It's A Girl!

 As many of you would probably be able to guess - no, we did not have another baby! But, many of you would not be surprised to find that all of the dog walking that I was doing at the Animal Adoption Center would lead to a new family member sooner or later! Meet our newest family addition -

The newest Nelson....BELLA!



BELLA.



















 The Adoption Center got two labs (one yellow and one chocolate) into the shelter on Tuesday. They called me to be sure that I would come in to see them, and asked if we could foster that evening. Needless to say we had our first Ski Fitness Class (more on that torture later) that evening so we were not available to foster. I promised I would come in and take the dogs on walks (it's what I do!) and if I was interested I would bring one home the following night to foster. I went in that day and met Bella and Cocoa. I swear it was love at first sight with Bella! We went on a long walk together (actually a more accurate description is that she pulled me through town for the first half hour and then we spent the next half hour walking in circles until she would heel and stay by my side). Even though walking on a leash was not (and still is not) her forte - she had an adorable personality and was so willing to please. Cocoa was very cute, but not much personality - although that could be due to all of the changes she had just been through, no doubt (both dogs were long time residents of a shelter that was a kill-shelter, they were rescued just in time by a no-kill shelter in Idaho and then brought to the Adoption Center in Jackson Hole).
We brought Bella home to foster her (all dogs from the adoption center go to foster homes each night). Bella was the most amazing dog in the house (I know, I sound like a proud, bragging parent already) - she is housebroken, did not jump on anything, did not beg for food at the table, slept through the night etc.  My first thought - no "puppy hell" to endure with this girl - ANOTHER BIG PLUS! To make a long story short, we are now in the "adoption pending" phase with Bella - a 2-week trial period to be sure that we all are making the right choice. So far, so good - her biggest challenge right now is getting some manners while on leash. She much prefers to be off leash, I guess she knows what a real Jackson Hole dog should be doing! She is very friendly, loves people, kids, dogs, cats, car rides, tummy rubs and playing ball.

Today we went on another hike (surprise!) and took Bella with us - she loved it! We are trying to be sure to spend every minute of nice weather outside - the forecast is for snow Sunday night and Monday; not sure that I am quite ready, but I guess it is not up to me.

Bella on the cache Creek Trail

Bella showing she can have good
manners on leash!

So not only do we have a new pup to call our own - Bella also made us our first friends and got us a dinner invitation for this evening! As I was training Bella in the neighborhood the other day (you know the drill - walking in circles on leash) a neighbor came out and said "is that Bella?" Come to find out that our neighbors about 5 houses down were Bella's foster parents that first night! They loved her & agreed that we should adopt her! AND they invited all of us (Bella too) to their house for dinner tonight - see all we needed was a dog to make us some new friends (pretty sad that we don't seem to have the ability to make friends on our own without kids or a dog)!
Sending along a few more pics of Bella doing her very favorite thing - playing ball! Our most recent purchase, a "chuck it" :)



Bella at her new home!



















 Happy tails to all of you!
Enjoy the weekend~