Like a creepy cat lady, but with dogs...

Our house has recently been a foster home to random animals within the neighborhood. Miguel jokes that we are becoming "that family with all the dogs" and we'll end up with a huge pack of them and end up destitute. Ok, so we're not seriously that insane. We do like to help out animals when we find them or even foster for a few days when we discover or suspect mistreatment. We haven't kept one...yet...but I know it is coming, as Miguel seems to be on the prowl for another dog. I'm ok with our getting another dog, but I'm not interested in helping to house-train another puppy. We'll see what happens.

So our most recent acquisition has been a yellow-lab mix named Bella. She is awfully cute, has short short hair and is very energetic. Miguel found her on craigs' list and thought she would make our fun little family a bit bigger. She is about 14 weeks old and was kept from having to go to the pound when her owner was deployed to Iraq. The family who took her has 2 small kids and must not have had any idea what it would be like to house-train a puppy without a fenced yard. They decided as much as they loved her, it was time to pass her along because they couldn't handle her.

So our crazy-family enters the picture. Bella seems to get along with the other dogs ok, but she seems to be quite high maintenance. She won't submit to the older/bigger dogs (stubborn little thing), she gets upset if she is not able to sit on the couch and she has no concept of the word No. She doesn't act as though she has ever been disciplined, she digs and she is aspiring to become Houdini - she attempts to leave the yard at every available opportunity. She also proved her previous owner exaggerating when he said she is just about potty trained, as she gives no indication of needing to go outside, and when she is outside, she won't do her "business" until we've come back into the house. We kept her for about 3 days before Miguel decided he didn't want her and passed her along to someone new - someone without any other dogs and with older kids to tire out the high-energy animal. Bye Bye Bella, as cute as you are, I won't miss you.

We handed Bella off to her new owners on a Saturday morning. The following Tuesday, Miguel was in Petsmart and had both Sarge and Sadie with him. He sees Bella, but doesn't think it is really her because the owner is not who we handed her off to. Miguel is a bit puzzled because our dogs aren't going crazy, it's as if they know this little yellow thing, and Miguel mentions to the lady that we were fostering a dog who looked exactly like the dog in her possession. She looks a bit embarrassed and admits her husband found the dog with no collar and after having her for a couple of days decided they love her and want to keep her - but asked us if we wanted her back. Bella looked extremely pampered and happy, so Miguel told her the people we gave her to don't deserve her if they can't keep her in the yard and he let it go at that (and no, Miguel isn't heartless, but this dog was such a handful that I'm sure it's better this way). So Bella has hopefully found her permanent home.