Little Girl was born on August 28th, 3rd of 10 puppies to Midnight Star and Harley's Dream in Southern California.

Here's a picture of her just hours old with her sisters and brothers. Mama would have 5 more puppies after this picture was taken.

We soon learned that Little Girl was born with a cleft palate, which is quite common in large litters of Great Danes, and although she tried desperately to nurse, she wasn't gaining any weight.

We began feeding her with a baby bottle. She loved to lay near mama and pretend she was nursing like her siblings.

She still couldn't suck very well and we worried as her weight was dropping fast. Don found that she could eat better with a medicine dropper for babies. She was so anxious to eat that it was always a challenge to get her to hold still.

Little Girl was content after a big meal from Big Bird.

Little Girl started gaining weight and we all breathed a sigh of relief. We had found two wonderful homes for her and wanted her to grow strong.

This picture was taken of Little Girl with her sisters at one week old.

By the 3rd week, Little Girl had grown quite strong. She even walked better than most of her siblings.

At 4 weeks, Little Girl started eating out of a dish like her sisters and brothers. It was a milestone for us and for her. Here is Heather who also spent lots of time nursing our little girl back to health.

Little Girl has been special to her sisters and brothers. They all love her and play with her and let her sleep underneath them to keep warm.

Here she is with Lynn and Nancy getting her nails clipped at 4 weeks old.

At 4 1/2 weeks, we found out Little Girl's new family in Ohio is naming her Bella which means "beautiful" in Italian. We took this movie the same day of Bella running around on the patio. Click on the link to start it downloading while you look at the rest of the pictures.mov00038.mpg It is 950K and will take about 6 minutes to download with a 56k modem. You can use the controls at the bottom of this page to stop the music so you can hear the movie when it is finished downloading.

Bella is getting front teeth that are growing straight down. This is really great news since we weren't sure if her teeth would grow straight out or if she would even get front teeth. As you can see, the rest of her teeth are coming in normal also. They are very sharp when she nibbles your toes!

Here is Don holding Bella on September 30, 2000.

He's Bella's main man!

This song is titled
"Your Song"