by Ali Standish
The next morning, Alice and Andy took Bella for a walk around her new neighborhood. They pointed out their favorite restaurants to her—Italian, Indian, and sushi—and visited Alice’s favorite bookstore. Inside, the wooden floorboards creaked under Bella’s paws, and the owner put out a bowl of water just for her while Alice browsed the shelves.
“What a sweet dog!” he said, giving her a pat. “It almost looks like she’s smiling!”
Of course I’m smiling, thought Bella. Why wouldn’t I be? Andy had told her that later that day they were going to a pet store. A whole store, just for pets!
When Alice was done in the bookstore, they walked to the park behind their apartment building. On one side, children slid down slides and swung on swings and chased each other in circles. On the other side was a green fenced area where several dogs were running after a tennis ball.
“Look!” Alice said, pointing to the dogs. “Friends for Bella!”
Andy opened the gate to the park and they walked in, but he didn’t unhook the pound leash from Bella’s old collar. “Sorry, Bella,” he said. “Once we’ve gotten you a new collar with tags, then you can run around with everyone else.”
Bella didn’t mind just watching. There wasn’t much she would mind doing, she thought, as long as she had Andy and Alice by her side.
One of the dogs squirmed her way free from a knot of wagging tails and trotted over to Bella. She had black hair with waves of golden brown throughout, a white chest, and floppy ears. She wagged her tail as she came nearer, and Bella wagged back.
“I’m Zoey,” said Zoey.
“I’m Bella,” said Bella.
Zoey sniffed Bella’s fur. “You smell new,” she said, but not unkindly.
“I am new,” said Bella. “I only got here yesterday.”
“A new dog on the block!” Zoey exclaimed, wagging harder. “Did you come from the pound?”
Bella hesitated. She didn’t want to admit that she had, until yesterday, been unwanted. But she was also a dog, and dogs are much more honest than humans.
“Yes,” she said.
“Me too!” Zoey replied. “Almost everyone around here did.”
“Really?” Bella asked, ears lifting in disbelief. She looked at the dogs running across the park, then thought of all the ones back at the pound.
There are so many, she thought. So many unwanted dogs.
It didn’t make any sense. None of the dogs she had met since leaving the McBrides were bad. They were caring like Hazel, loyal like Leo, and friendly like Zoey. So why hadn’t their humans wanted them?
“Where’s your family?” Bella asked.
“Over at the playground,” Zoey said. “All the ones with red hair are mine.”
Bella saw two children, a boy and a girl, and a father with a baby strapped to his chest. Three children, just like the McBrides. She looked away.
“Do you like to wrestle?” Zoey asked, tugging at one of Bella’s ears. “I know lots and lots of wrestling games. Come on, I’ll teach you! Everyone’s really friendly. You’ll see!”
Before Bella could answer, Alice leaned down and ruffled the hair between Zoey’s ears. “Sorry, pup,” she said. “We’ve got somewhere to be. But Bella will be back another day.”
Bella and Zoey said goodbye, and Zoey zoomed off to rejoin the game. Alice and Andy led Bella from the park. Except instead of going back to the apartment, they took her to the car. When Andy opened the back door, Bella’s shoulders scrunched up around her ears. She wasn’t sure she wanted to get in the car. Where would it take her?
“Don’t you want to go the pet store?” Alice asked, as if reading her mind. “If you want to go, you have to get in!”
Bella wanted to go to the pet store very much, so instead of waiting for Andy to help her into the car, she jumped up onto the seat. Then she sat next to the window, patiently waiting for Alice to roll it down.
As they drove off, Bella watched the world speed by in every color she knew, and listened as the sounds of the city swirled together into a pleasant kind of hum. There were all sorts of humans on the streets. Dogs, too, and pigeons, and even a few cats.
There were no squirrels.
Bella decided she liked the city.
And she decided something else, too.
The first morning she had spent with the Roses had been the best morning of her life. She wished she could make time slow down, so that it would never have to end.
But maybe this is just the beginning, she thought. Maybe things will only get better.
She couldn’t have known how wrong she was.
Eight
The Vet
When the car stopped and it was time to get out, Bella found herself standing in front of a small brick building. She had never seen it before, but it felt familiar somehow. She could smell other dogs nearby, and she smelled something else, too.
Fear.
Bella’s tail curled between her legs. When Andy pulled on the leash, she dug her nails into the pavement. She had never been to a pet store before, but this was not what she had imagined.
“Just one more stop before the pet store,” Alice said.
So where are we, then? Bella wondered. Why have my humans brought me here?
“Don’t worry, Bella,” Andy said gently. “We won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
Bella stood frozen another moment before she decided that if Andy said he wouldn’t let anything bad happen, she believed him. And besides, she needed to be a good dog, to show the Roses that they hadn’t made a mistake when they’d picked her. So she gathered up her courage and followed them into the brick building.
Inside, a tall lady with short springy hair sat behind a desk. Before she could greet them, a bright bird in a cage behind her cawed, “Take a seat! Take a seat!”
Bella’s eyes widened. She had met many birds, but never one that could talk in a language she could understand.
