Dancers remaking pit bull image

By Linda Lombardi The Associated Press

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Deirdre Franklin thinks it's no accident that her fellow burlesque dancers and pinup models feel a kinship with pit bulls.

"They're people who chose to be on the outside and do it their way, who are used to being the underdog," she says. "They identify with the pit bull -- they want to change the stereotype."

Changing the stereotype is one thing that Franklin -- her stage name is Little Darling -- hopes to do with her calendar, "Pinups for Pitbulls." Her other goal is to beat last year's total of more than $10,000 raised to support pit bull rescue.

Her involvement with bully breed rescue started when a woman brought a stray pit bull into an animal shelter where Franklin was a volunteer.

"She thought she was saving its life by bringing it in," recalls Franklin. But the shelter had a policy of euthanizing all pit bulls and would neither let Franklin adopt the dog nor release it to a pit bull rescue.

Franklin's anger at the death led her to adopt another pit bull from a rescue group. With no experience with the breed, she was fearful. But the dog she adopted, Carla Lou, who'd been left for dead in a Texas basement, "came right out of the cage and was an angel," says Franklin.

Now, after years of involvement with rescue, she says this is typical: "Every other pit bull I've met has just wanted to climb in your lap and kiss you and be near you."

Franklin, who works as an auditor by day, decided to start using her dancing and modeling talents to raise money for pit rescue three years ago with the first "Pinups for Pitbulls" calendar. This year, the project has gone nationwide with its first models from the West Coast.

Models go through an application process to get into the calendar, and the photos feature them with their dogs and text telling their stories, from heartbreaking rescue tales to one model's description of her dog wagging her tail "so hard that her butt wiggles."

The models must take part in fund-raising events, too.

On the Net: www.pinupsforpitbulls.com