Gender:Female
Birthdate:November 20*, 1991(*approximate date)
Died: August 19, 2005
(Click photos for full size images).
Gina was another rescue, like all the rest of the dogs I've ever taken in.
I got her when she was barely 6 weeks old, really too young to even be away from her mother.She came from a "puppy mill". She had been found tied to the inside of a dumpster in downtown Seattle in an alley, apparently placed there as "bait" for teaching other dogs to fight.
The guy who found and rescued her was unable to keep her in his apartment and he was standing across the street from the apartment bullding I was moving out of (which didn't allow dogs) the day I officially started moving into my new place, which DID allow dogs. I had planned on getting a dog as soon as possible when I got the place... Little did I know just how soon that would be!
The poor little girl had already been so terribly mistreated by that tender age that when I reached down to pet her, she rolled over on her back and cried. Of course, I was utterly enraged at whoever had made her like this, and vowed to give her the best life possible!
So, we put her in a box and put her next to my (then 2 year old) son, Danny, in the car and brought her to our new home. That's where the "goggie in a box" in the poem I wrote for her comes from.. Danny kept saying that in wonderment on the trip home and it became a sort of nickname for her that stuck.
Well, that, along with several other nicknames... "Nina Gog", also Danny's doing, cause he couldn't say "Gina Dog" yet, "Ginala Binala", "idiot ears", "Gina Bina", "Pig Dog" (because she grunted and snorted all the time like a little piggy) and all manner of silly spur of the moment nonsense things.
I had a heck of a time right off the bat the first time the landlord actually saw her.. They tried to say I had to get rid of her because they didn't allow "Pit Bulls" because they were "dangerous" and she would supposedly go through the complex attacking children.
I had to fight for her to be able to stay even AFTER I got something from Animal control and the vet saying that she was an American Staffordshire Terrier, not a "Pit Bull" and that she was completely nonviolent. They finally backed down when I threatened to take it to the media, complete with footage of crying children having their beloved doggie pryed out of their arms.
As for "attacking children", WHAT A LAUGH!!! I went into labor with my second child while we were still in the process of moving in to our new place, and when we brought home little baby Sean, Gina, even though she was just a baby herself, somehow knew she had to be extra gentle with him. As it turns out though, our Gina wasn't completely nonviolent.... She was a fierce protector, ESPECIALLY when it came to the children!! She was as friendly as could be with most people, but if someone she thought was a threat to the kids... ANY kids, not just "hers" (I guess she decided that any kids in proximity to her were hers), she would stand in between the kids and the "threat", bare her teeth at them, get in "stance" and growl menacingly. She really looked like she meant business too!! I'm not sure what she would have done to someone who tried to hurt anyone she was protecting, 'cause no one ever challenged her on it. (probably a wise decision!)
She never had any puppies of her own since she got spayed just as soon as she was old enough, but she had very strong maternal instincts. She was always fussing over the kids, herding them to keep them in what she decided was a safe area, cleaning them, even trying to bring them food! And it wasn't just the human kids she mothered either. She did the same thing with "her" kitty (once he stopped being mean to her and let her come near him), the pet rats and any and all strays of any kind that we took in. She even raised 2 litters of orphaned kittens! Their mothers were feral and had either abandoned them or gotten picked up or killed, so we bottle fed them kitten formula and Gina did everything else. And no one was allowed to come near them unless they passed muster with HER!