The woman at the desk smiled. “That’s Skittles, our resident loudmouth,” she said, handing Alice a piece of paper to write on. “And this must be Bella. I’ll let the vet know you’re here.
Bella gulped. So that’s why this place feels so familiar. She had been to see The Vet before, back when she lived with the McBrides. Back then, The Vet had worked in a different building, but it had smelled the same.
The Vet was a man who prodded your belly and held open your mouth to look at your teeth. The Vet was a man who poked you with sharp needles.
Bella hid under Andy’s legs while they waited for him to come.
They won’t let anything bad happen to me, she told herself. They won’t let anything bad happen to me.
Still, when the woman at the desk stood and beckoned for Bella and the Roses to follow (“The vet will see you now!” crowed Skittles), Bella trudged along as slowly as she could, her nails click-clacking sadly against the shiny floor.
First Bella had to stand very still on a scary silver platform.
“She’s a little too skinny,” the woman told Alice and Andy, who listened with matching frowns. “She’ll need to gain a few pounds.”
Next the woman took her into a little room where Alice stroked Bella’s stomach while they waited for The Vet.
“I don’t think she likes this place very much,” Alice said to Andy.
When the door opened again, Bella ran beneath Andy’s legs once more. But when she peered up to see who had come in, it was not The Vet.
“Hi there, folks,” said a new woman, one Bella didn’t recognize. She had long braided hair and sparkling brown eyes. “I’m Dr. Silver, but you can call me Paula. I’ll be Bella’s vet today.”
Bella cocked her head. Perhaps there were two vets. Or maybe even more!
Paula leaned down to say hello, and Bella gave her a feeble wag and a sniff. Up close, she smelled like treats.
“Ah,” said Paula, “are you smelling these?”
From out of her pocket she pulled a chewy treat. She handed it to Bella, who gobbled it down in
one bite.
I’m glad there is more than one vet, Bella thought. I like this one much better than the other one.
Feeling a bit braver now, Bella stood up for Paula to examine her. The vet felt around Bella’s middle and looked at her teeth, but her hands were gentle, and she gave Bella soft pats as she worked. Then Paula gave her another treat. Bella began to relax. She thought Paula did not seem like the kind of vet who would poke her with a needle.
Once again, she was wrong.
But when Paula pulled out her needle, Andy and Alice came to sit beside Bella. Alice kissed her head while Andy scratched her neck. Bella felt two little stings above her tail, but before she could even yelp, they were gone, and Paula was handing her yet another treat!
“There now,” she said. “Those will keep you nice and healthy, Bella. You’ve been a very good girl today.”
Bella decided the vet was not such a terrible place after all.
(But it was not her favorite place, either.)
True to their word, Andy and Alice took Bella to the pet store next.
It was even more wonderful than Bella had imagined. There were aisles and aisles of toys and balls, and bones of every shape and size.
Andy went to buy a bag of food while Alice and Bella picked out a round checkered bed and a doggy hairbrush.
Next they went to the toy aisle, where Alice got two packs of tennis balls, and Bella picked out a soft teddy bear like the ones the McBride children had all had. Now Bella would have one of her own!
Then she spotted the aisle with the leashes and collars. She tugged Alice toward them.
“Okay, okay,” laughed Alice. “Let’s get you a real leash. Which one do you like?”
Bella considered this. Leashes of every color hung in front of her like a rainbow waterfall. Some were polka-dotted, like Alice’s dress. Some were striped, and others had hearts or stars or words Bella couldn’t read stitched across them.
In the middle of them all was a simple blue leash, just the same color as the one Runt had gotten from his new family. And above it dangled a perfect blue collar.
They were so perfect, in fact, that Bella could have stared at them all day, but just then Andy appeared.
“The blue one,” he said. “Definitely. And look what I got to match!”
Bella turned to see him holding a shiny golden tag. On it were scribbles that she was pretty sure were letters.
Letters that spell “Bella,” she thought.
Best of all, the tag was shaped like a heart.
Nine
The Sky Is Falling!
Bella’s first January with the Roses was also her first January ever, since she had been born in the springtime and was not yet a year old.
January was much colder than December had been, and February was colder still.
“It’s freezing!” Alice yelped when she took Bella out.
“My nose is like an icicle!” Andy complained.
Bella did feel very sorry for them, because they did not have warm fur coats like she did. But she also felt happy for herself, because winter brought many wonderful things.
For instance, snow.
One morning, the Roses woke up very early and turned on the TV.
“Yes!” Alice shouted, pumping her fist into the air. “No work today!”
Bella knew enough to know that “work” was what Alice and Andy did when they were not with her.
“Work” sounded awfully boring.
Then the Roses dressed up in their snuggest coats (which were still not as warm as Bella’s), even though it was so early, it was still dark out.
Andy hooked Bella’s blue leash onto her blue collar, which jingle-jangled brightly with her golden name tag. Bella had to walk very softly down the hallway to the stairs, so as not to wake Mrs. Suarez, who lived next door and had very good hearing indeed.
When they got outside, Bella saw the most remarkable thing.
The sky is falling!
Except it wasn’t the sky. It was fluffy white breadcrumbs, like the ones that fell from the Roses’ dinner table at suppertime.
