I was always the one sending Jason ads for cute puppies I wanted to bring home. We’d talked about getting a dog for a while, so when he said he was getting me a puppy for Christmas, I was over the moon.
We agreed he would go to the breeder alone. He would pick one based on personality. I would just pick them all based on cuteness, which isn’t practical. He held a couple of her littermates, but the one who chose him was Bella. She nuzzled up under his chin and fell asleep on his chest. Six pounds of adorable squish and wrinkles, and she had him completely undone. He took a selfie of the two of them and my heart softened right along with his.
I patiently waited until I could go meet her. And then the day came and I was nervous. What if she didn’t choose me the same way she chose him? I was wrong. She snuggled right into me, licked my chin, and fell asleep. I’ve always liked dogs, but I didn’t know I would fall that fast. It wasn’t even a question. She was ours.
We thought of lots of names, but we settled on Bella, because it means beauty. And my gosh, is she ever.
A few weeks later, we finally got to bring her home. I remember her looking up at me with these huge, sleepy eyes from the passenger seat, and that face just got me.
I didn’t fully know what to expect since Bella is my first puppy. Growing up we had dogs but my parents did all the work. Now this little girl was looking at me to protect her, train her, play with her, and love her.
She’s been my velcro shadow since day one. Kitchen, couch, bathroom, car rides, doesn’t matter. She grew so fast but she never stopped following me around. We go to bed at the same time. We work out and go for walks together. We work on recipes together. She’s a “why are you eating without me” dog with this enormous, goofy grin when she’s happy, tongue out, ears back, like she just won something. I have about four hundred photos on my phone that look exactly the same because I can never resist that face. She’s my best friend and I’m just so thankful to be her momma.
I never planned to become a person who talks about her dog this much. But here we are, and I wouldn’t change a thing.