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Cat’s aren’t the only ones with 9 lives, as Bellas has proven over and over, she too has them.

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Bella was the healthiest, fastest dog on the beach, great White Hunter until tragedy struck and she was picked up in our backyard, in suburbia San Diego, by an owl.  It lacerated her shoulders down to the muscle and emergency surgery was required at 4am.  She survived the attack with the torn shoulders and recovered nicely Until…..5 months later when she started losing weight, not eating, having major health issues that went on for 45 days.  MULTIPLE trips to 5 different vets trying to find out what was wrong with her and No vet could figure it out.  We kept asking about the owl attack and they all said no way.  Additionally, we had just given her a chicken jerky treats from Costco that said it was Made in the USA but when we looked super closely at the bag, in the back lable tiny tiny print, Made in China DISTRIBUTED in America!

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The only two new things in her life was the owl attack and these jerky treats so we will never know if they contributed or caused her health decline but we think they did.  Long story, shorter, Bella pretty much died several times in the course of our discovering what was wrong with her, but managed to survive numerous times.  We spent well over $18,000 in the next 3yrs stabilizing her and learning thru trial and error what works for her.  Final diagnoses was:  Addisons disease (body makes no cortisol), Pancreatitis, Diabetes and later, Anemia and Septic arthritis.

MOST dogs with pancreatitis and Anemia die within 90 – 180 days!  Bella has completely beat both those diseases and no longer has them.  She still has Addisons which we give daily pill and 1x per month shot.  Diabetes is 2x per day insulin shots and it did make her go blind with sugar cataracts.  Diabetes also gave her a UTI (urinary tract infection) that led her to have septic arthritis which has made her partially crippled.

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And yet, Bella is going strong, loving life and loving us and has now become a World Traveler with her very own Blog to chronicle her journey.  We had planned our move to Europe for 3yrs and part of what kept us not leaving, was Bella and her health as we didn’t want to bring her with us.  And in fact, our trial move over, we made the heart wrenching decision to leave her with best friends.  She did great with them, but we suffered tremendously.  Returning to California to sell a house, we decided we were going to bring her with us (see posts about bringing a dog to Europe) and she is actually THRIVING in Europe.    In fact, we just came from a new English vet and her diabetes blood insulin levels are the BEST they have ever been in 5yrs.  So low in fact, we had to reduce her insulin by 3 units as her body is doing so much better with a  wonderful organic food we found here, Lily’s Kitchen.  Evidently the ingredients are even better than the wild game meats we cooked for her, each meal.

She loves traveling in the car (her rolling condo) and in her new Range Rover buggy;  experiencing all our new adventures.  We are so excited to go to Scotland to let this little Highland Terrier return to her family roots, as we return to ours!

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Keep in touch to witness the Miracle Dog, Bella’s Travels.  We are Blessed to have her with us, and know every day is a gift and we intend for her and us to live it to the Max!