This beautiful, gorgeous, wonderful Goldendoodle found herself in a KY kill shelter, found as a stray, dirty, matted and mis-labeled as a Sheepdog.

  Seeing the beauty underneath all that mess, I tagged her for rescue for Oodles of Doodles, in NJ. Getting her to NJ turned out to be a three week endeavor as snow, cold weather and full transports prevented us from getting her to me. 

  Into a foster home for three weeks allowed her to be out of the shelter and cleaned up a little which must have been more comfortable for her, but she needed her own family and her own home.

  I put her up on Petfinder and the applications were slow at first and then once she was cleaned up some and her beauty started shining through and the apps began coming, too.

  Chanel's foster mom reported her to be shy, laid back and very sweet, possibly abused as she would hide when scared and jump at loud noises but would follow her around and was a true velcro dog to someone who showed love and kindness.

  She loved the kids of the foster home and was fine with other dogs and cats. I knew she would easy to place but I really wanted to find just the right, perfect home for her so that she would never have to be afraid, again.

  One app in particular, really struck me and I kept coming back to it as I went through the applications for Chanel. They had young children, mom was home all day and everything was perfect except for two things: Mom had allergies and their yard wasn't fully fenced, yet. They would be finishing it in the Spring but that was months away. The allergies would be harder to solve as Chanel was still in KY and we couldn't figure if she would be non-shed and hypoallergenic until she got here. After going back and forth, I decided to call this family and feel them out. 

  I spoke to Tina and found out they had been looking for their Forever Dog for over a year, putting in several apps but none panned out. One rescue even sent her a very terse email belittling her for the "faults" of her application and that hurt her quite a bit. The irony of that rescue doing that made me want to try to find this family a dog, even if it weren't Chanel.

  When we finally were able to arrange transport, I called Tina and asked her how far she was from the transport pick up spot and surprisingly, she was only 15 minutes away. We made arrangements for her to meet us at the drop off for her to meet Chanel and see if there was any allergic reaction.

  It was so cold the night of the transport. It was delayed about an hour because of snow in MD and Tina and Rob waited patiently with us until the van came in. Chanel came off, finally, after riding for 10 hours and though scared and nervous, smelling like a shelter crate and probably freezing, we took her into Petco to "see" and meet her properly.

  Tina did something while we were in there that caused me to KNOW she was the right person to adopt this girl. Not knowing if Chanel would cause an allergic reaction, Tina rubbed Chanel all over, put her face in her fur, put her hands in her mouth and basically gave this scared, smelly girl a massage, all the while hoping the sneezes and hives would not arrive. They spent about an hour trying to get Chanel to make her allergies flare. Chanel took it all in stride and accepted it all.

  Tina and Rob went home and I took Chanel home with me hoping I would hear from Tina very quickly. In the car on the ride home, I said to Danny, that I think they are the right one's for Chanel and kept thinking they would call and tell me to bring her back.

  But they did call, first thing the next day. They wanted her...they loved her...no allergic reactions...could they come today...they were so excited, I said yes. 

  So, this great family, with allergies and young kids and an unfinished fence are adopting our girl. This sad, sweet, abused KY Belle is now HOME and her new name is Bella. She is adored and loved, finally. There will be no more sadness or abuse for her. She has her very own family.

         Have a wonderful Life, Bella!