Bye Sweet Bella

"Every man has his secret sorrows which the world knows not; and often times we call a man cold when he is only sad." - Henry Wadsworth

Its been a tough week. We had to find Bella a new home, for a lot of reasons...
Let me start from the beginning..We had a Boxer named Spencer in South Africa and had to let him go 6 months later because we were moving to Ireland...
I vowed never to get another dog as it was too painful to say goodbye to him and I did not want to go through that again.

We had been in Ireland for over 5 years, when a friend called to say that her Boxer, Bella was pregnant and did we want any of the pups? I told her we would think about it...So she called me when they were born, there were 9 of them and they really needed to find good homes for some of the pups..
So, off we went one Saturday when they were 8 weeks old, and my daughter fell in love with the little quiet female of the pack, and we took little "Bella" home.
It was a challenge from the beginning, as our house was new and we had to deal with the mess,the training and just the adjustment of having a dog in the house...
George, our cat, who had been with us for a year already was not happy and from the beginning, he got his back up, literally. The hairs were up and his tail was out like a toilet brush, he never did get used to Bella.
We got a trainer in when Bell was about 3 months old, and hundreds of Euros later, we had a nice new diet for her and a few good tips...
But as Bella grew, she just became so obsessed with George, chased him at every opportunity and it became clear that she was going to need a lot more training than we could afford (and that my husband was prepared to pay for...)
I knew that it was going to be the best thing for her and for us, to find her another home, with a bigger garden and with people that could give her the attention she deserved.

She is now about a mile down the road, with the most amazing people (no children and they lost 3 of their boxers to disease)- they have an acre of land and have embraced Bella, I can see that they love her to bits.
The lovely part about it, is that I can take my daughter to see her whenever I want, and that is comforting for her.
It has been such a hard, sad, depressing week, we are all so so sad and miss Bella everyday, the house is so quiet...When 5 o'clock comes I want to get her food out and feed her, but then I remember that Bella is not here.
Have any of you been through something similar?

A beautiful day in Ireland and an Inspirational Quote...

"Happiness is not an accident.Nor is it something you wish for.Happiness is something you design." - Jim Rohn

Yay, the sun is shining, the kids are off school and we are off to the playground!Its definately all about the little things in life that make us happy...the fact that the sun is so glorious today (even though it is very cold) is such a blessing, and its wonderful to see the kids running about in the fresh air.
Even Bella the Boxer is sitting in the sun in the garden...my poor garden, it really needs attention...I snuck out there yesterday and chopped away at the dead leaves on my plants. I have really neglected it and want to be better prepared for the winter this year. I think I need to read some gardening books, urgently, or I'll be left with no plants or flowers! The frost and snow has certainly taken its toll on my greenery.

Well...I'm off and I'll take some pics of the kids and hopefully post them tonight!Cheers!
P.S - the photo is in my living room.