Bella – April, 2009

Just wanted to say hello and give you a Bella update.

First I will say we love her, she is quite the character! She has us laughing all the time. As time goes on, and she feels more at home the true Bella emerges. She’s a wild child.

I had my first brief meeting with the dog trainer. Our first real appt is next Thursday. She was very quiet and subdued. But he did have me bring out one of the cats, who live in the bedroom now. He got Bella to stay in her space on the carpet, lay down and stay with the cat right next to her. It was amazing to watch.

So, the antics of Bella. The trainer suggested leaving her for little bits at a time and then gradually increasing the time, to get her used to being alone. Yesterday we left her for 2 hours. The only thing she did was knock over the kitchen garbage can. Didn’t get into it really, just knocked it over. She doesn’t seem to bother the bird at all, we keep the bedroom door closed where the cats are when we are not home.

She had one good fight with our white cat that Paul had to break up. But since then she has been good with the cats. She comes in the bedroom when I change clothes and lays at my feet ignoring the cats. They are more watchful of her. But we are getting there.

Last night, even tho she had her morning walk, afternoon play session, evening walk, evening play session, she still got up at 2am. She likes to kinda chew our shoes if she can get them. And the throw rugs. She likes to pick them up in her mouth and swing them around.LOL She barked at me to get up at 2am this morning and she had shoes all dragged out, the cats bed, and had gone potty in Paul’s den. She is testing us like a child to see if we will still love her. I remove the shoes and give her one of her own chew toys and she is fine. She saw me pick up the poop in Paul’s den, I shook my finger and calmly said no no Bella, next time we go outside to poop. She looked me straight in the eye and seemed to realize this was not ok. And went back to bed like a good girl. LOL

She is an interesting child. My husband absolutely loves her. She is daddy’s girl. I love her too and we continue to work with her to show her that this is her forever home. I spend a little time everyday working with her on sit, down and stay. I am also teaching her the perimeters of our front yard.

We both feel she is worth the work and are so glad she came into our lives.

~ Elizabeth E.