Bella At The Ball

On Saturday (April 21) GABR held their annual fund raiser in Morris, IL.  This is one of two fund raisers that GABR does yearly and brings in tons of funds for the hounds.  It consists of a Silent Auction, Dinner and a Live Auction.  Well this year since Bella was on the 2011 Year End Newsletter they asked if Bella could make a special surprise guest appearance that night.  Of course, I had no trouble agreeing to this, then to find out the night before they want us on stage to say a few words.  Oh, yea that could happen, NOT.


Bella got the honor of travelling to Morris, IL with Mom and Dad all by herself.  She was treated like a queen with a limousine service at her beck and call.  Of course, I have been worried for weeks on how she would do in a large building with 300+ people because she is still very timid with these types of surroundings.  As in previous posts I indicated I was taking Bella for nursing home visits to help her adjust to this.  We have to say Bella is much more better with 2-leggers than 4-leggers.  She was timid but so good during it all with all the "Bright Lights" and clapping, and OH How Cute, etc. etc.  She sure did much better on stage then Mom did as I hardly got started talking and started to cry.  This is when my husband went and sat down, what a trooper he was.  Of course, he was in charge of handling the camera while we were on stage and he said his hand was shaking so bad he couldn't take pictures.  WTF is up with that?


Here is her schedule on how we prepared for her big weekend, we take things slow with Bella as not to stress her to much.


Monday - Nails were trimmed
Tuesday - Ears were washed
Wednesday - Eyelashes trimmed
Thursday - Nursing Home visit (fail), trip to the Pet store (success)
Friday - Rest up and pack, teeth brushed
Saturday Morning - Bath time


So without further ado here is Miss Bella enjoying her special weekend like a queen.  Or as the saying goes.....The Bell(a) of the Ball.

Friday Night Packing of her overnight bag

Here is my special bag I got to take

 

All the things in my overnight bag 

 

My pawty dress 

 

I wore the silver bling collar with my dress 

 

Saturday Morning Bath time

Not favorite thing to do when you have two 4-leggers begging you to get out.

Arrival at my hotel room

You say this is my very own bed

Wow 

I'll take it! 

Claiming my bed 

  

Nice photo Mom, you need be quicker with that flashy beast 

Okay a little better

At the Big Event

Here is a not so good picture that my Dad took, he said his hand was shaking to much.  BOL 

Note:  We are still waiting for the pictures from the professional photographer.  We will post them when we get them, we are sure they are 100% better.

After all the Ball festivities they said I had to attend the After Hours Party.  When is a girl suppose to get her beauty sleep.

Here I am trying to understand why all these people make such a fuse over me 

Finally a little break 

Oh, can you see my bling collar I wore with my dress at the ball.  It didn't show up in the other picture of me and my dress.  Everyone just loved my bling collar. 

 

Please take me back to my hotel room.

Finally some sleep

 

 

 

 

 

Seriously, why did she think she need so many pictures of me sleeping

Here I am waiting for Mom and Dad to finish packing to go back home after my big weekend.  I still look very sleepy 

I am not cut out to be a late night pawty hound 

Wow, what a weekend I had.

Sniffs, The HoundDogs

Nursing Home Visit - A First

In our area we have a couple of nursing homes that allow us to bring our fur-babies in so the residences can get some snuggle time with them if they wish.  We had taken Amiee several times last year and she did awesome, even as shy as she is.  She just loves the attention and if you are willing to pet her she will sit for you for hours on end.  If you stop she takes her nose and nudges your hand up on to her again for more petting.

We are working on trying to socialize Bella and expose her to different surroundings and things.  So last night I dressed her in her best dress and we headed out to see how she did with her first nursing home visit.  Well we have to say that she was pretty overwhelmed by it all.  We would say she got a 5 out of 10.

When we arrived we walked in by ourselves and she was just walking getting some petting and we then met two Golden Retrievers who she did fine with.  But as we began walking the halls a little later a young German Shepard approached her and was just a little to happy to be her friend.  She didn't welcome his snoot in her face and snapped at him.  She then began to shake and do some low growl noises for everyone.  It is odd because Amiee is in her face all the time and they are always playing bitey face together, but I guess that is different when they are your fur-siblings.  She did snip at my parents young toy poodle the other night as well but I just thought she was to high strung for her and Bella associated her with a "rat" of some sort.  BOL  After her encounter with the Shepard she was pretty much "stand-offish" with all the other dogs after that.  We basically let all the other dogs move forward and we kept her at the back of the pack and let her sniff and just walk and hopefully get use to all the different things.  Her experience with inside things is very limited since she spent the first 2 years of her live outside with no socialization with other animals or people.