Except they weren’t breadcrumbs at all. Sticking her tongue out to taste them, Bella found that the little crumbs tasted like so much more.
Like mountain streams and icebergs and the first lick of a scoop of ice cream.
Bella knew about these things because the Roses liked to watch National Geographic shows at night. And also because every evening, they gave her a tiny scoop of vanilla ice cream for dessert. (“The vet told us she needed to gain some weight!” Alice said.) Vanilla ice cream had quickly become Bella’s new favorite food.
Bella’s tail began to wag, and she let out a yip of happiness that made Andy and Alice laugh.
Their laughter spilled a white fog out into the dark morning.
After a while, the Roses took Bella back to the apartment and climbed into bed again.
Alice patted the covers by her feet, as she always did when she was ready to go to sleep, to invite Bella up.
But Bella had already wrapped herself into a neat ball on the round checkered bed the Roses had bought her, her head resting softly against her teddy bear.
When Bella and the Roses woke up again, the sun was high, and the world had become a cake covered in fluffy white icing.
I can’t wait to sink my teeth into it! Bella thought.
The Roses took her out to the park, where they went most days now.
Zoey had been right about the other dogs who liked to play there. They were all very nice. But meeting new dogs always made Bella miss Runt, Hazel, and Leo.
Today, she was happy to see that they were the only family there.
Andy decided to invent a game.
The rules of the game were that Andy made a ball of snow and threw it straight up. Then Bella had to jump as high as she could and catch the ball in midair.
And when she caught it between her teeth and bit it into powder, she won.
Bella always won this game.
After she had won too many times to count, she noticed her paws beginning to ache. The only bad thing about snow, she supposed, was that it was cold. And the only bad thing about being a dog in the snow was that she did not have any shoes.
She tried to lift her paws one at a time so that they would warm up, but each time they sank into the snow again, they ached even worse.
“Look how Bella’s walking,” said Andy. “Do you think something’s wrong?”
“Her paws are probably cold. We should take her back in,” said Alice.
Bella sat down so that the Roses would understand that she was all right. Alice had been discussing where to build a snowman, and Bella did not want to ruin her fun. Plus, Bella was curious to see what a snowman was.
But her paws really did hurt an awful lot.
Andy fixed her leash on again, and Bella limped behind him through the snowy park.
When he turned around and saw her limping, he stopped. “This won’t do,” he muttered.
Then he scooped Bella up so that her head rested on his shoulder. And carried her all the way home.
When they got back to the apartment, Bella was very tired, even though it was not yet time for her afternoon nap. Snow, it turned out, was hard work.
Andy laid her on the bed. It was very comfortable.
For a moment, she almost began to fall asleep there.
Then she heard a rapid POP POP pop-pop-pop from the kitchen. She smelled something warm and buttery that made her stomach turn sour.
Before she knew it, Bella was back in the McBrides’ living room, the tree crashing over her head, her little sister crying, Mr. and Mrs. McBride shouting, “BAD BELLA!”
Bella heard Alice’s footsteps approaching. “Anybody want some popcorn?”
Bella shot off the Roses’ bed and scampered onto her own. She curled up in her neat ball and shut her eyes tightly, pretending she was asleep.
“What’s gotten into her?” Alice asked.
“I don’t know
,” Andy replied.
Alice crouched down by Bella, holding her cold paws in her hands to warm them up. Bella cracked one eye open.
“You know we love you, don’t you, Bella?” Alice whispered.
Bella did know this. The Roses told her every day. And when they were gone, the jingle-jangling of the heart-shaped tag around her neck told her for them.
Bella knew this should make her happy.
All she had ever wanted was to be loved.
But sometimes love can be scary, she thought.
What would she do if she ever lost it?
Ten
The Big News
By the time the snow was replaced with blooming flowers, Bella had forgotten to be on her best behavior all the time.
It was easy to forget things like that when she had so much else to think of.
Like getting belly rubs and chasing tennis balls and finding ways to avoid taking a bath.
As the weather became warmer, the Roses started spending more and more time outdoors, and they always took Bella with them.
They went on hikes in the mountains, where Bella smelled all kinds of trees and animals she had never known existed. They drove to a lake where Andy and Alice paddled in a boat while Bella watched from the shore. She kept her eyes trained on the water, ready to warn the Roses if she saw any sign of sneaky crocodiles or deadly hippos. They had watched a program on National Geographic about them, and Bella couldn’t understand why Andy and Alice didn’t seem at all afraid.
My humans are very brave, she thought admiringly.
Once they even went to a baseball game, where Bella and the Roses sat in a special section for humans with dogs. Bella thought baseball looked like a fun game, but she also thought it was much more fun to lie on the grass next to Alice and catch the peanuts Andy threw her.
Most days, though, they just walked around the neighborhood. Bella knew it very well by now, and it knew her, too. Whenever Mrs. Suarez heard Bella pass by, she came out to say hello and give her a kiss. Mr. John, who owned Andy’s favorite pizza parlor, and his nephew Kevin, who worked at the register, each gave Bella a circle of pepperoni whenever she and Andy came to pick up a pizza.