CH Belcanto Honest Courtesan
On March 10th, 2023, we had to say goodbye to our little Queen Bee, Isabetta. Since the day I saw her little face peeking out of her crate at the airport, that little girl owned a huge piece of my heart!
She was smart, sassy, and would eat anything she considered food…even if the rest of us swore to her that it wasn’t actually edible! One time she caught a frog in a swamp and gulped it down whole, legs kicking out of the sides of her mouth, while I yelled at her to DROP IT! Needless to say, she didn’t drop it. At least frogs *are* actually edible! She also decided one day that coffee soaked sand was edible and proceeded to eat so much that she was literally filled up from stem to stern! The vet was so amazed when she saw the x-rays that she presented Issy’s case at an annual vet conference as her strangest case that year. Issy came through that with only a sore bum from sandpaper poop, and *of course* she didn’t learn her lesson!
As a baby, Issy loved to steal slippers and would give you the most perfect “who me?” face when you caught her. She picked up potty training very quickly and pretty much never had an accident until her old body just wasn’t able to hold it well any more. (We did a LOT of dog laundry there at the end, but we didn’t begrudge her that!) She wasn’t a huge fan of that silly obedience thing, but she loved anything athletic! (As long as she didn’t have to get her feet wet…eeew!) She loved chasing the plastic bunny and anything else that moved. She even got a leg on a weight pull title before she decided it was too much effort!
She got me back into dog shows, which is such a huge part of my life now. I’ve met some of my best friends through shows and I’ve had some amazing experiences while attending them. Issy was very much a diva in the ring, so it was tricky learning to show with her! (My only handling experience was about 10 years before that, and I only showed a few times at local shows.) She would usually gait nicely, and she’d stack nicely on the ground or table, but she did NOT want that horrid judge person touching Her Royal Person! She’d be stacked all pretty, then she’d see the judge approaching and she’d literally turn up her nose and fall off the table…almost. Of course I caught her, which she knew would happen. She’d then do that toddler jelly-leg thing and I’d end up physically holding her above the table for examination in an approximation of a stack. Still, after much effort and patience, she received her championship titles in AKC, UKC, and IABCA! She certainly taught me a lot, so while I’m not a professional by any stretch of the imagination, it’s been much easier to show every dog after her.
Issy loved puppies! She would get right down to their level and just let them maul her, happily wagging the whole time. Always gentle and patient with them! Even when she was old enough to be very wobbly, she’d try to get down to their level for a minute to wag at them before she got out of their way.
These last few years have been hard for Issy, physically and mentally. Dementia symptoms were becoming more and more obvious and the arthritis in her hips and spine became more acute. She’d begun having seizures and she’d had to have an eye removed after she hit her head on the kitchen tiles during one. Her eyesight in her other eye was almost completely gone and her hearing was as well. BUT, with all that, she just kept truckin’ along, being her sassy little self! Her little tail just kept waggywaggywaggy-ing! (Seriously, she wagged so much that she had “waggywaggy” calluses on her butt!) When it was dinner time, she’d yell her distinctive little bark-yelp-yodel at you and bounce until you fed her. As time went on, her bouncing became smaller, but it was only the last month or so that it disappeared completely. Did I mention she loved food? She also could tell the other, younger dogs off and they’d defer to her. The teeth she had left probably couldn’t dent a tomato, but they all acted like she’d take them down like a wildebeest! And that suited her just fine.
Finally, Issy’s body and mind deteriorated to the point that, when she rarely left her heated cat bed and she didn’t even want to eat her favorite treats, we knew it was time to say goodbye. Our friend, Scott Echols DVM, came to our home to help her along. She peacefully fell asleep on my lap for the last time, surrounded by those who loved her best. She almost made it to her 16th birthday.
She was one of the very best things that has ever happened to me. Thank you, Patricia Anders, for allowing her to be a part of my life.
