From Bax to The Biz

Shortly after we got married Will and I adopted a sweet (looking) dog named Baxter that we were told was a 4-month old puppy. At his first vet appointment, we learned that he was closer to a year old. Come to find out he'd been a stray for almost his whole life and he was a little (lot) insane. 98.7% of the time he was the sweetest most perfect little guy, and then all of a sudden he would snap, usually it was food related, but not always. Our friend bent to tie his shoe and apparently was too close to Baxter and got chomped in the hand. Another time my cousin's 3 yr old daughter came too close and he snapped and clawed her in the face. It would have been much worse, but at that point I had him on a leash at all times. After about six months of attacks and meetings with behaviorists who insisted there was nothing wrong with him, we had to let him go. Our nephews (4 and 6 at the time) were coming to stay with us for a week and there was no way I could handle the stress of protecting them from Kujo 24 hrs a day. The day I took him back to the woman who facilitated the adoption was one of the saddest of my life. Of course he was perfect that day and looked at me with the sweetest eyes. I cried the whole way home, but I knew it was the right decision.





We knew we'd get another dog, but weren't sure when. I think we were both too afraid to bring the idea up after all we'd been through with Bax. Then about six months later we were driving to Syracuse for Thanksgiving and one of us (can't remember who now) said to the other...maybe it's time to get a dog. We arrived at my cousin's house that night and over some beers she mentioned that she thought W should get me a puppy for Christmas. A sign! THEN...at Thanksgiving dinner another cousin asked us outright if we were interested in a puppy because her brother in law had some he was going to give away. They were only 3 weeks old at the time, but she promised that if we wanted one she'd drive it up to us (in New Hampshire at the time) when it was ready. Ok, now if this sequence of events wasn't enough, we went to see the pups the next day and that's when we met...

Bella. We call her The Biz.

This is a skinny 9 yr old girl holding her, so believe me she was TINY! But so sweet. I knew I had to have her. More later! I'm milking these Bella posts to get me through!