Kilo

Kilo

Tough looking, but a softie inside

Kilo is a dog that is part pit bull and part American bull dog. He came into my life a bit over two years ago, just a few days before the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown was enforced in the United States of America, and specifically in Florida State. He’s a big dog that looks black but when you see him in daylight he’s actually very very dark brown. His previous owner was at the wrong place at the wrong time and was put in jail for a crime that was allegedly committed when he was around the scene. Nobody knows for sure if he is guilty or not. But he’s still in jail. Nobody in his family could take care of the dog which was about 2 years old by then. We offered to take care of him for a little while. He was brought to us in a big cage and a few toys. Some members of the family did not take to him because there already was a stray ginger cat in the house which was being “adopted”, who would stay with us during the day and leave, to prowl and hunt, at night. The cat was very afraid of the dog and tried to avoid it as much as possible, and the dog did not approach the cat at all. I took a liking to Kilo immediately. The first month, Kilo would sit next to me and would shiver and shake uncontrollably. I was very sad about that. I was sure something terrible had happened to this mighty dog, to get him in such a state of fear and anxiety. I had a totally different concept of what pit bulls were like. I started studying and analyzing him and his actions and realized that, whenever anybody scolded him for anything, he would put his head down and be very subdued. I had a kind of intuition or unspoken words with him and saw that he really is a very sensitive and soulful dog, the most sensitive dog I had ever met in my life… and I have met at least ten throughout the years. So I took it upon me to pat him and soothe him and make him feel that he is wanted, and give him lots of love and words of encouragement, telling him what a good boy he is always, and making sure he went out to pee as soon as he wanted and making sure his water bowl was always full. I tried taking him for long walks and leaving the leash as long as possible, so that he could sniff and run and walk to his heart’s desire without curbing him at all. But one day, when I let him out to pee, he ran away as fast as he could, and I was very distraught. He ran away so fast that I couldn’t follow him and eventually I lost track of him. Then I remembered that one of his toys made a squeaky sound which he seemed to like, so I looked up “Squeaky toy sounds” on Google on my cell phone and started playing it, and as soon as he heard it he came rushing back at the speed of lightning, with an extremely happy look on his face. Since then, I have used that trick several times because he tends to wander off to places where I’m not comfortable if he’s alone because one night, during a walk, he did try to get into a fight with a tiny poodle and his strength frightened me a bit. Anyway, I love him to pieces and he’s a softie at heart. He comes and lies on top of my toes, which is nice because his body heat warms them up and I feel it as a gesture of love that he wants to be so near to me that he’s on top of me. He is very protective of his toys, which I believe is an indication of trauma sustained when he was a puppy, when he would be left locked in his cage with his toys the entire day while his previous owners went out and about. I have a feeling that his toys are like his way of feeling secure in life, so he doesn’t allow anyone to mess with them! He loves to entertain us by chasing his tail and watching TV very intently with us and he LOVES chicken and smelling all the smells of barbecue and other smells we humans usually can’t smell.