Next time you mumble "it can't happen here," take a look at the situation in Denver, Colorado, where I'd be a criminal for owning Coco:

Zena the buff, brindle-colored pit bull had been living the outlaw life, her fate haunted for nearly a month by the possibility of a death sentence.

She had been confined to her southwest Denver home, sleeping in her master's bed, playing in the backyard and gnawing on her chew toys.

They were all punishable acts as of May 9, when the city of Denver started enforcing its pit bull ban after a year's court-enforced hiatus.

Finally, her owners called the Pit Bull Underground Railroad - a network dedicated to secretly ferrying the dogs out of Denver before animal control officers confiscate them.

By Sunday, Zena was safely romping with a posse of other dogs at Mariah's Promise, a 43-acre animal sanctuary in Divide. It's one of the few remaining Colorado shelters willing to take in, and not euthanize, the dogs.

The sanctuary holds dogs indefinitely or puts them up for adoption for $100. Many owners have placed their pets there in hopes the Denver ban will be overturned.

There's not much to say, other than to express my profound disgust that something like this could happen in a still free country. That these nameless, faceless, armed dog-grabbers would take my puppy and kill her, and imprison me for owning her -- all because of some crackpot canine racial theories and the idea that I should be punished for the deeds of others -- does not set well with me, especially because I am still grieving the loss of Puff.

I guess that makes me particularly emotional about this issue.

Perhaps I should be.

Anyway, I'm glad there's an underground railroad. It beats the killing rooms for the damned operated by -- well I don't know who's operating them in Denver, but I hope it's not like the Canadian situation, where the Humane Society is apparently killing the same dogs they'd adopted out:

Just last month we had a lab-boxer cross that was going to be euthanized because someone thought she looked a little like a pit bull. The couple who had adopted the dog from the same Humane Society that was now prepared to kill her had to scrounge up money for a lawyer to point out things like webbed toes.

From a handful of members who met, in part, after calling the Seattle-based American Canine Foundation, the e-mail list has grown to more than 200, says Dias, a 30-something mortgage banker who lives in Denver.

Dias figures about half are pit bull owners, including Dias herself.

Five core organizers have divided the duties. There is a petition-gathering front, which Dias says has so far resulted in more than 2,000 signatures asking city officials to change the law.

Rita Anderson, Dias' aunt and a Boulder-based animal-rights activist, was asked by her niece to head the railroad efforts.

The railroad gives advice on what to do should animal control show up at the door to take away your pit bull.

"Do not let them in without a warrant," Dias says. "I want to make it (the process) as expensive and ridiculous and stupid as this law is."

Instead, she recommends calling the railroad.

...Quintana dotes on Zena. He says the neighbors like her, but he worries that a passer-by will report her during one of her backyard romps. She has not been on a walk since the ban kicked in.

"We don't want her to be put down, because she's not a vicious dog," he says, as Animal Planet plays on the television in the background. "She's just like a big baby."

For readers who might be in the Denver area, here are the contact numbers:

Organizations

• Mariah's Promise: Contact director Toni Phillips, 719-687-4568; log on to mariahspromise@msn.com; or write to P.O. Box 1017, Divide, CO 80814.

• Pit Bull Underground Railroad: Contact Rita Anderson, 303-618-3227; or log on to guardianship@aol.com.

kassj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-2406

But Denver's ban applies to any dog that looks like a pit bull.

If you don't believe me, try to spot the "pit bull" in this test.

I hope that there are enough motivated dog owners who will organize to get this thing thrown out as unconstitutional, following which aggrieved owners of seized and killed dogs might be able to sue for damages. (Lawsuits seem to be the only language anyone understands anymore.)