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The WTF? moment that just can’t wait to be told
By Gina Spadafori
June 13, 2009
Puppy Faith and I headed over to do some shopping at OSH . There’s a fellow working there who just loves dogs, and can always be relied on to pet any puppy I’m socializing. (He’s also a wonderful sweet man who’s very patient in helping me figure out what kind of “whatchamajig” I’m looking for to fix the “whatchamacallit.”)
Faith is still new to the leash-and-collar thing, and she had never seen a shopping cart or set paw on such slick, shiny floors. But she was doing great, and the OSH guy gave her some love, along with a few other people. (I had a bag, cleaning wipe and paper towels, just in case, but we didn’t need it.)
I notice this other customer is watching me, and finally he tracks me down in an aisle. I would figure he wants to pet the puppy, except he’s not smiling.
“Are you allowed to bring a dog in here?” he challenges.
“I’m socializing her,” I say. “She’s a puppy.”
He frowns.
“Is he a pit bull?” he says.
“No,” I say. “She’s a retriever.”
“He’s black,” he says.
“Yeah,” I say. “She is. Black. Still a retriever. And I like pit bulls.”
“I hate them,” he says. “And I’m getting the manager.”
I shrug. He walks away. We conclude our business unbothered, except by people who wanted to fuss over Faith.
Seriously … WTF?
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Congratulations! You and Faith have just given a stranger the opportunity to learn and grow. I’m making this up, but here’s “The Rest of the Story”…
Stranger heads off to find the manager (who just happens to be black, AND a woman!) Manager says: “WTF?! Did you want to buy something? You can pet the puppy or you can shop, or you can leave. LOTS of choices here. Excuse me, I have work to do.”
If this stranger gets enough “input” from enough sources, maybe he’ll learn. Or maybe he won’t. But what a wonderful day and what a wonderful world we live in…
Thanks for sharing.
-lynnO
Comment by LynnO — June 13, 2009 @ 10:59 am
Nasty people who wish to control more than their own tiny world are all over.
I just LOVE it when instead of avoiding something they may not like or understand, they track you down!
What a miserable and unhappy life this person must lead, wherein they have to obtain satisfaction by attempting to exercise control over so narrow a definition of “appropriate”
This is the level of tolerance and critical thinking that leads to BSL and Baltimore’s short lived $1000.00 fine for a first time potty accident.
Hey Gina, if he’s a regular shopper there, I’ll bring up a bulldog and he and Faith can REALLY confuse the hell out of the guy! :)
And let’s fine someone with a nice fawn and white pibble just to make the “shell game” complete!
Comment by JenniferJ — June 13, 2009 @ 11:12 am
So now all Pibbles are black?
What a hoot..thanks for the laugh..
Comment by Heather B — June 13, 2009 @ 12:21 pm
Nasty people who wish to control more than their own tiny world are all over.
And the very nastiest one is Premier of Ontario.
I think I`m going to start sending these blogs to his office.
Comment by Heather B — June 13, 2009 @ 12:24 pm
I immediatly though of the Ontario Premier when I read the post.
We have all got to do a better job of vetting candidates and beong more politically active or our dogs and our rights are toast.
Comment by JenniferJ — June 13, 2009 @ 12:32 pm
Augh!! “becoming” not “beong”.
My spelling is even worse than usual today.
Coffee, I neeeeed you!
Comment by JenniferJ — June 13, 2009 @ 12:33 pm
I thought all pitbulls were brindle?! =P
Comment by Pai — June 13, 2009 @ 12:46 pm
If you ever see this walking troll again in a store, you can use the words in the “story” above but instead of the manager saying them, you could say them yourself: “Did you want to buy something? You can pet the puppy or you can shop, or you can leave. LOTS of choices here. Excuse me, I have…” (shopping to do).
:O)
Comment by NadineL — June 13, 2009 @ 12:51 pm
I pity anyone at our local nursery if they did something that. Even when there was “due to liability no dogs in store” sign on the door, the employees insisted (underlined) that Niki come in so they could feed him from the treat jar behind the counter.
