Humpty Dumpty Versus Chyna

I volunteered at the MSPCA animal shelter last Sunday. Good times walking dogs and holding cats. Such good times in fact that the staff there decided I'd be a good candidate for walking the dogs that are off limits to volunteers because they either have behavior issues or haven't been evaluated by a dog whisperer. Of course I agreed, gleefully in fact.

"How about you take the Siberian Husky or the Pit-bull?"
"Sure thing" says me.

Chyna, the pit-bull ( I should have figured out sooner why this dog is called Chyna), was a force to be reckoned with. The cute whimpering behind the cage, it was just an act.

We leash up and away, I mean AWAY AT HIGH SPEEDS we go. Mind you, I'm sort of front heavy and a little tippy in a humpty dumpty sort of way. This made restraining, or attempting to restrain, Chyna a challenge at best.

I decide there is no way I was going to be able to walk this dog so I took her into the dog run, where there were lots of toys and room to gallop about. About this time, a volunteer walked by with two pit bulls from the 'safe-to-be-walked-by-volunteers' category--this is when things got a little, uhm... exciting.

Chyna, like a wrestler trying to psyche out her opponent, started to race back and forth while throwing herself against the fence--she added some growling for effect. The other two dogs were unfazed and the volunteer was a mindless foolio. I had to yell at her and tell her to get her dogs out of sight.

Chyna then proceeded to add mauling a deflated soccer ball and jumping all over me for the extra special tough finale.

A more 'seasoned' volunteer walked by, one who had also been recruited to walk the 'staff-only dogs', and let me know that it was really nice that I was walking Chyna because she was going to be put to sleep because she can't be adopted because she's so out of control.

After our fun time in the dog run, Chyna was nice enough to pull me up a flight of stairs on our way in--I needed that help, so thanks Chyna. In her cage she went and off I went to ask the 'staff' what the deal was with this dog.

"Ya, she's pretty dangerous. She's actually getting worse."

Hmm. Things I would have liked to know ahead of time.

On the other hand, I got to walk some very lovely pooches. There was Zeus the rotund German Shepard, and Ella the retired Greyhound from a Florida dog track.