So I had finally decided that I was ready for a dog. As the weekend got closer I started watching the Humane Society's website daily, and sometimes twice a day. I was trying to not get my hopes up that I could find the right dog. I was also watching Animal Planet all the time. Just in case I could find some info that would be useful.
My mom came down that weekend to help me bring my new family member home. I couldn't buy anything ahead of time since I didn't know how big my dog would be or if it'd be a girl or a boy.
We got up on Saturday morning. I had a list of several dogs I thought could be a match. This was based on the little bit of information that some of the dogs have on the website. We went into the first sets of kennels. I was careful to not act too excited and try to just observe the dogs to get a feel for how energetic they were. There were several I wanted to see. Basically you can pick up to two dogs at a time that you'd like to meet, then a volunteer brings them to the meeting areas outside.
When we got close to Bella's kennel my mom tried to block her from my line of sight. She said I wasn't allowed to look. Well, of course when I saw those hound eyes staring at me I was hooked! She wasn't an owner surrender so there wasn't any background information available.
I actually met another dog first. A cute black and while dalmatian mix. But she didn't want anything to do with me. She didn't answer to her name either which was odd since she was a surrender.
Bella was then brought in. She smelled all around the cage, went up to the divider to sniff the little girl in the meeting area next to ours. She watched the other dogs walking around. She was so thin. I could see every single one of her ribs. I sat down on the ground and called her to me and she came right up and wagged her tail. I just knew she was the dog for me.
We went to Petsmart so i could get all the stuff she might need in the coming days. I came home, took her for a walk in her new neighborhood, but we didn't get far. in her physical condition she just didn't have much stamina. When she came in the house she sniffed around a few minutes, found a dark corner, and started snoring. Later that evening we put her crate in that corner and she has loved it ever since.
The next few weeks were really hard. She was scared of everything, even me sometimes. She didn't take well to obedience classes. She got really sick, had to go to the ER and then was admitted to her vet's office for a couple nights. It's almost been 3 months now and she has really fattened up and turned into a sweet, beautiful dog.
This is a picture from her first day. She was all bones and had runny, goopey eyes.
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