For quite awhile now the girls have begged me to get a new dog.  Each time they asked, the wall the death of our old dogs built up crumbled a bit. When I finally logged on to the rescue sites, I was overwhelmed by how many animals out there needed help.  I would look at a few and fall in love with each one.  Confused and sad I would log off, not ready to make a decision yet.  I finally decided to slyly poll the family and see what each person wanted if we did ever get another dog.  Armed with my crazy long list of personality traits, I logged on once again to see what I could find.  The list was so quirky that as I started checking off each request, I watched the millions quickly change to thousands, and then thousands dwindle  to hundreds.  As I plugged in the last crazy request, there was just one dog left... Ruby.

Companionship, joy, love and safety are what Ruby found in our home.

She stays in my computer chair all day as I work on image after image.  Keeping me company in a house that otherwise would be silent. When the girls arrive home from school, Elly and Ruby take off running.  In reality running is a speed much too slow for the two of them.  Whether it is a race around the house or a sprint through the yard, I couldn't possibly declare a winner. By the time they have lapped each other over and over, I am never really sure who is ahead. When Ruby reaches the point of cranky exhaustion, she attacks on Maddy, knipping and pouncing until she can't help but pass out in a curl beside her on the couch.  Then, at the end of the day Bert arrives home from work and she scrambles as fast as she can up his tall frame until she reaching his neck, smothering him with kisses until he can no longer breathe.  He is her provider, her safety net.

Companionship, joy, love and safety are what Ruby brought to our home.

Ruby rescued each of us, reminding us of our strengths and what is important about this journey we are on. Find someone to rescue... an animal, a neighbor who needs help, a child who needs love, a stranger who needs compassion.  I can promise you that you will find that in some crazy way, you will be the one who will be rescued instead.