A Very Soft Kiss

Although Bella eats in front of me, and sometimes accepts a treat from my hand, she has only been eating when the food bowl is right next to her on her bed.  While this is not ideal, I'm just happy she's been eating well.  I've decided to change this up a bit.  Instead of putting the food bowl on her bed, I put the bowl a couple of feet away from her.  She has to stand up and take a few steps in order to eat.  Tonight, when I did this for the first time, she did not eat right away.  Instead, she began to pant anxiously.  It was hard to feel the tension that the little change created for her, but I held my ground and focused on my phone so that she didn't feel me watching her.  After about 5 minutes, Bella gathered the courage to get up, take the few steps to her food, and eat.  She paused briefly at one point, appearing to listen, wary of some unknown concern.  Then she finished her meal and went back to her bed.

Bella does not drink in front of me.  She drinks when I am not in the room, or at night when I am lying quietly my bed. I hear the lap, lap, lap of her drinking in the dark.  Moving her food off her bed seems like the right degree of challenge right now.  She is so frightened.  The voices of other people in the outer rooms, and probably all the sounds of the household machines concern her.  When she does take a treat from my hand, it's only after I have been petting her for a few minutes.  My touch reassures her.  When I feel her relax, I place the treat on my palm and rest my hand on the bed in front of her.  After a moment, she gently takes it, barely touching me.  It feels like a little, very soft kiss.