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Any large dog has the potential to kill a person. Before pitbulls became the most feared dog, there were other breeds who had really bad reputations as far as viciousness goes: Rottweilers, Dobermans, German Shepherd dogs, Akitas, just to name a few.Assholes looking for a macho status symbol and not a pet, tend to choose large, powerful breeds that are ferocious-looking. These assholes want to show they are tough, by having these types of dogs, and that includes not just pitbulls, Rottweilers or Dobermans, but also Cane Corsos, Presa Canarios, and other mastiff-type breeds, like Caucasian Ovcharkas or Tibetan Mastiffs. These dangerous, abusive people not only raise the dogs to be mean, attack dogs, by mistreating them, beating them, and rewarding aggression towards people and other dogs, but in addition they breed them to select for the worst behavioral traits. Dogs are genetically very malleable and we humans can fairly quickly breed for certain behaviors, such as herding behaviors, pointing behaviors, guard dog behaviors, or fighting dogs.Before I continue addressing pitbulls specifically, I would like to point out that if you go looking for horrible dog attacks in the internet, you're going to find exactly what you're looking for, and if you're biased in the other direction, and you search for images of adorable pitbulls with adorable babies, kittens, and ducklings, you're going to find tons of those as well.So which one is the real pitbull? Obviously, both. Just as it is with people. You can find photos of young ISIS men cutting someone's head off, or you can find photos of heroic, selfless young men rescuing people after the Nepal earthquake.I will not comment on the specific case of that specific dog killing his owner, because I don't know the circumstances.But I will comment a bit on pitbulls as a breed. First of all, any dog that sort of looks like pitbull is labeled a pitbull. Check this out:Can you find the Pitbull?I found the actual pitbull at first try, mainly because I volunteered in NYC shelters for years, and I'm a dyed-in-the-wool dog lover.The American Stafforshire terrier, which is the "original" pitbull, was once not only not feared as ferocious but they were considered to be the epitome of the American dog, loyal, friendly, family dog, good with kids (vintage photos here: Vintage Photos | BAD RAP). Petey, the dog of The Little Rascals, was a pitbull. This site, Bad Rap, is excellent and has a very nice page on the history of the breed: Breed History | BAD RAPI would like to highlight this from the breed history page:While large numbers of pit bull type dogs in this country live out their lives as cherished family companions, many not so fortunate suffer from man-made shortcomings, including unspeakable cruelties, the socio-economic pressures of under-resourced owners, and the relentless biases and discrimination of an ill-informed public. The All American dog began to be exploited through dog fighting in greater numbers in the eighties and were soon associated with poverty, 'urban thugs' and crime. The media, including Sports Illustrated, shamefully capitalized on fears of a modern day werewolf by promoting stereotypical images like the one on this now infamous cover shot (right), and the reputation of the entire breed was dragged down with yet more sensationalistic headlines and damaging myths and untruths. This set the stage for breed specific laws (BSL), which cropped up in select places as the dogs began to be used as a political platform by opportunistic politicians.Pitbulls are athletic and very muscular, and require a lot of exercise, and they are possibly the most affectionate type of dog I have ever seen or had. They form a very strong bond with their family and are very, very, cuddly. Having said that, pitbulls are not a dog for everyone: while they are rarely unfriendly with people, they fall in the middle of the spectrum of dog aggressiveness, and can be quick to respond if another dog challenges them. They have high prey drive and will chase squirrels and cats, and even birds. My pitbull mix Lola, a great frisbee dog, once jumped and caught a pigeon in flight, at the dog park. I yelled the command "Drop it!" and she promptly did. I picked up the traumatized bird from the ground, and after a few minutes, it flew away like nothing had happened!Disclaimer: I have two pitbull mixes that I rescued from NYC shelters, and I love them to pieces.Here is Nero (white and black) play-bowing to Lola (tan) who is about to return the bow and then proceed to playfully jump on him.They are very people friendly: anyone can visit my home and play with them, they are very sociable, especially my male dog, Nero, who was for two years a therapy dog that helped soldiers recover from PTSD at a psychiatric clinic. But both Lola and Nero have some dogs they like, and others they dislike. Though I have to say my Labrador Retriever Bruno had a deep dislike of a few dogs in my building as well. And the most dog-aggressive dog I've ever known was a Golden Retriever, who attacked so many dogs at the dog park that his owner finally gave up trying to socialize him.

