Adventures With Ruby

It has been an active week around here. Ruby has learned what a typical 'kid week' is like. Which means there are kids to play with all the time, days are long, Mom comes and goes a LOT, and Ruby gets to ride in the car!

One thing that became abundantly clear this week was that this puppy has ZERO tolerance for extreme cold. It was miserable here this week, teens during the day, around zero at night, with wind chills in the negatives even at the warmest part of the day. I took her out one night to potty, Tuesday I think, and within 5 minutes, she was absolutely chilled. If a dog could cry real tears, she would have. Huddled against my legs whimpering in the wind and cold.

I picked her up to carry her home, put her inside my coat and instantly felt cold eminating from her. And seriously, we were out long enough to walk about 8 houses away. I got her home and sat with her still inside my coat for about 15 minutes. She was almost lethargic, like she was slipping into some sort of hypothermic coma, if there is such a thing. It was really scary. So, no more walks until it warms up, and the next night, I made her a coat. It has a polar fleece lining, a sturdy cotton outer shell, and seems to keep her very warm. At least warm enough to do her business and get back in the house. Plus, she doesn't hate it at all, and I think she looks fabulous. You can't see the polar fleece in the picture, but it says Bow Wow and has bones and paw prints on it. It was on a remnant rack for $4. The entire coat cost me less than $13. So when she out grows it, I'm out very little.

Her sleeping through the night was, unfortunately, due only to the extra activity with cousin Murphy. As soon as Murphy left, my interrupted sleep continued. For the most part, she only gets up once at night. What time 'night' starts depends how long I can stay awake. If I make it to 11, she's up once. The night I went to bed at 9, she was up at 12:30 and again at 3. But the good news is, she seems to really be telling me she has to pee. Her kennel is dry, she's serious about waking me up from her kennel, she pees the instant she gets outside, and then she settles right back in to sleep with nothing more than a few grunts and snorts as she gets comfy. During the day Monday and Tuesday both, she made a mess of her kennel. Not sure what's up there. Kevin lets her out around 6:30 before he leaves, and I've been taking 'lunch' early and am home most days by 11. Seems 4 1/2 hours isn't too much to ask, but I don't have a tiny bladder, so I'm not a good judge. Its all manageable and improving in little ways all the time, so that's good. The potty report this week is a solid B. From me. Nobody else seems to be able to read her and know when she needs to go out, so everybody else in the house has cleaned up pee this week. But not me. :)

OK enough.

Ruby's current weight is anywhere between 15.2 and 16 pounds. Our scales are never the same twice (for example, MY weight is usually off by about 20 pounds). We've noticed she's getting taller, and her feet seem to be getting bigger every day. She has a terrible time with hiccups every time she eats, which may have something to do with the fact that she lays down when she eats. So I raised her dishes up to the lowest level tonight. I did notice that she ate without hiccups, so maybe that's the trick. One more notch up and Sophie won't be able to get to her water. Someday, I think I'll be able to put Sophie's food and water UNDER Ruby's.

Sophie is more tolerant of play. And very tolerant of Ruby's compulsion of biting and hanging off Sophie's neck fat. When they 'play' together, all I can think of is this:



Zamboni continues to get closer and closer, but manages to stay a safe distance from Ruby. Usually on the back of the couch. But twice this week, I caught him stalking the puppy, running away, but not too far. And a few times, Ruby has pinned him against a wall resulting in a whole lot of hissing and projectile shedding. But he knows how to get away. If he wants to.

I've started trying to teach Ruby some manners. And she's responding so far. We've mastered SIT and are working on WAIT, DOWN, and SHAKE (just because it's adorable). She's learned not to jump up, but still LOVES to be in my lap. Especially when she goes for a ride. That's not going to last long and she's going to have a hard time understanding. But I enjoy it, so I'm letting it go for now.

I still can't believe how big she's going to get. I don't think she's going to be able to do THIS forever.