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Our Journey with Bella-Day 1

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It was bit of a tiring trip where everyone had to get up around 5am to prepare for our 2+ hour journey. To boot, a long journey did not guarantee that we would bring home Bella, Roxy or Grace from the Humane Society of Atlantic City.

If you are looking for a shelter pet, I highly recommend that you checkout the Humane Society of Atlantic county (Facebook link; Website link). Not only did we found the facility to be very clean, warm, inviting and comfortable for the sheltered animals but the staff at HSAC were very friendly and made our kids feel welcome at their “home”.

The Human Society of Atlantic County

When we got to the facility around 9:30am, we were disheartened to find that few people were already waiting by the side door near the parking lot.

Fortunately for us, those folks were waiting for the vet clinic to open. Apparently their side door was used for the Vet’s office and the front “green’ door in the middle was used for adoptions (there are three doors facing the road) .

Relief that I was the only one, I settled on the concrete patio for the shelter to open.

If you are visiting during winter, make sure to dress in layers. The facility lies behind the Borgata casino separated by a marshland. Although the temperature was around 48 degrees, a constant breeze made it much, much colder.

When we entered the facility, we were greeted by couple of staff members who were smiling. The facility inside had a charming and personable fee to it, making a positive impression on all of us.

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We then proceeded into a medium sized holding area (I believe some cats and mostly small breed dogs were housed here) where we met Bella (Roxy as it turns our had already been adopted) and kids fell instantly in love with her.

Although Bella had been spayed the day before and was wearing a “cone of shame” (this funny reference is from Disney’s UP movie), she was very outgoing so we decided to adopt on the spot.

happy-oodles-bellas-life-day-1-ride-home-flWe felt bad about leaving behind two other available puppies.

Because HSAC had a policy of not adopting out 2 puppies to a same family, we would not have been able to take home a 2nd puppy but we were assured by the HSAC staff that they were going to be adopted that day as well.

Ride Home

For the ride back home with Bella, we simply brought a small box lined with bunch of towels. We were able to place the box between out kids’ seats so they all ended up entertaining each other which worked out great.

Thankfully she did #1 and #2 at the shelter prior to leaving so we had no issues during the car trip.

Instead of a box, we plan on purchasing a dog seat with a seat belt (like this Kurgo Skybox Dog Booster Seat) to better secure Bella.

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First Day at Our House

Bella’s first day at our house was as expected with few peeing accidents. But to her credit, as soon as we placed some newspapers on the floor, she went on them instead.

Unfortunately, we no longer subscribe to a newspaper so scrap pieces of paper are hard to come by! By laying down 1 or 2 sheets did not prevent Bella’s pee from penetrating to the floor so we will go ahead and buy some basic puppy pee pads (Like this item which is $17 for 100 count at Amazon; At 17 cents per pad, I think the price is quite reasonable).

After an exhausting day, Bella complained in her crate for about 40 minutes before passing out.

PS. We did wake her up at 11:00pm, 2AM and 5AM for bathroom breaks.

After trying for so long, it was exciting and gratifying to see our kids playing with their new friend!