Stella, formerly known as Betsy Ross was rescued on the 4th of July in Downtown LA. Lori took her to the shelter because she thought she was someone’s lost dog but ended up adopting her because no one claimed her and she was set to be euthanized.

STELLA
by Leigh Spader

Anyone who knows me knows I love my Stella more than anything. In my eyes she’s the perfect dog and more importantly the perfect dog for me.

When I moved to Los Angeles, I decided to rescue a dog in hopes that it would help me cope with missing my friends and family back east. I’ve always liked bully breeds so I was set on adopting a boxer, bulldog, or pitbull mix of some sort. When I saw Stella on Petfinder I emailed Lori and got the quickest most enthusiastic response. I could tell right away how passionate she was about these dogs. To make a long story short, I met Lori and she introduced me to Stella. She told me all about Stella’s personality and how my home sounded perfect for her. I knew right then that it would be a good match. I brought Stella home with me and it’s been wonderful ever since! Everything Lori said about Stella’s personality was dead on. I’ve now known Lori for a couple years and I am blown away with how well she knows each of her dogs and how great she is at finding their forever homes. She’s kind of a doggie matchmaker of some sorts.

Stella is the most affectionate, playful, happy, silly dog I have ever known! As her mom, of course I’m biased, but everyone she meets just adores her. Even my mother who always says, “Leigh, why can’t you like nice dogs!” fell in love with her. All it took was Stella curling up on the couch and resting her head in my mom’s lap and she was sold! She could not believe a dog that looked like Stella could be so friendly, calm and loving.

I work in the creative field and always have some personal project swirling around in my head. One of them was a crazy idea for a t-shirt. This crazy idea kept coming up in conversations with my friend, so I finally said, “Let’s do it.” We brainstormed names but nothing seemed to sound right. As we continued to toss ideas back and forth, Stella was sleeping on the couch between us, and that’s when it finally came to me: STELLAR . With her name being the basis for our clothing line, we decided to incorporate dog apparel as well. The best part? A portion of each purchase from STELLAR, which will soon launch in the Spring, will go to DDR to help their efforts in keeping dogs out of shelters.
So maybe I’m a little crazy about Stella 🙂 but she has inspired me to have so much love for these dogs and to do my part in helping them stay out of shelters. She was a skid row dog and is now the face of an awesome apparel line that supports DDR and their efforts—the same efforts that gave Stella a chance to find a forever home … where she can hog as much of the bed as she likes.

Editor’s Note:
*Leigh Spader is DDR’s wonderful and awesome WEBMISTRESS! And Stella is her WEBASSISTANT! True DDR volunteers!*