Last summer, Colorado was scene to a (small) outbreak of the plague. Yes, that plague. And the CDC just confirmed that it can all be traced back to a dog. A pit bull, to be precise. According to an account published in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the disease was first reported in a “previously health middle-aged man,” who developed a fever and cough and, as his respiratory conditions worsened, ultimately received a diagnosis of pneumonic plague. 

Health officials identified the first case of dog-to-human, and possibly human-to-human, transmission in the U.S.