Truth be told...it's a pretty good life: Adventures of Scrappy Pete, Talented Explorer

Your pillow? No, it's mine.

My Petey Bella is pretty much the snuggliest, easiest, dog ever. She's happy with nearly any food (although eggs and yogurt are pretty awesome), she sleeps either curled up in a tiny (as tiny as a 65-pound giant can get) "Bella Ball," and she's good on walks, hikes, and runs. She knows her name, err, names-- she will answer to so many different ones.

She knows:

Her patented "Petey Head-Hug"

--sit
--lay down (yes, grammatically it's lie down, but whatever!)
--gentle (when accepting a treat. This is important for the treat-giver's fingers.)

--shake
-- shake (I'm putting it twice because if you say it twice, she'll switch paws)
--hop down (good for making up the bed purposes)
--come here (good for snuggling in bed purposes)
--Petey Pee (she squats. I swear.)
-- Bella, go baf-room!-- she poops within 2 minutes.
--Yoga dog. (It's probably called "bow," but I taught her yoga dog when she does a Downward dog stretch. It's adorbs!)

Didn't see nuffin' down der in de dirt, I swear.

She knows the words for upstairs, inside, outside, go, ride...probably more.We're working on "no bark" and speak. She doesn't speak on command, but she generally will yowl, whine, and stop barking at the mailman, strange sounds in the hallway, etc. after one "No bark!" That's a pretty darn good pup.

She has kind of an Eeyore from Winne the Pooh personality. She jumps over little scares and army crawls away from things she doesn't like. She is nervous around vacuum cleaners and loud noises, and is not terribly alpha. Except when she's on a leash. Then she has no problem finding her proverbial tail, her vicious bark, and her strength to move mountains. Oh, and against cats. She HATES cats. Or rather she would LOVE a cat-- to chew on. I recently discovered she's not a huge fan of elevators-- but more on that later.


She's blurry because she's running.

Have harness, will travel.


Forgot her shades, but remembered the SPF.

Definitely the dog days of summer

Petey Bella is my adventure dog. She's easy to take in the car-- she gets terribly excited for the leash, even more excited for the harness or doggie seatbelt harness, and super easily enters a vehicle upon the phrase, "in you go!" We would go for runs in Decatur and Grant Park and long walks on the trails-- a favorite is around my friend's property by the Flint River in Hampton. I'd call her "Adventure Pete" and we'd go exploring. She's very careful to stay only a few yards ahead of me and would just smell and smell all the scents that nature offered. I'll see if I can embed a video of her "fording" a creek-- she's just so fun and cool. She's also great about just laying out with me-- the hot Georgia summers on a blanket in the grass with me catching some Vitamin D and her snapping at bugs and rolling around-- those are some relaxing days.

I think I mentioned that she's an easy eater. She will sit quietly next to your chair while you're eating, and not really beg, but she's happy to lick your plate clean. I call it the "doggie pre-wash cycle." My coworker Robin offered once to save meat scraps for her, since I'm vegetarian and never have meat in the house. I assured her, she thinks that tofu is delicious, and that peanut butter is the cat's pajamas. She has been known to get her head a little stuck in a yogurt cup, and we even have a song to go through the Chick-fil-A drive-thru. It sounds like Adele's "Rumor Has It," and goes "Chicken Nugget! Chicken Nugget! Petey wants a nugget in her bellllllly." Look at these awful pictures of my dog's terrible life: