I first met Jo Brown, Bella’s owner, when playing tennis in Richmond.
She and her partner brought Bella with them while they played tennis and, not surprisingly, we started chatting about Bella. It’s not every day that you encounter a totally blind dog, let alone one with such an interesting and uplifting story…
Bella, the Journey of a Blind Street Dog
Now Jo has written a book about Bella – Bella, the journey of A Blind Street Dog – and it’s ghost written on behalf of Bella. It really is a delightful read.
Jo has lived in Mortlake for 20 years. A sport scientist, working with children and young people, helping them become more active, she’s a lifelong keen squash player who plays competitively and was capped for England.
She tells me about adopting Bella: ” I had a cat called Jonny. He died age 16 from a short illness. Jonny and I were so close. I regarded myself as a ‘cat person’ and knew very little about dogs, although I love all animals. These days with YouTube and social media you get more information – visually – about the tough life many cats and dogs experience.
Anyway, Jonny’s death was profoundly moving and difficult. My partner and I both felt that we couldn’t just get another cat. Grief takes everyone differently, but I knew that I needed to wait . But the house was so empty without an animal life in it. It was tough coming home; it was as if the house was grieving.
One day, Bella’s picture ‘appeared’ on my partner’s phone. I didn’t know about the charity Soi Dog, and I still don’t know how I ended up looking at a picture of Bella – that’s social media for you! But the moment I saw her I had this odd thought, ‘ that’s my dog.’
I knew Bella was blind. She was young and had been rescued from the street.
I was thinking, ‘maybe we could give this dog a home.’ She was only around one year old so why should she spend her whole life in the sanctuary? Most people want sighted dogs and her chances of adoption were not great, in spite of being so young and healthy.
It went from there. In fact, when we contacted the charity in Thailand about adopting her, they said there had been a mistake. Her photo should have been withdrawn as people in Germany were going to adopt her. It was devastating news, even though we didn’t know Bella. It felt wrong. And then 2 weeks later I got a message; ‘Bella is back on; the adoption fell through.’
So it was destiny.
Perhaps knowing not much about dogs was an advantage. We didn’t overthink it. Bella comes from generations of street dogs. They live aside society – some street dogs have quite good lives, some not. The big dangers are infection and the cruelty from humans. But some people look after the street dogs giving them food.
As a street dog, Bella had never been in a house before! The charity warned us that street dogs often arrive at their new home and want to sleep outside – that’s normal to them! Even today its not that warm but Bella is asleep outside.
There were so many things she had to adapt to, not just as a blind dog but as a street dog now living the life of a domestic English dog.
People here have been wonderful. Bella’s blindness touches a nerve in people; we see tremendous compassion and interest in her. Once I was banging on each step in turn as Bella was coming downstairs (only 3 steps) in a coffee shop and people around were crying! Its very moving to see how people respond to her.
Small children burst into tears and covered their eyes when they realized Bella was blind.
So many people ask her story – i must have told it over a thousand times. We have seen the best of human nature in peoples interest and response to her.
Bella is very much a street dog. You can take the dog out of the street, but you can’t take the street out of the dog – we can see that toughness that was needed to survive. I admire that. I admire her courage and her determination. She has no self-pity and doesn’t regard herself as special needs. She is very inspirational.
How does a street dog come from the streets of Phuket to Richmond on Thames?
It was a story that needed to be told!
Jo has now written a delightful book on behalf of Bella – more information is here
And you can meet Bella and find out more about her story on the link here