If he’s not with us, they greet us with “Where’s Niki?” Sometimes we feel like our real job in life to expedite his social life around town.
My mild jaw-dropper is when people ask if my 75 pound collie boy is a sheltie !?
And so what if she was a pit bull anyway. Funny about him keying on black. Up here brindle=pit bull.
Comment by Susan Fox — June 13, 2009 @ 3:40 pm
Huh. We must be in Bizarro World. If Faith’s a pit bull, I guess my black and tan wiener dog must be one too. Oh, no, wait — he must be a doberman!
My dad used to say, there are some people who just aren’t happy unless they’re raining on someone else’s parade. Seems to be true.
Comment by Eucritta — June 13, 2009 @ 3:55 pm
I’ve had my Frenchies called “Pit Bulls” by more people, more times than I can count. The first few times - 20+ years ago - it was amusing.
Now, living in Ontario? It’s not funny any more. Not funny at all.
In fact, it’s down right terrifying, because living here, in Ontario, that nitwit who went to get the manager would possibly (probably?) be listened to. It might even escalate to the police showing up - it could escalate to them taking my dog, if I can’t ‘prove’ on the spot that it’s not a Pit Bull. And, while they have my dog, while I’m frantically trying to find their likely mis filed paperwork, they can spay or neuter my dog. At some ‘shelters’ (hello, London Ontario), I would count myself lucky to get my dog back alive.
So, no - I don’t think it’s funny any more when idiotic strangers point at my dogs and yell “Pit Bull”.
Comment by FrogDogz — June 13, 2009 @ 4:01 pm
That “black” thing was one of the weirder aspects of a very weird encounter. I’m not sure I’ve EVER seen a black pit bull! Brindle … tan/brown … white … blue … everything else but solid black.
I wonder if the idjit was mixing up his bigotries?
So sad, really. Pit bull, retriever or poodle, what the hell difference does it make? The puppy’s not even 10 weeks old, and I was socializing her to be friendly. I would do exactly the same with a pibble pup.
I think I’m not very fast on my feet. All afternoon I’ve been thinking of zingy comebacks, like:
“I hate pitbulls.”
“Yeah, well I hate bigots, so I guess we’re even.”
Comment by Gina Spadafori — June 13, 2009 @ 4:38 pm
I think maybe next time this idjit or another buffoon pulls the “I’m going to see the manager” routine, offer to go with him.
In fact, insist on it.
Comment by JenniferJ — June 13, 2009 @ 4:55 pm
Eucritta, your black and tan weiner dog isn’t a Dobe.. it’s a Rockwelder!!!
Gina, pit bulls do indeed come in black (see several at the VickDog blog: http://vickdogsblog.blogspot.com/) — just about any color except merle, in fact! They don’t come with longish wavy fur, a longish nose and long floppy ears, though….
But I think it is true that people associate brindle=pit bull. Which makes life tough for the people who have brindle boxers or fwenchies.
Does any of this make up for the person who asked if my pit bull was a Viszla?
If we could only educate people like those in Gina’s anecdote about why THIS is proof that BSL is so dreadful…
Comment by EmilyS — June 13, 2009 @ 5:03 pm
“Are you allowed to bring a dog in here?” he challenges.
“Why do you need to know?” she replied.
———-
We just had a small black pibble female adopted named Tasha. One of the cool, appraising ones who, when I held the treat and said (once) “sit”, just looked at me. So we stood there and looked at each other. For awhile. After probably over a minute, without breaking eye contact, the butt slowly went to the floor. Dang, she’s thinking- This hooman will out-wait me. Good doggie.
After that she sat right away. This was obviously a test to see if she really needed to do what I said to get the treat. I’m on them now and get a kick out of it when they do that.
Comment by Susan Fox — June 13, 2009 @ 5:39 pm
Eucritta, your black and tan weiner dog isn’t a Dobe.. it’s a Rockwelder!!!
LOL! Now, if I could just get him to ‘weld’ some nice rock walls for my old raised beds …..
