The terrier mix passed away peacefully on Tuesday, concluding a decorated decade-long career of relentless front-window surveillance.
Bella, a 14-year-old terrier mix who dedicated her life to the relentless psychological torment of the United States Postal Service, died peacefully Tuesday in her orthopedic fleece bed. The cause was advanced age and a heart unable to sustain a resting rate of 180 beats per minute during morning deliveries. Over a decorated career stationed at the front window of her Oak Park home, Bella successfully repelled more than 4,000 unprovoked mail incursions, never once allowing a parcel to be deposited without a violent, spit-flecked display of territorial dominance.
She was a deeply affectionate companion to us, but she passed away exactly as she lived, absolutely furious that a man in municipal shorts was permitted to use our concrete walkway.
She is survived by her human family, a partially disemboweled plush hedgehog beneath the sofa, and local mail carrier Gary Miller, whose lower legs she had sworn on her life to one day destroy. Services will be held privately at the back fence.