My dog Bella is a white toy poodle, and she is about eight years old, weighs nine pounds, and is ten inches tall. She is also incredibly smart. I searched it up, and apparently poodles, including toy poodles, are one of the most intelligent dog breeds out there. That makes sense, but I feel like Bella is smarter than other toy poodles. This isn’t like how all dog owners say that their dog is the best, I genuinely do believe that Bella is smarter than other dogs. Not only is Bella remarkably well trained and follows every order, but she also shows extreme self-awareness that I have never seen in a dog before.
One time, I found my husband, Ben, trying to put a bandana on Bella, saying that “It’ll look cute on her!”. Bella turned to look at me when I walked into the room. She clearly didn’t want to wear the bandana, but she let Ben put it on her anyway. Once Ben finished and stood up, Bella hurried away, into another room.
“Doesn’t she look adorable?” my husband said with a smile before turning to look at me.
“You too, honey.”
I shook my head, and went after Bella, to go and get the bandana off her. But there was no need. When I turned the corner into the downstairs bedroom, I saw Bella, pawing and pulling the bandana off her neck. Most dogs do this whenever their owner puts something on them. The strange thing was how Bella was doing it. She was looking directly into the full-length mirror attached to the closet door. She was using it to try to see how she could get the bandana off her. When Bella saw me in the mirror, her head popped up, and she turned around and trotted up to me happily, her tail wagging, and a bandana in her mouth. That was the first time I have ever seen a dog not only recognize their own reflection, but also use it to take something off them. Bella even knew that my reflection behind her meant that I was actually behind her.
I was beyond impressed, and I told Ben about it over dinner, but he didn’t believe me.
“It was probably just a coincidence that she was looking at the mirror while taking the thing off,” He replied nonchalantly, before picking up another pile of pasta with his fork.
“…and Bella probably knew that you were behind her because she either heard or smelt you coming,” He took a quick drink of water from his glass, before turning to me. “Not saying you smell bad.”
While Ben laughed at his own joke, I sat there, annoyed. I then turned to look at the floor, where Bella was sitting, looking up at me. She could sense how I was feeling. I always felt that Bella could understand us.
“Becky, I’m sorry. What’s wrong?” spoke Ben in a more serious voice, putting his hand on my shoulder.
“It’s fine. It’s just- Bella can always understand us, I just wish we could understand her.” I mumbled softly, still looking at Bella.
“You know, I got an idea.” Ben spoke out, interrupting my train of thought. I turned myself back towards Ben, who was scrolling through his phone on some website.
“What is it?” I asked, confused. Ben turned his phone towards me, and I could see a picture of what looked like a mat, covered in different colored buttons. There was a Dog in the picture.
”The BrightPup.” Ben grinned, before looking back down to his phone and reading what it said aloud. ”Have you ever wanted to be able to understand what your dog might be thinking? Well, now you can! Introducing the BrightPup, a communication pad with different buttons, for different things! Using the buttons’ unique recording ability, you can set each one to play a different voice line when pushed. Some words that we would suggest you include are “bathroom”, “walk”, and “food”, but it’s all up to you! With enough training, you will be able to understand the needs of your furry friend. Remember: Buy the BrightPup today, and give your dog a say!’”
After he finished reading, Ben handed the phone to me. “Well? What do you think?” Ben asked, with hope in his voice. I’ve seen these kinds of pads before, and they do work from what I’ve heard, and the reviews were good, so I decided-
“Let’s get it.”
A week later, a large box ended up right on our front doorstep. We knew what it was. After bringing it inside, Ben and I opened it up, with the help of Bella, of course. We set it up in the living room, off to the side where we wouldn’t trip on it.
“It certainly isn’t the prettiest thing in the room, but it’ll fit.” stated Ben. It took us around an hour of figuring out how to record the specific lines for each button, but eventually it was ready for use. We began training Bella by getting her to press a button and giving her a treat whenever she wanted something specific. She learned quite fast. Almost immediately, Bella started pressing the buttons to tell us when she needed to go outside. It was a little weird hearing my own voice occasionally coming from the living room, saying “Potty”, but it was an improvement from the quiet scratches Bella would make at the front door before we got the BrightPup. With more training, Bella was eventually able to form small sentences! One time, I could hear my voice speaking in clips from the other room.
”Bella. Hungry.” “Mom. Food.”
