Bhellie (named after Usabelli Cole mine in Alaska), my dog made her way back to me once again. I have had Bhellie for 12 years now and everyone who knows us knows that she has not only been through a lot in her life but also tests me at every turn. A loyal companion but she has never been easy. I acquired Bhellie while I was working at a vet clinic in Alaska. She was hit by a car and was left with the surgeon, when I started work Bhellie was already undergoing surgeries on her back legs. When it was all said and done she had 3 plates and 21 screws total.
I decided after months and months in a cage awaiting payment from her owners that if the Doctor would finish her treatment I would rehabilitate her and find her a suitable home. Bhellie was actually perfect for my life; she slept till noon and ate only when she was hungry. In this respect she was very low maintenance. I tried to find her a home once but… did you ever see the Brady Bunch when they were trying to sell their home and the kids kept scaring the people whom were looking to buy so that they could keep their house… well this was me with Bhellie.
There were a few other things too… like she hated to ride in a car so much that she would make herself impossible to catch, especially out in nature. She escaped from every yard that I have ever had, she has been picked up by the dog catcher more than 5 times, she hates rain and will run away if she can or shake uncontrollably, she is scared of bees, has been kicked by a horse more than 3 times, Quilled by a porcupine twice, hates balloons and bicycle tires, has been under anesthesia more than 10 times for surgeries and way more than that for bandage changes. For instance we had her leg amputated in 2006 and the 1st day that she was home she dug and escaped out of my yard as she somehow managed to get that cone off of her head. Bhellie has always been a bit difficult but mine and I love her.
When she escaped this time in Brasil, I knew she would be gone for some time, and hoped not forever. I had been writing a book about Bhellie and her adventures since 2004 and could never find an ending to my book, I just figured that one day I will know the end and then I will then be able to finish it. The tragedy was this couldn’t be her ending, I thought of so many other ends to my book but being lost somewhere in a foreign country on the outskirts of Crack Land…just didn’t work. And also, Bhellie is 12! I couldn’t imagine going through all of this and not getting to be there for her as an old lady.
Anyway, someone saw her walking along a road about 8 miles from my house. From what I understand she was seen by the same person twice who happens to have a farm where she rescues dogs. She then happened to call a friend of hers to help her get Bhellie and he just happened to see the flyer that we posted at the local Grocery store. She called Rodrigo and he went to pick her up after work but didn’t tell me. I had just sent 30 more Lost dog flyers to print when I had to get up to get the keys for Rodrigo. When I went to the door…. There was Rodrigo with Bhellie. She was Stinky, Hungry, Tired and Thirsty.
The process of looking for my dog in a foreign country opened my eyes in ways that I could never have imagined. So much that I was really emotionless and this surprised me. I am emotionless but always feel like I could have a breakdown any day. I don’t know if I am emotionless because I am always trying to find strength to live day by day in a foreign county where I am basically not understood or if the reality of losing her in Brazil was so beyond me that it brought me down to reality of where I am. I can’t sort everything out right now but what I see today isn’t what I saw 4 days ago. These are the 5 hard days of the month that I spoke about.
