A Day of Dogs and RVs

On our way to visit Ruby, we stopped at our friend, Brett's house to see his Rat Terrier, Jay-Jay. We is a standard-size -- around 15". Very sweet -- as nice as I had remembered. I love this picture. Gage is not a dog person but he loves these Ratties -- they are such a nice breed of dog. The kids played with Jay-Jay for ages!


We went out to visit Wild Oak Ranch today in San Jose -- home of horses, chickens, a big white cat, and a whole passel of Rat Terriers. In the picture above, they are checking out a gopher hole. But best of all, they had a litter of puppies -- adorable, sweet Rat Terrier puppies. Is there anything cuter than kids and puppies?



So, what about Ruby? Well, we are thinking about her . . . a lot. First of all, she is very, very sweet. She's smaller than we'd hoped -- maybe 13" tall (at the shoulders) and delicate. But, she is also only 8 mos old so she has a bit more growing to do. I like the picture below because it shows her puppy-ness quite well.


So, pros and cons. Pro -- she was very sweet, very pretty, and very eager to please. She's a puppy and I'm sure she'll adapt to our life quite easily. She's not at all dominant - her mother is quite dominant, however. Cons -- she was a little concerned about the kids -- but all the dogs were at first. It seemed to mostly have to do with being protective of the puppies and they got over it nicely when Nancy told them to knock it off. She's smaller than we'd pick in an ideal world.

So, what are we thinking about? Well, we have had Labradors for the last 20 years and Greg had labs before that and I had a Golden and a Samoyed. We are used to big, exuberant dogs. Ratties are small and a trifle aloof with strangers. We have to keep reminding ourselves that we want a different personality type. We have always picked the dogs that sat up and said, "Pick me! Pick me!" and sometimes we've had a hard time living with that personality for the next 10 years. I'll have to share some stories about some of my past dogs. One of my BEST dogs was a rescue lab who wouldn't make eye contact with me for days. She was the epitome of aloof at first and then grew comfortable with us. She's been gone for 6 years and I miss her still. But that personality is not what we would normally pick -- but it's kind of what we want. So, we need to think about that a bit and wrap our heads around it.

I'm going to contact the local Rat Terrier breeder and talk to her this week and maybe go see her dogs if I can. And, then we'll decide.

Ruby clearly got over her aloofness with Greg and she did come up to the kids -- not that they could see anything but the puppies. Both kids talked about the puppies several times today. They just adored them.

So, more thinking. More research. I don't know if we found our dog or not. I know she would work for us but I want to make sure we aren't rushing in where angels fear to tread . . . if you know what I mean.

So, my dear peanut gallery, what are YOUR thoughts? Is Ruby to be or not to be?

PS. Oh yea, we went to the RV show too. Interesting but we've done that for the next several years. Tiring but we say some interesting ideas. Not sure any will help us with our big project of fixing up the FMC slowly and surely. Still, I'm glad we went!

PPS. Saw about 23 hawks today and about 50 Turkey Vultures. Before we left town this morning, we saw a Sharpie drop from a power pole down to the ground by the road RIGHT next to us. Amazing. I didn't see that he'd gotten anything but it was so cool.