From Death Row in New York to Oregon Ranch

On July 31st I saw a picture of Bella then known as Brindy.  She was on the euthanasia list at the Manhattan Animal Care & Control.   I was immediately struck by her resemblance to our dear Morty who died of cancer August 19, 2005.   I said that I would love to take her if only there was a way to get her out to us in Oregon.   Brooke Slater from "Bruised, Not Broken" said that their organization would do what it could to help get her pulled and into a foster until transportation could be arranged.

I posted on Facebook looking for folks to help with transport and then my college roommate from 20 something years ago called and offered her assistance with transportation since she is an airline employee and can fly pets with her for free.  So we had transport, and the BNB folks had found a foster home and then they discovered that Bobbi and the Strays had pulled her.   They called and tried to convince them to let the dog come to us but they already had an adopter lined up in Canada.   That extra effort would make such a difference in the weeks to come.

We were very disappointed but figured maybe we weren't meant to adopt her, just buy her enough time that she was able to be pulled from shelter and avoid the fate that would have otherwise awaited her.

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Then the adoption fell through and someone remembered that there was a women in Oregon who also wanted the dog and they started searching for anyone that had my contact information.  It took a few days but eventually the connection was made, and I received a note from Brooke asking if we were still interested.   In the meantime Bella was taken in by another rescue, Eagles Den, and transferred to Nick Tartaglione's kennels a few hours north of New York City.

Once Bella was healthy enough to travel (she had kennel cough) two more great volunteers stepped up to help Bella make her trip.  On Thursday, August 19th Lyndsay Messina drove Bella from Nick's place into the city despite having a sick toddler to deal with and handed her off to Lesli VanSchaick who housed her and took her to the vet for her health flight check on Friday afternoon.  Her boyfriend broke his arm that evening and she barely made it back from the hospital in time to pick Bella back up and drop her off to Lisa Shafer at the airport at 4:30am Saturday morning.

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Lisa and Bella hit a few twists on their way out west but finally arrived in Eugene, OR shortly after 2pm on August 21st.   Bella seemed happy to see us at the airport and even happier when we got home and let her run off leash in an unused fenced pasture.   She loves sticks and found the one she is carrying lying across Morty's grave - it was almost like he was passing the torch to her.

She has seen the goats and the chickens and cats and so far has been easily redirected from paying too much attention to them.   She and Izzy are about the same age, full of puppy energy and a little unsure of each other.  So we are following the advice of the rescue to take introductions slowly in order to build a firm foundation of trust and friendship between them.  

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