We believe she is just very nervous inside buildings with new surroundings and other doggies.  She did fine when we took her to local community sale last month, but that was all outside and she approached all dogs with no problems.  So definitely an inside thing that we will be working on.

Of course we were really hoping to see our friend Bunny the stunning Greyhound during our visit and introduce them to Bella.  Well they arrived a little late and by that time Bella was feeling the stress of it all and really didn't want to be introduce to Bunny, even though Bunny was very interested in meeting her I believe she could sense Bella was having a rough night and kept her distance.  We also got the honor of seeing Blueberry as well from Tales and Tails blog.  Of course Bunny and Blueberry had the most stunning collars on and Blueberry felt like silk.  Their Mom Peep was able to get Bella to warm up to her with her famous treats.  She actually snapped a few pictures of Bella so we look forward to seeing and hearing what she thought about Bella.

We have to say that all the people there with their fur-babies were so sweet and understanding of Bella.  They kept telling her how well she was doing and kept telling me not to worry about her snip that she did.  I think they could tell that her being snippy was sort of upsetting to me.  They provide great support for us and we will be taking her back next week to the other nursing home to see how she does.  We may take Amiee with us for some moral support for her and see if she does better with her fur-sibling with her.

Here are just a few pictures I snapped of her.

Bella preparing herself for her big night

Bunny face and Blueberry's butt 

 

Our good friend Bunny 

A few Goldens that are regulars 

Blueberry she had the most beautiful collar

Bella had enough 

We are hoping next week will be a little bit easier on her.

Sniffs,

Bella and HoundDogMom

Bella - Future Model

Bella has some upcoming functions to attend and I got to thinking that she really needed a wardrobe (despite my husbands crumbling).  I haven't had many hounds that liked to wear clothes so Bella is my first.

Winston would not allow anything on his back or head for the most part.

Amiee freezes like a statue when you place a coat or neck thing around her.

Cleo would allow you to dress her up for several events we went to.

But, Bella this girl loves to be pretty (when she is not out rolling in the dirt to find her most comfortable spot).  BOL

I know we have tons of blogging friends, and their fur-babies have like a whole closet full of clothes to wear.  Bella had two coats and she just loved them so I thought she needed some pretty dresses to wear to her upcoming nursing home visits and her special guest appearance she will be making later this month at the Basset Ball (shhhhh), it is a surprise to everyone.  I began the research of finding some place to purchase some dresses for her.  We do not have any local that had anything that was what I was looking for.  So I got to thinking, WTH am I going to do, dates are approaching fast.  So I reached out to one of my blogging friends Snazzi Jazzi and we asked her Peep if she would be willing to make Miss Bella a few dresses.  Because she makes some very awesome dresses for Jazzi and she is always Snazzi.  She is just the sweetest person and agreed to the task at hand.  I immediately went out and purchased some material and sent to her, but I can tell you I am not a sewer and have no ideas about colors and stuff. I just knew I wanted something with the spring colors in it.  Oh, my gosh you are not going to be believe what Bella got in the mail last week.  She got a box (of course I didn't take a picture) because I just ripped open the box when I seen it was from Jazzi's Mom.  Jazzi's Mom has definitely out done herself and Bella will be one Girly Hound when she begins her nursing home visits.

Without further ado.............

Our Future Model...........

Bella

 Dress #1 is made out of a purple material that I picked out

 

 Thank You, Jazzi's Mom

 Dress #2 material picked and designed by Jazzi's Mom

  Amiee I told you this is my fashion show

 

 A girl can't even model

 This dress was made for me not you.

 One of my favorite on her

 Dress #3 material I picked out

 

 Dress #4 - Material and designed by Jazzi's Mom

 Notice my fancy flower

 I know Winston I am irresistable

 Dress #5 - A little my material, a little of Jazzi's Mom material and design

 Look at all her bows

 

 

  

 Thank You Thank You for my pretty dresses

 I nosed I would LOVE them.

Some close up shots of the dresses

Dress #1

 

 Dress #2

 

Dress #3

 

 Dress #4

 

 Dress #5

 The whole collection

Thanks again to  Jazzi's Mom for designing and making Bella's new dresses.  We LOVE them.

Sniffs, Bella and Mom

(Note:  Bella gets so excited when you put clothes on her she will not hold still, then the other hounds think they need to help her undress, BOL)