Petey's story

Today, we had to put our dog, Petey, to sleep due to an terminal illness he developed that prevented him from enjoying life any longer.  We're very sad, but we know this is how life goes when you have pets.  I wanted to take a moment to remember how we came to adopt Petey and his time with us.

In fall of 2008, I got a call from the Humane Society stating they had a dog just brought in that we really needed to foster.  At the time, we were participating in the foster care program and did not have a dog in our home.  I was told this particular dog, an older pit bull mix named Petey, had been picked up by animal control.  He had been found tied to a tree without food.  He was terribly skinny, very sick with heart worm disease, and blind in one eye.  Due to the heart worms, he was not allowed to run or play.  They also informed us he was not good with children or dogs and since we did not have either he really needed to go home with us for awhile.  Needless to say, we were not too excited about it but he looked so pitiful we couldn't say no.  After all, it was just for a few weeks...

This is what they had outside Petey's cage at the Humane Society

The first night he sat cowered in the corner and would not make any eye contact with us or move.  Once he warmed up to us, he became quite a handful.  He would "mount" us ALL the time!  Even sick and skinny, he could knock me down.  He also had a lot of issues likely stemming from his nine(ish) years of neglect. After awhile, he recovered from the heart worms and gained back his weight.  I brought him back to the humane society to be adopted right before we left for a two week trip.

When we got back from our trip, I stopped by the humane society to check on him.  I was shocked to find him scared looking and just as skinny as before.  The staff their told me he was too old to be in the building and was not doing well.  So once again Petey was back in our house (luckily, this time he was neutered).


I took him to adoption events but he couldn't compete with the cute little puppies that were also at these events (in fact, one little girl asked me if he was a dog or a coyote).  Although he had a few interested adopters, in the end, no one wanted to adopt a ten-year old pit bull who attacked other dogs.  After a year of no adoption luck, the humane society stated we pretty much had to keep him.  So we did.

We spent time training him to be less "aggressive" as well as basic commands and eventually he became more manageable and enjoyable.  However, after an unfortunate incident with a man who was cleaning our carpets I told Chris we needed professional training assistance.  We were referred to the Indiana Dog Trainer.  They had a very intensive and interesting technique that required a lot of work. The trainers even got teary eyed when they told us they could tell that he was grateful for having been saved from a terrible life. We learned a lot from them, and after awhile we had a very enjoyable dog who was very easy to care for.

We were nervous about how he would act with our new baby, but it was a simple transition and Petey was very patient with all Camden's "love".

We really enjoyed our last few years with Petey.  He taught us that even the most seemingly hopeless of dogs can still turn out to be great companions.  We often felt that he remembered where he had come from and was glad to be with us. It is best not to judge a dog by their breed or their looks.  With love and time, even an old dog can learn new tricks.