For Belle: Our Life Was Sweeter

 For Belle: Our Life was Sweeter

Just over two years ago I watched love happen before my eyes.  John and I were at a fundraiser at the Finger Lakes SPCA, and one of the staff was walking an elderly beagle who had been at the Shelter for some time.  The dog stopped at John and he squatted to greet her.  I knew instantly that we were getting another dog.  Within a week Belle had joined our household.

Belle had been an honest to goodness hunting dog, and, even in retirement, she kept her skills sharp.  When she sensed something or someone walking by the house, from her perch on the couch in the front room, she would let lose with a bay that would rattle the windows.  Walking with her was an adventure. She never stopped sniffing the ground and wanting to veer off the sidewalk or trail to follow a scent.  She also had a sneaky side, an uncanny ability to grab something gross and hide in her mouth or swallow it before you had any idea what was happening.

In the end, this may have been her downfall, as she died yesterday at the good old age of 12 of what appeared to be an intestinal blockage.  Something went down there and got stuck.  Perhaps something she snuck outside or possibly one of the toys we recently got for our new kitten.

Belle appreciated a good rub down from me, but John was the love of her life these past two years.  I had never before imagined him in the role of “a boy with his dog,” but he was all that.  And Belle was most definitely a dog with her boy, all forty pounds of her on his side of the bed every night.

Belle had come to the Shelter after her previous human companion died far too young.  It happened that he was someone my siblings and I knew from our school days and around our hometown.  All accounts were that he adored Belle and she gave him several litters of beagle pups.  I hope that there has been a reunion between Steve and Belle, but I also know Belle will keep a place in her heart for John.

Our life was sweeter—even if for too short a time—with one of the sweetest dogs God ever made.