I am the proud mother of an eight month old puppy. She’s a large (55 lbs and counting) pink & white, often obnoxious and always precious, cheetah bunny.

(She has cheetah spots all over her back and butt and sometimes hops around like a bunny.)

Little Pinky has such short fur that her skin shows through in places. She could chew her way through my front door if she wanted to, but she only ever works on destroying her toys… and her bed and her rug and occasionally grass. Sometimes she tries to chew the bricks on the fireplace, too.

Like all baby dogs, she gets the “puppy spazzies” wherein she zooms back and forth around the yard (or the living room) at top speed. If you’re in her path when she’s in spazz mode, you may get 1) buzzed, 2) taken out at the knees, and/or 3) flying leap joy-nipped. All this comes with plenty of warning. And if it happens to you and you don’t like it, it’s your fault for not getting out of the way. Like I said, none of these exhibitions are a surprise.

(pictured: the little pink dog!)

My little pink dog is a rescue. An organization found her mom, pregnant and ready to pop, living in a dumpster. Eight puppies came along soon after. They were all adopted out at ten weeks, but the cheetah bunny was later returned at four months. Apparently, as she started to develop into the clown dog oaf that she’s currently become, it was too much for her first family (“family”) to handle. They kept her confined to cage for a while until they eventually gave her back. She was then fostered by a couple who had adopted one of her siblings for a week or so until I got her.

At first, Pinky Pie was extremely withdrawn. She did not like to be touched or petted and would cower if you got too close too fast. This is NOT how she behaves now. At all.

Today, she is all wags and licks and is rapidly turning into a horse. We go to dog school once per week, and she’s learning all kinds of tricks in addition to good behavior basics. She walks nicely on a loose leash (though she sucks at running – she thinks it’s a game, and it’s NOT) and knows all these other commands. She is friendly with all people, including kids, and other dogs. She play-barks at teasing tree-top squirrels and birds, and her favorite treat is raw sweet potato.

This is how she sleeps sometimes:

(pictured: this is not adaptive survival behavior)

And this is what she does when she wakes up in the morning:

(pictured: super stretch dog, banned in Denver!)

There is nothing in life more precious and adorable than this little pink dog of mine. Consequently, pit bull alarmists piss me off even more now than they used to. “Pit Bull” is not even a breed of dog, it’s a collection of arbitrarily designated characteristics. And yet, pups like my little pinky and the people who choose to care for them are regularly and legally discriminated against throughout the US (including Denver, CO).

Consider this recent *genius* TIME piece titled “The Problem with Pit Bulls” (here), a story that drew heavily on some sensationalized bullshit that turned out to be a total hoax. Will anyone ever see the correction buried at the bottom of the original article? Will TIME offer an equally prominent retraction? I’m gonna go with probably not.

I get that it’s easy to fear something that’s constantly referred to as vicious or dangerous. But I invite you to think about this: are there “breeds” of dangerous humans? (no) Are weapons inherently dangerous (no), or are they dangerous because of those who wield them? (yes)

Bad dogs certainly exist, but so do bad humans. If we’re talking about the majority, however, humans are actually quite good, as are most dogs – all they want is a stick to chew and some belly scratchies. (also, just like humans… jk)

Every dog has the capacity to bite your face off. Little dogs just inflict smaller damage. It’s all a matter of scale.

*the names used throughout this piece are all daily referents to the same glorious creature, none of which are her actual given attribution.

  (pictured: bred in the dumpster to ride in the car)

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