Miss Ruby Redhead: Ruby

Welp it's Monday again. I was on call this weekend so I don't even really feel like I had a weekend, even though we did so much I'm splitting it into two posts!

Saturday Jeffry was asked by a friend of ours to help put in his parents dock for the season. He also has one of the most gorgeous Boxers I've ever seen. (They used to live with us so maybe I'm partial too.) His name is Diesel and he is handsome.

So while the boys did the heavy lifting, Ruby had the time of her life playing with Diesel. I was nervous because Ruby hasn't really had the opportunity to interact with a lot of dogs, but I knew Diesel was very friendly and very well behaved, and we had a great afternoon. Here's some pictures of their escapades:

Their first meeting

Ruby is never really allowed off leash because she can get distracted and not come back.
She was thrilled with her new found freedom!

Diesel overseeing

Ruby does not much care for water if you couldn't tell

The dock was a great babysitter before the end was attached

Bein' buds! Ruby followed D everywhere!

Swimming lessons

Ruby bee-lining it back to dry land

You can't even see Ruby behind Diesel but she's trying her hardest to keep up!
It's a lot of work when his legs are twice as long!

I'm so glad my baby had such a great afternoon!! I'll leave you with this happy little tidbit :) The tip of her little tail is in the water so she's swimming!

Ruby Air Swimming from Heidi Nickal on Vimeo.

Sorry this is a wordy one folks. But April was Prevention of Cruelty to Animals month, so I thought this was a good time for you all to meet Ruby.

http://imnotamonster.org/

Ruby is the Miss Ruby part of Miss Ruby Redhead. And you know how they say you don't choose the dog, the dog chooses you? Well sweet Miss Ruby chose us. And we couldn't be more grateful.

The BF and I had been thinking about a dog for a bit. We were interested in a pit bull because I wanted a bigger dog, but we live in an apartment. A pit bull's size was the perfect compromise, and we have a friend with one so we have some experience with the breed and we know they're as sweet as can be. We also really wanted a puppy, mainly because they would be starting from scratch when it came to our rules.That same friend of ours, was fostering a teeny little 6 week old spitfire named Layla. She came over to visit and we were in love! She was being fostered through Pit City Rescue and we contacted them about adopting her. Unfortunately for us (but fortunately for her!) she had already been promised to a forever home. We found Cuse Pit Crew and their website led us to a couple other Rescue organizations. We reached out to Pitty Love Rescue about a couple of their dogs as well.

Our first meeting with Ruby ever

We were getting antsy, and we didn't receive a response from Pitty Love right away, so the Sunday before Valentines day, the BF and I decided to check out our local CNY SPCA. The amount of dogs there would break your heart. We met a couple of the dogs, and walking through the kennels we spotted a pit/mastiff male puppy who was adorable. I was in love. We asked the volunteers if we could meet him, and they broke the news that the little boy already had 2 applications in on him so we weren't allowed to take him out. We were bummed, but we went back to his kennel to say goodbye.

Crated next to the male puppy, was a female red nose pit about 6 months old. When we walked by her she was barking so much I remember saying to Jeffry, "wow we for sure don't want her she's way too noisy!" And we knelt down to pet the male puppy a bit more.

Well once we weren't standing over her, that female pit (originally named Big because she was the bigger of 2 puppies who were found together) quieted down and made her way over to where the kennels met to see what was going on next door to her. Jeffry noticed her and put his hand up for her to smell. She had mellowed out quite a bit at this point, and Jeffry called my attention over to her. She looked a little rough, was underweight, and she had a scab on her nose from sticking it through the chain link fence, but we decided to ask the volunteers about her.

Everyone behind the desk instantly said how sweet she was once she was out of her kennel, so we decided to meet her. A volunteer went back to get her. It was quite a few minutes before he came out with her, and when he did, he explained to us what took so long. He wanted us to be aware that Ruby had quite a bit of cage aggression, and any time someone tried to take her in or out of her large kennel she got very agitated, and he showed us a small cut on his hand where she had nipped him. But he said did try putting her in and out of a smaller crate and she did alright.

Since I didn't have as much dog experience as Jeffry, I was pretty nervous. But we took her to a meeting room, and when Jeffry sat down she ran over to his lap to curl up. And she had just met us! We played with her, and messed with her a bit to see how she would react. We were impressed. She didn't jump, she didn't mind us playing with her ears, she was super mellow. So we put in our application. While we were filling out the application form, the volunteers told us Ruby's story.

Before she was Ruby, she was Big. She and her brother (Little) were dumped in the Liverpool area when they were just puppies. Little was so skinny and so sick that the poor guy had to be put down. Big, however, they had hope for. There's no telling what our sweet girl went through before she was ours, and the 2" long scar on her back is proof of that.

It hurts my heart just to think about what such a loving animal might have gone through before she lived with her new family. But besides that tell-tale scar, you'd never know that she hasn't lived every second of her life as a spoiled, furry family member. She has put on a healthy amount of weight, and snuggles are her favorite. To me, an animals capacity for forgiveness is unfathomable. I thank God every day that Ruby picked us, because we saved each other.