CathInTheCity

Bella ♥

32 Comments | Fashion

I got a comment from a reader who wanted to know more about Bella, which I thought was a splendid idea. You’ve seen pictures of her, but I don’t think I’ve told you very much about her yet. That is actually pretty weird, as she’s such a h-u-g-e part of my life! She seriously means everything to me, she is the best little doggie in the world. I never ever get tired of her, and cuddle with her all day long. 

I started looking into the breed, Bichon Havanese, when I was like 15. I just knew that I wanted one of those adorable little furballs when I got older. I even made a whole file with information about the dog, and started preparing life as a dog mommy like 9 years ago, haha. I showed everything to my older sister, who fell in love with the breed as well. She fell in love so hard that she got one with her boyfriend, the cutest little puppy in the world, called Bella. I was there every step of the way, everything from picking her up for the first time to teaching her tricks when she was just a baby. After a year and a half, my sister and her boyfriend broke up, and neither of them had time to take on the responsibility alone. Bichon Havanese is a companion dog, and they don’t do well alone for long periods of time. My whole family were completely crushed when we found out that they most likely had to give Bella away, and there was no doubt in my mind that she had to become mine. Luckily my boyfriend loved the idea, and suddenly we were dog owners! 

 – My love for this little creature can’t be put in words.. – 

Bichon Havanese is not a very common breed, so I thought I’d tell you a little bit about it. Haveneses are extremely devoted to their owners, first of all. They show their love for you every second of every day, and all they want is to make their owners happy. Bella always senses when I’m sad or tired, and starts gently licking my hands or face until I smile. When I relax, Bella relaxes, and when I’m up and about, Bella follows me to see what’s up. She’s full of energy when I encourage it, like when we do tricks or play in the garden, and when I’m just laying on the couch, she’s laying right there with me. In other words, it’s a very easy dog to have in that aspect, because she never annoys me when I need to concentrate, and always just do what I do.

Like I said she’s a companion dog, and leaving her alone for a long period of time is out of the question. If you have a 9-5 job where you can’t bring your dog to work (which I guess is most places), this is not the breed for you. My family loves Bella just as much as we do, so whenever I’m traveling or both me and my boyfriend are going out, my family always watches her. 

Another important thing is that having a dog is expensive. Bichon Havanese cost about 14.000kr, and we pay around 1600kr a year in insurance. Of course occational trips to the vet whenever something is wrong, food and equipment is pricey too. It’s of course so worth it, but can be nice to know if you’re planning to get one. 

Also, Bichon Havanese require a lot of maintnance, especially their fur. They don’t moult (Norwegian; røyte), which is nice so I don’t have to clean up dog hair all the time, but all the hair they loose just get mixed up with all the hair they already have. Therefore they have to be brushed almost every night to prevent big tangles. Their fur is naturally really long, but we cut Bella’s fur to make the maintnance easier. Plus, I think she looks so much cuter with her teddybear haircut. She’s at a dog groomer a couple of times a year, then we cut her fur ourselves from time to time too. She needs a good shampooing every two weeks. 

Before and after haircut, hah. 

We underestimated how often we had to brush her at first, which ended up in an awkward shave, hahaha. Poor baby! 

The breed used to be circus dogs, which I really notice. One of the most fun things Bella knows is doing tricks, and of course showing them off to everyone she meets. I started teaching her tricks early on, and she’s so good at them! When I say ‘kiss’, she jumps up and gives me a kiss on the cheek, and when I say ‘BAM’ and aim at her head, she drops dead on the floor. She gives high fives, rolls around on command, walk around on her hine legs, barks on command (she usually never barks), and so much more. She loves applause, and gets the proudest posture whenever we clap for her, hah. So cute!! She is so smart, it’s crazy. She understands everything!

She’s not a big fan of walks, but she absolutely loves playing in the garden. Therefore I usually just play with her outside several times a day in stead of taking boring walks. We play fetch, and she runs around in the garden trying to fetch the sticks I throw to her. It’s the funniest thing!

Other funfacts about her is that the yummiest thing she knows is cucumber. She always go crazy when I’m making salad, hoping that some cucumber will fall to the floor so she can snatch it. She always sleeps in the bed with us, preferably as close to mommy as possible. Waking up to her laying on her back with her paws folded on her stomach gently snoring is the cutest thing I know! She’s so good with kids, and always play with my nephew patiently even though kids can be a bit much for her sometimes.

