Dear Diary,

I experienced something quite traumatic today, as did many neighbors, my mother-in-law included. Not sure who reads this, if many do, but this is just to make ME feel better, I guess. You know what "they" say, get it out, and let it go!!
I heard all kinds of commotion early this afternoon, and ran out the front door to find two Pitt Bulls fighting in the street, right in front of my house! It was so horrible. I cannot even imagine the hundreds and thousands of people out there who intentionally put themselves through this emotional trauma by watching, and betting, and cheering, and entering their own dogs in dog fights.
A lady was walking her Pitt, and her four-year-old son, as she does weekly and daily. For some reason, the Pitt across the street decided to get out of the yard today, and the two dogs started going at it. I'll spare the gory details, but several men around the hood were heroic (albeit stupid) to eventually get the dogs apart. But, the worst part for me was seeing the lady who was walking her dog, get SO in to attempting to save her Pitt Bull's life, that she completely ignored her 4-year-old little boy who was standing, not even 5 feet away, just crying. Someone put him up on the hood of a nearby car (nearby, as in RIGHT where the dogs were fighting) and I just couldn't stand to see him sitting there. I went over there, picked him up, took him across the street to my porch, and just held him. He put his head on my shoulder and I just kept talking to him, telling him his mommy was fine, and she was just trying to help out his dog, and basically just kept his eyes off the mess, and his ears full of kind words, rather than the alternative: yelling, snarling and yelping! Oh, I just can't get it all out of my mind. It gets worse. The dogs were locked up fighting for a solid 15 minutes, if not more (they were both definitely in it to win it), and after the dogs were separated and taken separate ways, it was another 5 minutes before the gal looked around, all flustered, and yelled "Where is my son, anyway?" (Although I told her several times I was taking her son across the street to keep him safe.)
My boys were inside, watching Nemo, but there is no way they weren't at least aware that something was going on. It was a noisy mess. Keegan has already woken up twice since he went to bed. Just kind of crying himself awake. I can't help but think I was too worried about this stranger's son, that I should have done it all differently myself. Maybe I should have stayed in the house, turned the volume up on the TV, and made sure MY kids didn't have a clue as to what was going on outside.
I went out to see a movie alone tonight, after Chris got home from work. I just needed something else in my head. But, to end on a lighter note, I saw "P.S. I Love You," and it was really great. So-- for that 2-hour and 15-minute period, it did the trick. Hopefully by writing down my thoughts on this matter, that will do the trick as well.