During Christmas time go see the lights in the neighborhood of Guadalupe and 34th and a half Street. That is keeping Austin weird.The first weekend in November Austin has the most incredible and huge Settlement Home garage sale at Palmer Event Center. Tens of thousand items from collectibles, art, clothes, garden items, EVERYTHING. And it’s all quality, clean, priced right and nothing tacky. It raises $800,000 or more for a great organization that helps battered women and children.Not to be confused with the City-Wide Vintage Sale also at Palmer Event Center about once a month. Also fantastic with vintage items of all kinds. Also keeping Austin weird.Great Comedy Clubs like Cap City with the annual Funniest Person in Austin competition as well as top notch national comedians you’ve seen on HBO and The Tonight Show.Esther’s Follies at 525 E. 5th St. with musical skits, magic, and political satirical revues. It’s been around for decades. Panty liners recommended because you’ll laugh so hard you may pee in your pants.There are tons of dog friendly events and venues such as Poochinis and Pedicures where dogs get their nails trimmed and all proceeds go to a dog rescue group. Also Puppy yoga and kitten yoga benefits or Pups and Pints with beer tasting, live music and pet vendors. A lot of wagging good fun.Just pick up the free Austin Chronicle every Thursday and find out what is happening, both well known and lesser known events.

Two nights ago, my neighbor rang my doorbell at 1am.That was certainly bothersomeBut, you see, he works for the Tournament of Roses Parade and had a massive trash bag full of discarded, but still lovely and fragrant, cut flowers for my family. I’m talking about literally hundreds of orchids, roses, and calla lilies. My mom and I spent an hour just filling vases.This neighbor then returned the next day at noon with even more flowers to apologize for waking us up at such an hour.Another neighbor is on his ride-on lawnmower from 6am-9am every Sunday morning.It’s really impossible to sleep through.But, you see, he has to cut the grass at his home as well as for the elderly widow across the street and the other neighbor two doors down whose cancer treatment left them in wheelchair for now. And he’s got to do it all before cleaning up and going to church with his family since he works every other day of the week.My next door neighbor has a ton of cats that can be loud and obnoxious.The cat-pee smell you can catch in the occasional breeze… well, it isn’t great.But, you see, she’s been steadily rescuing the feral cats and orphaned kittens of the neighborhood, spaying/neutering them, feeding them, socializing them, and putting them up for adoption for several years. The remaining cats are mostly elderly and unadoptable, so she’s gathered them into a safe and spacious yard with plenty of food and shelter to live out the last years of their lives.The same neighbor also called my mom 20+ times in a row… because our dog got out and she was following him in a car for nearly an hour but he wouldn’t let the neighbor approach him or catch him to bring him home. She remained within twenty feet of my crazy dog until my mom drove home from work and caught him herself.If I ever get a spare year or two, I’ll have to use it to write the rest of the stories of my neighborhood because this answer couldn’t possibly fit them all. In short:The neighbor who hosts an annual Christmas hotdog roast with endless hot chocolate for any and all guests willing to help them put up their Christmas light displayA neighbor who walks around every summer with a wagon, collecting and redistributing excess garden produceThe neighborhood dog-sitting community, where everyone knows everyone else’s pets at least as well as they know each otherThe covert system used to alert all neighborhood adults to go buy some undersweetened fresh lemonade from the child entrepreneurs at X houseThe vintage-looking wooden lemonade stand that gets passed from house to house as it’s outgrown by each childJust so many people who watch out for each other’s kids while they play in the street— every house keeps bandaids on hand for a scraped knee.The lightning-fast, in-person-only gossip chain which is used (mostly) for positive purposes, like to spread word about someone’s moment of need and fill it quietly.That’s not to say it’s all peace and harmony all the time.We argue sometimes, like 36% of American neighbors do— we ever have long lasting grudges over ridiculously overblown issues. We grumble over who parked in front of whose driveway, which cat pooped in the yard, how many flag poles are too many, and whether the youngsters throw too many parties. You know, the usual stuff.If you put all the people in my neighborhood together, you’d have several atheists, Buddhists, and a half dozen different denominations of Christian. A few are white-collar workers, but most aren’t. There are teachers and mechanics, scrap metal collectors and police officers, tax accountants and plumbers. Several are strong Trump-supporters, several more are married lesbian couples, and at least one house has both. Ages range from 88 years old to barely 1 year. About half are Hispanic or Latinx.Most interesting (maybe only to me), there are three different animals named Molly, and one of those Mollys is a male.While my neighbors are unique, obviously, I refuse to believe that I somehow live in the only housing development in the world that contains ultimately nice people.My theory is that all neighbors everywhere are varying levels of annoying. “Proximity breeds contempt” and all that. I’ve just gotten to know the people well enough that I’ve discovered the nice inside them.Once you see the nice in people, it’s hard to be truly annoyed over the small stuff.