Editorials: Thanksgiving with ANIMAL PEOPLE
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1992:
The process of writing this editorial was interrupted when a gunshot cracked
through our woods at dusk. Rushing out to intercept a suspected poacher, I met Buddy, the
“pit bull terrier” who lives up the hill, limping up the road at great speed from the direction
the shot came. Actually an apparent Rottweiler/terrier cross, Buddy is about the color of a
deer, and it wasn’t hard to guess what had happened. But whoever fired the shot got away.
Sidling past me, uninterested in any more encounters with anyone but his family, Buddy
trotted on home. I watched him go, hoping the limp was from stumbling over something in
his haste to escape, rather than from a bullet.
As I checked the mailbox on my way back inside, five minutes later, our neighbor
came running down the hill, shouting for help. Expecting to hear of a wounded dog, I
heard instead of a mauled baby. Buddy apparently ran into the house and curled up with
something to chew, by way of settling his nerves. The five-month-old baby reached for it.
Buddy bit, just once, but hard.