A STORY ABOUT A SPECIAL

DOG AND HER BONE

Once upon a time there was an old man and his old wife who lived in a comfortable little cottage near the water. The weather was almost perfect every day and they wanted for nothing, but they felt that something was missing in their life. They lived far from their children, grandchildren and sons in law, and they missed them terribly. The old woman yearned for a baby to hold and cuddle. The old man loved to be cuddled, but he was so tall and skinny that it just was not the same.

One day the old woman saw her neighbor’s little dog and she fell in love with her. The old lady begged her kind Husband and he finally agreed that they would go visit these puppies that were such a very special breed. Even the old man was captured by the sweetness and beauty of these little darlings. They were shown pictures of the father who was a champion and they read all they could about the breed (Havanese). The Havanese once were the lap dogs of royalty in Spain.. The old man and his wife decided that they would adopt a little girl and she would be named “Isabella of Harrington Lake.”

Their precious little bundle weighed only 3 # when they brought her to her new home. They had spent hours at the Pet store buying the best food, a good size crate, a special padded bed for the crate, beautiful pottery dishes for her food and water, plus a number of expensive toys to keep her happy. They were told that Havanese were very bright, so they always used the correct name when they gave Bella her stuffed animal. They wanted her to know that when they called out “Bunny”, Monkey, or Squirrel she would pick up the right one. Unfortunately, the old man and his wife were up in years and they could not remember the names so had to settle for just one word “toy” for all of the animals which by this time overflowed from the large basket they bought for her.

The old woman started noticing changes in her husband He never had an interest in cooking, in fact he avoided it, but suddenly he became passionate about fixing gourmet meals for Bella. He bought the most expensive dog food and only used a small amount in her dish and then covered it with small pieces of cooked chicken and topped that with a nice cheese. If that did not please her he would open a can of broth to make it more appealing. He insisted on being the one to take her for walks. (There was never a bit of poop in the yard because he meticulously picked it up all of the time.) The old woman was able to sleep late in the morning because her husband wanted to be the one to walk Bella.

When Bella became two years old, the old man and his wife felt that Bella was about the smartest and most perfect dog in the world. They referred to each other when she was in the room, as Mommy and Daddy. They were not aware of it, but some of their friends had real concerns about their stability. They tried to control themselves but one day the old woman had to share what an unusual dog they had. She told the story that a week after Easter 2010, she found the Leg of Lamb bone she had given to Bella under her bed sheets (the old women’s sheets). She had forgotten about the bone and had no reason to think that it would appeal to Bella after it was “bone dry”. She put it in Bella’s basket and forgot it until the next day, when she found it under a pillow on the sofa. Each morning after Bella finished her breakfast, she would remember where she hid her bone and then get it and place it somewhere else. She did not want the old man or the old woman to watch her. If she thought that they saw her, she would hide it again, so some days she might hide it two or three times. The old man and the old woman found it great fun to look for Bella’s bone each morning. They often could not find it and would coax and plead with her to show them where she hid it. They thought it amusing when they saw Bella’s attempt to place the pillows back after a “Hiding Ritual.”. It was a dead give away. To this day, Bella never forgets where her bone is and each morning puts it in another place.

Veterinarians will tell you that it is in a dog’s nature to dig and hide a bone outside in the dirt, but since Bella is an indoor dog she does not have that opportunity. The old man and the old woman still believe that she has inherited a unique talent from her ancestors in Spain and they do believe that Bella is the only dog with such talent. The question that the old man and the old women ask it this: Bella is now 2 ½…how long will Bella keep hiding her bone?