Comment by Eucritta — June 13, 2009 @ 6:37 pm
No, no, NO! Black and tan dogs are NOT Rockwelders!! White dogs with black spots are!! {I kid you not, some lady thought my Dal was a Rottie!} She’s been called a pit more times than I can count, but I think my fav was the guy that pulled over to ask me her breed ‘cause he had one that looked a lot like her (she has a patched face) {headdesk}
Comment by straybaby — June 13, 2009 @ 7:26 pm
Moe was granted the same breed-change operation by a similar lackwit when he was not much older than as seen in this picture:
http://picasaweb.google.com/HH.....4410227074
I know your pain — does one correct the lackwit’s complete incompetence at breed ID, or the lackwit’s bigotry towards pibbles? Decisions, decisions …
Comment by H. Houlahan — June 13, 2009 @ 7:30 pm
A lot of people don’t like to admit they’re not very knowledgeable when it comes to dogs they’ve never seen, so they try to wing it.
I once had a Pug who was mistaken for a Pit Bull by a woman who had seen neither and was not going to step out of her car until I picked him up. She was convinced his “Oh goody, a new friend!” snuffling and snorting was him growling at her, and she wasn’t going to take any chances.
My brindle Greyhounds were always being mistaken for Pit Bulls (this was in the early 70s, when AKC Greyhounds were few and far between and track rescue programs hadn’t spread them out to the corners of the universe). Some creative types were convinced they were Doberman/Pit Bull mixes.
But the most common annoying comments I got with my Greyhounds was when people would ask me what they were, then when being told they were looking at a red-brindle greyhound would say something along the lines of, “Huh… ALL the greyhounds I’ve ever seen were GREY.”
I got really used to telling people who said that, that all the greyhounds they’d ever seen must have been on the side of a BUS.
Comment by stellaluna — June 13, 2009 @ 10:17 pm
People consistantly mistake Mal (tricolor smooth collie) for a Doberman X. I told one really creepy guy at my old apartment complex that he was a Doberman/ Arctic Wolf mix and he nodded knowlegably, he’d thoght so. *headdesk*
Comment by Cait — June 13, 2009 @ 11:26 pm
That’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard.
At one time, a retriever had to be black. If they were of another color, they were culled.
Luckily, for me anyway, someone decided that the yellow or reddish ones were just as good.
But then, a lot of people think retriever means “golden retriever” and golden retriever only.
I think that misconception exists because we say “Labrador” without using the word retriever.
Comment by retrieverman — June 14, 2009 @ 4:22 am
Sounds like that guy is a nosy grump with nothing better to do. I hope the manager gave him an earful.
Comment by Smaki — June 14, 2009 @ 6:29 am
You really have to watch out for those pit bulls! They’re so smart they’re now masquerading as little fuzzy retriever puppies!
What’s funny is that I’ve had my pit bulls mistaken for Labs on oh, half a dozen occasions.
Comment by katie — June 14, 2009 @ 7:18 am
Katie, I’ve had my 37 pound 16 inch Staffordshire bull Terrier mistaken for a Lab, which I think is even odder. Was it the small close-set rose ears that were the give-away?
(eyes rolling)
Comment by EmilyS — June 14, 2009 @ 7:22 am
Emily, don’t you know that if it’s solid black and has pointy-uppy-ears, it’s a GSD. If they point downwards or sideways it’s a lab, duh. :P This is true for all dogs over 5 pounds according to our local ACO.
Comment by Cait — June 14, 2009 @ 12:21 pm
It seems like pit bulls have become like pornography. You can’t really describe it, but you “know” it when you see it.
Comment by Susan Fox — June 14, 2009 @ 2:12 pm
I had a woman think my frenchie was a pitbull too. I was flabbergasted. When I said no she wasn’t she started over to pet her and asked what she was. When I said french bulldog she pulled back and said “Oh well I don’t do bulldogs either”.
Huh??
Comment by Marie — June 14, 2009 @ 7:42 pm
My brindle Greyhound was variously identified as a Whippet, a Pit Bull and, wait for it, a Dalmatian.
Comment by Kim Thornton — June 14, 2009 @ 9:26 pm
Haters will always find something to hate. You did what you could.
Comment by Original Lori — June 15, 2009 @ 6:16 am