And….. The Banyan Ball Puppy goes to the Schlotthauers! At the end of the Banyan Ball on Saturday night, the Schlotthauers were able to call Bubbles–now Bella–theirs.

ODA parent, Tina Schlotthauer, and her family had been taking care of Bella since Wednesday of last week after another ODA family, the Koffmans, had taken care of her Monday and Tuesday of last week. Tina knew the second she held Bella that she didn’t want to give her up.

Tina and William Schlotthauer were not able to attend The Banyan Ball, so with the approval of Julie Fineberg, they were able to have Michelle Lea, the other VP of the middle school parent association bid on their behalf.

When the bidding was about to begin Tina and Will were put onto speaker-phone so that they would be able to cast in their bids at the auction.

“My friend called us and had us on speaker phone as the bidding for Bubbles began. The first bid went out at $5,000…that was going to be our max bid. I had told Michelle that if it got that high, to go up to 5,500. Once it started so high- I got nervous that we were not going to be able to win bubbles. It went to $6,000… with tears in my eyes, literally crying with the thought of losing her, Will [her husband] looked at me and said $6,500.” says Tina Schlotthauer.

After this last bid of $6,500 was cast, there were a few tense moments when the auctioneer was asking the competing gentleman if he wanted to bid any higher. Happily for the Schlotthauer family, he didn’t. So with this, Bella was added into the Schlotthauer fam.

After picking her up from the Siesta Key Campus once they could get there, they decided to change the name from Bubbles to Bella, as they thought bubbles didn’t fit her as well. She fits right in with Baxter and Bailey, their other two dogs, who were very excited to have a new sister.

Bella is very happy to call the Schlotthauers home, and they are very happy to call Bella, theirs.

Thanks, Mr. Schlotthauer, for helping to make the dream come true and supporting the school.