Ruby comes home

The trip home from the Humane Society with Ruby was a riot. Tony sat in the back seat with her - obviously her first time in a car - and she literally glommed on to him. Not in a needy, clingy, way, but sitting next to him butt-cheek-to-butt-cheek. Looking at me in the rear view mirror.

It was probably at least a year before Ruby would NOT sit cheek to cheek with one of us. If we were in bed, she was in bed. If I was on the couch, watching TV, she was sitting next to me - touching me in some way - watching TV with me. I really have no idea what created this strong need for closeness in her. It wasn't - well, it wasn't whiny-needy, you know? She was always supremely confident, her own dog so to speak, but she just really really wanted to be close.

I had anticipated that she would be destructive, based on her breed and her size, but I don’t think she’s ever torn up a single thing. The other girls love “woobies,” and a couple of them will happily rip woobies to shreds, but not Ruby.

It seems hard to believe now, but when Ruby came home we still had Peggy Sue, Bobby Jean, and Susanna….In fact Bobby Jean was almost a deal breaker, because she was already old, old – probably 15 – and starting to have seizures. One of the Humane Society’s things is that you have to bring the whole family to the facility to meet the potential adoptee. They put you all in a room with an animal trainer, who sits back and watches the interactions. I refused to take BJ, because of her age and health. They finally consented – possibly at least partly because our vet of years and years was on the Humane Society board (ya think?!) Anyway, I remember the trainer telling me that Ruby was younger, and would grow to be bigger and stronger than Susanna, the current 4-legged pack leader. Also, how I might have to get used to Ruby kicking Susanna out of bed, because she would take over as pack leader. “Yeah, right,” I thought to myself – you don’t know Susanna. More than being just the pack leader, Susanna was devoted to me – there was NO WAY she was going to allow Ruby to take that spot. I did worry a bit, to tell the truth. I didn’t want Susanna hurt. But, Ruby – yes, if you haven’t guessed by now, the perfect dog – never even challenged Susanna. But, the day after Susanna’s death, Ruby magnificently and benevolent assumed the leader position. That trainer knew dogs, but he didn’t know my dogs.

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...