My wife Karen and I adopted Bella on Tuesday 12 August. Our dear Bella passed today, 20 August. She was a very, very sick little girl. 

We first saw Bella at Pet Smart adoption day on Sunday, 10 August at the Springfield Pet Smart. What really attracted me to her was her coloring. She was almost the exact opposite of our dog Charlie, who is mostly black with some white and white-black spots. Charlie is some spaniel and some beagle. Bella was mostly cocker spaniel with almost the exact  opposite coloring. She had mostly white with some black and black-white spots. But she had a raccoon mask of black on that cute white face. 

Bella was skinny as a rail. Her eyes were gunky and her nose was dry. But, I called my wife and she came to Pet Smart straight away. We both knew we wanted her - we wanted to put some "meat on those bones" and bring her up to good health and make her happy. And, besides, the Trainer at Pet Smart, Michele Giarrusso, was so excited when she saw me come in because she was sure I "wanted" this dog. She was right. I wanted Bella as soon as I laid eyes on her. 

However, there was a problem. Another person had had put in an application before us.  The only chance we had to adopt Bella was if the other person, for some reason, turned out not to be the right fit for her. We didn't hold out much hope. But, as luck would have it, the other person had a cat that just was NOT a match for little Bella. On Monday night (11 August) we got the call and set up an appointment for Tuesday. We took Bella that night. She fit right in here with our two male cats and Charlie, our other dog. She would push Charlie on their walks, trying to be in front. And when Charlie would bark, Bella would bark. When Charlie would get sniffing on a trail, Bella was right behind him. They were so cute together. Charlie was her big brother. And she loved it. We spent some quality time together over the weekend and the first few days of the week, chasing butterflies and sniffing who knows what. 

I had taken her to our regular Veterinarian on Friday the 15th. He was concerned about her eyes, ears and skin. We got the medicine for her eyes and ears and took blood for some other diagnosis. Those came back with "high protein" and "low thyroid." I picked up the thyroid medicine on Tuesday, 19 August. I tried to get the urine sample the Vet wanted but Bella was a "hit and run" urinator. I didn't have a chance! I might add that one of the worst things was the fact that her front teeth had been worn down from trying to chew her way out of confinement. (God will take care of the people that did that to her in another way and at another time.) 

We took both Bella and Charlie on their walk this morning (20 Aug). Everything appeared normal. But when we returned Bella drank a lot of water and then threw it up. Then she threw up her breakfast. We decided not to feed her any more today. I came home at 11:00 and found another pile of vomit. I took her immediately to the Vet. By 4:00 she had taken a turn for the worse. We then took her to SouthPaws at 5:30.

After X-rays, blood tests, ultrasounds, and a myriad of other tests it was decided that this poor girl had a tremendously enlarged liver and spleen, possibly a perforated colon (dark contaminated fluid in her abdomen), in addition to the low thyroid and high protein.  The Vets told us that Bella could "possibly" be saved with a lot of procedures and medication. But the chance they gave was only 50-50. And, more importantly, they said Bella would possibly get back to good health, but should would definitely have a tough time of it and would certainly suffer through a lot of it. 

It was at this point that Karen and I decided that God needed to comfort this wonderful creature and we had done all we could do. At 7:10 P.M. we let her go. So, for a period of eight days we like to think that we provided some happiness to this wonderful little girl. She could wag her tail like you wouldn't believe when it came time for a walk. 

May she rest in peace......... 

We love you Bella.........