Positively Pit Bull: Meet Kenai!

Meet Kenai!

Name: Kenai

Age: 3

City: Windsor, CO

Favorite things: Kongs, chasing the hose, giving high fives, playing with her sister Kona, treats, dinner time, breakfast time, anytime there is food involved and going for loooong walks!

Kenai’s story, as told by her person Kim:

We adopted Kenai from Animal House Rescue in the summer of 2008. We already had a lab mix (Kona) and a cat (Freckles) and decided we had room for one more. We couldn’t decide on what we wanted: Kim wanted a golden retriever, and Brian wanted a boxer. So we debated and looked at rescues and finally decided to walk through Animal House on Saturday morning. And there she was…..an ADORABLE 6-month-old pit bull dancing in her cage for us to come see her. We couldn’t help but love on her! We left with a lot on our minds. We had never owned a pit bull or even known anyone who owned a pit bull. Neither of us believed the negative hype about them but knew that the prejudice existed. Throughout the week we talked over every angle, but in the end kept coming back to her sweet face on the website and deep down knew she had won us over. She was dropped off the next week and while we had our ups and downs (so. much. energy!!) and experienced a small amount of shock from our friends and family (why would you get a pit bull??!!) we knew she belonged with us. And a few weeks later we found out why.

When we had her into the vet for her last round of shots, the veterinarian was listening to her heart and looked up at me and said, “Oh, Kim, she has a heart murmur”………Now we weren’t strangers to heart issues, our cat has heart problems, but this was more serious. It turns out that Kenai had a genetic heart defect called Patent Ductus Arteriosus, basically meaning she had a hole in her heart that was supposed to be closed when she was born but had not. Before we knew it we were at the Colorado State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital talking with a team of cardiologists and students about the heart surgery our new baby would soon undergo. As it turns out if this had gone on much longer she probably would have died of heart failure. It was then that Brian and I knew that she was ours. Who else is crazy enough to pay for heart surgery for a dog they have only had 2 weeks?

And the rest is history!

Kenai soared through surgery like a champ, and today you wouldn’t know that she had anything wrong with her! She is best buddies with Kona and would love to be best buddies with Freckles if he would tolerate her (he’s 10 and doesn’t really tolerate much anymore). She has taught us SO much about dogs and dog behavior and the unfair stereotyping that goes in this world. Luckily we haven’t experienced much of this first hand. Kenai loves to go on walks and meet new people and teach others not to judge based on looks. She also loves to sun-bathe and give “high-fives.” We think she would be an amazing therapy dog someday, maybe a few years down the road after some of her “puppy-ness” wears off, and she learns to sit still for longer than 30 seconds.