Remembering

Today is February 3rd. It's officially been one month since Belle joined our family. She's such a sweet, loving, funny little dog.

While she looks a lot like C, who we lost on November 20, she's definitely her own dog.

C, pictured above, was a sweetheart. And we still miss her. She was a wonderful dog, too, but she certainly had her weird quirks. We attribute most of that to the fact that, for almost the first eight years of her life (before we got her), she was kept in a kennel and used for breeding. As hard as it was to let her go, we know we made the last years of her life happy ones.

Belle, unlike C, had a pretty normal life before she came to live with us. Her first 16 months were spent with a loving family in NJ. She ended up in rescue because her family got divorced and were losing their home to foreclosure. From November until we got her in January, Belle lived in a loving foster home. They showered her with affection and treated her like the little princess that she is.

When I met her, it took all of about two minutes for me to fall in love with her. Despite wondering whether it was weird that she looks so much like C, I knew she was the dog for us.

Hubby, Meg and I were lost without C. It didn't take long at all for our little "Tinker" Belle to worm her way into our hearts.

Belle, pictured above, has a lot more brown on her than C. And she has a pink collar, which I never would have dreamed subjecting C to. But Belle is such a cute, little girly-girl. To a degree. Looks can be deceiving. She's really a spirited little firecracker who runs like the wind, is obsessed with the birds and squirrels in our yard, and LOVES to run around the yard playing with Meg. C was never a "player"; she never learned how to play.

It isn't just the date that plunged me down memory lane. We just learned that friends of ours had to put their dog down the other day. It brought back memories of what we went through with C. How much we loved that neurotic little dog. How difficult it was to see her suffering. How we tried and tried to bring her back to good health. To no avail. How hard it was to finally make the decision we knew was the right one.

It hurt. Bad.

Our hearts go out to our friends Tim and Lisa who we know are suffering as they struggle to get through this very difficult, painful time.

I'm very thankful to have such great dogs in our life. Having Meg, aka Crazy Girl, and Belle just makes life fuller. I can't imagine life without dogs. I've given them and will continue to give them both extra hugs and kisses today. Losing a dog just makes you love the ones you are still blessed to have even more.

Speaking of thankful... I can't NOT mention Belle's foster parents, Michelle and Chris Falkinburg, who helped bring Belle into our lives. I know they still wish they'd kept Belle for themselves because she is such a little jewel. That's the hardest part of fostering. An article in the recent American Brittany Rescue newsletter about this aspect of foster parenting ended with, "If it helps anyone, remember we are helping some families heal as well as the Britts."

So, Michelle (who I know reads this Blog, desperate for news of Belle), thanks for making our family whole again. We really, REALLY love our new little girl.