BELLA’S BLOG: WHY?

Bella Donna Eden Ursus Maritimus. This is the full pedigree name of our dog - dog number three. Living with dog number one turned out to be anything but a stellar experience. Even though Janine tried to talk me out of it, as we were not really set-up for canine company at the time, we adopted a beautiful Chow puppy that eventually turned into Hannibal Lector. After trying to eat our dog sitter (she ended up with over 60 stitches in her leg and hand), Bear, our chow, was euthanized.

When we decided on dog number two, we were in a much better position to be pooch parents. We vowed to get a dog on the opposite end of the malevolent spectrum - something REALLY friendly as we didn’t want to go through the pain that was involved in having to “put down” dog number one. We originally were thinking Labrador Retriever, either Yellow or possibly Chocolate in flavor. It just so happened that my sister Sandy had a pair of Golden Retrievers and was involved in a some “backyard breeding.” She convinced us to go for the Gold, and boy are we glad we did!

Dog number two, Ruby, was a lovely dog. She was extremely compliant and an easy dog to parent. While she was not the best looking Golden, by current breed standards, she had a great disposition. She was a bit nervous, especially when her pack was not around, and developed a few health problems - most notably she suffered from seizures (these were very infrequent, occurring only every two or three months, and so we did not medicate her).

Ruby was a wonderful pack member for about 13 ½ years. We finally had to let her go due to hip and joint issues that were causing her to fall, interfering with normal bodily functions (e.g., urinating and defecating) and just generally making her life uncomfortable. The thing that I found most intriguing was that along with her joints, her mind also started to go. She began engaging in some truly odd behavior, like incessant barking when we we were not in sight (something she had never done in the past). Canine dementia was taking its toll.

June 15th, 2009 was one of the saddest days of my life – this was the day we had to say good-bye to our wonderful Ruby. She had not lost her appetite, so the morning of that fateful day, I took her to Taco John’s and bought her a big order of Potato Ole’s – her favorite junk food. This time she didn’t get one or two of the potato treats, she got the whole order!

That brings us back to dog number three - Bella Donna Eden Ursus Maritimus. Bella because we thought the name was fitting (it, of course, means beautiful in Italian), as well as being unique (Janine told me the other day that Bella is now the most common female dog name, in part due to those stupid vampire books/movies, which we were not hip enough to know about before naming the dog!); Donna in honor of her US grandmother; Eden because it sounds nice; and Ursus maritimus because it is the scientific binomial for the carnivore to which she bears a striking resemblance – the polar bear.

So, why start a blog that centers around your dog? Because I thought that I could use Bella as a vehicle to share my infatuation with the canine species! I also love to write, so why not write a blog about my dog – Bella’s’ doggy blog.

BEFORE WE GET STARTED: let me tell you how this is going to work. I am going to begin by sharing the latest Bella news, but will have “flashback” posts in order to share some of our early experiences with our now seven month old Bella-beast. Among the Bella tales I will mix in some dog ethology, canine news and information. I hope you enjoy it!