Oh dear, sweet Bella. I can’t believe you’re gone. I can’t believe I won’t ever hear the jingle of your dog tags or feel you poking me with your nose to go outside. I won’t ever kiss you good morning or good night. When you left us, you put a huge, gaping hole in my heart.
Bella’s Story
It was on February 27, 2020, when Bella came to us after I received an urgent text message from a fellow owner of Dobes and very dear friend. We used to show and breed Dobes together. She had found a notice on the bulletin board at her local grocery store.
The text read:
“Can you give this girl a home? She lost her original owners due to the wife passing away and the husband going into a nursing home for dementia. They had no children. She has 24 hours until she is taken to a vet to be put down.
The sister of the wife, who is the executor of the estate, brought her home with them and has given a 24-hour ultimatum to find a new person for her or else she’s taking her to a vet to have her put down.”
I already had one Dobe who was aging and semi-ill. I wasn’t sure how it would work out—would my Poochinella accept this dog? Would Bella accept an aging older Dobe? Would our cat Kitty Amazin’ accept another dog into the household, as Kitty Amazin’ ran the house? But I was NOT going to let her be put down due to this person not being an “animal person!”
I boldly said yes, crossed my fingers, called them to see if Bella was still available (she was), and drove off to pick Bella up immediately. If worse came to worst, I would foster her until a loving home that Bella deserved could be found.
When I arrived at the house, Bella was in their garage. This is where she was kept.
“I don’t want dog fur and slobber from her eating all over my house. Besides, she’s used to being outdoors all the time,” explained the wife, who quickly left me with her husband.
Her husband and I entered the garage to meet Bella. She was lying on her bed in a crate that was too small for her, looking so sad, confused, and rejected. She just lifted her head to look at us. She trembled whenever she saw the wife come into the garage to say something to us.
I calmly and slowly walked toward Bella, speaking softly. She stopped trembling and looked at me with sad, pleading eyes, as if asking me to help her. I sat down on the floor next to her, opened the crate door, and started to pet her. She immediately sighed and put her head into my hands. Eventually, she came out of the crate.
I had brought a couple of Poochinella’s and Kitty Amazin’s toys with me and let her sniff them. Bella seemed interested but not overly excited about them. At that moment, I knew Bella was coming home with me, and I felt in my heart that everything would be all right.
I said “I’ll take her” to the husband, as the wife had left the garage again.
The husband gave me the backstory on Bella:
The couple who owned Bella had a farm with some horses and a couple of barn cats down in Illinois. They had no children. They adopted Bella from either a rescue organization or a local shelter when Bella was about six months old. They kept Bella up to date on all her shots, took her twice a year to get her teeth cleaned, and took her to the groomer monthly.
They took her with them whenever they went to the store or just for rides around the countryside. Bella was mostly a farm dog and stayed in the barn with the horses and barn cats. She had her own bed there. One of Bella’s quirks was she loved to either chew her nails or eat the clippings when her nails were trimmed. The farrier used to bring her cow hooves—those were her only toys.
The husband did woodworking in a shed, making items that their neighbor would take and sell at craft fairs. He was outside most of the time, and Bella was his constant companion. She followed him everywhere—even when he rode the horses. They even went fishing out in his boat. Bella had her own life jacket. She was more bonded to him than the wife.
As the years passed, the wife became sick with a heart condition, and the husband was beginning to show some signs of dementia. As she got sicker, she started to stay in bed more and more, so the husband would sneak Bella into the house to keep him company as he watched TV.
One day, the wife passed away. They assumed the husband didn’t notice because after a few days passed, their neighbor saw that the mail was not being removed from their mailbox and called the police for a wellness check.
That’s when they discovered the wife—deceased, with meals piled up on a TV tray next to her. The husband told the police he didn’t know what to do. She had stopped eating and was just sleeping all the time, and he couldn’t wake her up. He was unaware she had passed.
The police contacted the sister of the wife, who was on all their paperwork (checking accounts, savings accounts, deed to the house, insurance policies, etc.). The sister and her husband came down from Wisconsin to make all the arrangements and stayed there for 3+ weeks cleaning out the house, getting the husband into a nursing home, selling the horses to the neighbor, and listing the property for sale.
The wife wanted to surrender Bella to a local shelter, but her husband insisted Bella come home with them. She was not happy with it but agreed, as long as Bella stayed in the garage. He told me he hoped she would come around and they would be able to keep Bella, but no such luck.
He then packed up my van with her leash, bed, and her food, and hugged her goodbye. Bella had no toys; her food and water bowls were old Cool Whip containers. The only thing of Bella’s that they brought back with them was her bed. He asked me if he could come and visit Bella from time to time. I said yes…but he never did.
During the 30-minute car ride home, I spoke to her, telling her it was going to be all right and telling her all about Poochinella and Kitty Amazin’. Bella just lay on the seat listening to me talk, not once looking out the windows.
When we arrived home, I put up a gate to slowly introduce Poochinella and Kitty Amazin’ to Bella. It couldn’t have gone any better. They accepted each other immediately, as if they were old friends or knew what Bella had gone through.
From: Nanci