Calendar Girl

In case you didn't recognize her from a previous post, this is our American Pit Bull Terrier, Diva.

The Divine Miss D (one of the nicknames we call her) is featured as "Miss July" in the 2007 "Unexpected Pit Bull" calendar, sales of which benefit the Liberty Humane Society of Jersey City, New Jersey.

This picture was taken by their professional photographer, who actually came to our house this past summer and took a whole bunch of great pictures of her in our own back yard.

The pit bull rescue group, Animal Farm Foundation, that we had adopted Diva from in 2005, e-mailed us and asked if we'd be interested in having Diva be in the calendar, and of course we were very excited about the idea and said "Sure!" All these organizations know one another and another and work together to help the dogs. An AFF dog had been featured in the calendar in 2006 as well.

So the folks from the Unexpected Pit Bull contacted us and we made a date for the photographer to come to our house.

Diva was very excited to meet her and had a great time but was not very cooperative in posing. We had to wear her out by throwing the ball into her wading pool (yes, she has her own wading pool). She would then chase it, grab it, and come running right out before they could get a good picture of her! They did manage to get a couple of pictures of her in the pool eventually. One of them is at the bottom of the page on the calendar, along with another picture of her with us, and a good shot of her on top of the picnic table (one of her favorite places to sit and survey her domain). The main picture, of course, is the one on this page.

I'd urge everyone to go out and buy a copy of the 2007 Unexpected Pit Bull Calendar, but it's too late - it's sold out! It was featured on the Rachel Ray cooking show since Rachel Ray loves pit bulls and wanted to give the calendar some publicity. As a result the calendar sold out in record time! Luckily I had bought 10 copies for ourselves and all our friends and relatives right away so I got mine!

If you are interested in helping homeless pit bulls, do go to the website of the Liberty Humane Society (http://www.libertyhumane.com) or the Animal Farm Foundation (http://www.animalfarmfoundation.org) and make a donation to the cause! These dogs have such an unfairly negative reputation and they need so much help!

Animal Farm Foundation specializes in pit bull rescue, and they make a special effort to save the best, most adoptable examples of the breed from local pounds and shelters, often hours before they might be euthanized. The AFF personnel then temperament test these dogs and evaluate and train them, so as to be sure they will make great pets. Then they carefully assess prospective owners to make sure they're adopting these dogs for the right reasons, as pets, not to train them to fight or be guard dogs.

Every dog they adopt out must be an ambassador for the breed and show people how friendly, gentle and fun-loving these dogs are, to make sure their reputation does not get sullied. I must say Diva is a great example of this!