Diesel was born on April 1st, 2008, and passed away on July 28, 2019. He was purchased from an independent breeder in Costa Mesa, CA by his original owner. The deal was that one half of the asked amount would be paid after picking Diesel up, and the other half when the papers were provided showing that Diesel was a purebred Pit Bull Terrier. The second half was never paid.

Given the plethora of problems with Diesel’s health, there is a belief that he may be the product of inbreeding. Sadly, this set Diesel up for a lifetime of maladies, some minor, and some major.

When Diesel was a puppy, the coloring of his fur made him look very much like a “Blue” Pit Bull. As Diesel aged, his fur turned to more of a brown/tan color. (Except for the white chest, which never changed.) However, in the right light, Diesel still did have a blueish tint.

It was very common for strangers to remark how good looking Diesel is when he was walked. This happened at least once a week. There were times where people in cars stopped, and reversed to comment on Diesel’s appearance. Diesel was very majestic with his posture, had a very broad chest, and was extremely muscular until the last couple of years of his life.

Diesel was extraordinarily smart. Sometimes to my dismay. He understood many English, Taiwanese, and Chinese words. He also had an odd sense of accurate time-telling. For most of his life, he was given a snack every day at 3:30 PM. It didn’t matter if I forgot—Diesel would park himself in front of me, look up at me, and wag his tail promptly at 3:30 PM…even when daylight savings has shifted time around.

Diesel must have had a vivid imagination, as he had a lot of dreams while sleeping. It wasn’t unusual to see his feet moving, his breathing accelerate, and hear a subtle “yelp” while he was sleeping. As best as I can guess, I presume he was chasing something—probably one of the many cats in the neighborhood.

As a species, human beings are a very judgmental lot. Our history is littered with judgments that we have always correlated to one belief or another. Or, more accurately, justified with one belief or another. As time passes, we move past one judgment or another, and on to others.

It wasn’t very long ago that we locked up people who acted differently than what we considered to be normal. (If anyone can ever tell me what normal means, I’d appreciate it!) We are improving in this regard. As we start to understand mental health more, we understand that an effective “treatment” isn’t locking someone up. As time has progressed, we’ve found that embracing differences is what we should do. This doesn’t mean accepting everything as “okay,” rather, it means that we don’t have all of the answers, and we should just think the worst and act on that.

As a breed, Pit Bulls are often connected with animals that attack small children without provocation, and generally mean, vicious animals. We take point-in-time situations and apply them across a entire breed. If this dog attacked a child, and the news reported that three others did the same, then it stands to reason that all of that breed will do the same.

I won’t delve into the lunacy of that “logic,” nor will I supply the basic statistical formula that will disprove the lunacy. What I will say is that, really, this is just more of the same for human beings. The difference here, however, is that Pit Bulls have no means by which they can defend their kind. As humans, we had other humans fighting to help us overcome our bad behaviors when it came to judging others. Pit Bulls certainly have some humans fighting on their behalf, but it’s an uphill climb.

The reality with animals is that they do not have the protections that humans have. Some would argue that is the right thing to do, as they are “only” animals. Diesel is like a child to me. No, I don’t see him in the same light as I see a child; I can recognize that there are vast differences. There are people with “service animals” that depend on them to live productive lives. But yet, animals are not afforded basic protections universally. In most states (perhaps all—I’ve not researched this to any extent), animals are seen as property. Just like your television set. So, someone does something to your dog, you don’t really have any legal recourse.

I scratch my head when I see that some cities have completely outlawed a specific breed of dog. It’s true. There are cities in the United States that have made it illegal to have a Pit Bull within their borders. Wow. I wonder just how much ignorance can be clustered in one area, and then I read things like this.

Pit Bulls are no more, or less, likely to be a menace to society than any other breed. They have been shaped by their environments, and many will indeed attack without outright provocation. And, when in a pack, they will instinctively behave as the rest of the pack—if that is how they have been raised. But, so will any other dog. During my numerous walks with Diesel, I have found that the biggest threats are small dogs. One hundred percent of the time, they are the first to lunge and growl at bigger dogs. The three times Diesel and I have been attacked have been by small breeds. Does this mean all small breed dogs are bad?