Bella enters my life

Recently we got a dog.  Her name is Bella.  Actually, my daughter wanted one for her birthday and was adamant that the new pet be from the Animal Shelter.  We made our first trip to the SPCA shelter but couldn’t make up our mind.  We again went back the second day and had almost given up, when we thought of looking again in the “Big Dog” section.  During that walk, we came across this Lab and Retriever cross named “Bella Star” who was 3 years old.

She had been abandoned a little over a month back by her last owner.  “How awful”, we thought.  But as we checked out we came to know the real reason.  Actually, the family had two dogs and one had developed a disease where it was getting seizures and would get violent.  So, a decision had to be made, and the owners chose to keep the sick dog.

Bella, as we call her now, came home and was very depressed for many days.  Wouldn’t bark, wouldn’t come out of her little area, and interact most with my daughter.  It was – and is – tough to take her out for her natural chores during the day and evening.

She has also had some accidents where she pee’d on ou rug to the chagrin of my wife.

But in many ways she has become the darling of our house.

As for me, I have never had a pet in my life and growing up I was extremely afraid of dogs.  But Bella has brought a very interesting change to my life.  I have kind of fallen in love with her, like I have done very rarely in my life.  Her often sad and questioning eyes, her attempt to paw me out love and constantly putting up her paw to “say something” that I can’t really understand.. has made me  engage with a being who can’t talk in ways that I never imagined.

Recently, Bella started barking and sometimes we take her out with the neighbor’s dog to play.  Recently she ran along with that dog and played for a little while.  But soon she was back to her slow and quiet self.

When I work from home, she comes and sits next to me for hours and wants me to constantly pet her.  Then she goes off to her corner and sleeps for a couple of hours as I sometimes hear loud breathing and even snoring from her corner.

As she gets normal, Bella opens up many new dimensions for us to experience.