Bella Goodbye

Bella Goodbye
Originally uploaded by studio583art.

The Last Post.

And in so many ways the most difficult.

We are completely devastated and overwhelmingly crushed with grief, we have lost the center that was our heart.

On June 29th, 2008, we had to let Bella go. Bella was diagnosed with subungual squamous cell carcinoma the week before the Memorial Day Weekend. We had been working closely with Dr. Stubbs, Bella's Internist and Dr. Corse her surgeon to make the right decision for her treatment. We decided to amputate the toe and she came through the surgery like a champion. She maneuvered the splint and did not allow it to slow her down.

During the past few weeks, she had developed an infection in the toe next to the one that had been amputated. We continued to visit Dr. Corse with follow ups and the toe began to heal slowly. Unfortunately, early Friday morning on June 27th, Bella experienced her first of three seizures. Another would follow thirty three hours later. By Sunday morning, we knew our time together was limited, through council with her vets we knew that she had developed a brain tumor. That morning we decided to take her to Stone Mountain for a good car ride that did not involve a vet visit. The morning was great, she got to walk around, smell things and explore as much as she wanted. She had a really great morning. The sky was overcast and there was a nice breeze in the air and she was happy to be with us on yet another adventure. This would be the last the three of us would share together and this time will always be treasured and adored.

When we returned home, Bella had her third and final seizure. This one was the worst and when we got her back from it we could see in her eyes that she was tired and could not go through another. We have always been told that we would know when the time was right, and worried that we wouldn't, but like always Bella guided us and told us what she needed us to do. It was the hardest decision we have ever had to make, but we knew we had to let her go. We made arrangements, we did not want her to have to go through another seizure. She did come back to us one last time and we were able to say our good-byes and she each gave us the tenderness of her heart. She passed in her own home on her own bed peacefully.

We will miss her deeply.

Thank you to all her wonderful friends here and across the world, it has meant so much to us to have been able to share our beloved Bella with so many. Yes we are in the process of writing a book of Bella's story and if we are able to get it published we will let everyone know.

This will be our last post.

As always, love from Team Bella...Gwen & Scott

Bella & thewrapping

Bella & thewrapping
Originally uploaded by studio583art.

The wrapping of a foot...

We were just sitting around wrapping B.'s foot and figured,
"Heck, this is pretty darn fun, bet others would enjoy seeing this oh so exciting even!"

Oh, ok, maybe it's not thaaaatt exciting, but hey it's still pretty funny - the girl is still a ham for the camera, silly thing.

Don't get too close, Bella will get you with a kiss.

OOna cottoncandy

OOna cottoncandy
Originally uploaded by studio583art.

The OOna kitty evil mastermind getting a little love...


Obey the OOna kitty!

Bella smiles

Bella smiles
Originally uploaded by studio583art.

She always smiles!

And so the angry foot strikes again, damnit. At least little Miss. B. doesn't let it get her down, always ready for a giggle and a smile.
Well, we have gotten most of the swelling in her angry foot down, though the infection (which was mostly in her middle toe did cause her nail to fall off and of all places right outside the vets offices. So you can imagine there we were 8:30 AM, going in to see Dr. Corse, (we think little B. has a crush on her new favorite doc, since the foot thing started, we have been back and forth to see Dr. Corse 11 times, and yes, we now think that Bella is just trying to come up with stuff to see her doctor dreamy). So course we are both saying crap...crap...crap cause once the nail came off she's finger painting the whole lobby, not what you want to see when you are trying to get the foot better. The good thing is that with the loss of the nail, it seems that the infection is on it's way out (Clavamox is a good thing!), the bad thing is the club bandage is back and it has to be changed out twice a day which means we had to take a crash course in how the properly change and dress the foot. Fun, fun!!
Well, it's really not that bad, the purple nose princess is a super patient and will let you manhandle her without any complaints. She never tries to nip you or stop you from doing what needs to be done. Her foot and toe really are looking much better, believe it or not, we're hoping, with the way it's going down, that her foot should back to normal by the weekend.

