Bandit was said to be a pit bull, but he is not. He was said to be uncontrollably aggressive, but he is not, because random aggression requires pretty advanced intellectual capacities, the ability to live by abstract concepts and so on, and Bandit is not that bright. He was said to suffer from the Jekyll-Hyde syndrome, but you have to be human to suffer from the Jekyll-Hyde syndrome, and you have to be able to misread Robert Louis Stevenson, and Bandit can’t read. He was said to be diseased, but he is not. He was said to be untrainable because five years old, but he is not. Untrainable, that is; he was at one point five years old. He was said to have genes, and for all I know he does.

He was said to be “a dog like that!” I do not know what “that” means.

Bandit: Dossier of a Dangerous Dog

Vicki Hearne