Fun

Pit Bull Who Dragged Her Human Away From Oncoming Train Inspires Hundreds Of Surreal Photos

Written by: Arin Greenwood

March 4, 2016

Lilly the Pit Bull certainly earned this cape.

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Four years ago, Lilly’s owner Christine Spain fell unconscious on some train tracks while the two were out on a late-night walk in Boston.

In the path of an oncoming train, Lilly used her teeth to drag Spain to safety. The rescue dog, if there ever was one who deserves the title, lost a leg in the process of keeping her person alive.

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“We saved Lilly, and Lilly saved my mom’s life,” Spain’s son, police officer David Lanteigne, told ABC News at the time. “My hope is that this story is going to get out and show what Pit Bulls are truly about.”

That’s what photographer Kaylee Greer is also trying to show with this wonderful picture of Lilly dressed like the superhero she is.

“It’s to show people across the world the true nature of this incredible breed,” says Greer. “It’s to show that there are real, live superheroes inside these dogs.”

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Greer’s first Pit Bull was a scraggly guy she found on the street while in college in Tampa.

He was a friendly bag-of-bones who challenged everything bad she’d ever heard about Pits.

“I thought, ‘This is it? This is the big scary Pit Bull that the whole world is afraid of?'” Greer says.

Toby was Greer’s loving companion for 12 years.

When he died, Greer made a promise that she would speak up for other dogs whose heads are shaped like Toby’s—dogs who are the targets of so much hate and hysteria, based on untrue stereotypes and myths that Greer hopes to defeat with her stunning pictures.

“He was my best friend, my confidante and my light in all the darkness,” she says. “Pit Bulls have been so tragically and unfairly judged for so long. So I’m here to challenge the common perception and do whatever it takes to let their true colors shine.”

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As an extremely well-regarded full-time dog photographer—yes, you’re allowed to be wicked jealous—Boston-based Greer gets to travel the world, working with dogs in Costa Rica, Australia, and the Virgin Islands.

She’s heading to Spain soon to photograph homeless and forgotten dogs.

Greer also volunteers at her local animal shelter, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, taking wonderful adoption photos.

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Shelter dogs, pampered pets—with all of them, she’s aiming to capture their essential dogness.

Their kindness, their empathy, their goofiness “and endless love that they pour out so selflessly on a daily basis,” Greer says.

Photography is like giving a voice to those dogs who have no voice of their own, to tell their story for themselves.

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That goes double, triple, infinity and beyond, for the Pit Bull superheroes.

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Lilly, who has her own Facebook page and rescue group, is just the first in what Greer intends to be a 12-dog series of shoots.

Greer calls this series, perfectly, IncrediBULLS.

It’ll feature some “seriously impressive” dogs from across the country, who will swoop in and save the day by showing everyone “the light inside of these dogs,” says Greer. “It’s to show you that love wins every time.”

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Greer’s got a handful of impressively-resumed doggies lined up already—though, in true superhero fashion, she’s keeping their identities a secret for now.

She is also soliciting suggestions of heroic Pits who should be put into spandex and displayed to the world in all their stunning, stereotype-busting glory.

Reach out at by flashing a blocky headed signal into the sky. Or, you could do it more directly by emailing [email protected].

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Featured image via Dog Breath Photography

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Written by: Arin Greenwood

March 4, 2016

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