Oh, and how great is Dr. Corse...he gave us his personal numbers and email so that we could contact he at any time of the day or night. What can I say, Bella charms them all, she's just such a little doll, she melts every heart.

Bella angeleyes

Bella angeleyes
Originally uploaded by studio583art.

YAY!
The swelling in Bella's foot has gone down and continues the reduce, hopefully by the end of the weekend she will have a normal looking foot (well at least normal for a bellaceraptor).

Just thought it would be nice to post a shot of her tender eyes instead of another foot shot.

OOna 7lb. lover

OOna 7lb. lover
Originally uploaded by studio583art.

Yes, the OOna kitty evil mastermind is alive and kicking, sorry she hasn't been posting her evil schemes of late, it's just been everything we can do tio keep up with the Bella monster and her foot thing. Poor OOna has been doing all this evil world domination planning and her minion #1 & #2 have been too busy to help her carry them out.
What's an evil mastermind to do! Well, anyway the world is safe for now, but soon the OOna kitty evil mastermind will reign again. WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHAH!!! (that was the OOna kitty, not me...I swear...)

Oh, the OOna kitty is still only 7 lbs, she just looks huge in this photo. She was not happy with how big it made her look, she prides herself on her little tiny figure.

Obey the OOna kitty!

Mighty Bellabigfoot2

Mighty Bellabigfoot2
Originally uploaded by studio583art.

I know, I know, not a cutsie photo to look at, sorry about that, hopefully the swelling goes down tomorrow now that she's on the Clavamox.

Read the previous post to more info.

Thanks, love from Team Bella.

Mighty Bellabigfoot

Mighty Bellabigfoot
Originally uploaded by studio583art.

The Mighty Bella Bigfoot

Can you say OUCH!!!!!

Poor thing, she finally gets the bandage off, all is going well and then she gets an infection and her poor foot blows up. Man, really sucks. It happen over night while we were sleeping, woke up to mighty bigfoot (luckily she still on Tramadol for pain and it’s awesome). So we had to run over in the morning to see Dr. Corse so he could examine it. The good thing is it seem to be just a small infection and baby got more drugs – Clavamox – which should along with epson salt soakings should take the swelling down and get her foot back to normal.
Tell you what, doesn’t slow her down though, takes everything we got to get her to sit still and someone said they slow down at 13. HA! The little cutie is soooooo ready to get this over with and go for an adventure!

Will keep everyone updated, thanks so very much for all the support!

Love from Team Bella!

Bella threetoes2

Bella threetoes2
Originally uploaded by studio583art.

The 15 toe Bellaceraptor!

No more bandage!!! And the purple nose princess’ toe looks incredible, there’s still a little swelling in the center toe and her skin is a little dry from where the bandage has been but considering she just had a toe removed and the cancer is all gone (yes, it’s all gone), the little storm trooper is doing amazing!! Dr. Corse is really proud of her.
She’s still has a minor little sore on the side of the middle toe and of course the swelling should go down in the coming days, but she can put her weight on it and in fact is back to acting her silly self. We’ve just gotta watch and keep little master tongue girl from licking while it completely heals.

Thanks for all your wonderful, kind words for our little purple nose girl.

Bella threetoes1

Bella threetoes1
Originally uploaded by studio583art.

The 15 toe Bellaceraptor!

No more bandage!!! And the purple nose princess’ toe looks incredible, there’s still a little swelling in the center toe and her skin is a little dry from where the bandage has been but considering she just had a toe removed and the cancer is all gone (yes, it’s all gone), the little storm trooper is doing amazing!! Dr. Corse is really proud of her.
She’s still has a minor little sore on the side of the middle toe and of course the swelling should go down in the coming days, but she can put her weight on it and in fact is back to acting her silly self. We’ve just gotta watch and keep little master tongue girl from licking while it completely heals.

Thanks for all your wonderful, kind words for our little purple nose girl.

OOna blueyeblur

OOna blueyeblur
Originally uploaded by studio583art.

Videos of the evil mastermind in action are coming...soon

Well, you know the great evil mastermind has to get her propaganda out there and brainwash the masses, heehee

Obey the Oona kitty!

