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Bella's Story [Editor’s
Note: Bella’s Story is one of a chance meeting. A chance meeting
between a woman and a dog and how in helping to heal a
physically damaged creature, the journey changed both their
lives for the better. It helped Bella, a “beautiful” creature
reach beyond her physical scars, and it helped the human who
embraced her gain a richer life. More than just revealing a
diamond in the rough, Bella’s story reveals that special gift we
receive when we allow ourselves to truly see one another’s inner
beauty.]
March 2005 – I was on my way home from the Louisiana SPCA animal
shelter in noontime rush-hour traffic, headed to a 5-hour-long
Ornithology lab to be held at the Audubon Zoo. Needless to say,
I was in a hurry so I wouldn’t get left behind for my “field
trip”. I took my normal route home from the LA/SPCA, along I-10
East to South Claiborne, then onto Toledano and Louisiana Avenue
all the way home.
I always dreaded finding strays in certain areas when I was
coming home from the shelter. It always seemed that no matter
how hard I tried, they were too scared to come to me. The day I
found Bella, though, I got lucky.
I saw her in my peripheral vision just as I was getting ready to
merge from Toledano onto Louisiana. She looked like a hairless
purplish-blue hyena-type dog, though I wasn’t even sure she was
a dog at first. All I remember was saying some very choice words
under my breath and hearing the screeching wheels of my car as I
swerved up onto the neutral ground. The hyena was headed towards
South Claiborne, and I knew if I wanted to save her from getting
hit by a car and myself from the terrible guilt I feel whenever
I can’t catch a stray, I would have to move with haste.
 I
proceeded to make a series of fairly ridiculous decisions,
including leaving my car running with my purse inside of it in
the middle of Louisiana Avenue and almost getting hit by a car
running down the middle of the street. The hyena looked like it
was staggering, almost drunkenly, as if it had been drinking and
running away from a ghost at the same time. It kept looking back
at me out of the corner of its eye and moving even more quickly
in the opposite direction which just happened to be towards the
traffic on South Claiborne. Lucky for me she decided to run
parallel to traffic and not directly into it.
We did the chasing tango for about 4 blocks when I made a last
ditch effort and crouched down by the ground yelling “Come here
puppy!” in my most convincing voice. To my surprise, the
hairless thing turned around and came crashing down to the
ground right in front of me, seemingly relieved that the chase
was over. I immediately put my arms around her scabby, clammy
neck, trying to keep her near me and comfort her at the same
time.
 The words “sarcoptic mange” and “scabies” crossed my mind
briefly at that point. As I was crouched down with this pathetic
little creature that had come into my life, I was overwhelmed by
her physical condition. She had no hair on her body except for a
short trail of hair on the back of her neck closely resembling a
Mohawk. Her body was covered in bloody scabs, her skin was a
purplish-blue color, and her Mohawk was infested with fleas who
would take the liberty of venturing onto her face every now and
again to take a look around.
Naturally, I was getting quite a few nasty stares and gasps from
the people waiting in line at the McDonald’s drive through on
South Claiborne. I knew I had to do something with this dog and
that I should probably check to see if my car was still where
I’d left it. So, I tried to get the dog to walk with me to my
car. No luck there.
 Just then, a large truck pulled up next to me. Two men climbed
down and asked me if I needed help. I thought a leash would be
handy, but figured they wouldn’t just have one lying around.
Well, those handy men fashioned the hyena a leash from torn
undershirts. Another lucky break.
We headed over to my car and I called Kate Pika, my best friend
at the shelter and then Volunteer Coordinator for the SPCA. She
tried to get Animal Control to come take the dog to the shelter,
but they would take at least an hour and I would probably miss
my lab. Another friend, Bill, was at the shelter at the time and
graciously agreed to pick up the dog in his truck to take her to
the shelter. He brought water and dog treats, which the dog
devoured like she hadn’t eaten in a month. After covering the
seats with towels, we placed the dog gently into the truck. I
knew she wouldn’t be considered “adoptable” for a wide array of
reasons, and I felt that she was my responsibility since I’d
found her. I started crying, thinking of all the people who must
have seen the pathetic creature and left her on the streets, and
told Bill to take care of her. I would come to the shelter the
following day to see her.
 Bill took the dog to the shelter where she was bathed, dipped,
comforted, vaccinated, and medicated. She was placed in the back
of the shelter, in an isolation holding area of sorts. I was
told the next day when I came in that she was flea anemic, had
demodectic and sarcoptic mange and some nasty skin infections,
but that they could treat her condition aggressively because she
was miraculously heartworm negative.
Kate met me at the shelter and we walked back to see the dog
together. After visiting for a few minutes, we took her into the
clinic to see the doctors. The look on Dr. Linea Collin’s face
when Kate told her that “a volunteer” was fostering or adopting
the hyena dog was one of shock and disbelief. No one could deny
that the dog was very sweet, but the aesthetic appeal needed for
her to be “adoptable” just wasn’t there. We decided to keep her
at the shelter for about a month until the sarcoptic mange was
under control, and then we would introduce her to my dog, Allie,
to see if they’d get along. In the meantime, I had to find a
name for the dog everyone was calling the “Hyena”…and I decided,
in good faith, to name her “Bella,” the Italian word for
beautiful.
 After
a month of grueling treatments – dips, baths, shots, oral
medications and cage rest – Bella was ready to come home. She
and Allie, my other dog, got along very well right off the bat,
though Allie looked a bit confused as to what species of animal
was coming home with us. The first day home, Bella decided to
rampage our food cupboard, consuming all the food inside except
for the canned soup. I suppose eating out of a garbage can for a
good long while would make any animal satiated. Kate brought
Bella a wardrobe consisting of a wide range of children’s
t-shirts…Bella would scratch her sensitive skin raw if she
wasn’t properly dressed.
 In
the days and weeks that followed, Bella became a new dog. 2
months following her first treatments, she started growing fuzz
all over her body, even on her scarred and previously scabby
tail. She was virtually unrecognizable when we went back for our
second recheck at the clinic. Guessing her breed was a bit
difficult when she was hairless, but as her hair grew back her
look began to take shape and we decided that she must be a
Rottweiler/German Shepherd/Husky mix of some sort. Whatever she
was, she ended up being one of the most wonderful blessings to
come into my life.
  My
boyfriend and I adopted Bella in June of 2005, 4 months after I
found her roaming the streets of New Orleans. She has loved,
taught, and given me so much more in our time together than I
ever could have expected. She has taught me just how deceiving
looks can be and just how healing it can be to give of oneself
taking care of another. She takes care of her two sisters, Allie
and Phoenix, and takes care of me too. During the evacuation for
Katrina, we drove all the way to Montana, all packed up in my
car, and Bella treated it as an adventure the whole way. Now
that we are home again, I realize how much having her with us
helped us persevere.
 I
now know what I would be missing had I looked away that day and
ignored the creature in the street. The most important thing
that Bella has taught me, and so many others I think, is that no
creature is too far gone to save, and there is certainly no
creature not worth saving. So, the next time you’re driving and
you see the shadow of a stray animal cross your path, please
think of Bella’s story. If you stop and open yourself to
another, you might just find the guardian angel you’ve been
looking for.
- Johanna Ecke
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