Bella's Antics

I have the cutest dog in the world. I know you might be thinking, "No way, my dog is cuter." Sorry, Charlie. I think it might just come with the territory...sort of how people think their kids are always cuter than other kids, and stuff like that. Anyway, I mean just look at this face:

She doesn't particularly like her picture to be taken.

Bella got off to a bit of a rough start with my family. I asked my parents for one of two things for graduation from college: an iPhone or a dog (in particular, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, which is the type of dog both Bella and Charlie are). I asked for the iPhone because I seriously have everything else a girl could want, except a new car, and let's face it...when your parents pay for your school, they're not going to buy you a new car. At least not if they are my parents. 

Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked. I asked for a dog because I already knew Sam would be going to law school 4 hours from where I would be living, so I guess I convinced my mom that I would need a dog for comfort. My parents gave Bella to me on the morning of my graduation. It was a complete surprise and I was totally shocked and SO excited. I definitely started crying. One thing was apparent from the beginning though...Bella was TERRIFIED. The breeder we got her from said she was "a little skittish." That is the understatement of the century. We still refer to the first month she was living with us as Bella's "pancake dog" phase. If you walked within 5 feet of her, she flattened completely out on the ground. In this picture, she is shaking because she's scared of all the people:

My mom had to go into the hospital to start some treatments two days after I moved home from college (graduated on a Saturday, hospital on Monday). They left me with this dog that was a) not house trained, b) terrified of me, c) not fixed. I had to be outside with her at all times, which for the first few months was about 4 times a night. She eventually warmed up to me, and she LOVES our other dog Charlie...who coincidentally ate a bag full of chocolate chip cookies the day my mom went into the hospital. So on top of A, B, and C up there, I also had d) a dog who was violently ill. I am pretty sure I called my parents crying multiple times that week (my dad was at work the whole week) saying various things like "Yeah this is such a GREAT graduation gift!"

In the early days.

 One thing I learned about Bella pretty quickly is she likes to lay in super odd places...

Like between two couch pillows,

Or in the most uncomfortable looking position.

She also really enjoys "burrowing" on your laundry.. clean...dirty...makes no difference to her. I walked away for two seconds one night to come back to this sight. Luckily it was dirty this time.

Another of her favorite pastimes is to annoy the heck out of Charlie. Now Bella will be 2 in July, but Charlie is 10. He misses the life of leisure he had before Bella. No dog trying to steal his treats from his mouth, eating out of his food bowl, taking up the spots on everyone's lap...you get the picture. This is a common occurrence:

Ignore the demon eyes. Enjoying a little Christmas cheer!

Most of the time though, he tolerates they get along her pretty well, so they will sit and take naps together.

Now that you have a lot of background on Bella...let me just tell you how ornery she is. At least three times a week, I get a phone call at work from my mom saying, "Do you know what your dog did?" My parents have been nice enough to take care of her while I finish up working in a town two hours from home, but I'm so excited to be home with her permanently in a couple of weeks!

Usually when my mom calls, it's to tell me about her nesting in a pile of nice, clean, warm, white towels, which no one gets THAT upset about. The other night, however, it was storming. I'm talking shake your walls thunder and lots of lightening. Bella won't go outside when it's like that, which is usually okay...not last Sunday. Instead of ever going outside to go #2, she decided that it would be a good idea to go all over my mom's nice, clean, brand new, WHITE bedspread. Oh the fury. Luckily it all came out!

A couple of days later, my mom took Bella and Charlie for a walk. Our neighborhood has an empty lot right next to the pool, so she lets them off their leash to run around. Bella kept running to this one place in the lot and sniffing around, and eventually she started rolling around on the ground. That in and of itself isn't THAT strange, but my mom decided she should go look at what Bella was rolling around on. When she got over there, she found the worst: Bella had discovered a dead opossum to make friends with. She said that the smell was horrendous. Bath #2 for the week.

And finally, last night. It rained again, so during a break in the storm, my mom let Bella out to go to the bathroom. She's really good about coming back whenever she's done, so when she scratched at the door, my mom just let her back in and didn't pay much attention to her. A few minutes later, Nick came upstairs and said, "Uh...what happened in here?" Bella had apparently decided to dig around in our vegetable garden (which is just mud right now) and then tracked the mud ALL around the living room. My mom said there was barely an inch of carpet untouched. Bath #3 for the week. The only silver lining? We're tearing up our carpet in a few weeks and putting in hardwood floors.

I mean, you wouldn't think a dog THAT cute would be so ornery, right?

Who, me?