Week 3 Highlights

One day this week while we were walking Ruby Jackie and I caught a glimpse of how fast Ruby actually is. As we were rounding the corner of our apartment building we passed shrubbery that was housing some birds. Most took off high, avoiding all confrontation. But there were a few that thought it best to tempt Ruby. Not smart. Before I realized birds where flying low out of the bush, one disappeared. The only evidence a bird had flown out of the bush was a wing hanging out the right side of Ruby's mouth. After it registered with Ruby that she had actually caught something, she opened her mouth and the bird flew away. Since that day I have not seen any birds in the shrubbery. Though Ruby has become much more eager to try and catch other wildlife. She will try to run up trees to get to squirrels, but has yet to get even close to anything other than the bird that got away.

This weekend we took Ruby to a local dog park. Ruby was my shadow, I spent most of my time there trying to talk away from Ruby, as she slithered behind me, staying close. There was a brief glimpse of a happy dog. Ruby found another dog she wasn't scared of and started trying to play, stamping her front feet while wagging her tail and sticking high in the air. The other dog started chasing Ruby. Ruby ran, tried to shake the other dog off by changing direction quickly to the left, and the right. Within a minute, Ruby had every other dog in the park chasing after her. Finally I got the chance to see how fast Ruby could run, she opened up and bolted across the park at top speed, the other dogs were dragging behind as Ruby stepped on the gas and flew away from the pack. Once she saw how many dogs were chasing her, she stopped running, found me, and went back to my shadow. But for a brief moment I had the opportunity to see Ruby the way she truly is, free of fear.