Bella & Me

I just doesn't have the same ring to it...I went to see the movie Marley & Me yesterday. I thought it was a really good movie, even though I spent the last 20 minutes crying uncontrollably. For those of you that haven't seen the movie and don't want it spoiled, STOP READING HERE...
Foolishly, I forgot my Kleenex, even though I cried uncontrollably during the latter part of the book when I read it 3 years ago just after having to put my dog Ember down - reading about them putting Marley down was like reliving putting my own dog down.
Ember was a 12 year old pure breed Dalmatian with more spots that I've ever seen on a Dal. I had gotten her just before my 15th birthday when she had just been weaned. I was away from her the years I was in college, but as soon as I could find a place that would allow big dogs, I brought her up here with me. At 12, she had become arthritic and cranky. One day she got in a fight with Paisley, my friend Emily's dog. Needless to say, she didn't win. Based on her age, her changing temperament and her injuries, I decided to put her down. It was like losing one of my best friends. She was a good dog. Ember
However, it wasn't just the end of the movie that I related to. I enjoyed the movie more because I could relate to the destructiveness of Marley as well - though on a much smaller scale. About a month and a half after putting Ember down, I got a new dog. It was just too lonely all by myself. I wanted another Dalmatian so I started looking online and I finally found a Dal mix at the Humane Society of North Texas. She was about 8 weeks old when I brought her home. The shelter said she was 3 months so they could go ahead and spay her but they don't loose their puppy teeth until about 4 - 5 months and she didn't lose her until June. Anyway, I brought her home and called her Bella. She was all white with a few brown speckles and hazel eyes!

Bella on her second day at home.

This cute little puppy turned out to be full of mischief. Thankfully, it was all covered by the pet deposit...here is a list of some of the things she did:
1. She chewed through the supply line of the toilet and flooded 3 apartments.
2. She ate all the windowsills in my apartment, parts of the door frames and baseboards and pulled paint off the doors and walls.

Do you see where the paint is peeled off the door? Doesn't she look proud of herself?

3. She dug a hole in my carpet down to the concrete slab.

The hole was in my guest bedroom - through the carpet, she ate the padding, down to the slab.

4. She dug a hole in the crash pad (a big 7 foot long pillow you could sleep on) and pulled the stuffing out so she could fit inside.

The crash pad used to reside at my grandparents house and we grandkids would fight over who got to sleep on it...nobody sleeps on it anymore.

5. She ate a green pen at Emily's apartment and got it on the couch cover (which Emily later gave to me) and on her paws.

Bella's green thumb.

I think those were the major things. I tried using baby gates to keep her in the part of the house where I wanted her but she quickly learned how to climb one, and when I bought a second she could scale them both. She continued with her destructive tendencies until we moved into a new apartment. She hasn't damaged anything in the year and a half we've been here. So unlike Marley, Bella grew out of her destructiveness.

A dog is one of the family and in that I can certainly identify with the Grogan's. No matter what destructiveness she caused as a puppy or what heartbreak awaits when the time comes to let her go (hopefully many years down the road), Bella adds to my life and I can't imagine my life without her.

At my parents house over the summer wearing the pink bandanna her Granny got her.