My Pit Bull Companions: Mayhem

  This  is Mayhem. We got her from a rescue in Harden,  Montana. We found her on Petfinder.
We had put a deposit down for a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, from a breeder in Ontario. We ended up not getting a puppy, so we started to look for another pit bull-type dog because we had fallen in love with these of dogs. And their story! There is so much BSL(breed specific legislation) bullshit out there! Bully breeds, currently, are not banned where we live(Regina, Saskatchewan), but the entire province of Ontario has them banned and there are towns in Saskatchewan that banned them too.

There are over 17,000 'pit bulls' that are looking for homes on Petfinder, right now! Over 17,000! Serious, I just checked! And that's just Petfinder!

Surely, we don't need anymore dogs to be bred!!

Traveling to her new forever home!

We drove down to Harden, Montana and picked up our sweet puppy! She was estimated to be 6 months old. Her name was Bobby Socks. Very cute. But we had to change it. Mayhem fit too well with her crazy demeanor! Plus, it's fun to say "Chaos and Mayhem".
Mayhem has a ton of energy!! 
She is 50 lbs and eats the same amount as Chaos, who is 78 lbs! Her metabolism is ridiculous! She's very bouncy. Her motivation is toys and play. Chaos's motivation is treats.
Unluckily for all of us, Russ Rathy moved to Alberta. She was not lucky enough to get his help with us!

Mayhem all tuckered out!

But, Troy and I  bought a treadmill for winter exercise(remember they are practically naked!) and that's been going really well. In the summer, Troy takes them rollerblading with him. And I walk them.
We just ordered Mayhem a weight-pulling harness, so that should be here for Christmas, and Troy is building them a spring-pole in the garage! (Remember-winter here is bloody cold and freakin' snowy!)

I am really happy that their ears and tail were not mutilated! Their ears are like velvet!

My Pit Bull Companions! Chaos:

Chaos looking regal

We adopted our big guy from the local shelter, The Regina Humane Society, over 6 years ago, on August 22, 2005. They predicted his age to be a year or two. But both our vet, and our dog trainer say it was more likely that he was about 8 months. He had way more black on his muzzle!
He's an American Staffordshire Terrier Cross.
His name is Chaos. Not because he is or was, chaotic, but because when we adopted him, our lives were chaotic! We had just gotten married(August 5, 2005), moved into our house(August 11), I had quit my job so I could start interning to finish my degree to be a teacher, and we were renovating.
While we're at it! 
My good friend, Renee, was working at the shelter and she said we just had to meet him! So we went on Troy's motorcycle with the idea that we couldn't bring anybody home on the bike.
So much for that strategy!
We fell in love the instant we met him! He was so sweet and friendly! Troy was working nights that week, so he went to work, and I arranged with my dad, to take Copper, my childhood Springer Spaniel, and I to meet and potentially adopt him!
The meeting went well, and I signed the papers!
We worked with him and Russ Rathy, training for obedience, protection and scent-work! Russ encouraged us to work with Chaos all the time, so we did. I would spend 15 minutes practicing heel, come, sit, and stay every morning and for 15 minutes every evening. Troy did training with him too. Plus, we just worked it into our lifestyle. Training during walks, and play was mandatory after every session of training. Russ was awesome! Chaos is an amazingly chill dog! I don't know if he would be so chill without Russ Rathy's help. Actually, if Mayhem, our other rescued pit bull is any indication...I'll leave that for another post.
We also did some group classes, played with agility equipment and took a cart-pulling class together, which was really fun!
I like to call Chaos 'Smoochie-face' and our friends call him 'Bison-head'. Cause his head seems ginormous!
We've recently started calling him 'Dr. Carlyle'. (He runs a successful family practice in the country.)
I wouldn't put it past him. He seems like he would.

He's fantastic with puppies! He's helped socialize many of our friends puppies! He'll let a puppy grab his face and pull! He'll lay on the floor to play because they're so little. It's ridiculous how cute he is!
He also came to the General Hospital to see me on December 20th! We hadn't seen one another since December 5th! Course, I don't remember, but I'm told I was excited and so was he!
I'm in the one in the wheelchair, with my beautiful, warm quilt that my belly dance group members made for me out of everyone's scrap fabric(much of it leftover from performance costume construction)!
Troy has Chaos's leash, my dad is bent over me and my grandmother is the one in the white jacket. I hear it was super cold when I was in the hospital(-45/-50 degrees Celsius). One thing I am glad to not remember!