Introducing....

The newest member of the Mabrey family.

Bella

So, I'll start at the beginning. I'm sure long time readers have noticed that nothing is said anymore about our two original fur babies, buddy & biscuit. Well, back at the beginning of the summer, they dug their way out of the fence, ran away, and never came back. I'll be completely honest, we didn't look too hard for them. I know it's hard for some people to understand, but we were at our wits end with buddy. He was tearing up the house, tearing up the backyard, and the last straw was, he started growling at Olivia whenever she would get near. The only thing we can figure is that the last move, was his final straw. He was fine up until we moved to the new house. By the beginning of summer, we had basically ran out of all our options of solutions to the problem. All but giving him away, which we didn't want to do since he was a rescue dog when we got him and we really are big softy's.

At the time they ran away, we were just at our wits in and no, we didn't look for them as hard as you could have. We didn't have any problems with Biscuit and unfortunately, she decided to run with Buddy. So, we lost both of them.

Regardless of what some family members thought, we still wanted a dog. We've always been dog people and we've always been the kind to treat our dogs like children. After a couple of weeks of buddy and biscuit being gone (they would get out on a regular basis and always return home a few hours later), we realized they probably weren't coming back and we already started talking about getting another dog. We've always wanted our kids to be raised with dogs. Over the last six months, we've talked off and on about getting another dog. We never really set a certain date for when, but we seemed to be leaning towards the Spring of 2011.

Well, over those last few months, Olivia has suddenly become afraid of dogs. I'm sure it has a little something to do with the Pope's dog, Boomer, knocking her down a time or two. Now anytime she gets in the same room with a dog, she freaks! I'm talking petrified. Over the Thanksgiving Holiday, we went to a few different houses with small dogs and it ended with the dogs having to be put up, even though they didn't even get anywhere near her. So, we started getting really worried. I'm sure it would be something she would grow out of (she always loved buddy and biscuit), but we didn't want it to be a problem.

So, this morning, we decided to go get a dog.

We had an idea of what we wanted and since we've always had a place in our heart for strays, we decided to go to the animal shelter and take a chance.

We saw a picture of Bella on the shelter's website and she was exactly what we were looking for. David called and they said she was still there, so we loaded up Olivia and headed out to look at her.

Obviously, she came home with us.

I did have a quick "what the heck are we doing?" thought when we were filling out the paperwork, but so far, she's a perfect fit.

She looked so scared in the shelter and while all the other dogs were barking and jumping inside their cages, Bella was hiding in the back of hers curled up in a ball. In fact, we didn't see her the first time we walked through. Contrary to what I thought, I did not want to take every dog there home. Some were plain out scary. Especially the one's that said DANGER on their cages. Bella on the other hand, looked completely pitiful.

She's extremely laid back, quiet, and hasn't barked once in the entire time we've had her. She does like to play, but she's happiest when your sitting next to her on the couch cuddling. Her temperament is much like Biscuits.

She is a little older and already housebroken. We have no idea what type of bred she is. We're thinking a mix between a lab and a Dachshund. She's really long and has short legs, but has web feet and a coat like a lab. She's a little on the skinny side (all the dogs were), but other than that, seems to be healthy. We're taking her to the vet next week, so hopefully she'll get a clean bill of health.

Olivia wasn't too sure of her at first, but I can say, that the roles have quickly reversed since this morning. I'm pretty sure Bella is now more scared of Olivia, then Olivia is of her. Olivia has been pulling on her and poking her in the eye all night and Bella hasn't flinched.

I won't lie...I was extremely excited again to have someone clean the floor after Olivia was done with dinner tonight.

Welcome to the family Bella!