Bella

This is Bella, our neighbours’ Labrador who is very much a feature of our lives as six days a week she meets up with our dogs for the long morning walk. Bella has been fostered by our neighbours for several years now. At one stage Bella and our Viszla , Zoe were inseparable and were always play fighting when they were together but age has calmed them down and it’s only when they initially meet up that they jump all over each other.

Bella has two passions in life, chasing balls and playing in water and both are illustrated in my blip. We think that her previous owner did not take her for long walks but threw a ball for her to chase. So this is her version of gaining human attention. She is always reluctant to give up the ball if she thinks the game is about to finish and my wife and I have to resort to various ploys to get the ball back. Somehow she seems to have a sixth sense and always knows when I am about to put the ball away so instead of returning the ball to me she hangs on to it like grim death and as you will probably have noticed she is a stocky individual so there is no way we are going to win a straight-forward tug-of-war contest.

Her other passion is water and she will nearly always dive into a river, a pool or the sea if the opportunity presents itself though I’ve noticed this winter she is no longer so keen to jump into the ice cold river.

She is a lovely friendly and affectionate dog who is liked by all and as the ball-thrower I get special attention. The other dog at the end of the pool is our andalusian podenco, Baxter who is a rescue dog who has been with us for nearly a year now.