'Pit Bulls & Parolees' Season 16 Episode 6 Recap: Tia Torres scrambles to deal with Earl's recent arrest
Life as a parolee means that you're always one bad step away from returning to life in prison. When you're dealing with an addiction, those chances go up significantly. Although it's been at least nine years since Earl was last in jail, he failed to beat the odds and was arrested for possession of pain medication after he'd been caught speeding. Earl is family, however, and Tia Torres and the rest of the Villalobos Rescue Center scramble to make sure that he is safe and has what he needs to stay out of prison for good. Life goes on, however, and dog still needs rescuing and adoption, and the team continues on as best they can.
This episode is one of the more heartfelt ones of the season, as we flashback to Tia Torres' first interview with Earl. She was impressed by how much he owned his past, as he told her about his time in prison. From there, Earl quickly grew to be an essential part of the Villalobos family and a vital member of the team. Unfortunately, Earl developed an addiction to pain medication, one that kept him from performing his job safely and got to a point where his team had to stage an intervention and send him to rehab.
After some legal "tap dancing," Tia was able to get Earl out on Bail, taking a huge risk of responsibility for him. She had him brought over to Assumption, Parish, just to give him a safe space away from his situation in which to process things. Tia and Earl had a heart to heart about his fears of going back to prison, and what life was like inside. The two continued to talk about Earl's future, later, in a moment with the other parolees and Villalobos workers, during which Earl mentioned he didn't want to end up like his father - a man who had been in and out of prisons his entire life, spending his final days behind bars.
In the meantime, dogs still need rescuing and taking care of. Parolee Spencer helped Maria rescue a dog they named Jan, who was tied up and abandoned at a construction site. Jan had been left there for at least two days and appears to have dislocated her hip in an attempt to break free of the cable wire that was holding her captive. While Jan was in a lot of pain, Doctor Samantha was, fortunately, able to sedate her and pop her hip back into place. It was Spencer's first real rescue of this kind, and he formed a strong bond with Jan, making it difficult for him to say goodbye to her. However, he was able to commemorate the moment by putting the caple wire up on the wall where the Villalobos team keeps all the chains, ropes and bonds from dogs they've rescued from unfair captivity.
Tia and her daughter-in-law, Mariah, also helped married couple Charles and Syhann adopt a new sister for their Victorian bulldog, Winston. Winston had been very attached to the couple's other dog, Emma, who had died of heart failure two years ago. Though Winston was at first extremely reluctant to socialize with other dogs, Mariah had an idea to introduce him to a smaller dog and bought out Dopey, the beagle. Winston and Dopey immediately hit it off, and Charley & Syhann were immediately charmed by her as well. With no problems arising when they bought Dopey to their home, Dopey has found herself a loving new family.
Earl was able to make his court date with no issues, and the experience shook him. He's now finding comfort with the dogs he is working with, as they help him process his addiction, as well as providing him some inspiration as he works to deal with his addiction and his fears about the future.
The next episode of 'Pit Bulls & Parolees' airs on September 5 at 9 pm ET on Animal Planet.