A friend of my mom called me a couple years ago and asked me if I could help her find a puppy for her daughter. As much as I hate doing this, I agreed to help her. So I went to the OKC shelter and saw a litter of adorable puppies, they looked like spaniel mixes of some sort. So I called her and talked to her about them and she agreed that she wanted one. So I adopted one. He was the most adorable little thing.
Well, I soon realized that the little pup I adopted was very, very sick. It started as what seemed to be a case of kennel cough, then progressed to an upper respiratory infection, then despite treatment, progressed to pneumonia.
I decided that this puppy was not a right fit for the family and decided to keep him and try to get him better. We were afraid that this boy had canine distemper. I felt horrible…but I couldn’t give up on him. Thankfully, the doctor allowed me to keep him in the isolation ward and treat him. He stayed in iso for several weeks and slowly but surely began to recover.
To everybody’s relief, he made a full recovery and became a happy, healthy puppy. He was adopted to a wonderful home who still keep in touch. They call me his godmother….haha. They named him Ruff, which is a bridge term meaning “to play a trump onto a trick, usually in order to try to win the trick.”
This is Ruff the day he went to his new family.
Ruff was a little puppy. We didn’t expect him to get over 20lbs full grown. But as soon as he was healthy, he began to grow…….and grow and grow and grow.
How we have no idea what kind of mix Ruff is. But he is absolutely gorgeous. We think he might be bearded collie or sheepdog mix. His new owners are retired and take him to the dog park every day. They were afraid that he would grow too big for their home, but they didn’t care. He now weighs 35lbs and is all hair.
Ruff’s story is by far one of my favorites. He is a wonderful, gorgeous dog and is so lucky to have the life he has today. I just wish I knew what happened to the rest of his litter.
Here’s a letter his new owner’s wrote us a few months after they adopted him…
A Letter from Ruff
Dear Dr. K, E, Dr. M, K, and all the other beautiful ladies at AVPH…..
I, Ruff, thought you might be interested in how I am doing. I am growing (and growing) — I weigh over 21 lbs now (see my attached publicity photo – I don’t think it caught my best side, however). Here at Saint Martins where I live there’s supposed to be a dog size limit of 25 lbs that is allowed. It will be interesting to see if the Saint Martins will eventually send dog catchers to my house with a mobile set of scales to weigh me at some point and cart me off to a concentration camp. I might have to ask for an exception by pleading that I was saved from being gassed at Animal Control in OKC by the wonderful ladies at AVPH, but because of my unknown ancestry no one had any idea how large I would get as an adult. The attached photo of me shows me with one of my cute quizzical looks which I use frequently. Sorry for the poor lighting in the photo – someone with my looks should have a professional photographer, don’t you think? I am very good-looking and totally adorable, aren’t I, and I’m perfect in most other ways (aw, heck, that was just my attempt at being modest — the fact is, I AM perfect in all other ways!). People think I’m cute but that’s as it should be because, of course, I am. I have a wonderful disposition but I am rather strong-willed and have high energy which just adds to my exceptional charisma. The old guys I live with getting ready to leash-train me Boy! Are they going to find out who is training who!! Already I’ve trained them to pick up my poop as soon as it hits the ground wherever I am. But I am very into socializing with humans and other dogs. I’m attending weekly training classes at one of the PetSmart locations in town and the old guys think they’ve taught me to “sit” and to “lie down” on command but I do it just to shut them up and to get the treats – such as they are. But so far the “come here” command doesn’t hold any interest for me at all. I may humor them later – but then, again, I may not. I still sleep in my crate at night but I have my eyes on a king-sized bed nearby that I will take over one of these days. I don’t make noise at night any more except a cute little squeal that comes out whenever I yawn. I think you will be awed by how extravagantly attractive I have become the next time I come to see you wonderful ladies at AVPH. But this e-mail will give you some advanced notice — you can practice controlling yourselves so you won’t act like teenage girls at a rock concert when I come to visit you. One of the old guys is asking me to get off the computer now so he can to use it (I’ll probably have show him how), but just wanted to let you ladies know how lucky you were to have had me there at AVPH in my youth. Thanks for being good to me in my hour of need. If you ever need anything, just whistle!
With many wags of tail ——
Love to all from Ruff.
Jak-N-Oliver's Twist 