Welcome to the family, Bella Wilbur-Milbery!

A couple of months ago Nathaniel and I needed to decide if we would stay in the apartment we were in, or find a new place to live. We decided that we wanted to be closer to the city and we wanted a dog.  Since we are both huge advocates for pit bulls and the amazing dogs that they are, we knew we wanted to rescue a pit. I spent weeks calling apartment buildings but everyone had breed discrimination in place and would not let us live in their building with a pit. This infuriated me because people are still ignorant enough to believe that a particular breed of dog is inherently bad, rather than it being in how you raise them... just like children. But that is a rant and discussion for another day. Finally I found My Pit Bull is Family and they had a list of properties that accept pit bulls. After calling all three properties, only one called me back. Nathaniel and I went to check apartments that weekend and signed a lease two weeks later! We were finally going to be closer to the city and able to get a dog.

Our family <3

We found a rescue organization that we loved and four dogs we could not choose between. When we were able to start the application process, our two favorites got adopted. We inquired about the others and one had major anxiety and the other needed major surgery... We started to feel really discouraged and decided we would slow down, and look at other organizations. One day at work, I receive a text from Nathaniel, "I love Bella"... "Bella who?" "From Coco's Heart Dog Rescue". I looked up her picture and fell in love. We learned that Bella was at Coco's once, got adopted by a married couple, they divorced and surrendered her back to Coco's... We never knew when/why she was initially in Coco's. That weekend we had an initial meeting with her, and three days later we adopted!

We are so blessed to have Bella in our lives, she is great. She's already housebroken, so we have only had a couple of accidents due to not hearing her cues to go outside and her initial nervousness being in a new place. She loves going on walks and to the lake, probably because she loves seeing people and getting attention from everyone and their dogs! She's pretty good with dogs, we are still working on perfecting that socialization but she's been doing great!

Daddy and Bella at Pet a Palooza!

Yesterday we went to "Pet a Palooza" at the Minnesota Fairgrounds - it was a massive exhibition of various companies, rescue organizations, agencies, etc... all with goodie bags for the dogs, treats, and live music! Bella met so many dogs and was playing nicely with all of them, it was great. Towards the end of the day, a nice woman, Sabrina, walked up to us and said, "I need to know where you got your dog"... We told her "Coco's Heart". Her jaw dropped and she said, "I think I took care of you dog as a puppy and saved her life". She continued to tell us that over a year ago (Bella is 1 1/2 years old), a man brought a puppy to her clinic and said, "she's been tied up in my kitchen, she keeps puking and having diarrhea, I need someone to help her". The clinic took her in and soon realized she had Parvo which kills over 50% of puppies that become infected. When they told the guy that brought her, he said "let me get my wallet from the car" and never came back. The clinic finished treatment and this woman took the puppy home to socialize her and train her before bringing her to Coco's Heart. Sabrina asked us to stay there, went to get her phone and showed us pictures of the puppy... She had all of Bella's exact markings!! We were so awestruck that the universe brought this our way in such a small world. I emailed Coco's to confirm that it was Bella and it was! So yesterday we learned that our baby is survivor, a warrior, a strong pup!

So Bella Wilbur-Milbery... Welcome to the family! We love you and are so grateful for you!

Don't judge my Pit Bull
and I won't judge your children.