Name: Bella

Owner: Louise Ninneman

How’d you come up with her name? She told me what her name was…in a dream! In May of 2017, we lost our 13 year old border collie, Nikki, and I was utterly bereft. The house and yard were so quiet (too quiet!) and I knew that eventually there would have to be another black & white dog in our future. I started looking at rescue web sites and DDFL, hoping to find another rescue to adopt (both Nikki and her older sister Emma had come from DDFL). It was during this time that I had a really vivid dream where a dog told me that she would be seeing me soon, that she was on her way, and her name was Bella.

Breed: Border Collie

Age: 5 years

Favorite toys: A ball. But not just any ball; you must throw the ball with which she is currently obsessed.

Likes: Catching the ball. And bringing it back so that you can throw it again..and again…and again.

Dislikes: When you stop throwing the ball.

Most happy when: Going somewhere in the car…she loves sitting on the console right next to me so she can see where we’re going!

Can Bella do any tricks? It’s not really a trick, but Bella has a favorite Bruce Springsteen song: we were in the car listening to a Springsteen concert on the radio and the song “Shout” came on…she started barking & howling & singing along! A couple of weeks later the same thing happened – it’s just that particular version of that song, she doesn’t do it with anything else. I downloaded that song and if I play it at home as soon as she hears it she’ll start barking. So we tell her to “shout” instead of “speak”.

How would you describe her personality? Quirky? Obsessive? High Energy? She has a lot of the typical Border Collie characteristics – needs a lot of exercise, very athletic, wants to herd everything, and is really smart (too smart!).

What is your go-to neighborhood for walks? We go over to Central Park almost every day to run on the bike paths and along Sand Creek – started doing it during the pandemic and now it’s part of our routine.