Bella

As many of you know, I have a dog. Her name is Bella. She is a harlequin Great Dane. She is my baby. She is the best dog ever. I am sure I will be mentioning her a lot, so get familiar with who she is. I adopted her back in 2004. I was living in Statesboro, GA, going to school and I was fostering dogs trying to find my perfect pet. I then found Bella, who has turned out to be the worlds most perfect dog... for me. While she may bark at any noise she hears, imaginary or not, she has provided undying devotion to me ever since I picked her up in Pembroke, GA 10 weeks after she gave birth to a litter of puppies I never got to see:(. After living with me a week I found that I never had to keep her on a leash because she would be by my side no matter what. Let's just say she had a little bit of separation anxiety. Still does, but at least she doesn't tear up the carpet and door frame anymore. Anyways, our first couple months together were hard. Its tough adjusting to responsibility when you are still in college. I lived with 3 girls, Kelly, Loni, and Amy in a 4 bedroom apartment and while I know they enjoyed having a dog around that they didn't have to pay for, it got a bit annoying when Bella would greet every guest with growls and barks and when she would do laps throughout our 1000 or so sq ft apartment. After that we all moved our separate ways. Bella and I got a place with my boyfriend at the time and it was a nice big 3 bedroom house with 2 dens and a huge backyard. B loved it. She got to romp around anytime she wanted plus we lived across from camping so we would go on hour walks daily. those were the days. There were some hard times, like the parties we threw and the fact that Bella would make herself clear that she hated having people over. Too bad for her, the parties continued. One night my friends and I got home from the bar after a night of heavy drinking. One friend harassed Bella by barking at her and it lead her to be freaked out and growl and bark back. We sent Bella to the corner in a dark room and commenced talking. What I didn't realize is that my boyfriend and roomie David, had gone around to check on Bella. He got in her face quickly and she bit, not hard but enough to cause Davids face to bleed in multiple spots. Lets just say not ideal for a dog to do. We moved past that and months later brought a puppy into the household. Little Hobie, a yellow lab aged 5 weeks was here to stay. Bella and Hobie love each other now and always have but there was some rough times there as well. Hobie tried to play with Bella while she was snoozing, she pierced his ear. Hobie tried to take a bone from Bella while she was chewing on it she split his tongue so that now he goes through life with a snake tongue. Bella plays to rough on Hobie, he cries and hides between our legs. Hobie grew up though and learned all of Bella's idiosyncrasy's. They are now best buddies. Unfortunately, they no longer live together; David and I split after college yet we still remain friends and the dogs get to have vacations with each other every couple of months. I now live in a 650 sq ft apt in the Virginia Highlands in downtown Atlanta. While this isn't ideal, though Dane's don't require much space, I know Bella is as happy here as long as she is with me. Which is fine and dandy with me.