Poor Bella was terribly disappointed after we stopped allowing her to drive. She slipped into a deep depression, slinking around the house and whimpering whenever anyone tried to pet her. We tried everything we could think of to cheer her up: we took her to the movies, we brought in a pet therapist and we tried to set her up with a boyfriend named Deuce.
Nothing worked. She thought the movies were trite and too special-effects oriented. She thought the therapist was a quack after the third or fourth failed hypnosis session. And she and Deuce were good friends, but there was no chance of a romance blossoming since both of them had been, well, fixed.
Finally, one day a miracle happened. Bella, Jorge and I were sitting around in the largest of the palace's movie theaters. We had been intending to watch "Cats & Dogs" at Bella's request, but we ended up trying to make Bella happy instead. Jorge told this really funny joke where George Bush and Bill Clinton are talking to this blonde girl and ... never mind. That's beside the point.
Just as we were about to give up on Bella and go out drinking, the maid, Maria, came running into the theater, shouting. She was carrying an envelope with Bella's name on it. Intrigued, I tore it open and out fell a credit card. Now, why in the hell a credit card company would issue a card to my dog, I'm not sure. But somehow it made Bella feel powerful again.
Her eyes were absolutely aglow with the possibilies. She finally had the purchasing power she'd always wanted -- and, being the dog of a rich princess, she had a really high credit limit. Oh, what could she use it for? Whatever it was, she knew it had to be big. And while she was deciding, she figured it couldn't hurt to chew on the tasty card for a bit.
After hours of deliberation, Bella finally hit upon the idea that made her smile that big, irresistible doggy smile. She was going to buy a plane and learn how to fly. Ever since she saw her first bird when she was a week old, she had been jealous of their ability to see the world from such amazing altitudes. But she never thought she'd have the opportunity to do it herself.
We set out that afternoon to buy Bella an airplane and some flying lessons. It was only when we had chosen the plane and were standing at the checkout counter that Bella suddenly realized that, in her excitement, she had chewed her new credit card to pieces.
My assets had been temporarily frozen for reasons I cannot currently divulge, so I couldn't help Bella buy her airplane. She was devastated once again.
Jorge and I thought long and hard about what we could do to help Bella achieve her dream. In the end we were surprised at how simple the answer was: We would teach her to fly on her own. Birds can do it -- why not Bella?
We decided that the best method would be the same one we used when teaching her how to swim. In that case, we had tossed her in the water and she'd had to sink or swim. This time, we thought we could throw her in the air and she'd have to fly or fall.
She did a lot of falling. A couple of times she managed to stay in the air for a couple of seconds -- usually when we'd tossed her really high up. But no matter how hard she flapped her little legs, she could never maintain height for a significant amount of time. And the landings really freaked her out.
So the attempt to teach Bella to fly failed pretty miserably. She just had to come to terms with the fact that she is not now, nor will she ever be, a bird.
But in the end, Bella was satisfied. No, she hadn't really learned to fly, but she had tried. She had challenged herself to do something everyone told her was impossible and she had given it her all. She didn't consider herself a failure -- not by a long shot. After all, she'd done something most dogs never get to do. She'd seen the living room from the height of a person, even if it was just for a brief moment before she crashed to the floor. And that was enough for her.
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