9.27.2010 by Winsip Custer CPW News Service
Dr. Phillip Loving a veterinarian from Liberty, Texas wished he had made a different decision, but he's using his misfortune to make a difference. Before traveling from Houston to Denver on an American Airlines flight on July 29th he bought a new hat at the local Academy store. A Dallas Cowboy fan, he made a fateful decision to wear a different ball cap....a dark green Philadelphia Eagles' cap.
"When I was at A&M studying animal medicine I'd go skiing in Colorado and they made fun of Texans," he said. "I remember being on the chair lift at Vail and this beautiful woman from Aspen pointed at the skiers on the slope below. 'See them,' she said. They're from Texas.' I asked how she knew. She said, "they have the latest designer clothes and can't ski worth a flip. They're dangerous. Look at that guy down there,' she said pointing to an out of control skier. Then she looked at me and said 'Where are you from?' I said 'Rhode Island'. Remembering that incident at Academy I decided not to put a target on my back for my trip to Denver and just grabbed a pretty teal green Eagles cap to go with my new outfit."
It was at Denver International Airport that things went horribly wrong. "Some guy looked at my cap and said to me 'Eagles'...what are you a retard?' I told him I was Michael Vick's half brother...the veterinarian and I'm married to Dick Vermeil's sister. And what's wrong with you, ya' jackass...you don't believe in forgiveness and second chances?'"
That was when the fighting started according to ticket agent, Cecelia Wren. Two men in the ticket line joined the third and pummeled Dr. Loving. "They shredded his new outfit and stomped on his Eagles cap. Black eyes, busted lip. It was awful," she said.
"I was determined not to let a few bad apples make the historic City of Brotherly Love....a city I've never even been to, take this lying down," said Dr. Loving.
"I had been reading the book Dogs: A Startling New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior and Evolution by Raymond Coppinger, professor of biology at Hampshire College... and so the idea hit me. Rather than accept the fact that the Eagles were somehow tainted by the acquisition of Mr. Vick, I'd spend the rest of my life helping the Pit Bull dog to evolve into a more refined breed and I would name it the Michael Vick Retriever. Lots of dog breeds have made amazing transitions toward refinement in their quest to sit beside the human hearth. In fact," said Dr. Loving, "the point made by Raymond Coppinger is that those wolves that were able to accept humanity's refinements, lay down their fear of being eaten by humans, would evolve into dogs."
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| Full Metal, Dr. Loving's progenitor of the Michael Vick Retriever |
We asked Dr. Loving how long it would take to help the Pit Bull make this transition and isn't this a long-term project that he would not live to see to fruition. "Well," he said, "there are retriever breeds that are less than three hundred years old and have made the transition from one purpose and function to another quite nicely. Saint Bernard's have not always carried kegs of liquor around their necks and certain retrievers that now hunt birds were once fishing dogs that over time became gun dogs," he said.
We asked if the Michael Vick Pit Bull Retriever would be like those dogs, bringing to it's master the quail or duck or goose that had been shot in fields or wetlands. He said "No, there's already dogs that do that. I'm perfecting the breed to retrieve for it's owner a Smith and Wesson .44 caliber handgun," said Dr. Loving. "The Michael Vick Retriever will, I predict, be more famous than the Jack Russell Terrier."
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