Me and my husband bought Maggie our now two and a half year old pit bull right after we got engaged, she has been the biggestt blessing in our life. she is the biggest sweetheart we have had her around so many other animals from other dogs to a parrot, a Ginny Pig, and our two Goats and she adores them all. she dosent know she is suppose to be a killer like we hear about so many other pit bulls, its a shame that the media has destroyed this wonderful breeds reputation.

Brittany from AL

During  September, 1998, while my husband and I were on a weekend trip, I phoned home to find that my daughter Grace had brought home a newborn bullmastiff puppy named “Bubba”. At that time, my daughter was working as a veterinarian technician while studying for vet school, therefore, the fact that she brought an animal home for 24 hour care wasn’t a big surprise.  I had never heard of a bullmastiff, and did not want any part of another dog.  We were already the proud parents of 1 lab mix Sam, 1 Australian Shepherd mix Cinder and 2 beagles, Hershey and Annie.   Bubba was born with a cleft palate and wasn’t a “perfect dog”, so he couldn’t be sold for big money.  Because of his imperfections, Bubba’s destiny was to be destroyed. The office requested that the owners release ownership of the puppy to enable them to try to save him.  The veterinary technicians took turns taking him home and tube feeding him as needed.

My daughter seemed to have him a good bit of the time and miraculously he made it to the first milestone.  At six weeks old Dr. Franklin started the procedure to close the cleft palate.  His first operation took quite a toll on him and my daughter never left him alone.  While my daughter was working, she would take Bubba to her grandparents’ house, and my father would hold him on his lap and watch television until she returned.  Bubba had continuous human care. There were several close calls and late night emergency runs to the hospital.  In the end, Bubba pulled through two more operations, grew up and became a 140 pound baby Bullmastiff. Suffice it to say, we ended up having five dogs. During the next several years, Grace made her way into veterinary school and moved away for periods of time.  Bubba became a member of the family and loved his beagles.  He was a very big dog but was ruled by the little girls.  Cinder and Sam were the elders and made sure Bubba was aware that he wasn’t the dominate dog.

In April, 2005, I got up to feed Bubba.  He didn’t eat.  Bubba always ate.  I started getting worried because my daughter told me to always watch him closely because large dogs sometimes have a problem with their stomach\’s turning.  I didn’t know a lot about it, but I knew I didn’t have much time if it was turned.  He had none of the symptoms of a turned stomach but I knew something was wrong.  I called the vet’s office and told them Bubba wasn’t eating and something was wrong.   (more…)