The Start Of The Bathurst Tradition: Saving Bella

For those unaware, the Bathurst 1000 is an annual race of V8 engine cars (V8 Supercars, if you will) that is "must see tv" for the majority of Australians. Well, at least those who like cars. For you guys in the US, it's like our Superbowl. The race is a long one so most Aussies do what we do, have a barbeque, invite over some friends and comment "WHOA", "DAAAAAAAAAAMN", "HOLY......." whenever there's a crash.

In 2008, we did just that. We were living in a small mining town in central Queensland (and I mean small, 2200 people). About halfway through the race, a good friend of ours was in need of a decent coffee, so we went for a walk to the local pool (they had a coffee machine apparently). As we got to the building entrance, there was a commotion on the other side of the road. Two small black and white puppies were running around in the street and had just dodged a car.

Now, I love dogs, and I would hate to see those dogs hurt so I called them over to me. They were a boy and a girl pup, obviously from the same litter, and the girl was especially shy. So shy, she hid underneath a bench close-by. Eventually I won her over and she snuggled up to me. Neither of them had a collar and I had no way of knowing which house they had come from. So, I took them both back to our place.

We soon realised that these pups looked about the same age as the ones another one of our friends had adopted from the pound a few weeks earlier. Those 2 (both girls) had been found at the local dump. Yeah, someone literally dumped them. We kept these new pups out the front of the house with us just in case the owners started walking around the streets to look for them. I mean, like I said, it's a small town.
 The race was over a few hours later and nobody had happened by. So we took all the pups back to our friends's house (the one with the other dogs) to keep them safe until we could find the owners.

At this point I was so in love with the little girl. She's the one in the middle at the front of this photo. Since she was the fluffiest, and in my opinion, the prettiest, I called her Bella. No, this was not a Twilight thing. She's a "little beauty" so...Bella.

The next day was a Monday (I worked weekdays) so I put an email out at work to all personnel to see if anyone owned her, or knew who the owners were. On Tuesday I got a reply from one of the guys at work who claimed she belonged to his neighbour, and gave me her number.

This was probably one of the most awkward phone calls I've ever made.

The lady was shocked that the dogs were missing. She was completely unaware they were gone. Now, by this point we'd had the dogs, what, 36 hours at least? So for her not to realise they were gone was astounding to me. She then told me that the puppies belonged to her daughter and the daughter's best friend: Two 16 year old girls who saw a "free to good home" ad for the dogs and thought it would be fun to get them, like a friendship bracelet sort of thing. So, I asked this lady when I should bring the dogs back (reluctantly of course) to which she replied "don't bother".

Now this took a bit to sink in. When I responded with the typical "What do you mean I shouldn't bother?" she told me that the girls weren't looking after the dogs anyway so I should keep them or give them away. It's lucky that I did want to keep Bella and that another friend of ours wanted the boy (she called him Captain). Before ending this phone call, I asked all the standard questions: Are you sure your daughter won't want the dogs back? Yes, just take them. Have they been vet checked and vaccinated? No (!!!!!!) Microchipped? No. Does your daughter want to come by and see the dogs at all? No, its best you just take them away.

Ok then. Awkward, strange, disturbing. So with all that out of the way Mat and I adopted Bella, got her checked by the vet, microchipped, registered with the local council, and vaccinated. Our friend did the same with Captain.

Months later, while we were walking Bella, there were a few times a car would drive past and a girl would scream "give me back my dog you bitch!". Eventually I tracked down one of the girls who told me that the girl screaming at me was the "best friend" and Bella was previously hers. She was upset that the mum had given them away. The girl I spoke to was glad the dogs found a good home, and honestly she was a nice enough girl. She did admit the dogs were not looked after. In fact she solved a mystery for me. When we met Bella, she had a fresh scar above one of her eyes. Apparently the friend was taunting Bella with a piece of food and when Bella nipped her to try to get it, the girl gave Bella a back hand slap across the head and the ring she was wearing cut her. Yeah, I'm so glad we got Bella before something worse happened. To this day, Bella is still somewhat terrified if people flail their arms about.

Nananananananana Batbear!

We would hate to think what would have happened to Bella if we hadn't have just gone out for a coffee that day. Maybe she would have been hit by a car. Maybe she would have gotten sick. Maybe the abuse (not being fed and given water) would have continued. Maybe she would have just gone on heat and had a whole lot of, albeit adorable, unwanted puppies.

She's now almost 8 years old. She's our girl. A clever dog with so much love and cheekiness to share. We're not 100% on when her birthday is, so every Bathurst weekend, we celebrate Bella. We have for 8 years, and we always will.

Sorry for the long post. Just needed to get that story out.

Until next time, always love your pets.

Jamie :)