Rescued Pit Bull Saves the Day - Pit Bulls Saving Lives

November 14, 2006 : 12:00 AM
Cinder thwarted an attempted robbery and protected her foster owner.

By Kelli Ohrtman, Best Friends Network

When Maura McGarrity responded to a plea from a local rescue group, she had no idea what she was getting into. Cinder, an American Staffordshire mix, had been waiting at the shelter for seven weeks; no one had shown interest in adopting her. The shelter said they would have to euthanize her if she didn’t find somewhere to go—fast. Maura said, “When we heard about her heartbreaking conditions and her short time given to live, we went out to see her and instantly fell in love.” So she agreed to foster Cinder to give her more time to find an appropriate home. Now Maura says, “As it turns out, fostering Cinder not only saved her life, but it saved ours in a way too!”

No one knows Cinder’s background, but Maura does know that, “she was dumped at the shelter… she was very sick, extremely under weight, covered in her own feces and urine and pretty cut up.” Despite the obvious neglect and abuse she endured, Maura said their first meeting with Cinder was instant love. “She wouldn’t stop trying to kiss us and be close to us and we knew we had to save her.” After settling into Maura’s home, Cinder returned the favor.

Here is Cinder’s story as Maura tells it:

“This Monday while I was at work, I put the dogs in their cages like I always do before I leave and said my goodbyes. I always come home at lunch to take them for a walk, but Monday I became swamped at work and could not leave the office. I came home after work around 5:00 and noticed that my door was partly broken and it looked like someone had tried to rip off the side paneling of the door to possibly break in.

There were shoe marks and kick marks on the door and marks near the locks as they were possibly trying to pick the locks. I got a terrible feeling and ran quickly inside my apartment. When I came in Cinder was very anxious, barking a lot and trying VERY hard to get out of her cage. The minute I let her out she ran right to the door and had her hair standing on edge. I knew something was terribly wrong.

I opened the door and when I looked out, I noticed my neighbor’s entire door was almost broken down. There were pieces of his door all over the floor. The door knob, dead bolt and key holes were lying on the ground and the door was cracked open a bit with no lights on. I could see though that there was stuff thrown all over the apartment inside. Since Cinder can’t hold her bladder for a long period of time, I knew I had to take her out right away (which looking back now was stupid). We walked out in the hallway and as we got closer to the elevator (near the broken down door) she got very tense, her hair raised and she started to bark. I immediately FLEW down the stairs with her instead of taking the elevator because she obviously heard something in the dark apartment and got nervous enough to bark.

Right as we stepped outside to where other people were, I called 911 to report the burglary. The police came in minutes and surrounded the building. They never ended up finding the person, BUT they do know how they got in/out of our building. Apparently the person climbed through a sky light on the roof and probably tried to break into my floor because out of the four apartments, only two are vacant. They weren’t sure if the person was still there when I came home that night, but I’m glad I’ll never know.

The Crime Scene Unit and detectives came and said they think the person could have gotten into my apartment if he had wanted to and tried harder, but they said the dog must have scared them away. The reason they said this is because when the police were photographing the area and looking at the door while the dogs were inside, they both were quiet. But the minute one of the officers touched the door and hit it, she started FREAKING out and barked louder than I’ve ever heard a dog bark before. She was extremely intimidating and I had to assure the police she is a sweetie and they could come in the house.

We’re not sure what happened on Monday, but the police are convinced the only reason they didn’t break down my door was because of Cinder’s ferocious bark. They said a lot of burglars don’t ever want to try the houses with dogs because not only could they be extremely territorial and try to attack them, but they are very loud and will cause unwanted attention to the apartment.

Luckily the person never got in to our apartment, but our neighbor lost a lot of his most valuable things. As the police officers were wrapping up and about to leave, they told my neighbor, “You should really think about getting a dog, because that dog right there (pointing to Cinder) is the reason she and her house are safe and untouched.”

Looking Ahead
Now Maura hopes more than ever to find Cinder a loving, permanent home. Statistically, the cards are stacked against Cinder. She’s a pit bull-type, which scares off a lot of potential owners, she’s seven years old (we’ll call her “mature”), and has some mild dog aggression. Maura described, “she barks at other dogs and seems to be afraid of them.”

The area of Philadelphia where Maura and Cinder live is home to a lot of dogs, and that is hard on Cinder. Maura said, “Seeing other dogs on walks constantly is extremely stressful for her. We’ve tried to socialize her very slowly, but she seems very timid of larger dogs and goes on the defense if they are around her. We’re not sure of her past, but we think with some TLC she could learn to love other dogs of all shapes and sizes like she loves her step-brother, Gizmo the pug.”

Her hope is that someone with experience will fall for Cinder the way she did, and offer to either work through her anxiety around other dogs, or will want to invite Cinder to live in a permanent home.

Maura said, “I can't stress enough how much she adores people, she just needs someone experienced with this breed to help her through her fear/aggression issues. I know she isn't totally dog aggressive like some people assume all pits to be because she loves my dog Gizmo who is a pug. They sleep together, they play together, they drink out of the same bowl together....they are good buds and I know she would never hurt him.”

Anyone interested in helping to train or adopt Cinder can contact:
Maura McGarrity at:
(215) 520-3264