So, the battle of the Pit Bull Dogs goes on. Wednesday night, Shane Hickman was bitten by BoBo next door, the same dog that came up to my driveway, took a stance and started to bark menacingly at me in my own doggone driveway (pun intended). I drew down on the thing and stupidly said, "come on, go for it." I couldn't kill a mammal unless it had a kid attached to its jaws and even then it would make me physically ill for weeks--but the thing believed me and ran away. Shane didn't have a weapon. He just had a coat he whacked and smacked at the dog chewing on his upper arm. The owner woman (says Shane) looked out her door at his screams, called the dog's name (BoBo--sweet name dontcha think?) and went back IN, closing the door.

Shane is 11. He has wispy blond hair and brilliant light blue eyes. He is slight of build. He likes dogs. He loves his bike and his four wheeler. His father died while he tried to revive him at age 4 and he's been the ward of his loving grandmother, Mom's best friend, Joy. Joy who lives next door to "man and woman with pits." She's been accommodating, explaining that not all pit bulls are bad or dangerous. "Just take BoBo there."

Well do, please do, take Bobo. Someone stop the madness. No protest against these raging vicious creatures goes without someone standing up and saying, "it's not the breed, they're a sweet dog."

They are an unpredictable dog. They are a dog whose nature it is to do great damage for little provocation. They are fiercely territorial and territory for them extends beyond what it does for us. Our territory is their territory. They attack other dogs. It is their nature, that is WHY they are so well suited to the use of drug culture creeps who want others to STAY AWAY and STAND BACK. They're better than firearms.

Get them OUT of our living spaces. Ordain them away from places where children and docile pets play. Make a pit haven every few miles for all I care but give me a home where it's SAFE to walk, and jog, and ride, and take a coat to your uncle across the street like Shane was doing, or get the mail like Joe was doing the day I found his bicycle, shoe and two torn bloody socks in the road. Joe had 117 stitches and wasn't much older than Shane when two pits attacked him.

Get them out and away and make them as regulated as other dangerous weapons. Issue permits and warnings and sanctions against having them in certain places.

Shane got a hug when I saw him, then he went to the emergency room to have his arm puncture cleaned. It could have been so much worse, I and can assure I know it WILL be if we don't get rid of these dogs wandering openly in our city streets.