Meeting the Family

When Jackie and I finally made the decision to bring Ruby home I had two thoughts in my head. First, how is this going to work out? Second, how will my family feel about this. While I do not live at home, and have not for a while, both Jackie and I still hold in high esteem everything our parents say and feel. But I knew bringing Ruby home was the right thing to do, as was to tell my family before they heard it from someone else. My dad was happy for us, which was good to hear. What I did not expect was a text from my parents 5 minutes later asking if the family could come visit Ruby. I was thrilled that they were so interested in the new member of the family Jackie and I were creating and invited them over.

As they approached the door to my apartment Ruby was interested in the people passing by, but when they made the turn and opened the door the mood changed. She reverted back to the frightened, helpless dog we met at the adoption center 3 days earlier. She took refuge behind me, cower in fear and urinating. My family got settled in on the couch and floor while Ruby began to slink away into the other room. I went to get her and trying to make her understand everything was okay, she urinated again. Finally I sat on the floor next to Ruby, she came to me looking for assurance everything was okay. I began inching my way towards the family, Ruby followed. As I reached a good spot for everyone to see her I stopped moving, Ruby did not. She crawled into my lap and sat there, fearing the strangers. On a positive note, at least Ruby was allowing my family to pat her without going to the bathroom on me. As I was talking with my family I was concerned that maybe Ruby had permanently reverted back to the way she was at the adoption center. Ten minutes later, Jackie got home from work.

Immediately Ruby jumped out of my lap and trotted over to Jackie. Tail furiously wagging, she would not allow Jackie to put her things down, Ruby wanted attention NOW. She had both front paws up on Jackie's chest looking for all the attention Jackie had to offer. I enjoyed watching this for several reasons. First, I was able to feel the lower half of my body again. It let my family see Ruby the way Jackie and I do, not the scared puppy but as a very loving dog. This also assured me that Ruby was just extremely cautious around people she was unfamiliar with but most importantly she was still the same Ruby Jackie and I were working towards bringing out. Once Ruby had settled down from Jackie's entrance she became slightly more comfortable with my family petting her and being near her. As of now I feel it might be best to wait a while before trying to introduce too many more people to Ruby, however in a few weeks I will be trying to get her as comfortable meeting new people as I can. I believe in the bubble system, start at the center (or in this case, the dog) and slowly expand the bubble to include more, without popping it.

Dinner on day 3 was the best yet! We were able to get Ruby to eat 1 cup of Nutro, 7oz of canned food and a chicken breast. Thanks to a wonderful suggestion from my mother, the water that the chicken was boiled in was poured over all her food and everything was mixed together. She ate it all! It was more licking the food than biting it, but she got it down.