Ruby Tuesday

A little while ago, Noodle Dawg had to go live with another family. She had this digging fetish which the gub'mint wasn't going to like, and as she got older she got more and more territorial. She snapped at me one day, and I can't have that.....because if she's going to snap at me, the hand that feeds and loves her, she'll snap at other people. Like my kids. Or other people's kids. I couldn't live with myself if that happened. So, she went off to live with other people who have no children and lots of room to run.

I was sad. Noods was my pal, my compadre...she licked my tears when I cried and kept me company when I was recuperating from surgery. Grace did too, but she's Urbaner's dawg, not mine.

My 40th birthday is coming up soon, and Urbaner asked me what I wanted. I said a dawg, preferably a Boxer. We've had such a good experience with Grace and really like the breed, so I said I wanted a puppy for my b'day.

I searched and searched the classified ads for a breeder and couldn't find many that I thought were a) reasonably priced and b) NOT a puppy mill. I'm sorry, but I'm not paying $500 plus for a pet and I don't want a puppy from a bitch who's whelped 3 times in 2 years and who doesn't ever get to run on grass and just be a dawg for a while.

I had all but given up hope....until this morning. I saw an ad in the local paper for pups priced very reasonably, but being as it was 6am I thought it best to wait to call. As I was washing my hair this morning I mentioned to Urbaner that "wouldn't it be cool if I call this number and it's the same breeder we got Grace from?"

I called at 8am, apologized for the hour, and asked where they were located. When she said "Marissa, IL" I knew that it was indeed the same breeder. We arranged to meet in a couple of hours, and off I went to look at her pups.

Within 3 seconds of walking in the door Cupid's arrow had struck and I knew I would be leaving with a dawg. The one I chose is a brindle female out of the same dam as Grace (different sire). She is 12 weeks old and she is not only cute as all get out, she's got a great temperament too. This was the breeder's last litter of pups, so we were lucky to get this dawg. I paid the money, and loaded up the pup in the car. 2 miles down the street she hurled into the center console cup holder, but that's ok. I cleaned it up - no harm done. I know now that she doesn't do well in cars.

I thought that Daisy Mae was a good name for a Boxer until I saw her. She just doesn't look like a Daisy, you know? On the way out there, I was listening to the Rolling Stones 'Ruby Tuesday', and to me, she just looked like a Ruby. Add to that the fact that she's my 40th birthday gift, and that the 40th wedding anniversary is traditionally the Ruby anniversary....well, I think you can see my train of thought there. So, Ruby is her name. Ruby Tuesday will be part of her AKC kennel name, but I still have to figure the rest of it out.

I haven't been able to get a decent photo of her yet, but I'll work on that this evening and will post one tomorrow for sure. She's adorable, y'all. Really. And, she's a good girl too. She's getting along great with her sister (literally) and she sure does love her food. It's a good thing I believe in putting puppies on a schedule and not leaving food down all day every day, or I think she'd devour an entire bag of chow in pretty short order.

So welcome, Ruby Tuesday NinjaMedic. Please try not to howl tonight...not too much, anyway.