Then, at a local animal shelter, they found Sally, a 10-month-old pup they couldn't walk away from. They took her home, intending to adopt her out, but soon noticed something peculiar. "This was one of the best dogs we'd ever known," Reynolds recalled. "Clearly, we had been lied to about pit bulls." They decided to keep Sally for themselves.
The couple also began scouring animal shelters for other pit bulls and launched a pit bull website, www.badrap.org. Like many people consumed by a cause, they can't exactly explain why pit bull rescues have come to dominate their lives. Reynolds jokes that it might be a good topic for a therapist.
Maybe their dog Sally was a stand-in for Casey Jones, a beagle Reynolds' parents allowed to run free until the dog one day disappeared. Reynolds was just 7.
"Every animal rescuer is rescuing a part of themselves," she said. "Maybe I'm still looking for Casey Jones."
With so much of their time devoted to dog rescues, the couple struggled to find time to work as artists, Racer as a sculptor and carousel carver and Reynolds as a commercial illustrator. And funding for their new pet cause was so scant, they refinanced their home three times in the early years to keep the effort going.
But they couldn't stop. They searched local kennels for "breed ambassadors" that would make good pets and help change the pit bull image. Sometimes they saw abandoned fighting dogs in such pain it made them weep.
"But we're not bleeding hearts," said Racer, his deaf pit bull Honky Tonk snoring on his lap. "With animals we know will never be right with the world, we counsel shelters to put them down. We know we can't save them all."
Eventually, enough BAD RAP donations poured in for the couple to each draw a salary. And one day, Sally gave Racer a bit of canine inspiration.
Using Sally as his model, Racer, 45, began sculpting a wooden pit bull rocker. The art piece, which still sits in the couple's living room, launched Racer in a new direction carving ornate models of pit bulls and other breeds for art and carousel collectors.
One day, he'd like to carve pit bulls for a carousel to teach children not to fear the breed. "In so many ways," he said, "that dog changed our lives."
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Neither Racer nor Reynolds had heard of Michael Vick when authorities indicted the Atlanta Falcons quarterback in 2007 for running a covert dog fighting operation.
