Early on in order to establish a warm and loving relationship, I engaged Bella in “wrestling matches”. These were gentle of course, but fun for us both nonetheless. Sometimes these would occur on the floor, on the couch, but more often than not, we would “wrestle” on the bed in the guest room.  

She enjoyed having me put the side of my hand in her mouth, and she would pretend to bite me. She never did mind you, but clearly we both thought it was funny. She would let me play hide-and-seek during these bouts too! I would throw a blanket over her and pretend I could not find her, yelling out for her to come, “Bella, where are you? Where is my Bella?” Eventually, she would stick her little head out of the covers, as if to say, “Here I am!”

Once her surgical wounds from her spay healed, I would sometimes blow on her tummy. I did not do it too often, because she was not fond of this, but I liked to tease her, as if I was going to do it, just to get her riled up. Speaking of the guest room, by the way, Bella assumed this was her room, particularly after my niece and nephew would come to visit. Bella liked to creep under the bed and hide behind the dust ruffle; I could hear her doing her normal carpet scratching there, as if to build a nest. Unless I called her, she would eventually crawl out the other side of the bed. And it was always this way; in one side out the other. We had good times in the guest room.

Hopefully, Bella found a bed to crawl under on the other side and is scratching the carpet there too.