Bella magicagain

Bella magicagain
Originally uploaded by studio583art.

Bella is Magic...again

As all dog owners come to find out, crazy and doing what they want to do come hand and hand when it comes to their special little furry one, and this is especially true with a weimaraner. As much of a velcro dog as Bella is, she is also very independent and definitely strong willed. If she decides she wants to do something, she will freaking figure out a way to do it, special-needs dog or not.

So as you might have surmised, Bella has once again done one of those, "How in the hell did she do that!" kind of things. This time it was when we ran out to go buy a new dryer (since the stupid old one died). Since we could not take her with us (way to hot), she had to wear the dreaded cone and we figured it would be safer for her while we aren't there if she were just in the very front part half of the house, which would still give her the dinning room (we don't have a dinning room table so it's just a room), the breakfast room and the kitchen. This still gave her a lot of room, the problem is our dinning room and front living room are connected with no doors, just a doorway (she usually gets this area too while we are gone but we thought it might be too much with the cone). So we blocked off the doorway with the sofa and some other furniture, non of it small or even low to the floor.
We figured there's no freaking way she could get over it - you know, weak hind legs, wrapped toe and a cone to boot. Well shows what we know, silly humans. Not only did she get over it, we can't figure out how she did it. She somehow climb over two pieces of furniture with (once again) weak hind legs, wrapped toe and a cone and was sitting on the other side in the other half of the room - smile of course (she always thinks it's funny when she does something that we can't figure out. The crazy thing is that nothing was moved, it all looked the same except for the silly weime on the wrong side of the room. Oh wait, I guess I should the crazierest (it's a Bella work, trust me) thing is we had to run out again and we stacked the furniture even higher and she still was on the other side. AND NOTHING WAS MOVED! She is magic I tell you, magic!

Crazy little weime.
Have a great weekend! Love from Team Bella!

Bella pinktoe

Bella pinktoe
Originally uploaded by studio583art.

Sorry for the confusion…

It seems that my last Bella post wasn’t clear, very sorry. What I meant by Bella and the dryer battle was that through washing and cleaning of all things Bella the dryer finally gave up, throwing in the towel to the many things that Bella is so good at messing up. You see, when you have an older dog sometimes they can have some incontinence issues, which little Miss. B. has. She also has some UTI’s that we are always battling because of the weakness in her hind area. We treat the UTI’s with Baytril, which does an incredible job of controlling it but the bacteria won’t go away (and we and our vets have tried everything). The Baytril is good (though expensive – $4 a pill) because it has given her back a lot of her control.
So, being that everything that is ours is Bella’s, we decided that we would never not allow her to go or by on anything in the house, studio or anywhere we go (putting in just one room was never something that we were ever going to do to her, what’s ours is hers so we had to find a way). This meant that we had to find a way that if she had an accident we could clean it up easily and not have everything smell like pee. Bella always feels so bad when it happens and has to get as far from it as she can. So we did a lot of research and from that we now not only have everything waterproofed, but we also have found some of the best stuff to clean with. I know it sounds strange, but everything that we own is waterproof and since all three of us (oh and OOna too) like nice materials and what not we had to figure out how to cover beds (ours, Bella’s), rugs, sofa and etc, etc, etc. Now you may have notice that there aren’t as many great waterproof products out there for dogs (though in the last year it has gotten better), so we started looking at the human incontinence option. Whether for your baby or older person, you would be amazed at how many wonderful products are out there that are made for humans that work incredibly for your dog.
So, how did this kill the dryer you ask? Well, if we have something that isn’t made of a waterproof material (like area rugs) then we wrap it in some Neatsheets or other waterproof barrier and then cover that with a quilt or nice sheet. I know, it sounds weird, but trust me, it not only works, it has made our lives so much easier and our wonder pup can be with us anywhere in the house. The great part is that when someone comes over, they never really know unless Bella has an accident while they are here. The only down side is the washing. Now you know why the dryer died.
Oh, and yes she also wears cotton doggie diapers at times too.

ps. There are some incredible cleaners out there that really take out the pee smell and clean different materials very well. If you are interested I can give you a list.

