Never Posted in Here Before! Introducing Bella the Black Lab
Discussion
In my many, many years on PH, I have never once thought to look in this forum!
In March 2013, for my 34th birthday, the then Mrs9 took me to the pet store in Houston, where BARC bring their rescue dogs on a Sunday afternoon. I'd always wanted a dog and she had promised me one for Christmas but it hadn't happened... We turned up hungover and waited for the truck to arrive... Out popped a little black lab puppy called Bella!
The adoption lady walked her up and down the car park, she behaved, I gave it a go and 5mins later I owned a 6 month old, spayed, chipped and vaccinated puppy! All for the princely sum of $50!
In the last 15+ months she has become the best friend I have ever had and I have some great mates! We've been through a lot with the departure of Mrs9, moving house and a nasty parasite illness, which meant I almost lost her (her spleen swelled to 3x the size and she stopped producing red blood cells and platelets) but we always have a good time!
She is a terrible food monster and tries to steal everything you're eating/ cooking and she is probably terribly trained (but she's good with 'potty' and she's very friendly and good with people) because I spoil her but she is the most rewarding little 'person' I've ever had the pleasure to be around.
She is an American/ Field Labrador Retriever, so she is slimmer than the 'English' Labs and has the narrower face and longer snout. She'll never be a show dog but my God she is fit! Loves swimming and fetching a ball. She'll literally swim or sprint for a couple of hours and still not be tired. I used to leave her outside (we have big gardens in Houston) all day so she could play but since the parasite issue and the fact it's closing in on 100°F now, she has become more of a house dog, though we have fantastic parks I take her too every week where she can swim and play to her hearts content.
Anyway, my $50 dog has probably cost me $5k+ in vet bills and repaid me a thousand times over in pure joy! Why did I never get one before?
Sorry for the long, soppy post!
In March 2013, for my 34th birthday, the then Mrs9 took me to the pet store in Houston, where BARC bring their rescue dogs on a Sunday afternoon. I'd always wanted a dog and she had promised me one for Christmas but it hadn't happened... We turned up hungover and waited for the truck to arrive... Out popped a little black lab puppy called Bella!
The adoption lady walked her up and down the car park, she behaved, I gave it a go and 5mins later I owned a 6 month old, spayed, chipped and vaccinated puppy! All for the princely sum of $50!
In the last 15+ months she has become the best friend I have ever had and I have some great mates! We've been through a lot with the departure of Mrs9, moving house and a nasty parasite illness, which meant I almost lost her (her spleen swelled to 3x the size and she stopped producing red blood cells and platelets) but we always have a good time!
She is a terrible food monster and tries to steal everything you're eating/ cooking and she is probably terribly trained (but she's good with 'potty' and she's very friendly and good with people) because I spoil her but she is the most rewarding little 'person' I've ever had the pleasure to be around.
She is an American/ Field Labrador Retriever, so she is slimmer than the 'English' Labs and has the narrower face and longer snout. She'll never be a show dog but my God she is fit! Loves swimming and fetching a ball. She'll literally swim or sprint for a couple of hours and still not be tired. I used to leave her outside (we have big gardens in Houston) all day so she could play but since the parasite issue and the fact it's closing in on 100°F now, she has become more of a house dog, though we have fantastic parks I take her too every week where she can swim and play to her hearts content.
Anyway, my $50 dog has probably cost me $5k+ in vet bills and repaid me a thousand times over in pure joy! Why did I never get one before?
Sorry for the long, soppy post!
bexVN said:
Please don't be sorry, one of the best posts I've read in a while. She sounds a proper gem. Can't wait to see more pics of her 
Well, that's all the excuse I needed!Isabella Lovato-Wright (yes, seriously, bear in mind I live in America so she shares mine and her 'Mum's' names) is about 55lbs so quite small for a Lab, though not super small for a Field Lab. She's a good size for me as she comes everywhere with me and doesn't take up tooooo much room. She loves/ hates squirrels, depending on how you look at it, and I think they've learned how to wind her up into a frenzy in the garden!
She won't eat dry food without mixing soft food in and she has a tin of Sardines every lunch time. I live quite close to my office so I go back and see her for lunch everyday as she's very personable and my secretary-ex-best mate (she's one person but not Bella's 'mum') comes with me as she looks after her when I travel and loves her to pieces. She has a big (he was 100lbs but now around 80lbs) chocolate Lab who is 6 or 7, so he has taught BB a lot... Like how to bark at people
She also has a 'cousin', my other best mate here's dog, Jeter, who is a similar age but half Boxer/ Lab and only around 60lbs. So, she's grown up around them, which is nice and causes no trouble with other dogs at the park etc despite her favourite game being to hold Jeter down by the throat and smash his head into the floor tiles!!!