Seriously, there are no words for my love for this little cutie. She makes me so incredibly happy just by always being there, and makes me smile all day long. I recommend this breed SO much, but remember that you have to have time for them. They love their owners so much that if they’re left alone too much, they easily get depressed. Now I’m almost wanting a number two♥

Comments

  4. I love this post! Your little Bella is so adorable :D
    My boyfriend and I are waiting for our own little puppy to be ready to come home to us. It’s only 8 days left and I can’t wait!

  9. Aaaaaaah, how adorable she looks! Like a little princess! Mummy really likes her little sweety, am I right??? :D I didn’t leave you comments these days because I have some reparations on my house, so everything is in mess and I have a lot of job! :( But tomorrow I’ll write you something about one sweet little dog, haha, now I only want to go to the beeeed :) Kisses to sweetest Cath! ;)

  11. I have a bichon frise which is relatable in great parts of your description. I guess the biggest difference is that even though they are companion dogs the bichon frise is fine being by themselves doing the work day. They have no perception of time so if I’m gone 1 hour or 7 she doesn’t know the difference. The only thing is that I cant come home from work and leave her again. If I have plans in the afternoon and I wont be able to include her I have to make sure my husband is home or she can have a play date with one of my friends.

    Bella is such a cutie. You’re a lucky girl :) Which I am sure you already know

  13. SÅ HERLIG! :D Jeg ELSKER denne posten.
    Og herregud, så SØT hun er. Haha. Liker spesielt det spille-død-trikset. Det fikk meg til å le høyt! Kan vi ikke få se en liten filmsnutt av dette? Og posituren hun inntar når hun får applaus? Jeg hadde dødd etter å se dette.

    Vil også gjerne spørre om vi kan få vite med om kjæresten din? Hva han studerer og hva han gjør på? Jeg har fått inntrykk av at han ikke er noe glad i bloggen, men kunne det være OK med kanskje litt info, selv om han ikke trenger å stille opp på bilder? ;)

    Du er fin, du!

    x

  19. Love this post! The Bella is adorable. I definitely understand how much you love her. I have a cat named Mia and I’d die for her. It’s a member of our family and sometimes it seems like she’s more important than everyone else, haha.

  21. Så koselig! Jeg har verdens søteste Havanaise gutt på 8 måneder, Buster heter han. Utrolig morsomt å lese hva Bella gjør. For Buster er helt lik. Men nå jeg klapper i hendene så setter han seg på rumpa og lager en bamsepositur. Han er dessuten heeelt crazy etter gulost. Så det øyeblikket jeg tar ut ost av kjøleskapet så ruller han rundt i håp om å få en liten bit.
    Brukte ca 2 år på å sette meg inn i rasen, men jeg har en standard jobb 8-4, hvor han er alene hjemme. og det går overraskende bra. Tror det handler mye om å venne dem til det fra dag 1. For han viser ingen tegn på at det ikke er greit. Selv om rasen i utgangspunktet skal ha selskap 24-7.

  22. Og jeg ELSKER hente-pinne-bildet av Bella. Spesielt det til høyre. Hun ser ut som en liten, tjukk pelsball. Haha. Jeg blir så GLAD av det bildet!

    Og du skal forresten ha MYE skryt for at du gidder å svare oss i kommentarfeltet! Det er det ikke alle som gjør, og det gjør at jeg føler jeg får et mer personlig forhold til deg, selv om du ikke egentlig aner hvem jeg er ;p

    x

  23. Hihi, samme her! Hun ser ut som en liten superwoman-hund syns jeg. Tusen takk for det, kjempehyggelig at det blir satt pris på! Jeg syns alltid det er så koselig å svare når dere tar dere tid til å skrive til meg :) Klem

  24. Åå så koselig! Jeg har så lyst til å lære Bella bamsepositur, men jeg tror ikke det er fysisk mulig for henne, haha. Ser bare for meg at hun detter bakover.

    Så bra at det går fint da! Ja, absolutt :)

  25. Hei Cathrine! Jeg ville bare si at dette var et veldig koselig innlegg!:) Jeg fikk utrolig lyst på en hund etter dette innlegget, men siden jeg er oppvokst med hund, så vet jeg hvor mye tid det innebærer og har ikke tid til det nå. Så det får vente et par år, så skal jeg definitivt vurdere denne rasen:)

    Jeg kommenterer aldri, hehe, men dette måtte jeg bare kommentere på:)

  27. Hey, thanks for this awesome post with tips! Saw a bit of your warderobe in some photos also. Will you make a post about how you organize your clothes? Do you sort them by season, by color, or by how you would combine? How do you make it easy to create combinations for yourself? The warderobe is a whole problem for me these days, as mine is small it seems like there is no good way to place things :))

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