All’s Well That Ends Well: A Story of Bella, and Pepper and Avalune and, Finally, Leto
by Avalune
“Don’t get a dog while I’m gone.”
This is Leto, preparing to leave for Iraq. I give him a look that says “who me?” But don’t go as far as batting my eyelashes. And I didn’t set out to ignore his only request. In fact, I still blame my supervisor, who very helpfully pointed out that he couldn’t “kill me” for bringing home the tiny bundle of eyeballs because he wasn’t here.
I was working at a long term psychiatric treatment facility for adolescents when one of the school teachers brought in a litter of black and tan puppies. “Huntin’ dogs” she said. I didn’t want the cuddling of the smallest girl to end – so it didn’t.
?? Jingle Bells ??
It is almost Christmas and I named her Jingle Bell, or “Bella” for short. I start sending Leto pictures of this tiny creature curled up on my desk. Giant, slightly alien eyeballs, and fur.
“What. Is. That?”
“What is what?”
This is how he is introduced to Bella.
The drive to South Carolina to visit with the in-laws for the holidays is a good solid 10 hours, if you only stop as often as you must for fuel. Bella is uncontainable unless I let her curl up on my thigh, so that is how we make the drive.
The first two nights in the kennel are abysmal for everyone with the howling and crying and thrashing, so eventually I try putting the kennel next to my bed and this calms her. She isn’t eating well, so Leto’s mother and I go find puppy milk and other soft foods to try. Bella doesn’t eat any of them. One morning, my father in law hands me a plate of eggs and Bella crawls straight up the side of the arm of the couch like a furry Spider-Man and when she’s reached the summit, launches herself into my plate of eggs. We watch her scarf them down with wonder.
?
Eggs huh? Eggs it is then.
We fix her plates of eggs for a couple days until I make the drive back home and take her to the vet.
“Look at these gums,” the vet tells me, prying her lips away from her teeth. They are stark white, like her sharp little teeth. He checks her tail to tip and gives her some shots. He tells me she’s riddled with worms as he snaps off his gloves. “Ah, they swore she was wormed” I tell him. He assures me the medicine will do the trick.
And it does. Her appetite burgeons. Her energy abounds. She little spoons our older Labrador, Pepper, who looks at me with those long suffering lab eyes while ducking errant stick ends or other trash Bella seems to prefer to toys. She is all teeth and sass and finally starting to grow into her huge eyes.
She likes to play with the in-law’s boxer. Her favorite game is to hide under furniture where Chelsea can’t squeeze her broad chested body or jowly face. Bella pops out like a Dune sand worm, biting biting, then retreating back to her hole. It’s an unfair game but Chelsea is determined.
Pepper mostly ignores them both.
Leto is resistant. She is clearly my dog. But her expansive personality is hard to ignore. Where Pepper is well behaved and predictable, Bella is curious and clever and opinionated.
We eventually decide she must be a Manchester Terrier. Also sometimes called a Manchester Terrorist – by cat owning friends, or at least she was before there was a Manchester Terrorist and it seemed insensitive. She exhibits classic terrier behaviors, what we call “dog brain” in which all sense, common or otherwise, is completely abandoned when she catches a scent or sees something interesting.
She’s too large to be a purebred terrier – the normal size of the non-toy breed being around 25-30lbs, while she is 40-45lbs. Manchester Terriers or “Manchies” are a lightning combination of whippet and rat terrier. Usually the ears are clipped to be upright, so their prey have less to latch onto. As a testament to the breed, she pulls when she walks, too eager to poke her face into anything remotely resembling a hole in the ground and races towards any lump on the ground that might indicate the shape of say, a hedgehog or a bunny rabbit – even if it proves to be the same rock over and over again. When she isn’t chasing rock buns, she likes to snuggle in covers, or pillow forts in the manner of a whippet.
???????
She is patriotic but respectful of the host country, howling through the entirety of God Save the Queen and the Star Spangled Banner at precisely 5pm every weekday in England. She knows several Italian words, many of which she ignores, such as basta, piano, cattiva.
Bella has an entire language of growls and whines and barks which she deploys mostly to plead her case for an extra treat, or to talk back when she is in disagreement. She is moody sometimes and will show teeth and growl/grunt making her sound like a gator. Unfortunately, it’s too adorable to take seriously, and so is generally ignored up until the nose wiggling involved in her show of teeth required eventually results in a sneezing fit. We stop whatever has earned her ire – usually petting – and laugh and point. She does not like to be pointed at.
