Ruby

Ruby - I don't even know how to start. I would say that to know Ruby is to love her, but she's so big she scares people easily. Also, I don't guess I'd really call her a people-person. She's too reserved, too judgmental. When somebody comes to the house, she quickly investigates, watches me for reactions, then retreats to a safe distance to observe. If the person comes back again (and usually at least once again), she may favor them by staying the same room with them. Maybe.

We adopted Ruby for our 25th wedding anniversary present. We had decided there was really nothing we needed, nothing we wanted in the way of more traditional gifts, so we decided to adopt a hard-to-place dog from the Austin Humane Society. What we had in mind was an older dog, probably on the small side. Ugly. Overlooked. You know. What we came home with was Ruby, a 6-month old Malamute-Rottweiler mix. We actually overlooked her the first time around, because she wasn't, well, she wasn't what we thought we were looking for. Then I saw her, in a large cage by herself. One shoulder leaning against the cage wall, just watching us - observing even then. "How about this one?" I asked my husband. "Well, I dunno, she's kinda big. I thought we were going for a small dog." But, there was just something about her, to me anyway, and I asked the assistant to let us take a closer look. So, we went into the little "visiting room," sat down, and they brought Ruby in. She immediately jumped up on the bench behind my husband, and basically wrapped herself around him. I didn't need to ask him again if she was the dog for us....LOL We then found out that she had been brought in by Malamute rescue - even though she was not full-blooded, somebody had taken her and a sibling to them, then they took the pups to ASPCA. Her sib was adopted quickly - they were only two months old at the time. Ruby had been at the Humane Society for FOUR MONTHS. She had actually been adopted a couple of times, but when her prospective family would come back for her - they make you wait a few days before getting to take the new family member home - she had visibly grown, and they opted out. To those two families that decided Ruby (then called Calamity) was too much - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. Ruby is now nine, will be 10 in July. Her adult weight hovers around 100 pounds. One of her favorite things to do is to come up behind me, and thrust herself between my legs, back to front - and she literally lifts me off the ground. There's a lot more to say about Ruby - it will take another post - or two...