Happy birthday Ruby!

Ruby is 49 today which makes her the senior member of the household. She’s gotten a little grey around the muzzle and every once in a while, I see a little middle-age-dom creeping into her habits – mainly that sometimes she doesn’t want to get up from her nap to go outside in the cold to pee.

Ruby was born in the back of a Volvo – she has 3 brothers and sister. Zuni, Rio, Hoss and the only black dog of the litter which, when we met up with the owner when the pups were a year old, still hadn’t named him! Ruby’s mom is MayBell, the queen of our Austin neighborhood.

Ruby has lived in quarantine, a front yard, an apartment, a house and on a farm. She has lived in the country, in a small town, in the suburbs and 30 minutes from a Gucci store by subway. She has swum in the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Chesapeake, the Hudson, Lake George, tributaries to the Potomac and the Guadalupe. She is a retriever who doesn’t play fetch.

Tonight she got the leftovers from Sunday night dinner.