Beautiful Bella

I’m picking up a lot of new dogsitting clients, I’ll be bouncing all over the place in June, and this past Saturday night, I got to hang with two beagle mixes, Bonnie and her sister Bella, shown here desperately trying to nap on the couch while I shove a camera in her face.

No, that’s not dirt or a piece of dried poo on Bella’s snout, that is in fact a growth of some kind. You can see two others on the right side of her face, and one on her paw, and there’s a big benign mass bulging from her left shoulder.

Her owners rescued her from a Beagle adoption place seven months ago, and are considering surgery for her to get rid of all stuff. The doctors say if they want to go through with the surgery, it’ll slow Bella down a bit for the recovery period, and that made her owners seriously consider it, because despite this picture, Bella is one rocket of a dog.

I’M SERIOUS.

Here’s what she looks like when she’s rolling on her back, wanting a tummy rub:












Here’s what she looks like “at rest”

She won’t stop moving unless she’s trying to take a nap. She’s always on the go, and she is one happy happy dog. Her tail is endlessly wagging, she’ll smile at you, she always wants ear rubs, tummy rubs, pay attention to me FOREVER.

Bella does not care what she looks like. That growth on her nose is totally in her eyeline, she knows it’s there. But she doesn’t care. I never saw her paw at it, trying to get it off.

Meanwhile, I have a small small zit on my face and I’m convinced I’m hideous.

I’m convinced dogs understand the concept of shame (yell at a dog when they’ve peed in the house and witness it for yourself) but they don’t understand self consciousness. To go further, no dog is gonna make fun of another dog because they’ve got some weird black thing sticking out of their face that’s not their nose.

Dogs don’t give a flying flip what they look like. Unless you put a Christmas hat on them. Then they know they look dumb.

Bella is beautiful. I grew to love those things on her face in the short time I was with her. And I adored the pink lining of her thick floppy ears that just so happened to match the quilt she was taking her nap on.

I need to be more like Bella.