A mixture of fact and fiction about the author’s dog, Belle. Belle is happy at first. She has many adventures and mishaps. Her family becomes too busy for her, so she learns to play by herself. This makes her incredibly sad.
One day she ventures out through an open gate, running towards a group of playing children. One of the children, the curly-haired boy, removes Belle's ID tags and takes her home.
The curly-haired boy does his best to keep his parents from finding Belle’s people.
Although Belle is treated well by the boy and his parents, she misses her family. This causes her to whine at all hours, to the annoyance of the boy's parents. The boy's mom says the dog must go.
The curly-haired boy comes clean about having dognapped Belle. His mom is furious. Belle is returned to her family, who is now repentant about neglecting her.
Features 13 full-color illustrations by graphic designer and illustrator, Alex T. Lee. Includes photos of the real Belle at the back of the book.
Look for the printed version to be included in “My Two Dogs. Their Two Stories.”, to be published later this year.
A mixture of fact and fiction about the author’s dog, Belle. Belle is happy at first. She has many adventures and mishaps. Her family becomes too busy for her, so she learns to play by herself. This makes her incredibly sad.
One day she ventures out through an open gate, running towards a group of playing children. One of the children, the curly-haired boy, removes Belle's ID tags and takes her home.
The curly-haired boy does his best to keep his parents from finding Belle’s people.
Although Belle is treated well by the boy and his parents, she misses her family. This causes her to whine at all hours, to the annoyance of the boy's parents. The boy's mom says the dog must go.
The curly-haired boy comes clean about having dognapped Belle. His mom is furious. Belle is returned to her family, who is now repentant about neglecting her.
Features 13 full-color illustrations by graphic designer and illustrator, Alex T. Lee. Includes photos of the real Belle at the back of the book.
Look for the printed version to be included in “My Two Dogs. Their Two Stories.”, to be published later this year.
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The most friendly, adorable, playful dog lives in a little town on Long Island. Her name is Belle.
Belle is part beagle and part fox terrier. She has floppy ears and big, round, brown eyes. Her face is black, except for a white spot on one side of her nose that makes her look as if she was caught with her snout in a glass of milk and only had time to lick one side clean. On one side of her body, she is almost all white. On the other side, she has two black markings: one looks like a shoeprint, and one looks like a heart. Although Belle is three years old, she still looks and acts like a puppy … and hops like a bunny, jumps like a kangaroo, gallops like a horse, cries like a baby, purrs like a kitten, leaps like a frog, wiggles like a worm, and as clear as day can say, “Mommy.” Yes, she can.
For as long as Belle can remember she has lived with her people. Even though they all love her very much, Belle is not always happy. You see,
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although she lives with four people, Belle is almost always alone.
Every morning at six o’clock, Mommy (whom Belle loves the most of all) wakes up and gives Belle her breakfast of a half of a cup of kibble and a dog biscuit. Then Mommy gives Belle a hug and a kiss and lets her out in the backyard for her morning romp. Belle romps alone, because Mommy is off to the office, then after that to night school, returning home so late in the evening that all she ever has time to do is give Belle a goodnight kiss and a quick belly rub before she goes to bed. On weekends Mommy sleeps late. When she is awake, she spends the day doing exercises and homework.
After Mommy leaves for work, Grandma wakes up and lets Belle in from outside. Grandma never has time to play because after she has her breakfast she does some reading, watches game shows and soap operas on TV, and then cooks
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dinner for her husband, Grandpa. Grandpa works nights and sleeps during the day, waking up at three o’clock in the afternoon for his dinner.
Belle is happy when Grandpa gets up because she knows this means it is time for her dinner. Sometimes, if he is not too busy taking Grandma shopping or helping her with something, Grandpa may have a few minutes to play. Unfortunately, Grandpa plays too roughly and gets tired too quickly, so playtime doesn’t last long. Before Belle knows it, it is six o’clock, and Grandpa must go to work.
There is one more person in Belle’s family. She is Grandma’s mother and Mommy’s grandmother. Everyone calls her Nanny. Nanny lives in an apartment attached to Belle’s house. Although Nanny is nice, the only thing she does all day is clean. Other than when Nanny gives Belle her nine o’clock bone in the morning and her four
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o’clock bone in the afternoon, Belle rarely sees her at all.
You can see that although Belle is the most friendly, adorable, and playful dog, she is also one of the saddest dogs.
They say dogs are our best friends, and that's true. Now imagine ignoring your friend for several months and not even realizing the problem you were building up? Would that make your friend upset? Why, yes, obviously! That's the same thing dogs feel when we forget to be there for them or completely ignore them. Dogs can be extremely friendly, playful and happy creatures until they start sensing abandonment. When left alone for long periods of time, like humans they tend to feel unloved and insecure. They crave affection and as long as there is a constant source of love and attention focussed on them, they remain happy. But once that connection is broken, they also feel sad.
This book beautifully narrates the story of how Belle, an exceptionally happy and friendly dog, suddenly becomes depressed and disillusioned due to her loneliness. Despite having a loving family, nobody really gets to spend that much time with her as they used to when he was only a puppy. The characters are not portrayed as black and white, they are realistic. Throughout the story we notice there are subtle nuances that vouch for the fact that Belle's family undoubtedly love her, but it also makes us aware that they had become too preoccupied with their own routine lives to realise that they had started neglecting poor Belle.
In the end, lots of small lessons are carefully packed into the story, the idea that neglect can be a form of mistreatment, the fact that one shouldn't lie and keep something they just found outside (like a lost puppy) no matter how tempting the idea is because they too belong to another family who would be terribly missing them, and also the fact that dogs need actual company to be happy. Written in a very simple and inviting language, this short story has an easy to follow narrative style and is definitely ideal for young school students. The detailed watercolour illustrations add to the overall experience of the lovely story. Wonderful read, recommended for all children.