Sunday, April 5, 2015

Ruby of the Mountain View

This is the story of Ruby of the Mountain View.

I've wanted a dog my entire life. It was my birthday wish every year as I blew out my candles. On my 7th birthday my parents got me a stuffed dog since I couldn't have a real one. We moved to Arizona when  I was 14. We finally lived in a house that had a fenced in back yard and would allow us to have a dog.

On Labor day, September 2006, we went to Tucson Arizona (1.5 hours away) to pick up the new car my parents had bought. As we were waiting for the final paperwork to go through my parents that we should go over to the mall while we waited. At the mall we walked past the pet store and looked at all the different puppies playing and then we continued downstairs to Build a bear so my sisters could build different stuffed animals. After a while my dad said that he was going to take me and walk around a bit then we'd come back and meet up with mom and the girls.

Dad and I went back up to the pet store and walked around in it looking at all the different puppies. We saw a husky puppy that we liked, but she was female and dad want a male dog instead so we kept browsing. We got to the pen that had this gangly looking golden retriever in it that was bouncing around, on top of the other dog and playing with a ball and pushing it. The next thing I knew, Dad was asking to see if we could visit with the retriever. As we were sitting in there and playing with her my dad started talking about all the responsibility that went along with having a dog. I agreed and promised that I would take care of her. My mom and sisters arrived and they saw us playing with her. My parents went out to talk and before I knew it we were looking at all of the "puppy starter" stuff and picking out her collar and leash.

As we were standing in the store paying for her and the stuff we were talking about names, and I said we should call her Ruby since she's ruby red. My mom said we'd talk about it as a family.

My mom held her as we took her home and she said that Ruby shook the whole time we drove back to Sierra Vista. Rachel ran into the house and told Karl that we got a dog! His response was, "no kid, you bought a mini van there's no dog." He didn't believe it until he saw her.

That night was a rain storm and we had a hard time getting her to pee outside by the mesquite tree. (She never did learn to pee over there). The first night she slept in her kennel in the laundry room, I kept checking on her all night. I was SO EXCITED to finally have a dog.

Ruby didn't stay long in the laundry room, once she was house broken (only ever had one accident in the house) we moved her kennel downstairs to the room Rachel and I shared. She's slept in the same room as someone her entire life.

She loved breaking/eating sticks
Her name came about because as we filled out her AKC paperwork my dad said she needed a more formal name than just Ruby. So it was Ruby of the mountain view (which translates to Ruby of Sierra Vista).

That year for my birthday I didn't know what to wish for on my birthday since I finally had my dog.

In October 2014 we found out that Ruby had an osteosarcoma in her shoulder (bone cancer). She lived longer than we thought. This Easter morning Rachel called to tell me that Ruby passed away this morning while laying outside in the sunshine.

Ruby has truly lived up to the measure of her creation. She's been our running partner, our partner in crime, she's moved 3 times (truly a military family member) and holds countless memories for all of us. Can't wait till I can see her again. Love you fuzz!




Ruby in her favorite position

Always bringing us a shoe

The last time she brought me a shoe

Her favorite toy. Giraffey