I recently posted about my 8 year old Collie Meg and to even things out i thought it only fair to post about the other furry love of our lives, Bella (or Bellatrix as i have decided her full name to be)
Another dog was desired but by no means planned, but how could we turn away from this little face. Today i will talk about how she came into our lives and and a bit of how she adapted to her new life.
As i said above we had spoken about the desire to have another dog, we knew we wanted another collie, preferably a puppy but not a necessity and that we wanted to rescue. We had made no preparations and this was just something that we figured would happen eventually. One night we were just watching TV scrolling through social media when the below picture appeared on a local rescue page, i showed my partner who instantly said "ring them"
source- the initial photo of Bella
There had been a lot of interest in Bella but when we spoke to the rescue centre we were the only people who already had experience with a Collie so we were first choice, we just had to go and meet her with Meg and have a home visit before they came and handed her over, she had already been vaccinated and they would cover the cost of having her spayed when the time came.
Bella seemed pretty similar to Meg back when she was 4 months old, absolutely full of it! We knew very little about the first few months of Bella's life we just know that the owners couldn't handle her, she is a very vocal dog and we think maybe she needed to make herself heard a lot to get attention she has piercing squeak that still makes me jump even now.
It soon became apparent she was completely wired 24/7 she was into everything and unlike Meg, was a very chewy dog, she destroyed many a games console/tv remote much to our disdain as they were not cheap to replace, she also chewed through the seatbelt in the back seat of my car when we strapped her in, something that actually made me fail my MOT. She needed constant monitoring and even after spaying she still didn't calm to the extent Meg did, she also didn't handle the cone after her procedure too well and i spent 3 nights sleeping on the couch with her making sure she was ok and not pulling it off which she had a knack for.
She has always however been an absolute angel off her lead, always coming back when asked and staying still. She is just as intelligent as Meg and picked up commands very quickly and it didn't take us long to train her to wee on her puppy pads, the only thing that we have never been able to get her to do is bring her ball/frisbee to our feet on the field, this is probably because Meg does it for her without us asking her to. She’s also an excellent jumper, no idea why she springs the way she does it just kind of happened naturally.
She's an extremely affectionate girl and always has the get the best seat on the couch for cuddles.
You will notice Bella is quite small, we've never worked out why, maybe she was bred that way for agility or her growth was interfered with through malnutrition or something, she was very skinny when she came to us,she's healthy and happy now though so that's all that matters. Looking at her now at 3 years old, i think she'll always look like a puppy.
We definitely had an advantage knowing the breed beforehand and the previous experience with Meg as a puppy did provide us with some preparation, but we simply just had to wait for Bella to grow out of her bad habits such as snatching food and chewing valuables and realise that her negative behaviour wouldn't be rewarded just like when we trained Meg. She no longer chews and we can let her roam the house without worrying about what she's up to. She does like to try and play with Meg and gets excited when we arrive home or have visitors so she’s still as sprightly as ever jumping around on the couches etc, but we have come to accept that’s just the way she expresses herself.
Bella is an absolutely beautiful soul, she loves people and interacting with other animals, even if she can be a bit sheepish, but she’s not as adventurous as Meg and always likes to stay where she can see us.
We often look back and laugh at the impulsiveness of our decision, we didn't consider the cost or the convenience but we made it work. As much as Meg is a grump I think she enjoys the company of another of her kind, they are both so different but Bella has helped bring out Meg's inner puppy again and its nice to see her relax a little as she's such an anxious dog. Its been a difficult road with Bella since her crucial first months were unknown to us but we are so proud of the dog she has become, you would struggle to meet one with more love in their heart for everyone they meet.
Thanks for reading all comments and upvotes as always are much appreciated.