It was truly amazing watching Bella communicate with us in this way, especially with how fast she learned how to do so. It was also funny seeing Ben’s shocked face, as he watched Bella continuously pressing one button after another.
”Play. Dad.” “Bella. Fetch.” beeped the BrightPup. I was glad that Ben could finally see Bella’s intelligence for himself, and that I could finally understand Bella.
One night, a few weeks after we had gotten the BrightPup, Ben told me he was going to take a night walk around the neighborhood. I told him to stay safe, to which he responded with a smile.
“I will.”
I settled down on the couch in the living room, exhausted. I looked over to Bella, who was curled up in her dog bed, next to the button pad. Ever since we got the BrightPup, Bella would almost never leave it alone. She would constantly press the buttons, speaking to us. Sometimes it was about food, walks, or playing, but oftentimes it was just random words that we couldn’t understand. Either way, it had started to get annoying. Ben began to take long night walks as a way to finally have some kind of silence. It was only ever quiet in the house when Bella was sleeping.
I decided to turn on the television and began to scroll through the channels. One of them was playing a movie. It was already halfway over, but I just wanted to watch something to clear my head. From what I pieced together, the movie was about a dog that helped improve the lives of those around her. At some point during the movie, I noticed that Bella was now awake, and looking attentively at the screen. She wasn’t barking or anything. Just staring. I assumed that she probably knew that there wasn’t actually another dog in the living room. Nevertheless, she still seemed mesmerized, and we watched the whole thing through. The movie had a rather sad ending, where the dog in the movie passed away from old age, and the effects were felt by those whom she helped earlier in the story.
When the screen faded to black, and the white text of the credits began to scroll, I turned off the TV, stood up from the couch, and stretched. I was too tired to wait for Ben to come back, so I figured that I would just go to bed. I slowly walked towards the steps that lead upstairs, when I stopped. I felt something- or someone- staring at me. I turned around, and there was Bella, now standing up in her bed, and looking directly at me, her black eyes piercing mine.
“What’s wrong, Bella?” I asked. She didn’t move.
“Do you need to go outside?”
…
“Do you need more food?”
…
“Do you want to play?”
…
Nothing.
Shrugging it off, I turned around and began to walk away again, when I heard the BrightPup speak.
”Mom.”
I sighed, getting slightly annoyed, and turned around again, walked over to Bella, and crouched down on the floor, in front of her.
“Yes Bella, what is it?” I questioned, exasperated. Bella’s eyes darted around, looking at all of the buttons that were lying before her. Slowly but surely, she lifted her paw, and began to push the buttons on the pad.
”When. Dog. Gone.” “Where. Dog. Go?”
“What?” I asked, slightly confused.
”Where. Dog. Gone. When. Dog. Sleep?”
“Uh, dreamland?” I replied, still unsure what she meant. I then laughed to myself and was about to get up and walk away.
”No.” replied Bella, with a stomp of her paw. “When. Mom. Gone.” “When. Dad. Gone.” “When. Bella. Gone.” “No. Gone. Sleep.” “Gone. No. See.” “Gone. No. Eat.” “Gone. Gone.” “Where. Go?”
That was when I pieced two and two together, and felt a wave of dread come over me. How did Bella know about that? I knew she was smart, but this was something entirely else.
“I don’t know.” I replied. That was the truth. I had never been religious, but I wasn’t an atheist either. I have always pushed the thought about what happens after death aside and forget about it. After all, I should focus on the now, right? No point in worrying about something that will happen regardless… right? I was beginning to feel creeped out. Bella didn’t seem satisfied with this answer. She let out a soft whimper, and began to furiously paw at the board.
”No.” “Bella. No. Want. Go.” “Bella. No. Want. Mom. Gone.” “No. Go.” “No.” “No.” “No.”
I slowly got up, and backed away, as Bella continued to press the same button.
As I walked upstairs, I could still hear the sounds of my recorded voice repeatedly saying “No”, coming from behind me. Even in bed, I could still hear it from downstairs.
”No.” “No.” “No.”
In the morning, I suggested to Ben that we return the BrightPup. He immediately agreed, admitting that the constant noise was driving him crazy, and would be glad to not hear it again. I never told him about what had happened the previous night, and I never planned to.
We tried to go online to the website we bought the pad from, but for some reason, it was gone. I still don’t know why we couldn’t find it.
“It doesn’t matter.” said Ben, smoothly. “We can still sell it online.”
