The story of the crate

When we got Bella 3 weeks ago, we quickly realized that we could not let her run with the big dogs. I love Axl and Lola but since I did not have them as puppies and I did not raise them, there are things about them I don't trust completely. Until Bella is bigger and more of an equal they will not be allowed together unsupervised for any length of time. As I've stated in other posts we are bringing them together under controlled conditions so they get used to each other and it is working. There is also a real desire to play together and that is good.

When we are all in the house in the evenings we've been keeping her in this:

This has worked well but I didn't like it for a number of reasons. First, it just took up so much room - physically and visually. Second, we put it in the middle of the living room and left it. Third - it was ugly. Fourth - she could only see out the front part and upper sides. When we were moving around getting dinner and such, she would lose sight of us and start whining. So I wanted to get her a wire crate but those are seriously expensive.

Yesterday I had to stop at Ross' to pick her up a new bed. We were going to completely redo the room she's staying in and the first bed she had she peed all over - so that was going out. Ross's has dog beds for really cheap and since I know this is probably not the last one I decided to go cheap. As I was in Ross's looking at the cool Cell phone accessories, I happened to glance over and see they had dog crates. I went over to look and what cost $175 at Petco was only $60 here. But they only had 2 large ones and 3 people looking at them. I had no time to think I just snatched one up. After I redid the spare room for the pup, I revamped the living room. Here is her royal highness in her new crate:

The living room looks so much better and she can see everything that is happening. She likes it better, I like it better, everyone likes it better. Also, this give Lola and Axl a better view of her and I think will help them adjust more to her. Axl freaks a little when other animals move around. This will allow him to see her moving and get totally used to it.

Meanwhile, Axl really liked the whole thing too:

Axman spent the whole evening laying on that box, even after we brought his bed back into the house. That dog is too funny.