The Sweet Blessing of a Furry Best Friend

When your daughter tells you “Hey Mom, let’s go check out the puppies at the humane society” I want you to know that your life is going to change. For some strange reason, I naively thought it was just going to be an innocent trip, you know, to play with the dogs.  Instead, it resulted in a furry best friend.

On our first trip there we found the cutest little white dog but I wasn’t ready to take her home, In fact, Mike didn’t even know a puppy plan was on the radar. I filled out the application, though, and went through the interview but I told them we would have to come back. Of course, they wouldn’t let us adopt without every member of the family there anyway. They were an absolute stickler about that part of the adoption process. They needed to make sure every family member got along with the dog. Well, since it was just Megan and I, we were out of luck. I’m pretty sure they let someone else adopt that white puppy before we even left the building. Sorry, no holds!

After the family discussion, we went back to the humane society the next week. This time I took all the kids plus a friend because I told them there were five of us on my application. Unfortunately, Mike had to work. I figured that plan would work.

We all wandered around looking at the sweet little faces in their cages. We needed that connection, a connection that told us that puppy was the one. There she was in the last cage, in the corner. She was looking all sweet and innocent and CALM! Everyone knew it as soon as we met her. We got the help we needed and as we were finishing the paperwork I said something dumb like, “my husband wanted to know…”. Hold everything!!! Where’s your husband? You know we don’t let you adopt without the whole family meeting the pet. It’s a very strict policy, you know. What if they don’t get along? I was scared out of my mind, because all the little faces who were in love with their new family member were pleading with me, but knowing full well, there are NO HOLDS! Please, I pleaded. My husband was called into work and you can’t tell me that it’s more important to meet the dog than provide for his family. That’s the rule, but let me talk to the manager. Maybe we can call him? Yes, please! Thankfully, the manager approved the phone call and Mike promised to love the dog. We grabbed our new little family member and peeled out of the parking lot in fear that they would change their minds.

We named her Ruby. She’s a black hound mix and she’s the apple of all of our eyes. I was hesitant to bring a 10-week old puppy into the house in August. I was not quite stable on my legs and it was right before back to school. How was I supposed to puppy train her when everyone was going to be gone all day? What if she poops indoors? I have no hands and I can’t clean up after her! Mike fixed up the front porch so she could go outside. All I had to do was let her out. Bless her little heart, she potty trained in no time at all.

Getting to know our Ruby was a joyful experience. She has a precious demeanor, and she loves everybody. She gets a little jumpy when someone comes to the house, but other than that she’s the perfect dog for us. She has the personality just like the rest of us. She’s smart, she’s sassy and she’s lovable.

I would say her only bad habit is she likes to visit the neighbor dogs. We live on a somewhat quiet road, but still, she runs over to visit her friend, Wes. He’s a quiet, older dog and he just lays there while Ruby runs around and tries to get him to play with her. Unfortunately, I blame Mike for giving her permission to annoy the neighbors. On more than a few occasions, one of our neighbors brings her home but they’re always friendly and not too annoyed with us and our dog. Yes folks, sorry, but we are THAT kind of neighbor.

On any given day everyone is at work and it’s just Ruby and I at home. Did I mention that Megan and Mike Jr still live at home? Meggie recently graduated from college so she’s looking for a permanent job. Mike Jr recently got out of the Air Force and is in interim before he goes back to college next fall. They are enjoying the fact that they get to live here rent free and can bank all of their paychecks. I might have mentioned in another post that I’m the kind of Momma that would let her kids live with her forever.  Visit How my Greatest Blessings Became my Best Friends, for details.  I’m already getting melancholy thinking about them leaving next fall. Wherever Mike goes to college, Megan is going with him and they’ll share an apartment. It melts my heart that they want to stay together. It hurts my heart that wherever they go, it will be out of state. Our youngest son, Matthew already lives in Missouri with his new bride, Samantha.

I’ll always have Ruby. She’s MY girl! Although everybody in the family will argue that fact. I never knew what a blessing this little companion would make. I’m usually home alone during the day but she fills in the loneliness gaps.

Ruby loves to go for car rides. She knows the places that give her biscuits and she plays it up when she gets there. For instance, when we go to the drive-through at the bank we roll down the back window and say the magic words, “look alive Rube” and she sits right up so the teller can see her to give her the treat and all is right in her little Ruby world.

Ruby is six years old now and has a little bit of Lyme disease. Unfortunately, when you live in our area, almost all dogs have Lyme. We know many people who do too. But she’s healthy, happy, and we love her to pieces. As someone who didn’t really want another dog, especially under my amputee circumstances, I am so thankful that we brought her home. She’s a blessing to each one of us on a daily basis. I know we could’ve had a different dog that would’ve brought us a whole new set of complications. However, God knew just what we needed when He let Ruby choose us. Thank you, God!

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