Shoney & Ruby's Blog (13)

Sometimes all that fleecy fuzz is too much and out come the scissors. Yes, we get her professionally groomed every 6 weeks and yes, we are so grateful that she doesn't shed.....but it was time for a trim. Ruby stood still while we snipped her legs and tail with…

We got Ruby a year ago in December--as some of you may remember, the day after we got her at 8 weeks, my father-in-law got extremely ill. We took our brand new pup and spent the next 5 days in a nursing facility round-the-clock with him until he died. Ruby was a champ, making friends with all the residents, cheering up everyone, becoming a favorite with visiting Hospice folks.

Then we made a trip by car from Colorado to California and back for the funeral. After that we…

Ruby turned one today. I can't believe it---what a year! What a great dog!

She is funny, snuggly, curious, playful....the best!

Ruby is usually game for anything as long as she is with her people. 

Right now I am trying to teach her to read.

Our wonderful Ruby is now 7 months old and continues to bring so much love and humor into our lives. She is a great traveler and enjoys meeting people everywhere. She loves babies, toddlers, kids of every age. She stops on the trail to say hi. She can't get enough of people.

Okay, that's fine--but she's mostly timid or uninterested in other dogs. We took her to puppy socials when she was younger and she mostly hid under a bench. We went to a doodle meet-up yesterday and she hung out…

Yesterday we took Ruby for her first haircut. She had so much long fluffy puppy hair on top of beautiful fleecy waves underneath. The fur on her lower legs and between the toes were picking up so many burrs and sticks. I comb her every few days, not her favorite activity but she is getting better. We saw a beautifully trimmed little black fleecy doodle of some sort at the dog park and got the name of Erin at PetSmart.

Erin warned us that most puppies won't stand for full…

Ruby. Is a muppet. Really, she looks exactly like one. She is a great puppy. At five months though we are refining some of her behaviors, for example, she never jumps on strangers, just sits down sweetly near or on their feet and looks at them sweetly. But at home, in her excitement to tell us something [yes, she talks, though so far her French and Spanish skills are lacking, English is fine]. 

The problem? She is so darn cute. Like I said, she looks exactly like a muppet.…

Sulky puppy wants to go play in the snow....sigh. Later when it warms up to 15 degrees we'll go. Oh, the guilt! 

Sad, scary article on Purina from the Daily Beast.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/24/dog-food-maker-sued-for-allegedly-toxic-chow-but-is-it.html

Okay, yesterday Ruby got her City of Boulder license tag and her rabies tag. I put them on her collar with her Ruby identification tag. She looks like a Christmas tree. The Rabies tag is bright green and shaped like a bell, her Ruby name tag is red and the Boulder license is silver. We still have to get our City of Boulder Open Space tag...a blue tag. She can reach the city license tag and is chewing on it. They make a racket [she could be in a band]. I know she'll get used to them but…

Okay, maybe I'll never be a lady--but I'm dog crazy. More specifically, I'm completely smitten with Ruby, 12 weeks old today. I can't take enough photos, my Facebook page is filled with photos of her. I go out in the middle of the night with my down coat over pajamas, hair unbrushed for the…

Last Wednesday night we brought Ruby home. She snuggled the whole hour drive. She ate, went outside and settled down into her crate. Whimpered once, took her outside where she did her business.

On Thursday we got a call that my father-in-law, Don, had had a stroke. We went over to Assisted Living--with Ruby in her crate filled with toys. Don's health rapidly declined. We called hospice [angels!]. Then we camped out for the next 4 days at the assisted living center with our new…

It is easy to be to grateful about the excitement of a new puppy.

This year with its extremes of sadness and joy, I’m grateful for love, friends and the community to share it with.

January brought us the sudden, unexpected death of my mother-in-law. A reeling shock that spun the year into a wild and unpredictable trajectory.

After the blur of the funeral, the immediate need was care for my father-in-law, a small town doctor who did…