Ruby dismantles the sofa!
Ruby is used to at least two long walks a day, plus free run of the back yard whenever she wants. This "short leash walks only until laceration heals" thing is getting on her nerves. And mine. We go out in the back yard on the leash and she just stares at me. We go back in the house and she gets into something the minute I sit down.
If I'm doing laundry or chores that take me from one room to another, she follows me around happily. In the sewing room, she takes the fabric scraps out of the wastebasket. I put them back in, she takes them out again. Harmless enough. Nothing in there that will choke or injure her.
But last night I sat down at the computer and the next thing I knew, Ruby had a sofa cushion in her mouth, and she was shaking it. It's quite large. I was kind of torn: do I laugh? Do I yell at her? Neither. I got out the camera. But of course by the time I got the camera out, she had had enough fun and just stood there calmly, looking at her handiwork:
I sat back down, and she got the zooms again, but I couldn't get a good action shot of her picking up the sofa cushion. It wasn't the first time she's taken the cushions off the sofa, but it was the first time I'd seen her shake one of them like that. I left the flash effect in her eyes in this shot; she does look kind of possessed, no?
I know from previous experience with the sofa cushions that putting them back too soon is asking for trouble, so I left it there. She played with her toys quietly for half an hour or so. This particular sofa cushion is undamaged. The other one is scheduled for repairs. I'll use fabric from the matching pillows, which are, alas, damaged.
Labels:
dogs,
NaBloPoMo,
random photos,
Ruby
9 comments:
Oh, she is just so cute! I love her almost too long legs and her floppy ears.
It doesn't look like she actually damaged the couch, just put it in its place.
Yeah, if by "in its place," you mean "on the floor."
She is absurdly cute, of course. I expect she'll fill out a bit as she gets a little older. She's adorably lanky. And her ears are an endless source of entertainment.
Ruby seems very happy, and also very aware of you and happy that you are letting her have "her space" for play time. But then, I anthropamorphize everythihg.
"fill out" - you mean she gets bigger? Do they sell giant sized sofas?
The vet's best guess at her age is that she's about 11 months old. He told me to "pick a day in late December" if I wanted to celebrate her birthday. It's the 21st, which is a good day to have a party anyway on account of the solstice & all.
She's most likely reached her full height, but I think that she'll put on a pound or two across the shoulders/chest area. She's very muscular and dense (she gets that from me, I guess), but is a bit lanky and thin compared to other dogs her size from roughly the same gene pool (there are lots of them in this neighborhood).
You're anthropomorphizing, which is very sophisticated; I'm merely projecting. See, I was lanky and tall for my age until I was about 11. Which is about, what, a little more than 1-1/2 in dog years? I stayed skinny for a while, due to superhuman and highly dysfunctional efforts until I was about 25 (almost 3-1/2 in dog years), at which point I woke up one day wondering when in the hell I'd gotten so enormously fat?
I hope Ruby doesn't have to go through alla that.
I don't think that she'll get so much bigger that I'll need to get a bigger sofa. This one has accommodated dogs twice her size. Of course if she keeps chewing it, I might not be able to keep up with repairs.
I do think that you know how it is, though, when a normally very active individual has to constrain their activities on account of illness or injury. Or for any reason at all: when she first moved in with me, I started confining her in her special room whenever I leave the house; she immediately started chewing the walls. I so totally know that feeling. Maybe I'll post photos of that before I fix it. Fortunately she's mostly over that phase, and amuses herself other ways while I'm gone.
Just proves something I've always suspected: "Cute girls can get away with anything"
I say: "Bad Dog, Ruby.
No sofa eating!"
Totally true about the cute girls getting away with stuff; I used to be pretty cute myself, back in the day.
She wasn't eating the sofa, though, not that particular time. I do yell at her from time to time, but you've got to choose your battles, I guess.
Way to go Ruby - dismantling the sofa and shaking the cushions - just don't do what my boys have done to the sofa.
Oh no! Naughty dog! You might like to check out my dog park days blog at www.dogparkdays.blogspot.com
Lots of cool dog pictures.
marla -- I love your dog pictures!! Have you seen our Stella? She's an old lady now, but if you scroll down you can see an old picture from her second birthday party. Type 'stella' into the search at the top left or go here.
Wiggy girl: she seems entirely capable of ripping a hole in the sofa and pulling the stuffing out, but so far hasn't bothered to do it. There are a couple of little holes in the back and on one cushion.
Post a Comment