well kids, 'tis with a heavy heart i write this blog. we're going to visit my folks this saturday-that's not the sad part-to relinquish our beloved ruby to them. what brought this about is ruby's alpha-ness. whenever she smells the faintest hint of our other dog-addie-being vulnerable she attacks her. not the-i'm-going-to-annoy you-and-chomp-on-your-ears but going for the throat kill. unfortunately professional training help hasn't helped this and she did it again in front of the kids. not cool. other than this fatalistic flaw, she's a good pet, here's why:
we got her as an 11 week-old. she sat on melissa's lap on her ride home to her new house. she slept in a recycling bin in my daughter's room. as ruby got older she became another sister to my daughter maricel. maricel dressed her up in all manner of clothes, used ruby as a makeshift throw-pillow and wherever maricel would sleep, ruby would curl up and sleep next to her.
faithful and nary a complaint from ruby. well heeled on single walks. obeys to vocal and whistle commands. took all manner of abuse from the children. cat-friendly and loved humans. wish she could've loved her other dog companion. happy, happy dog. had the happy tail from hell whenever she saw a family member or extended family member.
we've cried many tears coming to a decision to which dog to take to mom and dad's. my folks said that even though addie has the medical issues they'd take her because they didn't want to break ruby and maricel up. for instance, when my folks went vacationing with us to lake tahoe, they noticed how inseparable these two were. so needless to say, the hardest part was telling maricel of our decision. oooh-weeeee did we bawl! i mean openly weeping sitting on top of maricel's little girly twin bed (and that was just me!!). damn. the first thing she said is we need to start taking pictures of her. maricel started picking assorted toys on her bed where ruby would contact just to see if she could still smell ruby on them. that was really important to her, ruby's scent on her bed and the other stuffed animals that sit there. maricel also told me she's going to miss the way ruby hogs the bed when they sleep and that she's going to miss her sleeping companion. she also said she's going to miss the way ruby sits down in front of her and brings her huuuge forepaw up to her shoulder for ruby's daily chest petting. ruby is by far the mellowest and easiest to transition because of her easy going ways. addie has some medical issues and it wouldn't be fair to my mom and dad to saddle them with this. also addie kinda goofs on cats and my folks have cats so that wouldn't be good. we also rescued addie from a shelter so to abandon her twice would be ethically savage.
i told maricel i'll have her pick a huge teddy-dog (ruby's about a 100 pounds) of the same golden color of ruby with a picture of those two in an embrace on her collar. i also told her i'll buy ruby a new collar so that she can save the old one that's on her now (so she can rub it against her face and smell ruby's scent). i again said we can send her treats during christmas and go visit her during the summer. we'll call her and ask lolo (that's filipino for grandfather) to put ruby on speaker-phone.
the other option is to give her up to a pound where we'd never know her fate. i'm extremely grateful my parents can do this (they're dog lovers too and currently dog-less); but nonetheless particularly and singularly sad.
the thing that's going to be the hardest pill to swallow (and most likely bring me to tears again) is the mental image i have of her when we leave to go back to colorado. that is: of her quietly and obediently sitting alertly, with those huuuuge, big, brown, sad-eyes in the foyer just inside the front door of my parent's house, faithfully waiting and listening for any sound of us coming to get her to become part of our family again after a brief moment of separation; or her constantly searching around corners to see where we are--waiting for that pat on her head that says, everything is as it was before, little ruby...
...but it's not; and that's why i'm--we're--going to miss you immeasurably my little ruby...
No comments:
Post a Comment