Bella--09/19/2006
We have also found Mia to be very intuitive. We’ve witnessed her sitting calmly & quietly in the vehicle (while we run briefly into a store) and other customers get in their cars, passing directly next to our car window and she’ll simply watch them with great interest & intensity. A child might pass by and she becomes excited & ecstatic with the thought, “Oh, boy! Someone to play with!” While with certain others, even at a good distance, she’ll take quite a disliking to—and about rips the windows out of the vehicle with rage! It reminds me of us—sometimes we see someone, smile, wave or speak to them while with others, we simply get the feeling that we must lock our doors and walk on the other side of the street. Animals are very good judges of character—and I trust Mia’s instincts as well as I do my own!
Having been in contact with Mia’s original breeder, we learned in March of 2006, that there had been a second litter and three, 6-wk old puppies that were in dire need of rescue & adoption. After unsuccessfully trying to locate homes through German Shepherd Rescue, I was able to place 2 pups in private homes and through a telephone call, received the words, “You didn’t get rid of MY PUPPY, did you?!” from, you’ll never guess…my husband, Joe! My only reply was, “YOUR puppy? We HAVE a puppy!” But, I’m such a sucker for animals; one couldn’t have pried that pup away had they wanted to! Bella had been the largest of the litter, and so loaded with worms & bacterial infection, that it was heartbreaking. But we’ve a great vet with great & loving techs and they fixed them up in no time! I never saw two dogs love the vet’s office as much as Mia & Bella do!
Though Mia & Bella are from different litters and 5 ½ months apart in age, they do have the same set of parents, so they are true sisters!
Mia was very protective of Bella—no one could touch her unless Mia gave the OK. She was sister, mother & protector—and a little tight on the apron strings—Poor Bella wasn’t even allowed to retrieve a ball or stick without Mia’s permission (which was rare). As a mother—and youngest sibling myself, I knew this was not good. I soon had to insist that they had to take turns, which meant I had to hold one while the other retrieved; & they know exactly whose turn it is; it’s very comical!
With Mia’s coat short to medium long, she’s grown into a tall, slender, very majestic Shepherd with beautiful markings and a deep bark. She would make a magnificent show dog, as she is also prone to prancing. And has a rather, “Timmy-fell-in-the-well Lassie-smarts” where she will actually pull you to where she wants you to go, whether it be to play ball, Frisbee, “take me outside”—or the house next door is on fire (yes, she did convey this one day)!
Bella is now 8 mos. old and has grown as tall as her 13-month old sister, Mia. But in comparison, Bella has much darker black markings with longer hair like the mother, and like the sire, has black spots on her tongue, found to be inherent in black & tan dogs. Compared to Mia, Bella is broader & stockier with heavier, thicker legs & paws and has a blunter muzzle. Bella is the lover, the licker, the one who wants to be near you at all costs—and MUST be touching you, as she lays her paw on some part of you while laying next to you for security; and the most ticklish dog I’ve ever seen! I never thought I’d say this about a German Shepherd, but there is only one word that describes Bella—“Goofy”! Unless the two dogs are side by side, it is oftentimes difficult to tell them apart—until Bella gives you that “goofy grape” look! Lol You know, “Duh, yuk, yuk! I’m a good girl, yuk, yuk!” LOL
Bella loves to hold a ball in her mouth, and after Mia runs to retrieve the ball, Bella “asks” her—yes, it’s true—Bella gets Mia’s “permission” and takes the ball from Mia’s mouth and brings it back for you to do all over again. If Bella fails to “ask”, she might get snapped at & scolded at the same time, as Mia is very vocal! Oftentimes Mia will tangle with Bella & play tug-o’-war then literally toss the ball from her mouth at Bella’s feet as if to say, “Ok, I’m finished with it; you can take it to her now.” They are little children!—Ok, they’re worse—my children never kept me up all night and my children were very well behaved. Ok, so I lied. After having had the “Angel Child”, my youngest son kept me up the 1st 4 months and we called him, “The Beast of Borneo”. Hmmm…déjà vu!
John, my 1st born, was a clean freak like Mia. Bella, like my youngest son, Richard, can’t find enough dirt to amuse her or find enough trouble to maintain my tears of laughter! If it’s not holes of dripping, clay mud with which Bella’s instigative digging has now covered them both—the two of them look like I’ve dipped them in chocolate—it’s balls of fluff that they’ve pulled out of their stuffed “babies” of teddy bears, cows, socks & squeaky toys and strewn across the carpet; Bella’s been a very bad influence! If it’s not waste baskets they’ve gotten into, it’s paper they’ve found and chewed into bits under the bed, down the hallway, and in their food dish. If it’s not the pebbles they’ve strewn everywhere by dashing on & off the porch during play, it’s the fire pit they’ve gotten into, & are now covered in soot & drug any trash they could find out of it—regardless of its charred embers—hot or cold; I pray they don’t catch the woods on fire! If it’s not these antics, it’s the trench they’ve made around the work building as they play their game of “’round and ‘round, I’ll chase you ‘til you drop”! YA GOTTA LOVE ‘EM! Pamela