So we did that, and put up an ad for the BrightPup. We hadn’t gotten any offers yet, but it was only the first day. The BrightPup was put into the closet, so Bella couldn’t make any more noise with it. She wasn’t happy with that, and she showed it. She was always so well behaved before, but now she seemed so… different. Bella would refuse to listen to us, she would stop wanting to play or go outside. and she would start barking whenever Ben tried to put the bandana on her. One time she even growled and snapped! I was worried that something was seriously wrong. Ben didn’t think there was anything to stress about.
“She’s just a tiny dog. Bella couldn’t do any harm to us even if she really wanted to.” He chuckled.
Bella would also start treating me differently, as well. She’d stare at me whenever I was in the room, even if I wasn’t looking at her. I know I shouldn’t have been that scared of my own dog, especially a little one at that, but I can’t help it. It always reminds me of that night, where she asked me what happens after we die.
Maybe the buttons she pressed didn’t mean anything, and I was giving meaning to something that had none. But it still did make me think about it. About death. We never should have gotten her that BrightPup. But Bella was obsessed with it by now. There were a few times when we would catch her clawing at the closet door that we hid the BrightPup in. Even though we had the ad up online for about a month by this point, we still weren’t getting any offers.
“Maybe we should just throw the BrightPup away.” I whispered to Ben one night.
“Why are you whispering Becky? Are you scared that the dog will hear us? Honey, you need to relax. Bella is smart, but she can’t understand EVERYTHING that we say.” chuckled Ben. “Besides, we paid good money for that thing, why do you want to toss it?”
“Well, you know- Bella has just been acting so weird since we got it. Maybe if we get rid of it, she’ll act normal again.”
Ben laughed.
“You’re still scared of the dog?” he asked, pointing over to Bella. I nodded, and Ben sighed. “Here, how about this- I can take her to the vet tomorrow morning, so they can check her out. That way we can know for sure if something is wrong. Does that sound good to you?”
“Yeah I guess…” I mumbled, as I turned to look at Bella, who was now staring intently at us.
The next morning, I woke up to what sounded like a crashing noise. Normally I would instantly wake up to see what was wrong, but it was so early in the morning and I was exhausted.
I groggily rolled over to wake Ben up, but he wasn’t there.
”He must have gotten up already.” I thought to myself. Slowly, I got out of bed, put on my slippers and bathrobe, and left the bedroom with a stretch and a yawn. I could see the kitchen lights were on downstairs from the hallway. Ben wouldn’t leave the lights on if he had left to take Bella to the vet already. I walked down the staircase, and into the kitchen. It was empty.
“Ben, are you alright?” I called out to the empty home.
…
“Did something break?”
…
“Ben?”
…
“Are you there?”
…
No response.
It was dead silent. Suddenly a voice called out from our second downstairs level.
”Down. Here.”
Even though it was a recorded version of Ben’s voice, I still recognized it as the BrightPup. Did Ben take it out? I walked over to the staircase and saw that it was pitch black downstairs.
I took out my phone, and turned on the flashlight mode so I could see the steps below me. Often times Bella’s dog toys would be left on the steps, which could be a tripping hazard. I managed to make it downstairs safely, and shined my flashlight around the dark room, looking for whoever activated the BrightPup. I was beginning to feel a sense of dread.
That was when my light finally shined onto the floor near the couch, illuminating Bella, who was sitting next to the BrightPup.
I sighed.
“Bella, who said you could have that? Did dad give it to you?”
”No,” the machine responded, after Bella pushed down a button. She then pressed a few more buttons with her paws.
”Dad. Gone.”
“Gone where?” I asked. Something didn’t feel right.
”Down. There.”
Bella then turned her head to look at something in the darkness. I pointed my phone’s light into the direction that she looked, which was right in front of me.
My heart dropped when I saw what Bella was looking at.
Ben was lying face-down on the floor, in front of me and the stairs, unmoving.
“Oh my god!” I screamed, as I rushed over to him to see if he was alright.
He wasn’t.
When he fell down the stairs, he must have hit his head on the TV stand, splitting it open. There was no point in checking his pulse. He was dead.
I started crying, and was about to call 911 for help, when my phone’s light fell on something else, that was near Ben’s feet. It was a ball. Bella’s toy ball.
I slowly turned over to Bella, who was already looking right at me.
She pressed three buttons.
”Dad. No. More.”