She does have a slight tendency to pull a runner, about once a month, and I have to drive almost a mile down the road to get her, a minute later! She's just so quick! But I think she goes a bit stir crazy in the house/ garden but since she was in hospital, I have to be careful not to let her over-do it, especially in the heat here! She's still on 4 antibiotic tablets a day and 10mg of Pred steroid, despite it being almost a month later but she'll be off them by the end of next week, I hope.
What else to say? she's just a little character really! She's allowed on all the furniture, sits like a person and sleeps in the bed... I am not a good disciplinarian! The most she gets when she goes for our food is "not for Bella", which doesn't really stop her
I did put her into training while I was home (London) for Christmas but all that seemed to do was teach her to lay down when you give her a treat! Probably not worth the few thousand that cost. To be fair to them, I gave them strict instruction not to "robotise" her as, frankly, I like her the way she is!Else, she goes by the names Isabella, Bella, Bell Bear, Smelly Baby, Otter/ Grotter/ Notter, BB and SB! Basically, she'll pretty much just answer to anything! She doesn't ever bark unless there is another dog outside the metal railings in the garden, doesn't chew anything up (these days) and seems to have gone off her babies (toys) in the last month or so. I guess she is pretty much an adult now (2yrs old in September). And no, she isn't allowed to date
Enjoy
Smiling after a hard morning of smashing Jeter's head into the floor!
She's great, she does have a longer nose than the English lab (but who cares!) I have a young whippet (lost our very very much loved whippet last yr aged 8.5yrs due to degenerative illness- devastated doesn't come close) who is great and been a great therapy for us, he is also allowed on the sofa/ bed etc 
Hope she continues to do well once off the meds.
Hope she continues to do well once off the meds.
bexVN said:
She's great, she does have a longer nose than the English lab (but who cares!) I have a young whippet (lost our very very much loved whippet last yr aged 8.5yrs due to degenerative illness- devastated doesn't come close) who is great and been a great therapy for us, he is also allowed on the sofa/ bed etc
Hope she continues to do well once off the meds.
Thanks Bex - She's a tough little cookie and never complained, even when she was ill - I just 'knew'. You can see it in their eyes!Hope she continues to do well once off the meds.
I can't imagine being without her so she'll be very well looked after and maybe I'll get her a little friend, once I move home!
We learned from shipping two cats from Singapore to Houston that moving animals can be a very expensive business so she'll have to wait a few months or maybe when she's older?!
pad58 said:
Love ours, loving ,devoted, loyal, cheeky, good with kids, and you can train them as a gun dog, a drug sniffer'outa, (if you wanna) blind dog.
They have a load of applications.
Oh and a guard dog, or in our case warning dog , she's a barker.
Bell is definitely a good 'warning' dog but she's never been remotely aggressive towards a person... I think she'd make a great gun dog as she is a brilliant retriever (we play ball/ fetch most days) and she's not scared of loud noises like thunder or flashes like lightening! I'm also tempted to get her registered as a support dog, a la Lewis Hamilton, so I can take her on the plane with me They have a load of applications.
Oh and a guard dog, or in our case warning dog , she's a barker.
Love fields labs. Look nice and sleek. Get her trained as a gun dog, its what she was breed for. And she will be a better dog for it. It won't robotize her in anyway but it will give her life some purpose and she will really enjoy it if she is a keen retriever. Its also great when you see a lab working the field.
Edited by Sexual Chocolate on Tuesday 10th June 11:38
MYOB said:
Just don't mention "Rolex" in here...
Someone did say she was a 'fake Labrador' once - I took great offence!!! Sexual Chocolate said:
Love fields labs. Look nice and sleek. Get her trained as a gun dog, its what she was breed for. And she will be a better dog for it. It won't robotize her in anyway but it will give her life some purpose and she will really enjoy it if she is a keen retriever. Its also great when you see a lab working the field.
She definitely seems like she is from proper working stock! The first time the vet saw her she commented that she'd be perfect for Field Trials and that. I looked at having her trained as a gun dog but didn't pursue it further. She does lack a bit of purpose and I would like to do 'something' with her as she's too good for a 'house dog' really... Might look into doing that again as she enjoys the outdoors and anything that involves running and retrieving.Edited by Sexual Chocolate on Tuesday 10th June 11:38
She's just not very good at sitting still!
