Bella has been at the RSPCA’s Ashley Heath Animal Centre for almost two years now — which is around how old she is, too. She’s spent pretty much her entire life in shelters, and while everyone there has tried to make her as happy and comfortable as possible, what she needs more than anything is a home of her own.
Bella had a family for a brief moment but was given up because she wasn’t good with other dogs. It’s taken a lot of work and patience, but Bella has made a ton of progress in that area and even has some dog friends at the shelter now.
“Bella is really worried by other dogs and lacks [socialization] skills that she missed out on in her early, formative months,” Hannah Hawkins, behavior and welfare advisor at Ashley Heath Animal Centre, said in a press release. “We believe that incorrect management has worsened this, and she was incredibly frustrated when we first started working with her, but, thankfully, after months and months of intensive work, we’ve started to see her making improvements.”
While she’s learning to love other dogs, Bella absolutely adores people and loves spending as much time with them as possible. Unfortunately, since she’s still at the shelter, she can’t be around them as much as she’d like, so the staff came up with a way to help her while she’s spending time in her kennel.
“Although we try to spend as much time with her as possible, we simply can’t be with her all the time, and she has sought solace in her cuddly toys, especially Winnie the Pooh, who she cuddles up with every night,” Hawkins said.
Bella has dozens of toys in her kennel to keep her company, and she loves to play and cuddle up with them whenever she needs some love. Bella always looks so cute surrounded by all of her toys, and yet everyone hopes it won’t be a solution she’ll need for much longer.
Bella would prefer to be adopted by an adult-only family with no other pets who can commit to giving her lots of love and attention and can also continue her training. She’s struggled with separation anxiety in the past, so she’ll need a family who can be sensitive to that and is willing to work through it with her. She would love a nice, big, fenced-in yard, too, where she can run and play as much as she wants.
Bella may have some specific requirements for her future home, but everyone at the shelter knows that her perfect forever family is out there somewhere. In the meantime, she’ll be at the shelter surrounded by toys just waiting for her adopters to find her.