abc dog school

ABC Dog School

Belle Starr

One of Star's puppies, Belle was about half her present size when she was handed over the fence the day of The Great Escape. She'd spent her first winter in the Yorkie pen with several others, a place that was described as "smelling like a sewer." And what a mess she was, but rolling in the grass in her new yard, sufficed to clean her up.   I took to her right away, because of her coloring and her personality.

   I never meant to keep any of the pups that were hoisted over my fence that day, in 2006, but the little rascals wormed their way into my heart. It wasn't long before their personalities began to manifest themselves to me, and I found myself thinking up names for them. From there, it was an easy slide into ownership, but I did put off making it official as long as I could, in the interest of letting the neighbor foot the feed bill!

   I could have let this go on for quite some time, but when I learned that an effort had been made, some months earlier, to find homes for them, it sort of changed the picture. I thought they kept all those pups because they wanted to, but it was only because no one came forward to take them away. I began to feel some apprehension about this, so after I lost my two big boys, Conner and Grizzly, I asked if I could keep Belle and Gracie.

   I used to think of them as sisters, but after many conversations with the neighbor about which female had which puppies, I finally figured out that the ones with a curl to the tail were probably Star's, since she resembles a Keeshond and has a tightly curled tail. Annie looks like she has some Retriever in her, and the yellow pups are hers. So, Belle of the high-flying tail is a daughter of Star. Whether she and Gracie have the same daddy is anyone's guess.

Belle is the boss dog. This is obvious at feeding time. She gets first dibs on toys, too, and often stands at the gate with a half-shredded Booda bone hanging from her mouth, giving her the impression of a grizzled old man. There may be two big Nylabones in the pen, but Belle is the only one who uses them. Gracie gets her chance at night, in her crate in the basement.

   Belle is the digger. I've had quite a time keeping holes along the fence filled in and blockaded. One evening in the summer, I came home from work to find a note on the door in the garage, telling me that Belle had got out of the yard twice, and was now in the back dog yard. As I walked into the kitchen, the door to the yard burst open, and in barged Nikita, Tobie, Ozzy, and Belle! They seemed to be getting along okay, but flowers on the deck didn't fare so well!

   I always lock my doors when I go away, so it's a mystery how that one got opened. I must have forgotten it that day. I can imagine the scene...dogs jumping on the door and going ballistic, until someone hit the latch just right and the door swung inward. I was very thankful the neighbor went to the trouble of getting Belle in, and that I didn't find her dead on the road. Gracie, stayed in the yard, in spite of the escape hatch.

Belle spends a lot of time on top of her very large dog house, where she can have an elevated view of her kingdom, and survey all she owns. It was only a matter of time before she started chewing the shingles. I tried spraying them with Bitter Apple, which must be done daily, and could run into the millions after a few years.

One of the methods I've used with hole-digging is to put poop in them, and there is quite a lot of it along the fences now. So one day the light bulb went on, and I carefully distributed dog poop around the edges of the roof.   This worked very well, and the roof is still intact. I'm reminded of a recipe my mom used to make a lot when I was young, involving toast and creamed beef. The name of it was similar to poop on a roof. Maybe you've heard of it.

   Well, there's only so much poop, and always gaps along the fence, so the day I caught Belle halfway out of the yard, I decided it was time to make some changes. Having some extra chain link panels, I fenced off the girls' pen so that it no longer opens into the yard. They have plenty of room, and I have peace of mind when I go to work. Deer season was upon us at that time, and I didn't want anyone getting out and taking a bullet.

   One day last summer, I went outside to feed Sula, and thought I was seeing double! Belle had dug out of her pen, crossed the dog yard, and dug into Sula's pen. He had already started a hole from the inside. They were having a great time.

   I was very proud of Belle when she went to the vet for spaying. She was very cooperative, in spite of never having been anywhere before. When she went to have her stitches out, I left the room for something, and when I came back, the vet assistant was on the floor with Belle, and had removed all the stitches without any help.

   Belle really loves her toys. She always has one in her mouth. With her Booda Bone rope hanging down, she looks like a bearded old man. Her Nylabone resembles a cigar. And her Christmas present last year, a tire with a rope on it, looks like a strange growth around her snout. She's quite entertaining!

    When I started taking the girls into the basement at night, for safety and a change of scenery, I used bedding that was already headed for the trash. This was mostly old sheets, which Belle proceeded to shred into incredibly small strips and pieces, which then showed up outdoors in the pen, in the form of small brown cigar-shaped rolls. That Belle! Always the creative one!

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