Bella
Special Delivery
In November 2011, the ASPCA transported 41 dogs from a shelter in South Carolina where they’d waited months or years for adoption to shelters in Ohio, Wisconsin and Minnesota. The Midwestern shelters that stepped up to care for these dogs had the space and resources to find them loving homes—and they did it quickly! Within days, the Happy Tails were starting to pour in.
Animal Humane Society (AHS) in Minnesota accepted 20 dogs from South Carolina, and almost all were snapped up within two weeks! One of the very first adoptions was a floppy-eared, outgoing Lab/Boxer mix named Louise, who spent just two days on the Minnesota shelter’s adoption floor.
On Louise’s second day, Alex Davis and his fiancée stopped by AHS because, he explains, “It’s kind of therapeutic to see all the love there. You see people adopting animals, and it just makes you feel good.” He had been thinking about adding a new pup to his family, but wasn’t necessarily looking to adopt that day; then he saw Louise, and her friendly greeting and sweet face changed his plans.
“I just fell in love with that girl,” recalls Alex. “She stole our hearts. I just knew that she was my dog.”
Alex renamed the dog Bella and brought her to the North Minneapolis home he also shares with kitties and Sage, a 17-year-old dog he adopted from AHS in 1995. Bella immediately fit right in, and Alex can’t help but brag that she’s a “superstar pet.” Bella is Alex’s constant companion, and he says gets compliments on her appearance wherever he goes.
But she’s not just a looker; a fast learner, Bella has already worked with Alex to master Shake, Lie Down and Stay. She loves to play with the cats and has befriended her older doggy sibling. “Sage is more energetic too, now that there’s a puppy around,” Alex explains.
When the South Carolina shelter asked us to help them give their dogs a better opportunity to find loving homes, we think adoring and dedicated adopters like Alex were exactly what they had in mind.
And it’s hard to imagine a more loving family for Bella. Says Alex, “She’s like my kid already. She’s really becoming an integral part of the family, and she’s going to have a great, long life with us.”
