M.I.A.: Blue Diamond

After pleading, begging, they finally agreed, but it couldn't be an American Pit Bull Terrier. I agreed, but after long deliberation, that wouldn't cut it. I would still grief for my son.

I begged some more. Pouted. Wrote a letter explaining the importance of why it had to an American Pit Bull terrier.

The gist of the letter, stating that I would be unhappy settling for a dog that I paid for if it wasn't truly what I wanted. If I paid for a $800 American Bulldog, that's great. I'd be happy for a month, and when that was over, again find difference between the breed and be unhappy. I could rescue a APBT mix, but it wouldn't be to my standard, more than likely. I explained the crying to go to sleep and so on.

They agreed, but I was told it had to be a light colored dog, not white. We searched Pit Bull rescues, but because we already had a female dog, they would not allow me to rescue a pup from them. (I was searching for a female because I had a name picked out already, and my parents don't like male dogs.) Eventually, they agreed to look at other dogs, as the only light tan and fawn dogs were over $800.

I searched breeders and classified ads. Finally after a month, I found a breeder near Atlanta who had 13 blue APBT available, 7 females. I knew one would be M.I.A.

Although, my father didn't like the blue color, we went the next day to look at the puppies. As soon as we entered the fence, my dad decided that he liked the color. As I played with the puppies, my dad talked to the man about his dogs and the breed. They discussed things from tail docking and ear cropping, to which the man replied that he thought it was mean. They discussed the recent Michael Vick situation, and the breed's bad reputation. My father was satisfied that this man was legit in his opinions, believes, and merit.

I continued playing with the puppies, one male kept following me around, but as soon as I'd turn my head, he'd pounce another puppy. I tried to focus on the females. There were two fawn and white ones, but Chance was fawn, so that wouldn't work. I worked with a few of the blue females, and finally found one that was more receptive. I had made my descision.

The small blue puppy with the white diamond on her neck, was mine. I passed the man his $400, and he got me the papers and some puppy food.

M.I.A. was very receptive to her name and commands from the start. (Oh, her name is because her big brother went missing in action.) She had potty training problems like most puppies go, but being an APBT, she was very smart. But, being and APBT, she was stubborn and hard headed.

My mother's St Bernard/Collie mix took to M.I.A. well. My yorkie, not so great, but I didn't expect him to like her much.

The first night in the crate, wasn't the best. She didn't like it much. In the middle of the night after taking her out once or twice, she ended up in the bed. From that first week or so on, the small pup has slept in the bed with me.

The quite puppy that I brought home, isn't quiet anymore...

At 5 months old, born on June 5, 2007, MIA is a monster! She's about 40 pounds of fury. :-) And I love her.

She runs and plays non-stop, usually. She plays tricks on the other dogs. For example, she'll pull my mothers Collie/St.Bernard mix's tail and run, like she didn't do it. I think that she's just trying to get Bella to play.

She has learned basic obedience commands such as sit, down, stay, here, and leave it. We're currently working on drop it and spit it out.

She knows closer, speak, and shake. I'm, also, working on teaching her to spin on command.

I have big plans for this dog. Once I've got her trainedto a certain degree, I'm going to have her CGC certified. This will give her and me more credibility that she's not a bad dog, and that all APBT's aren't vicious.