Pit Bulls on the Ridge...

The past few days, the Ridge has been all a flutter from the terrorism of some pit bulls. These menacing animals have been wandering the Ridge taking out a couple of pets and some poultry.

This morning Joni was working her brush--and I was (once again) digging rock, when Joni yelled: "Get out of here"! The pit bulls (well, one pit bull and the other an "amstaff") ran passed her and started circling our dog. We had another neighbors dog visiting with us (social hour) and the pit bulls couldn't focus on which dog they wanted to attack. The visiting dog was sensible and ran into the house. Our dog got knocked to the ground.

I gathered a stick and pursued the pits. One ran into the house (I quickly got the visiting dog out and shut the door). Joni yelled for someone to get a gun. Our neighbor kid, heard the commotion and came over with his 22. This family has had signs up that they would shoot these dogs on sight (as the pits bulls had killed a long time animal companion--the cherished 14 year old family cat).

I managed to get a leash on one of the pit bulls (a brave exercise by me, I thought). We called animal control and waited an hour to attend to our emergency. I managed to get the other dog on to the deck. He was quite a bit more aggressive.


The aggressive dog...killer of poultry and family pets. He didn't kill our pet mice in the cage next to him.

Our Neighbors kid, here to defend all of us with his 22...

And our heroes from animal control. One dog went nicely; the other was a bit more of a fight...


This wild area attracts all kinds. It's a place where the ragged people go. We have Apocalyptic Christians, Rastafarian's, Pot Smoking Schizophrenics, Anti Social Meth-Labbers, Small Entrepreneur types with cannabis plots and gold prospecting tools, Disabled folks, Day Laborers, Red Necks with old pick up trucks, tools and budweiser, Green Professionals---a cornucopia of rugged individualists and extremists. Some live in tents. Others in trailers. Cabins. Pre-fabs. Getting by cheaply is the norm. DIY.

The Anti-Social Druggies like having pit bulls. They raise them to fight. To be menacing. They want people to leave them alone, so that they can tend to their meth labs and their pot farms. I think that is what we were dealing with the past few days.