Virginia: Letter to the editor, "Pit bull's aggressiveness was a reality that day"

VIRGINIA -- Remember the song about the young woman who found a half-frozen snake lying in the road near death? She took it in, restored it to health, and it bit her. As she lay dying, she lamented,"Why did you bite me?" And the snake replied,"Because, foolish woman, I'm a snake!"
 
As I read the June 2 letter regarding pit bulls ("Beware of pit bull hysteria"), the common sense from that song and an event I experienced caused me to write.

A recent afternoon, I was keeping my grandson. As he and a neighbor played in the front yard, I looked at Max, their small terrier. It was clear he wanted to play too! So, I put on his leash and took him outside to join the boys.

Suddenly, I was alerted to danger by a scream from my grandson, who fortunately was on the porch, not in the yard. A neighbor's pit bull charged into the yard, lunging at Max.

I was able to get between them before Max was attacked. The owner of the pit bull ran into my grandson's yard and finally removed his dog.

All of us — the boys, Max and I — were a wreck. How would an "advisory council of professionals" have prevented that trauma from terrifying two 10-year-olds, a little dog, and a grandmother?

GEORGIA MAYO, ROANOKE

The story of the Scorpion and the Frog: One day a scorpion asks a frog to carry him across the river. The frog, afraid of being stung during the trip declines helping the scorpion. The scorpion argues that if it stung the frog, both would sink and he would also drown, so for his benefit he would never sting him. The frog eventually agrees and carries the scorpion across the river until midway, the scorpion does indeed sting the frog, dooming them both to drown. As they slowly sink into the water asks why he had stung him, crying out, "Now we shall both die!". The scorpion calmly points out that, “I had no choice; it's in my nature“.

(Roanoke Times - ‎Jun 6, 2015‎)