Bella goes outside; Jess finds his voice

I've been keeping Bella indoors because her light body and slender frame combined with her skittishness made me fear that she might be a fence climber and a flight risk. She's become pretty trusting lately, however, and is bonded enough that she follows me everywhere indoors. Today was a nice day, not as hot and not as humid, so I sent at least six of them to the dog yard, including Bella.

Scarlett (left) and Bella (right)

Bella and Theo both went after a stick that I threw,
but Bella wisely decided not to challenge Theo for it.
Her crouching stance sort of looks like an Aussie,
so that's my guess as the source of her blue eyes.

She had a great time exploring the space and I looked out the window once to see her chasing Penelope in big circles around Playstation K9. I looked out frequently but never saw her looking like she was looking for a way out or trying to jump. I'm walking her to and from the dog yard on a leash, of course, but at this point it seems that she just wants to be part of the pack. She spent most of the day out there which kept her from walking around the house picking up shoes or other things that would get her in trouble.



















































Jess is wearing a cone and Bella had already taken it off of him once when they played the night before. Since he just had surgery I kept him by himself today and didn't let him play with Bella or the other big dogs. He was indoors when I was cleaning up a bit so he had what may have been his first experience with the vacuum monster. He barked, he jumped at it, he tried to grab it with his teeth, but mostly he barked. He's got a really big bark for such a little guy and he gave it a good workout today.