MYOB said:
By the by, a lovely dog. She would complement my dog very well, a black/white Springer
PS - they should ban the word "fake" - causes too much aggravation amongst the sensitive souls of this world
Thanks MYOB! I wondered whether a Springer might make a good 'baby' for her in the future...PS - they should ban the word "fake" - causes too much aggravation amongst the sensitive souls of this world
Though my secretary sent me this just now...
That's the spit of BB as a puppy! Apparently one of her friends just got him!
MYOB said:
Stop posting pics of black labs...I so want one!
Do it! Do it! Do it!carreauchompeur said:
Aah, that picture just above makes me want to enter normal Labrador procedure and start tussling with it!
BB went through a phase of sitting next to you on the sofa, staring you down and doing a really little bark and bite action before slowly lunging for you expecting a tussle! She hasn't done that in ages, actually!Just found this thread again as I was looking for pictures of Bell
We moved back to the UK and she settled in really well and is now over 6yrs old. We moved out of town and into the 'burbs with woods and ponds and lakes for her and she's outside 3+ hours a day still. The PH Surrey car meet guys have all met her and she's still the other half of my Velcro. She is a bit greyer these days but she is just the most wonderful 'little girl'!
However, I am sorry to report that she is in doggie intensive care down in Alton, Hampshire. She was sick last Sunday and started passing blood and got progressively worse, despite being on fluids and antibiotics 24/7 since Monday.
They're still not 100% sure what is wrong, or at least what is causing the hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, but she is being well cared for.
We're devastated really. She is no age and she doesn't seem to be turning a corner. She is on an awful lot of medication (antibiotics, anti-nausea, methadone for pain, etc) and breathed in some vomit after being anaesthetised for an ultrasound so she's on oxygen, has a feeding tube fitted, is all swollen due to oedema from a lack of albumen.
The ultrasound didn't show any tumours or lesions but it did show her gut is all inflamed. With any luck it is a treatable bacteria/ parasite/ virus (the last may be harder) but she is very, very sick at the moment as she can't keep food down (is a week today since she ate unaided) and she's losing protein. It could still be a stomach lining cancer but they don't think so but we won't get tests back until Monday.
It was a shame she spent so long with a 'high street'-type vet, who seemed to blindly believe she would just get better (despite never improving and I had to push for referral) but she is in the right place now and I know they will do everything they can to turn it round. She is comfortable on the methadone and is stable, at least.
I can't imagine losing her, really. We've been inseparable for 6yrs and life is pretty much built around her but I am also conscious not to prolong any suffering as she deserves more.
The last 24hrs were critical for survival and she made it, the next 24hrs are critical for her stomach to show signs of improvement. Hopefully we get some good news soon.
Get well soon Bella! We love you!
We moved back to the UK and she settled in really well and is now over 6yrs old. We moved out of town and into the 'burbs with woods and ponds and lakes for her and she's outside 3+ hours a day still. The PH Surrey car meet guys have all met her and she's still the other half of my Velcro. She is a bit greyer these days but she is just the most wonderful 'little girl'!
However, I am sorry to report that she is in doggie intensive care down in Alton, Hampshire. She was sick last Sunday and started passing blood and got progressively worse, despite being on fluids and antibiotics 24/7 since Monday.
They're still not 100% sure what is wrong, or at least what is causing the hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, but she is being well cared for.
We're devastated really. She is no age and she doesn't seem to be turning a corner. She is on an awful lot of medication (antibiotics, anti-nausea, methadone for pain, etc) and breathed in some vomit after being anaesthetised for an ultrasound so she's on oxygen, has a feeding tube fitted, is all swollen due to oedema from a lack of albumen.
The ultrasound didn't show any tumours or lesions but it did show her gut is all inflamed. With any luck it is a treatable bacteria/ parasite/ virus (the last may be harder) but she is very, very sick at the moment as she can't keep food down (is a week today since she ate unaided) and she's losing protein. It could still be a stomach lining cancer but they don't think so but we won't get tests back until Monday.
It was a shame she spent so long with a 'high street'-type vet, who seemed to blindly believe she would just get better (despite never improving and I had to push for referral) but she is in the right place now and I know they will do everything they can to turn it round. She is comfortable on the methadone and is stable, at least.
I can't imagine losing her, really. We've been inseparable for 6yrs and life is pretty much built around her but I am also conscious not to prolong any suffering as she deserves more.
The last 24hrs were critical for survival and she made it, the next 24hrs are critical for her stomach to show signs of improvement. Hopefully we get some good news soon.
Get well soon Bella! We love you!
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