Let us preface this with...... Bella LOVES water!!!!

The start of Baby Bella's Happy Tail- note to Carey from Bella's new Mom:

We both knew this was coming, but we went swimming this morning.  I was walking around the pool at 5am in my flannel jammies and bathrobe, fuzzy rabbit slippers, sipping my hot tea, with Bella trailing behind me.  She stopped to get a drink at the steps of the pool and followed me around by the waterfall…and I heard KERPLUNK!!!!.   She sank under the water and I saw her face struggling to get up; it was only 4 feet deep but I jumped in and grabbed her by the skin of her neck and threw her onto the patio.  My pool water is registering at 50 degrees, but it felt LOTS colder.  My bunnie slippers will never forgive me, and my tea cup is on the bottom of the pool.  I got us dried off, and Bella was quite proud of herself, tugging on the fifth towel it took to dry her sopping self up.  Then she barked at her reflection again in the sliding door, but this time wagging her tail.  I didn't know I could launch 60 pounds through the air; my old days of throwing hay bales came in handy.  Her bladder infection is improving; she still wanted out at 1am but only peed twice and then wouldn't stop talking to me until I gave her a small meal - then she crashed until 5.  I've attached some photos; wish I could have had one from the swimming episode!

01/19/10- Update from Bella and Joanne:

Bella has had a very busy week; I picked her up one week ago and we spent a few days just relaxing and bonding (I even took a "sick day" off from work to just play with her!). Then Friday we took a drive to the ranch for the weekend.  I'll let her tell you from her view-

Hey!  Life is Good!!!  My mom loaded me into the car Friday after playing with me all day, and we drove out to the country. I hid my head the whole drive; not sure what was going to happen on this trip, but I knew something was up.  When we drove up to this big house and huge yard, there was a big yellow dog in the yard. Duke.  He was not smiling.  But he came up to the fence, and we sniffed body parts to check out our compatibility, and his tail started to wag (I do have that effect on men!). We were allowed to greet on leashes, and then the games were on! We played tag, tackle, tumble and run for 30 minutes while my mom laughed herself into hiccups.  Driver error once on my part; I was full tilt running with Duke and forgot to look where I was running...mom tried to get out of the way but suddenly there were ten legs and three heads all tangled up on the lawn, and mom was breathing kinda funny.  Knocked the hiccups right outta her. So I slurped a kiss on her, and she was ok.  Then I was placed back on the leash and walked down to the barn to meet the biggest dog I've ever seen..  I'm tellin' ya, this guy makes the Great Dane neighbor look puny.  My mom put me into the stock trailer, "for your safety" she said.  No kidding. No way was I wanting out there with that monster. But I got to watch everything she did, and this huge animal (she called him a 'horse') allowed her to pick up his feet, brush him, and talk to him, and she led him over to my trailer to let me sniff noses. No way was MY nose going to get near his!  I leaned back on my farthest part of the trailer and tried to look nonchalant, but my heart was pounding. So I rolled my eyes and didn't say a word.  She spoke almost as gently with this horse as she does with me, but I noticed he did not get to sit in her lap. So there! Dogs rule, horses drool! (I watched a movie once that said something like that). So my weekend was spent playing with Duke and mom, and getting to know new smells and animals. On the ride home this morning, I did not hide my head, and felt very happy to go for a quick walk before going to my crate for a much deserved nap.  My mom took some pictures which she'll get on a disc today, but some were too blurry from my high speed activities!  Like I said, Life is Good!  And I'm blowing my fairy godmother Carey a kiss for all her hard work at helping all my friends and me.  Ciao-Bella.

02/16/10-
We love mud puddles.....and rainy days with more mud puddles.  We can do sliding stops through the mud that leaves a three foot slide mark!  Ha! can't wait for the pool to warm up.

03/01/10-
Hey, girl.  This weekend Bella was allowed to play with baby Dolly, who is now 4 1/2 months old and not so fragile any longer.  Her puppy teeth are gone, and I kept Bella on a leash for the first ten minutes to be sure they would "play nice".  What a hoot!  I think she weighs about 72 pounds, and I need to put her on a lesser diet and more exercise- but she is so cute!

"Woohoo! Now I have a playmate who plays longer than 15 minutes without running for cover!  I love my baby sister Dolly, who is a blackmouth cur with a little Catahoula leopard, so she has a little speck of blue in each eye.  Wow, she is turbo-charged fast!  She can run circles around me before I can even get my fat self positioned to intercept her, but we played tag, (she won), tug of war (I won), and just plain old dirt wrestling (we both ate a lot of dirt!).   Anytime that I thought I had a hold of her, she would zip out from under my considerable strong arm and run under my legs to escape, usually nipping my behind as she dashed away.  That girl needs some Prozac or something- very energetic!  We finally played ourselves out and crashed in the dirt for a nap while my mom was working with some fencing supplies.  I noticed she would glance at us every four or five minutes to be sure we were doing ok;  I can't imagine why she would think I would do something wrong; eating her loafers doesn't count, because she left them out for me.  And pulling the couch into the middle of the living room doesn't count, because I was just pulling on my blanket, which was stuck.  I think carrying the sack of dog food into the kitchen from the laundry room counts, because I've been told to leave that alone (but I forgot!! ).  Anyway, I'm back from the country weekend, and life is good!  Ciao-  Bella."

07/30/10-

Hey, folks.  It's been awhile since I took time out of my busy schedule to give you an update.  I am now an official Water Buffalo, according to my mom.  I love the water, but I'm so heavy (well-built, I say!) that I sink.  But I can dog paddle and swim in the pool without help.  My mom laughs because I only use my front feet to paddle, my hind feet stay tucked up, and my tail is my rudder!  I cheat sometimes and use my back feet to touch the bottom of the shallow end of the pool while my front end keeps paddling.  I know where all the steps and sitting spots are, and have even swam into the deep end with my mom at my side.  Tried using her for a raft once, but that was a big mistake.  I am allowed to be loose in the house now, instead of in a crate while she's out.  With the one little mistake of chewing up the small rug, I've had a good record.  I wake my mom up at 3:30 each morning by going into her room and putting my chin by her face and sigh; that means I want to go sit outside in the yard before it gets hot.  Life is good!  ciao-  Bella the Magnificent.

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