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You've got to help me out here, because I'm having trouble thinking of pit bulls as well, underdogs. The other day, though,
Jamestown's Barbara Szepatowski was doing her best to change my mind. One of the loves of her life is Ronnie,
a 90-pound specimen with a sledgehammer head who looks like he'd enjoy gnawing on railroad spikes. Actually, says
Barbara, he's a goofball who's afraid of everything. "Look, I can put my hand in his mouth - I can pull his tail; he
could care less." I scrutinized this demonstration in Barbaras pet supply store, Paws and Claws, feigning
professional detachment. In truth I was ready to bolt if that dog even glanced my way. But Ronnie lived
up to his billing as canine pussycat, which served to explain why Barbara spends much of her life rescuing pit bulls from
what otherwise would be certain execution.
Barbara, a product of Barrington High School and URI who runs an environmental engineering company, as well as the store on
Narragansett Ave., concedes that many pit bulls - the ones that have been bred and trained to fight - can be irredeemable.
It's the others that she's concerned with - dogs like Ronnie, who was abandoned at a housing project, has since gone to doggie
finishing school, and now could be a pit bull poster boy. Ronnie is one of three pit bulls that Barbara owns. Over
the past few years, she has taken dozens of others from shelters, brought them to her shop for evaluation, and put them
up for adoption. The reality is, though, that pit bulls hardly remind us of Lassie. It takes weeks or months for Barbara
to place the dogs that she keeps. One at a time, in her store secure in a training crate until they prove themselves
friendly enough to be let out. Anyone who adopts one of Barbara's waifs must agree to take the dog to an eight-week
obedience class, which she pays for. She also operates a non-profit fund that helps people of limited means mostly
the elderly - afford veterinary care for their pets. Her dedication to dogs that many of us avoid began shortly
after she opened her business, which focuses on supply sales, pet-sitting and grooming.
You might remember the incident that got her going two young pit bulls, scared and terrified, were found abandoned at Fort
Wetherill one frigid night two years ago. Thought to have been used in illegal dogfights, they had to be put to
death, because their future behavior would have been unpredictable. The situation touched the hearts of
many people, who pledged reward money in a futile attempt to find out who abandoned the dogs.
Barbara and her store staff have since been making weekly visits to shelters, mostly the Potter League for Animals, in Middletown,
to walk pit bulls there and help care for them. Christie Smith, the shelters executive director, says she
admires Barbaras realistic attitude in acknowledging that some of the dogs are too aggressive to be salvaged, and her tenacity
in wanting to redeem the reputations of others. Barbara, 48, says she loves the breed, and abhors the suffering
of dogs whose owners subject them to grotesque training for fights. She says the dogs are also favored by abusive
and neglectful drug dealers, who use them for protection.
Exactly what happened to Dee-Dee, the shops newest pit bull trainee, no one knows - but she was so neglected that it appeared
last week that she might have to be put to death. According to a witness, who brought her to the Potter Shelter,
the dog was pushed out of a car in Portsmouth. A trip to the vet a few days ago brought some good news for Dee-Dee, who
is about six months old. She is well enough to respond to treatment, and so can continue her rehab with Barbara until a potential
owner comes along.
That's the way it goes
at Paws and Claws, where the commitment to pit bulls has the support of Barbara's husband, Robert Clarke, assistant golf pro
at the Valley Country Club, in Warwick. Barbara says that while he was scared to death when the dog first came
home, her husband soon fell in love with Ronnie. There are no children in the household, but its busy enough with
three dogs - and Barbara admits that at one time she had six. She says that she has made a deal with her husband
on the issue: You can play golf 24 hours a day, seven days a week - but please, dont ever count the number of paws in this house.
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