early morning

I woke up at 4:30 this morning to knocking and when I opened my eyes, Bella was sitting on the corner of my bed staring at the ceiling. There were red and blue lights flashing on the ceiling. The knocking wasn't at my door and when I looked out the window, I saw an ambulance and a fire engine in the parking lot. I tried to roll over for my 45 minutes left of sleep, but the flashing lights were too bright and distracting and Bella was so nervous that she was on top of me.
I took Bella outside before I got into the shower and she took off running because we saw the ambulance gurney outside an apartment door. As we were walking back up the stairs, we saw the EMT's carrying someone down the stairs in some kind of chair. I guess because the stairs have a landing, it makes it hard to get the gurney up.
Bella didn't calm down until the red and blue lights quit flashing about 15 minutes later - apparently it wasn't a life and death emergency because they didn't move very fast...
Thankfully, I haven't been any more tired today than I usually am for the loss of 45 minutes of sleep. However, I think I'll hit the sack a little early tonight.

My Crazy Dog

My dog has recently started hanging out in the bathtub while I am gone. It has only been since I got back from vacation back in July. I'm not sure why - the bathtub? She doesn't like taking baths, so why would she lay in the bathtub while I'm gone?
I realized that's where she was one day when I came home and I heard all this scrambling and banging. She was having trouble getting out...
Maybe it's a cool place to lay, or maybe she's hiding and feels safe there...who knows.
I wish I had a picture of it, but I haven't been able to catch her yet - but I always hear her jumping out when I walk in the door.
That's my crazy dog...

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.

Pink Eye

Bella and I posing for our Christmas card picture.

Last week I took Bella to the vet because her right eye had a gross green discharge and was pink. Lo and behold, my dog had conjunctivitis, otherwise known in the people world as pink eye. The vet gave me some ointment to put in her eyes several times a day for the next 10 days to get rid of the infection. He told me to be especially conscious about washing my hands after messing with her eyes, and I have been.

However, I didn't think about where she sleeps when I'm gone at work all day, which is usually on my bed, either on my pillows or on my pajamas if they are laying on the bed. Yesterday, I woke up with a red left eye. It itched and had some gunk in it, but most of the redness went away when I used my allergy eye drops. Throughout the day, my eye continued to bother me. The nurse at school said it could be allergies or it could be pink eye - she told me to wait and see what happened overnight and if it was sealed shut when I woke up. It sure was. So off to the doctor I headed first thing this morning.

I ruined my perfect attendance record for the school year because I got pink eye from my dog! Who would have thought. I guess I need to start shutting her out of my bedroom when I'm gone.