I have grown up with Staffordshire Bull Terriers almost all my life, so I jumped when the opportunity arose yesterday to adopt a 4-year-old staffie looking for a good home. A friend forwarded me the e-mail that he had received and I proceeded to e-mail the dog’s current owner.

Her name is Snuffy and her original owners had emigrated just a couple weeks ago. She is a beautiful tan staffie, but she had to go to a home which had no cats or young children. She needed to find a new home as soon as possible, since they could not keep her. Snuffy had snapped at their youngest child the other evening. This was a concern, but I was not worried, since Snuffy got on well with her two Jack Russels.

We arranged for us to bring TJ for a visit to see if they got on. Initially, things looked good, with both dogs having fun racing round the garden. It was absolutely ginormous, compared to ours.

But then, TJ got nervous and jumped into my chair, hiding behind me to seek refuge. Snuffy did not want to let up and he snapped at her. Snuffy’s owner gave us time to discuss it and I asked what she was like with food. She brought out two small bowls of food and set them down. As Snuffy was eating, TJ got too close and snapped at him. That was when the big alarm bells started going off in my head.

The final nail in the coffin came when her maid came home from a walk with the youngest child. Marc picked up TJ so that he would not run out the gate. Marc said that Snuffy jumped up at him and grabbed TJ’s tail, trying to pull him out of his arms.

We thanked Snuffy’s owner for her time and left without her. Much as I would have liked to take her, I did not want the risk of something happening to TJ while we were at work. She will make a great pet for somebody, but unfortunately, not for us.

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