Flashback...Baby Nola!

Nola Belle

born March 10, 2007

This is the first picture I saw of Nola. She was two-weeks old and had just opened her eyes. I'd been searching for a puppy for months. I had very specific criteria: medium sized, short coat, female, must see parents, not pure-bred. I saw puppies listed on Petfinder and decided to check them out. It was so funny that Nola was lighter in color because while I secretly thought it would be fun to have a "brown" dog, I really did want a black dog since they are often overlooked and are commonly the most euthanized. That fact makes me so sad. All of the puppies were light except for one male, who looked identical to his father. (I'll post more pics of them all.) Nola was listed as "Lena: female." At that point, I knew her name would be Sumi after a little boy I'd met in Tanzania named Suma. Needless to say, the name did not fit her at all.

It took me about a week to decide on her name. It actually originated from "Enola" which I hated both for the name itself and because it made me think of war bombs, but Enola is "alone" spelled backwards. Since the reason I was getting a dog was mainly because my sister had moved out and I was terribly lonely (and I'd wanted another dog since my beloved Brownie the chocolate lab died years earlier), the name seemed perfect. Fast forward about a year and I learned that "NOLA" was an abbreviation of New Orleans, LA. I hate that people think she was named after that, but it's okay. To be honest, I didn't even love the name Nola but it fit her completely. She was so sweet and quiet and perfect in every day (goo goo mush kissy wah wah, I know...). So, where was I... I went to visit the puppies and it was an instant decision. Nola was the lightest in color of all the puppies and I knew she'd look just like her mom when she was bigger. It was important that I know what she'd be like since I have a somewhat small condo with two cats. Tara, the mama dog, was so pretty. Nola was identical to her down to her two white toes on her back paw. Later, I would find out, Nola was a lot like her mom in many ways.

I was so in love with this puppy that I visited almost every week until it was time for her to come home for good. I also started buying all of my puppy necessities and reading all my puppy books. I was a nesting dog mom. (Ok, really lonely... don't laugh at me!) The following picture was taken when Nola was 4 weeks old. Because Nola's parents were rescue cases and the rescuers were ready for the puppies to find homes, they offered to let me take Nola when she was 4-weeks old. I declined for many reasons.

The day before she was officially 6-weeks old, I brought Nola home! I was SO excited! I dashed home from work and drove about 20 minutes. She was SO sweet! J and S (the ones who rescued the parents) told me I was in for it because she had me totally whipped because she seemed so cuddly and laid back when I visited but they said she was always the first to explore, eat puppy food, etc... I didn't care, I loved her to pieces already! I remember driving home thinking how weird it was that I had a dog! I drove straight home, tossed her in the sink, scrubbed her down, and raced to Aunt Emily's house to show her off! Emily wanted to steal her but she settled on taking lots of pictures!

...to be continued...

(Next: Nola's Family)