Another Beloved Canine

Today she's been gone four years--Belle, aka Belle Starr (the bandit girl), Missy B,, Baby Girl etc. I still miss her in so many ways. If you are blessed with at least one 'angel dog' in your lifetime, you are so lucky; I've had more than one but Belle is in the midst of that number.

Belle was the dog who came into my home to keep Rico company after Sadie had crossed the

The shot that won my heart

Rainbow Bridge in the fall of 2006.  I contacted Aussie Rescue in Arizona and she was the one who was meant to come to me. A sweet lady in Phoenix who was the state coordinator at the time--I seem to recall her name was Alice--sent me two photos of a girl who'd been taken in and fostered in Kingman. I fell in love at once. In January 2007, Rico and I made the trek to Glendale, Arizona where we met Belle's temporary folks and I brought her home. She seemed tiny beside Rico, who was a big moose of a dog, but she was a standard sized Aussie.

Belle was a classic blue merle with copper points--legs and some face markings. She had one eye that was neatly divided half brown and half blue and a tiny wedge of blue in the other eye. When she came to me her poor little muzzle was terribly ulcerated to the point tissue had been eroded. I took her to the vet the next day and she was diagnosed with

After about six weeks' meds

Discoid Lupus, an auto-immune disorder that impacts the mucus membrane tissue. hers was concentrated in her nose. From that day on, I treated her with prednisone, which is a nasty drug but the only thing that would suppress the condition. I used a ton of salves and treatments and finally got to where I could give her 2.5 mg a day instead of the 20 she started with but we could never cut it out all the way.

As I've mentioned in the past, the match of Rico and Belle was not made in heaven. They ad a bad fight about a week in during which Rico bit me badly enough that I put Belle in a crate and him in the house and drove to the ER--where triage kept me waiting for most of nine hours! Things went fine for months but gradually the fights became more frequent and more severe. I knew I had to rehome one of them or there would be a tragedy since trying to keep them completely apart was almost impossible. In the end it was Rico who went. That broke my heart but I knew it was the only choice I could make. I have prayed often that he had a good and happy life.

Belle was happy as an only dog and got very bonded with me, She went nearly everywhere with me and only a few times was left in a kennel. Part of that took place while I was moving from Whetstone to Hurley, NM in the late summer of 2008. She also went with me when I moved to Colorado the

Snow dog in CO

next spring. She did not get along too well with Kaycee, my brother's young male Blue Heeler; they had one bad fight while I was back in Arizona later that year and were not left alone unsupervised after that. Kaycee was a rowdy bully at times and Belle did not know how to play. She perceived any roughness as an attack and would fight to the death although she was never the aggressor.

Dear MissyB had one weakness and that was food! She could not resist a tempting  morsel and would go to considerable lengths to  get outside  of one. I could share a dozen stories about some of those escapades but I'll save them for another time and place. Still they were part of this very unique and special little girl's one-of-a-kind character. More than once I was torn between fury and laughing my backside off at one of her little acts of banditry!

Belle and I walked nearly every day from the time Rico left us until the last few days of her life. We walked along the road to tombstone in Arizona; we walked all around the main town of Hurley; we walked over a large neighborhood in Colorado Springs, and then we walked in Alamogordo.  As 2012 went along, I knew she was slipping, almost noticeably every day, The walks got shorter--just down the street to the LDS churchyard where she enjoyed walking in the soft, green grass, often wet with dew or from the sprinklers. I started putting booties on her to help her keep her footing on the laminate floors in the house and I upped her dose of tramadol to keep her calm and ease her pain. She had arthritis and aso the prednisone was taking its toll on her organs.

Belle and Rojito--Aug '12

Finally the day came that I had dreaded. She was telling me that she needed to be set free. My brother and I held her as she slumped down and drifted away. I had her cremated and my plan is that her ashes will be scattered with mine when that day comes. Meanwhile she waits at the Rainbow Bridge near the head of a wonderful pack of my dearest friends, with Flash and Alanna and Madra and Sadie. For now I have little Rojito (he had bonded strongly with her in the few months after he joined our pack in June 2012). and Ginger to maintain my connection to dogdom.  Ginger is not Belle but a sweet girl in her own right and another link in my life-long chain of rescued canines. No, I have never bought a dog and never will. There are too many that need someone to rescue and the Doggie Deity always sends the right one my way.  Go in peace and harmony, Dear Belle, always loved and always near my heart.