The only thing she hates more than being pointed at is getting a raspberry on her belly. Though dangerous with the flailing legs and teeth, completely worth doing periodically, because it winds her up like nothing else. After a raspberry, she runs circles and barks indignantly before demanding compensation for her insulted ego.
She is immensely protective of me – launching herself at anyone who gets too close, comes up on us too suddenly, or has the gall to tell me good morning. And Bella is slow to warm up to strangers, though strangers will often try to bribe her. She will accept the treat and then kindly tell them to fuck off. In the case of strangers we invite inside, she will tolerate a pat but growl and bear her teeth at them. Should they stop patting, due to the intimidation, she pushes her head into their hand, as if to say I have not released you. Once she has decided she likes you, she will throw herself at you when you arrive, with such gusto she cannot be resisted.
Leto could not resist either but the next dog, he says, has to be his dog.
***
Update: Bella “singing along” with one of the anthems.
WaterGirl
I loved all of this, Avalune. I feel like I’m right there with you. And I love that face! I smile back when I see any photo where she’s looking straight at me.
WaterGirl
Everyone: Interested in writing something up and sending in pics of your (non-human) friends for their own time in the spotlight? If so, drop me a line via email.
Avalune
@WaterGirl: It is a feat of cinematography to get her looking at the camera, so I smile at those too lol.
Kristine
I love Bella.
Terrier brain. I get that. I don’t know what type of terrier my Gaby is in part, but it’s obvious that it’s in there somewhere and that it rules her brain.
Miss Bianca
Oh, too freaking cute, what a story
ETA: Just went back and looked pictures of puppy Bella, and the squee-o-meter went into the red and blew up.
Amir Khalid
Manchester terrier, huh? Does she support United or City?*
*Sorry. Lame football fan joke.
Dorothy A. Winsor
No one could blame you for adopting that dog. How could anyone resist?
Avalune
@Amir Khalid: She’s more a Chelsea fan as mentioned above. /snort
Avalune
@Kristine: It really does take over everything.
@Miss Bianca: Puppies are so darling – it really isn’t fair.
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Obviously!
Avalune
@Miss Bianca: Pepper was not a fan of Bella but they were so adorable. As Pepper got older, Bella was her eyes and ears a bit, going to get her when we arrived home or alerting her to things outside. Pepper would trot outside and bark while looking around clearly confused as to what they were barking about.
WaterGirl
@Dorothy A. Winsor: We’ll see if Leto drops by…
WaterGirl
@Avalune: Maybe sometimes it’s enough to be barking, and you don’t have to know why.
Leto
@WaterGirl: I did! FYWP decided it didn’t like my heartwarming story of a doggo worming her way into this cold dead heart and proceeded to eat my comment! A boy and his dog reunited upon his return from Afghanistan and Qatar! I don’t count Iraq as we had only known each other for two weeks prior to my “re-introduction” to the pack.
Avalune
@WaterGirl: They actually did earn the favor of a neighbor because they alerted her that a man was coming up behind her. Nothing nefarious but she hadn’t noticed until the dogs sounded off. Bella misses ole Pepper. I’m not sure Pepper would miss her though lol!
Avalune
We do have one of those heartwarming videos of her peeing all over the place so happy to see her soldier return home ?
*edit I know you are an AIRMAN but the video titles for those are always “soldier”
Baud
What a sweetie.
WaterGirl
@Leto: I’m sorry your comment was eaten. I just checked pending, spam and trash, but alas it was not there. :-(
WaterGirl
@Avalune: If you can throw it up on YouTube, I will post it in the thread. Unless Leto wants to remain mysterious.
Yutsano
@Leto:
How wude!
I will say the one thing my mom never did was get a dog while my dad was out to sea. Having the dog get pregnant* and have puppies however…that’s a different story!
*This specific dog was from my uncle and he wanted to continue her bloodline. That never happened, although Vizsla/Lab puppies are ADORABLE!
Elizabelle
Wonderful essay.
FYI: SpaceX launch at 3:22 today. Looks like a go. 9 minutes and counting.
https://www.nasa.gov/content/live-launch-america-nasas-spacex-demo-2-mission-to-the-international-space-station
Shall we have a thread for it??
SiubhanDuinne
Bella is a cuteheart!
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: I just put up a new post for SpaceX.
