match.dog
"HOW I MET MY TRUE LOVE" love stories about real dogs + their humans
By Laura Montville – Portsmouth, NH
“Bella,” “BB,” “B-Girl,” “Belsy,” “Bella Marie” (when she’s gotten into something) and “My Girl,” an almost 13-year-old black Labradoodle, came into our lives 5 years ago when she was 8 years old. We are her third and forever home! All that we know about Bella’s first home was that she lived in Newburyport for the first 5 years of her life, has a brother named Brody and was a bit, well a lot, overweight at 92 pounds! Her second home, a large family with three children had to give her up when two of the children’s needs became more than they could manage with a dog that also needed love and care. But they loved her and also managed to get the extra weight off her. So, one night while my husband Paul was coaching our daughter Jade’s softball game, he was approached by a friend who asked if we would be interested. We had just lost our black Lab Rainy, our son Ari’s true love, to heartbreaking cancer. It had only been a couple of months, but it felt like it was meant to be. So, after meeting and falling in love…we said YES!
Our previous two black Labs, Augie and Rainy, gave us a lot of experience with the Labrador part of her (or so we thought)…swimming, retrieving the ball, sticks, etc. So, imagine our surprise when we learned that our girl did not like the water, didn’t like to get her paws wet and handled a tennis ball in a very awkward way! We are also pretty certain that she had never been to the beach before. She loves it now and still does to this day.
Bella is so special to us. She is not our active Labrador. She is our oversized lap dog, chill dog, our love dog; the dog that connected our newly blended family with two teenagers together through our love for her. Somehow, she manages to allow each one of us to feel like she is our own very special dog; but she is happiest when she is with all of us…in the car going for a ride with her head out the window in the breeze, or just in the yard nearby us and yes, of course, snuggled on the couch watching movies with us.
Other things we learned about Bella are that she is a stealth food thief ! Stealth! She learned how to open my desk drawer and find my dark chocolate! Yes, the deadly-for-dogs dark chocolate! She has eaten more than any dog should have and survived! Lots of trips to the vet, mind you. I also once caught her with her two front paws on the stove licking out of the pan. No wonder she had gained all that weight! And training? Well, she has successfully trained us to find and buy every treat, just the right bone, given at just the right time of each day! Don’t worry…she still has her slim figure and is quite the beauty queen. And she is just everything to us! Laura Montville is an Organization Development Consultant with over 15 years of experience in the areas of Leadership & Organization development. The focus of her work includes executive coaching, team & group development and organization-wide assessment & problem solving with corporate, non-profit & familyowned businesses. (Email: LauraMontville@gmail.com)
10 seacoastbarkmagazine.com
