I got several cards from blog reader…sympathy cards on the loss of Ruby.  That was so special.  Even with a new pup in the house, I am missing Ruby something terrible.  Growing up we had outside puppies but I had never had an inside dog puppy until I had Ruby.  I think that made her all the more special to me.  We learned so much together.

This is the day we brought her home.

I remember her being a chewer.  When she was little, she sure loved toys…but when she got older, she didn’t play with them as much.

Here she is as a pup snoozing in my quilt.

She loved Kramer…and he was pretty smitten with her too.  He always laid on the floor like this and took what he called a “power nap”.  He’d lay on the floor, Ruby, even as a pup would snuggle up next to him.  He’d play with her a bit and then off to sleep.  Kramer only wanted to sleep for about 20 minutes.  Ruby had some type of internal clock as she would nudge him and want to play about 20 minutes after Kramer fell asleep.  It was so cute.  HE’d wake up, play with her and then off to work he’d go.  Seeing this picture makes me laugh…as he’s the one that didn’t want a house dog!!

Ruby’s last health scare was far from her first.  When see was about a year old she went to the vet’s.  She ended up needing a major surgery.  Intussusception was the problem then.  I fretted as she was so sick and the surgery was expensive and risky.  Kramer, again who thought it was crazy to spend money on dog, was all okay with it.  He told me we already knew she was a good dog and getting a new dog was worse than paying for a surgery.  That’s when I really knew Ruby had made a great impression on him too.

Ruby was the most gentle dog.  She was great with other dogs…here she is with Kalissa’s dog Betsy…. Continue reading →

What a hard weekend.  I’m so thankful there wasn’t a bunch of things I really needed to be at and could just hang with Ruby.  I let the kids all know that Ruby wasn’t well.  After working the day shift on Saturday, Kalissa stopped by to see her with Carver.  We talked with Carver and told him Ruby was really sick.

It was Kalissa’s turn to nurse on her and tell her goodbye.  I had hoped Kalissa and Kelli might see her before I had to put her to sleep.  Both of them were close to Ruby.  You can see in the picture above that Ruby wasn’t herself.  What you can’t see is the constant shaking she was doing.

Sunday was a tough day.  I tried to be hopeful that Ruby would respond to the meds but she really didn’t.  She, for the most part, quit eating and drinking.  The medicine was supposed to make her super thirsty.  She drank way less only taking a couple laps of water.  I figured her body was starting to shut down.

She would only lay unless she absolutely had to go to the bathroom.  Her kennel became her favorite spot.  I think she thought it was safe.  Poor girl.

I loved on her all I could.  I watched hoping I’d see a change….hoping the old spark would come back.  It didn’t.  Kelli came over.  She too could see our old Ruby girl needed us to make the hard decision.I spent most of Saturday and Sunday sitting at the kennel.  I sat there until my back hurt…until my legs went to sleep.  Ruby has been so good to me.  After Kramer passed away she was especially good.  She just seemed to know when I needed some attention.  Oh man.  How hard to let her go.

The two times I took her outside on Sunday, it was a big ordeal.  Then once we got back in, it took her a long time to settle down again.  She would pant and pant.  I don’t know if she was in pain or the excursion of the work of getting outside was too much for her.  She shivered and shivered too-  I imagine she was running a temp.

I messaged our vet and told her nothing had changed. I told her that I had made the decision and couldn’t watch her like this anymore.  Ruby had to be carried and then when I did, she would yelp.  I couldn’t help her anymore than to say yes to the vet and I did.  The vet messaged back that if I wanted, we wouldn’t have to wait until Monday.  She would come in and we could meet at the vet office soon…. Continue reading →

Sorry about the change up.  This morning I promised a blueberry muffin recipe tonight.  That is not to be.  I have more pressing news.

I’ve not said much of Ruby as of late.  She’s been having some health issues again.  Ruby just has not been the healthiest dog and she’s got issues that are on the forefront of my life.

As I write this, Ruby has been to the vet three times in the last month or so.  The first time she went I’ll admit, I kind of thought I was overreacting.  A few times, someone had touched her “just so” and Ruby yelped.  She had never done that before….then she quit jumping off the bed.  She would whine and I’d have to lift her off the bed.  I have a high bed and Ruby is seven so I just figured it was an age thing but coupled with the yelping, I thought maybe it was something more.

She got some meds and on we went.  I didn’t notice any improvement, in fact, things for worse.  So back to the vet we went a week or two later.  In conjunction with this, Puppycat, Kelli’s beagle, had been sick.  They put her on an antibiotic and steroid.  I started wondering if Ruby could somehow have gotten whatever Puppycat had so back to the vet Ruby went.  Ruby got put on similar meds as Puppycat.  All of these visits came with tests and work ups.  Nothing really showed up.

Then, Ruby started peeing in the house.  She’s been an excellent dog in that regards and doesn’t have accidents unless something is up with her.  So back to the vet as she was excessively and aggressively drinking water too.  That was on Friday.

The result was that her thyroid was acting up again.  Like me, Ruby is on thyroid medicine.  She was hypothyroid.

Poor girl had to have a blood draw.  She wasn’t herself at all when she got home.  She was shaking and again excessive drinking and peeing in the house.

She did jump into and lay in the chair all by herself.

Her meds changed up…here’s Kelli’s spot on the kitchen island where she was putting Ruby’s meds into a pill organizer.

…and here is Ruby’s notes from the vet.  Oh my.
We went to bed as usual.  Ruby was slower going up the stairs, but she went.  I carried her into bed.

Today is Saturday.  Ruby is not well….things have taken a turn for the worse. Continue reading →