First, I should admit my bias by saying that I love, love, love pits and other various bully breed type dogs. A good pit is the most wonderful dog on the planet, especially with kids. They have a massive pain tolerance, so will take little kid pokes and prods far, far longer than many other breeds. They are typically jolly and in love with life. I love their looks and their undying good nature.
This is an absolute must-read for anyone considering a pit bull : http://www.nyx.net/~mbur/apbt.html it’s a FAQ and generally good information site.
BAD RAP is also a really good site for honest pit info: http://www.badrap.org/rescue/index.cfm
The major downside is that while they’re the most absolutely wonderful people dogs on the face of the planet, I’d never trust them alone around other dogs, or expect them to get along unconditionally with other dogs, especially those of opposite sex. Unless your pit is absolutely “cold” (and some I’ve met are, but it’s rare) then you have to expect that they have some element of dog aggression instictive in them. That is, after all, what they were created for, originally. She doesn’t by the way, look gamebred by any means, but that absolutely doesn’t mean she’s not dog aggressive in one situation or another.
For me, though, the dog aggression issue is pretty much a non-issue, as I don’t ever expect my dog(s) to be good offleash with other, strange dogs–there’s just no situation in which he’s offlead around strange dogs, and we never have strange dogs coming over to our house. I couldn’t care less if he wanted to murder every dog on the face of the planet (he doesn’t, and actually I kinda wished he liked other dogs a titch less–he is way easily distracted by other pups), he’s never going to get an opportunity to do so. I love my dog as a good companion for his human family, not for how he does or does not “play well with others” of his own species.
[flame suit on] Please, please, please for the love o’god ignore all advice to take your pit/pitX to a dog park. It’s the height of stupidity and irresponsibility to take a dog historically bred for fighting other dogs and turn it loose in a strange pack and expect good things to happen. Your pit might not do a damn thing, but you can absolutely bet that when or if another dog picks a fight with yours, the mob will come after you and your “dangerous dog”.
While I did take my pup to a dog park a few times as a baby for socialization, I would never, never, never take an adult dog there. The three parks in my town I visited were without fail places for idiot people to dump their dogs for a couple hours while they yakked on their cell phone and ignored their animals. After my puppy got attacked for the third consecutive time by three different dogs with three different idiot owners who stood there and did absolutely nothing, I stopped going. Anyway, they’re complete canine chaos, and any time you dump a whole load of strange adult dogs together, they’re going to proceed to spend their time working out a pecking order. My pooch is extremely laid back and loves everyone, but he is big and he’s muscular and intact, and every older adult, male, neutered dog seems to decide it’s his responsibility to beat the crap out of my dog. Happily, my dog takes it as rolling good fun, because he’s big and solid enough to where it’s going to take a whole lot of dog to take a chunk out of him–he seems to think they’re just playing hard. Point being, if he did decide to fight back and did some damage, you can bet who’s going to be blamed for the mess, regardless of the fact that the other dog came flying up out of nowhere and attacked completely unprovoked. I should say that he’s not a pit, although he gets mistaken for one on a daily basis.
I guess the sum of this is that I would wholeheartedly encourage you to get Zelda if you liked her as a dog. Historically, they’ve been strictly bred against human aggression, and this is an issue I’d be far more concerned over than potential dog aggression. There are many, many other breeds I’m very leery of. I would, for example, not touch a chow with any length pole you might offer.