About the Dog

I can't believe I've been blogging for almost a year, and with the exception of a passing sentence or two, I've never really blogged about the Dog. Meet Bella. Bella is now almost 5 years old - we got her when we still lived in the townhouse in Annapolis. She was our "townhouse" dog - cute, little, easy to care for. Now that we live on 3 acres, she rules the roost, or at least she thinks she does. She's been known to run off wildlife, but with the big property, she doesn't know the boundaries, and we're often running around trying to find her - mostly on the road or in the yards of our neighbors.

Bella is a Shih-Bich (pronounced She-Bee). Her father was a Shih-Tzu, her mother was a Bichon Frise. She's highly playful and acrobatic from the Bichon side, but also a bit tempermental at times - a gift I suppose from the Shih-Tzu side. This side rarely shows - only when one of the boys is up in her "stuff", but for the most part, she's really good natured and loves to play, especially the "puppy game", where she, Mark and the boys run as hard as they can around the house rough-housing and chasing toys and in general, being very wild and giggling like crazy (the boys, not the dog!).

She's a great watchdog - although she tends to bark at squirrels, swirling leaves and even sometimes if the sun comes out and shines on the carpet she'll have a fit and bark at that, mostly when the kids are napping. She also tends to be very territorial and has been known to bite more than a few delivery people, meter readers and the guy who fills the oil tank. Luckily, though, she's so small, most of these guys just laugh at her - good thing, because they'd have a good lawsuit if they wanted one.

Anyway, Bella's a true joy - she's pretty spoiled and sleeps on our bed at night, but I guess we owe her that much for helping to keep the kitchen floor clean! At any given time, you'll find her under Matthew's high chair - and can you blame her? All kinds of yummy morsels kind of rain down from above - if I were a dog, that's where I'd be!

I know in the description of my blog I call her a "gross little dog", and there's good reason for that - she does have some very disgusting habits! I won't bother describing them to spare you the graphic, just trust me. But we wouldn't trade her in for the world. As dogs go, she's the best.