Dear Fredericka, 4/7/2003

I wanted to share a Bella story with you. We had a pretty severe storm last night, very noisy and lots of rain. The storm scared Bella, which seemed odd to me because she has never been bothered by a storm before. I had the front door open so I could listen to the storm, and our son wanted to look at the storm through the screen door. As he started to go to the door, though, Bella put her body between him and the door and would not let him get past. She kept moving so that she was in front of him and using her head to push him back.

About three minutes later, the Emergency Broadcast System was activated and the town’s tornado sirens went off. A tornado had been sighted and was on a near direct path for our neighborhood. Thankfully, the tornado never touched down. We are all fine and had no damage from the storm. Bella knew that something wasn’t right, though, and she was not going to let her boy go near that door! She takes her job as protector very seriously and I know beyond a doubt that she would do whatever she could to protect us without a thought for her own safety.

Laurie

Hi Fredericka,
Just wanted to give you an update on Bella. I kept putting off sending this. I was hoping to get some pictures developed so I could include pictures ofher for you. I haven’t had time to get any of our film developed yet, but I promise to send you some photos once we do!

Bella is doing wonderfully! She is definitely a “mama’s girl”. She not only follows me around all day (including into the bathroom!), she takes every opportunity to steal articles of my clothing (just mine) from the dirty laundry – not to chew up, just to curl up with! She is bounded with the whole family, though.We all just went through a bout of the flu, one right after the other. Bella was the constant companion of whoever was sick. She would curl up with whoever was the patient that day. We decided that she is a furry hot bottle that licks you some times!

Anytime the weather is good, Bella walks with me to go get the kids from school. Children I have never seen before all seem to know her name. It takes us an extra ten minutes (at least) to leave because all of the kids want to visit her before we leave. She loves it and she is tremendously gentle with even these strange children.

In case you can’t tell, we are absolutely crazy about Bella. She is a sweet natured loving animal and I can’t imagine not having her as part of our family!

Thank you so much!
Laurie

Hi Fredericka,

I hope all is well with you. We can’t believe that Bella has already been with us for a year! She is such a great dog, sweet natured and loving. She is my constant companion, following me all around the house. She sleeps with our daughter, Hannah. I no longer have to worry about Hannah kicking off her covers. She and Bella snuggle up like a pile of puppies, and Hannah is always toasty warm in the morning! Thank you for bringing this wonderful animal into our lives. I truly can’t remember what life was like with out her.

Laurie