The Girl Who Got A Puppy

Colton and I decided that we wanted to get a puppy after we got married. On Thursday, August 30th 2010, I had work off so I met Colton in the afternoon at the animal shelter / dog pound over by Tempe Marketplace and the freeway. Let me just tell you that it's not the cleanest/happiest place to be. I always get sad going in places like those because all the animals look so unhappy and I just want to take them all home with me.

We started at the far end in the puppy area. There were quite a few puppies in that day so we took our time looking around. I came across a kennel that had this tiny, sad looking puppy that was shaking in the corner. The sign on her cage said "Chihuahua Mix" a.k.a they didn't know what breed of dog she was. I wanted to hold her so bad but Colton said we should look around somewhere else because we already had a 7 year old Chihuahua dog that is my sister's but has lived with me for the last 5-6 years. He's basically our adopted dog who sleeps 20 hours a day. I was persistent and told him I just wanted to "hold her" so we took her out into the human sized cages in dirt lots that they have where you can "play and really get to know the dogs"... Basically I just held her and she snuggled right up to me and began to cry. I was sold! Now I had to figure out how to convince the hubby. I made him hold her and she did the same thing and he said "oh alright, we can get her." I cheered... out loud! 

They have to neuter all dogs before they leave the facility so we had to come back and get her the next day. I was worried for that whole 24 hours that something would happen and we wouldn't be allowed to keep her. So I stressed as new dog parents often do... Completely normal, right? We bought her everything imaginable that a puppy would need that night. Kennel, toys, food, treats, a cushioned dog bed for relaxing, collar, leash, etc.

The next day we went back and picked her up. She was so tiny and timid back then. I picked her name off a "best dog name" website thingy and we decided to call her Bella. All little kids ask me, "did you name her after Bella from Twilight?" Why yes little kids I named my dog after a vampire-loving-fictional character. You caught me! ... No. We named her Bella because we both liked the name. She now is brown with very little black and has the cutest curly tail.  Here she is as a puppy the day we brought her home...

Colton made me promise that no dogs would sleep on the bed and I agreed, even though I have shared my bed with our family dogs, even our huge chocolate lab, pretty much my whole life. The first night Bella cried all night long. I put my hand in her little bed box and she slept in my hand that night. The next week or so she cried all night, every night. Eventually, after being sleep deprived, Colton let her sleep at the foot of our bed in her little dog bed. She stayed in that for a few weeks but soon she started creeping up to sleep closer to us. She now sleeps right in between us with her head on our pillows and the blanket up to her neck. See:

At least once a week, in the middle of the night when I've been asleep for hours, Bella will start to randomly lick my face and then turn over and fall back asleep. She's so precious! We have absolutely LOVED having dogs. Bella has so much energy and requires a lot of playtime. She loves to play soccer, Frisbee, fetch, go for runs and walks, or go to the dog park. She definitely keeps us super active! She was the best $50 we ever spent. :)



The girl who got the puppy she wanted, Erica