Four years ago this month, we found Bella, a miniature long-haired dachshund, abandoned on a street in Bellevue, WA.\u00a0 We tried to find her owner to no avail–no chip and no tag means whoever dumped her didn’t want to be found.\u00a0 Once my husband laid eyes on the seven pound, starving, shivering waif, it was indeed love at first sight.<\/p>\n
Our first problem upon taking her in was learning to communicate.\u00a0 The commands we customarily used with our dogs, grand-dogs, and occasionally even husbands were a foreign language to her.\u00a0 In order to get us all on the same page, we took her to the Academy for Canine Behavior in Woodinville for two weeks of live-in board and train.\u00a0 Here’s a hat tip about the Academy.\u00a0 Over the years nine of our family’s dogs have gone there.\u00a0 That way we ALL use the same commands.\u00a0 And when one traumatized rescue dog named Snowflake came along, they kept her for two weeks to evaluate whether she could become a “family” dog.\u00a0 (She did!)\u00a0 But that’s something I want to mention.\u00a0 Rescuing a dog is complicated, and the Academy offer’s free evaluations to help make that assessment.\u00a0 The Academy’s trainers are professional.\u00a0 They are not MEAN.\u00a0 This isn’t your basic drill sergeant style of dog training.<\/p>\n
That was an aside–a commercial, if you will.\u00a0 Since I don’t have any advertising on my blog, I guess I’m entitled.\u00a0 Now, back to the blog itself.<\/p>\n
Bella went into the Academy for two weeks.\u00a0 In the course of that time, she leaned to respond to her new name.\u00a0 (We didn’t know her old one.)\u00a0 Her trainer let us know that her astonishingly bad breath as well as her reluctance to eat were both a result of very bad teeth.\u00a0 So while she was at the Academy, they took her to a doggie\u00a0dentist in Woodinville.\u00a0 If you’re into addition here, let me say that two weeks of board and train were one thing.\u00a0 Having the dentist pull 14 teeth was another expense.\u00a0 Within the first two weeks, license and shipping not included, we were in for the better part of three thousand bucks.\u00a0 Free to good home indeed!<\/p>\n
Bella is not a dog that will hold still for tooth brushing, so her teeth have continued to go south.\u00a0 A trip to the dentist last year had to be postponed due to a liver enzyme being out of alignment.\u00a0 Now, with that under control, Bella went in to the dentist this week and so did I.\u00a0 I had a crown replaced.\u00a0 Bella lost several more teeth.\u00a0 Guess who Bill lay awake worrying about the night before?\u00a0 It wasn’t yours truly.\u00a0 And when the two separate bills came, Bella’s came to $500 more than mine.\u00a0 To his credit, Bill paid both without a murmur of objection.<\/p>\n
Am I jealous about that?\u00a0 No.\u00a0 In the past several years I’ve learned my place in the universe.\u00a0 When Bella’s with me on tour, you can bet there are a lot more people taking photos than when I’m there on my own.\u00a0 So no, I don’t mind playing second fiddle to the little imp–not at all.<\/p>\n
The second or third night after she came to live with us, Bill and I were sitting here watching TV and heard a strange noise.\u00a0 When we looked over at the kitchen table, we found that Bella had made her way up onto the table top, removed the lid to the butter dish, and was helping herself.\u00a0 (We learned not to leave the butter on the table after that, and yes, you can teach a pair of old dogs new tricks!)<\/p>\n
Bella’s face is still swollen, and she’s supposed to be taking pain meds.\u00a0 As you can imagine, getting her to take pills is a job for both of us together.\u00a0 Pill pockets?\u00a0 Not on your life!\u00a0 Hide the pill in her food?\u00a0 Nope, that’s not gonna happen.\u00a0 Wrap it in peanut butter?\u00a0 No, thank you.\u00a0 Not for her.<\/p>\n
And so, for the time being, we’re taking a break from the liver enzyme until she’s feeling less stressed and is in less pain.\u00a0 And the only way to get her to take the pain meds?<\/p>\n
Slather them in butter, of course.<\/p>\n
Bella’s probably ten or so by now.\u00a0 Her muzzle has turned white.\u00a0 We asked about dental implants for puppies.\u00a0 Those are done only in San Diego to the tune of $8000 a tooth.\u00a0 I’m sure Bill would be willing, but Bella doesn’t have enough bone left for the implants to take, so that option is off the table.<\/p>\n
As for the question at the beginning of this blog–How Much is that Doggie\u00a0in the Window?\u00a0 The answer is lots, but worth every penny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Four years ago this month, we found Bella, a miniature long-haired dachshund, abandoned on a street in Bellevue, WA.\u00a0 We tried to find her owner to no avail–no chip and no tag means whoever dumped her didn’t want to be found.\u00a0 Once my husband laid eyes on the seven pound, starving, shivering waif, it was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[149,76,77],"tags":[80,40,79,78],"class_list":["post-723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bella","category-pets","category-veterinarian","tag-academy-for-canine","tag-bella","tag-rescue-animals","tag-vet"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3nsBA-bF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":724,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723\/revisions\/724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jajance.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}