Master of the feltballs

Master of the feltballs
Originally uploaded by studio583art.

It seems the OOna kitty evil mastermind's favorite game is catching and fetching these little felt balls. It's the craziest thing, she will do it for hours (figures we would have a cat that fetches, we are dog people). I'll have to try and link a video of the little evil one in action so you can see just how silly this little evil one is.

Remember Obey the OOna kitty!

Bella dryerdestroyer

Bella dryerdestroyer
Originally uploaded by studio583art.

The Great Dryer Destroyer!

Bella - 2
dryers - 0

Yes, it seems the little princess purple nose is on a roll and now can ad the Fisher-Paykel dryer to her list of items she has taken down. It seems that our poor dryer threw in the towel (or should I say, "went out with a bang) last night. The repairman took a good look at the poor machine and said that it would be cheaper to just buy a new one. hmmmmmmmmmm....13 years, 7 months and she took out two dryers (the GE was killed by the purple nose wonder many years ago).

Soooooooooo, looks like we are shopping for dryers tonite... fun, fun

OOna birthdaygirl

OOna birthdaygirl
Originally uploaded by studio583art.

HA!! So you thought the evil one was taking a break, letting her evil minions breath easy...HA! the great evil mindmelter is back and she's not too happy cause her folks completely missed her birthday (or at least the day her silly humans figured was her birthday since the evil great one was found).
Did her silly human remember the great day that she graced this planet and began her quest to rule...NNNOOOOOOOOOO...and will her silly humans pay...you bet your bottom boodle they will WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! and whoever else forgot, it doesn't matter to the evil one whether you knew the date or not (you should have felt the earth shift the day and automatically known). So shudder mere humans, revenge will soon be hers... WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!


Obey the OOna kitty!

Bella funnyface

Bella funnyface
Originally uploaded by studio583art.

One more bandage change at the end of this week and Bella will be done. YAY!!

Her foot is healing wonderfully, in fact it looks incredible, we'll take so photos when the bandages finally come off for good.

Just a shot of the girl sunning herself, she's such a sun baby.

What bella thinks of having cancer

Bella raspberry
Originally uploaded by studio583art.

Blllaaaaahhhaaaaabbbbbbaaaa!!!

What Bella thinks of subungual squamous cell carcinoma (basically cancer of the nail bed), we got the results back in. The good thing is that it localize and we made the correct decision in the quick removal of the evil, bad toe. It was such a tough decision but we now know it was the right one.

Her foot is healing nicely and the stitches and bandage comes off Monday. YAY!!!!!!!
The Purple Nose Princess will be happy - no more cone...

Love from Team Bella!

Bella satellite

Bella satellite
Originally uploaded by studio583art.

The Dreaded CONE!

Yes, boys & girls that's right we now get perfect TV reception because someone (we won't name who) just can't be trusted to leave her bandage alone. You turn you eyes and the little rascal with the magic lips started the unravel process (and she faster than you would think).
A couple of days ago, the "Oh you can trust me" Deer Eye Weime managed to get her bandage open , decided to finger paint the house (fun, fun) and figure hell my folks need to spend a little more money and take me to the emergency vet to make sure her foot was fine and get a rewraping.
And of course she decided it would be fun to do this at pm rush hour traffic time. Oh the joy.
And why do we have a weime again? hmmmmmmmmmm...

Anyway, she was fine, no weime damage done to her foot, in fact it's healing nicely. But....
Now little B. is a Satellite. Her favorite thing to do...sweep the refrigerator clean of photos, though she hates the satellite. Little rat.

OOna evillair

OOna evillair
Originally uploaded by studio583art.

Yes, this may look like a simple clothes basket, but don't be fooled or get to close fore this is really an evil kitty lair and you will never escape. WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Yes, many of an evil world domination plan has been hatched...wait, she might be planning one now...yeah, yeah, she only looks like she sleeping. You don't see the sinister blueprints hastly tucked under her little bumm...no, really they're there...look closely....really....she's evil, not sweet...really...

Don't get too close.

Obey the OOna kitty!