Leto
So when I returned from Iraq, one of the things we did was find a new church, and become integrated into it. One of the things the church offered was community gardening plots in their big adjacent field. On one my outings over to tend our garden, I thought it’d be a cool thing to take the new pup with me as a bonding/get her out and sniff around type thing. I put her in the back seat of the car, drove her over, parked the car, got out and went to the back to get her. Opened the back door, picked her up and put her down on the ground, reached back inside to get the leash, turned around and she was gone. I called her name, did a quick 360degree turn, but she had up and vanished like a fart in the wind.
I then proceed to spend the next 20 minutes frantically looking for this dog because if I have to call back home and tell Avalune that I’ve lost her new BFF, I’m pretty sure that I just need to drive away and never come back. But that’s what I eventually do, call.
Me: “Hey… so don’t freak out, but I’ve lost Bella. *quick explainer of the situation and how long I’ve looked for her*”
Her: “I’m coming right now.”
Me: “I’ve got the car. Let me come get you.”
Drive back home, find Avalune 5 mins out from the house walking like a mad woman, get her, go back to the church where we proceed to get out and do the same frantic search. Avalune has one of those clicky devices in-hand because she’s been “training” Bella to “listen” (audience laughs along with narrator), and is in the process of shouting her name and furiously clicking this device. She then proceeds to shout my name, points into another field beside the bank, and says, “THERE SHE IS!” She being the idiot dog, gleefully chasing birds all around in the open field, just having the time of her life, oblivious to the fact that she just pardoned an innocent man from a death sentence. I sprint over to her (back when I had working appendages), leash her, and basically immediately hand her back to mom because nothing will stop mom from being reunited from her once lost but now found kid.
And that, kids, is how your mother almost killed your father.
mrmoshpotato
Ha! Necktie! Excellent!
Leto
@mrmoshpotato: we have a strict dress code while working at Villa Tabor. Yes we do.
Avalune
@WaterGirl: I don’t know about that one but I did slap up one of her howling along to the anthems. Though I really should have turned the dang TV down lol!
https://youtu.be/qcWqKOMe9eQ
Avalune
@mrmoshpotato: I put together a work from home newsletter for my team and it included pictures of our “coworkers.” So that week, she was working in accounting. :D She was most unhappy about it and would NOT wear the glasses.
Yutsano
@Avalune:
To the consternation of many a Marine. On the other hand, it’s a great way to learn new swear words.
columbusqueen
If you need a dog sitter, e mail me.
WaterGirl
@Leto: Someone has been hiding their story-telling skills, and it’s not Avalune!
Funny now, not so funny then. It’s terrifying when you lose them, even for a little while, because you don’t know how the story ends.
WereBear
I’m always in favor of mutual bribery. That’s why last time I got TWO kittens, and each of them chose a favorite human ?
WaterGirl
@Avalune: I added that as an update up top. She almost seemed sad when it was over.
WaterGirl
@Avalune: A good girl would have worn the glasses. Yes, she would! Who’s a good girl?
Mohagan
Ah, terriers! I rescued a rat terrier from the side of a freeway and luckily a good friend of mine first fostered and then adopted her, so I get to be godmother. I’m a cat lady, so keeping her was untenable. She was also dubbed Bella (Twilight was big then). She is now the older queen of the house, with 2 younger dogs to rule. My friend says she is “practically perfect “, although I must admit she digs and can disembowel the squeak box from a squeaky toy in 15 seconds flat. She is my favorite dog.?
JPL
lol So I’m the only one whose dog is bored with all this pandemic stuff. Although I still let the neighbor boy walk the dog, the neighbor is no longer allowed in my house. Normally he comes in and we have a snack and visit. Even today after all these weeks, months, or whatever the dog had a hissy fit about the neighbor not coming inside. I’m a failure.
zhena gogolia
Great story.
WaterGirl
@JPL: The 14-year-old in the house behind me who has walked Henry (from spring thru fall) since I broke my ankle a couple of years ago didn’t even call me this year.
Henry adores her; she adored Henry. sigh.
Leto
@WaterGirl: haha, it comes out in fits and spurts!
@WereBear: we’ll probably do that after her. I think at times she was lonely when we were both off at work. Honestly I know she was. We were gone, her favorite boy was gone, so it was just her home. But she has both of us full time now, and even when Avalune eventually returns to her work location she’ll still have me here full time (I can’t work). She’s happier, we’re happier. I hope this is a permanent change as a result of the pandemic: more pet inclusiveness.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Leto:
LOL. When I saw you in the next thread, I knew I had to come back here and see how the intro to Bella went.
