theme in this week’s news.