Belle August 31, 1997 ~ June 9, 2011

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind always be at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

and rains fall soft upon your fields.

And until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Galla Creek Belle Starr was born in August of 1997. Her mother was Todd Carter's Crook and her sire was Allar's Fred. My mother was diagnosed with brain cancer the spring of that year. That October she had surgery. I went over to Todd's a picked out my pup and paid for her but he kept her until my Mom came home from the surgery. The next summer Mom died on June 8, 1998, from the cancer and Belle was a year old that fall. I was working for myself fixing air conditioners and refrigerators. Belle stayed treed so much that I could not get much work done.

In the winter of 1998, I decided to let Belle stay in the house. I did not have to do any housebreaking. She was so smart she knew not to go to the bathroom in the house. She had a bunch of litters of pups and would usually have 7 to 9 pups. She never lost a pup. She loved kids and people, but she hated squirrels.

Belle has not been herself for a year, but kept hanging on. Today, she could not hang on any longer!