update on the cuties

while my cuties are all still very cute, they are also mischevious little fucks, too.

over the last several days we have been getting to know ruby and watching how she develops as she settles into her new environment.

we have also been watching how the cat/dog interaction has been going.

it’s been very interesting and we have learned a great deal.

it has become apparent that ruby came from an abusive home. the first couple days at the house, she was unamused by outside stimuli. she only wanted to be by chewie or i. and if she was, well, she was happy.

she has now taken the step of allowing herself to think of us as her family. in many senses, that is a very good thing. she is comfortable with her surroundings and is getting the attention and resources she needs to be a happy dog.

in another sense, her claiming us as her family has meant that some of her personality traits have begun to show.

for example, over the past couple days, it has become apparent that ruby suffers from severe separation anxiety. my thought is that her previous owner(s) left her alone for inhumane amounts of time.

if she sees either chewie or i putting shoes and/or a jacket on she is beside herself. she starts shaking and crying and trying to jump onto our shoulder so we can’t leave her. she blocks the door so we can’t get out. and once we close the door, she starts clawing at the door to dig her way to get to us.

i have done some research on techniques as to how to minimize this and have gotten some decent ideas. and because of her new environment, i have been working from home a lot of this week when able to minimize her alone time. we haven’t left her for a full day, but hopefully with a little work we will be able to eventually.

she also is beside herself when we finally return home – whether we were gone for 10 minutes or 2 hours. she is jumping and hanging on us so much that we can’t even get our jackets off. today she ripped my scarf off from around my neck. normally she understands the "down" and "sit" commands. but NOT when we are leaving or coming home.

she whines so much she makes her throat dry and needs to drink a ton of water.

the good news is, she is not doing any of the other behaviors commonly associated with separation anxiety like barking the whole time we are gone, tearing things up, soiling in the house, etc.

but i worry that as her bond with us continues to grow, she may get to that point.

the reason we think she was abused is because if i ever raise my hands or chewie does something similar, she immediately hunkers down and turns her head away as if ashamed and as if to be bracing for a beating. i noticed this when i reach in the closet for my scarf. she got scared.

and when i took her to my parents house, she was very timid and shy. and when my dad couldn’t squat to be at her level to greet her because of his hip, she tucked her tail and lurked around. ruby did the same when a girlfriend of mine came to the house. she is 6 feet tall and she didn’t bend over to acknowledge the dog, she just stayed standing which appeared to have scared her. when my friend sat down on the couch, ruby jumped on the couch and seemed perfectly fine.

she also refuses to eat her food unless we are standing there watching her. when i put a treat in her kennel if she is going in there, she saves it until we come home. when we let her out, she digs up the bone that she has burried in her kennel, shows it to us, and when she sees us looking, eats it.

it’s really funny, she carries her bones and toys around, diligently looks for a good hiding place, and then covers the bone with imaginary dirt that she pushes with her nose. if uncorrected, that could begin to cause problems too.

all in all the cat/dog relationship had been progressing quite nicely. the cats get rather brave when ruby dee is asleep…the walk over to her and smell her and stare at her. as soon as she opens her eyes they run and hide.

they also have gone back to eating their food and sitting in their normal sitting spots like on the back of the couch or on the ottoman. they aren’t 100% into the idea yet but they are resuming their lives even though this big "monster" lives with us now.

ruby had largely been ignoring the cats. they had swung at her a couple times for no reason and she was very un-confrontational. until last night.

she has a rawhide bone that she refuses to chew, but carries with her wherever she goes. she carried it upstairs to bed last night and left it on the floor by the bed.

the cats were curious and walked over to it. when she saw them approaching her bone, it was like a bomb had exploded.

she dove off the bed faster then i thought her little chunky butt could move, rescued her bone, brought it on the bed, and threw her body over it so that no one could get to it.

it’s the first time she stood up to the cats. but she ignored them, really. she didn’t chase them or anything, she was more concerned about the well being of her bone.

this afternoon, i was sitting in the kitchen working. i noticed her chase the cats back upstairs a couple times and i couldn’t figure out why. i was worried she would do it enough times that the cats would never want to come back downstairs.

well, i got up and walked over to the stairs and saw her bone laying at the very bottom step, so close the stairs the cats couldn’t have even seen it from their vantage point.

but she assumed that’s what they were after so she was threatening them.

well, i picked up the bone, put it in her kennel and closed the door. i told her to stay away from the bottom of the stairs, and she did.

then she threw her self at the foot of her kennel blocking the door to keep her bone safe.

finally she decided it was safe enough in the vault and she went to lay on the couch.

the cats got curious and corageous as they discovered her asleep. so they slowly started the dance all over, and oozed their way back downstairs – but not without poking their heads through the railing to make sure she really was asleep, first.

it’s so funny, they do everything in tandem now. before they used to always mess with each other but now it’s almost as if you can hear them whispering things like "you go first! i went first last time" to each other as they creep their way into the danger zone.

they were near her kennel, and it set off her kennel alarm so again she woke up and chased the bandits away from her bone.

so i took the bone away. now hopefully she doesn’t feel she has anything to protect, though i fear that’s a bit too easy.

i am enjoying watching everything develop and learning more about our newest family member. i am saddened that her history was not as bright as i had hoped, but find solace in the fact that she has a good home now.

i also started crying the other day because i was worried about the cats not eating and felt bad for stressing them out.

i know the animals will work everything out and an order will be established eventually. i just don’t like the thought of any of my little buddies being tortured. hopefully, for my sake, they work things out soon!

we are taking ruby to a vet appointment next

week so i am going to try to get more insight on abused and neglected dogs and how to work with them. i have also been researching online and i bought a book that talks about adopted dogs and all of the unique challenges they bring.

i feel like we are headed down the right path, but in the mean time – it’s torturing me that my little animals are stressed.