Avalune
@Mohagan: Ha, yes she is a destroyer of toys of the squeaking variety!
@WereBear: This is a good idea!
@JPL: Awe!
J R in WV
WE got two new youngster dogs a year ago now. The very next day, they ran off into the wooded hillsides of WV. For one thing, they were born on a diary farm and treated more like livestock than house puppies, and didn’t know to bark when they wanted to come in.
They were gone for a week, and so skinny when they showed up, finally. I was so frantic. Now they’re embedded in our home life, so affectionate, so sweet, so dumb. They chew anything, the boy actually ate my Samsung tablet!!! He shattered the glass screen, and some of the electronics inside.
I forgave him, got a new tablet, which he is on notice not to eat!!
Leto
@Dorothy A. Winsor: oh man, we definitely were giving each other the side eye. A definitive, “Wait, who are you???”. There was a learning curve for both of us, but she’s one of my favorite people now :)
Elizabelle
@J R in WV:
They keep journals, to this day. They won’t publish, though, until you and the Mrs. have passed. They like their easy access to prepared food.
Leto
@J R in WV: I remember when they got lost! Oh man. Glad they’ve settled down, somewhat. :)
Elizabelle
Bella is a darling. She looks like a dachshund to me, in profile. Surprised she is in the 45 pound range.
She has an interesting pedigree. Maybe a grandparent who hung out at Carnegie Hall. Or La Scala.
My late beagle sang too. To sirens and to people who were singing to her. I miss her. The hound characteristics.
WaterGirl
@J R in WV: I remember that! I can’t believe it’s been a year.
I think you may have spared us the details, because I don’t recall that they were gone for an entire week and were so skinny when they returned. Or maybe I just remembered the happier parts, they were gone, then they returned!
Sab
Bella looks a lot like my late lamented girl Slick, who died two years ago. ( So named because my stepson thought her shiny mostly black fur looked like an oilslick. It did.)
My stepson found her abandoned at a very tender age, under 10 weeks, gaunt and shivering hiding under a car in a February snowstorm in NE Ohio. She lived to be almost 16 and had a happy life. My 10 year old German shepherd adopted her as the puppy she was never allowed to have, and interrupted all human discipline.
Slick got to about 60 pounds. We never figured out the possible breed mix, but she was a beautifully proportioned graceful girl. She was mostly happy.
She was absolutely phobic about going out of sight of houses for her whole life. We have a big county park near our house and when we went on walks in it and got beyond the house she would jump up, wrap her front paws around me and whimper. All the other dogs loved the park.
Avalune
@Elizabelle: She does have the weenie dog coloring but she’s way too big. I follow someone on Instagram that has a man hue and a minpin which also has similar coloring. So cute!
Avalune
@Sab: Awe! What a sweetie!
I sometimes end up with a dog in the shower with me when there are scary noises she doesn’t like.
pat
We had a Manchester toy terrior. When we were camping and sitting around the campfire, my dad would get out his harmonica and Princess would sit on his lap and howl just like that.
Sab
@Avalune: Our post Slick dog is a handme up from my step-daughter named Delilah. Delilah ends up in bed with me in thunderstorms, although she, a 65 rottmix, is utterly terrified of my 15 pound tuxedo cat. He is equally scared of her but has more sense than to show it. So I park each animal at opposing ends of the bed and we weather the storm together ( sort of).
Mohagan
@Avalune: Instead of squeaky toys, we now get her almost indestructible chew bones (the kind made for hard-core chewers), which she then happily chews and chews and chews.
Avalune
@Mohagan: Bella is not a fan of those. We have a seal that I wish I knew what brand because it has lasted forever. Otherwise we just do Kong plushies until she kills them. Certain shapes last longer than others and as she gets older she’s not quite the killer ?
dp
What a sweetie! Personality-wise, she sounds a lot like another Bella I know: our Arabella, a Catahoula Leopard dog. Our Bella also has a wide range of vocalizations, which tend to amaze neighbors when we take her on walks! Her nickname is Swiper, because she’s constantly stealing things.
WaterGirl
@dp: Swiper. What a great name.
Avalune
@dp: Swiper No Swiping!
The neighborhood kids called Bella Shredder. Probably because she would poke her snarling face under the fence gate and bark at them…and she chewed a hole in the fence so she could snarl at the neighbor’s dog. In other words, it was probably earned. Lol!