Oh Be Joyful Stables, LLC

A bit of the new new….

We are devastated to have to make this post but know that so many of you also deeply loved Ruby so it is with the heaviest of hearts that we are writing to let you know that in the wee hours of the morning on November 3 we had to let our most beautiful girl go.
As cliché as it is, the truth is that everyone loved Ruby. She was a fixture around the farm and greeted everyone with a smile—she would sink her head low and literally smile, showing her teeth while her entire back half wagged. That was a classic Ruby greeting. She loved stopping and getting pats and treats from the people on her way to and from her beloved manure pile. Her entire life she was positive, curious and engaged. If you made time for her, she would make time for you. If you wanted her, she wanted you and she could match her enthusiasm to yours. I think that reciprocity is what endeared her to so many people. There is so much to say about her unique and special personality but in the interest of being expedient; if you know Ruby, then you just know how truly extraordinary she was.
As much as she loved everyone she met, ultimately, she was most devoted to her family, and she deeply loved us. She would often rotate through our bedrooms at night checking to see who had the most luxurious spot that she could curl up in, preferably in close physical contact with a human—her boy, her girl, Lorna and I. She loved a car adventure and camping (especially when we went off road) and she was always ready to go for a hike, a ski or just to go run errands. Honestly, it didn’t matter where we were going, only that we were together. When she got left at home, if we didn’t close the bedroom door we would often return to find her curled up in our bed in a nest that she would arrange out of our comforters and pillows because that was as close as she could get to us. She endured a fair amount of discomfort over the last six months but even when she was uncomfortable she always had enough to give us a little tail wag (thump, thump, thump) when we came to wipe her eye with a damp cloth or tried to coerce her to eat or just to say hello and try to give her as much love as we could while we watched the clock run out.
Ruby was an amazing athlete and was a true water dog. Ruby loved swimming and swam whenever she had the opportunity. One summer we spent camping and traveling from Colorado all around the west, to Idaho, north to Alberta and later on, across the country to the East Coast always planning our stops and campsites near water so Ruby could swim. We jokingly (sort of) refer to that summer as “The Summer Ruby Swam Her Way Across America”. On more than one occasion while swimming at the Rez strangers would get alarmed as she splashed and played a quarter mile from shore. Once kayakers tried to “rescue” her far from shore. We watched as she got annoyed that they kept getting in her way and she would swim away while they chased her trying to coax her to them. Eventually they gave up, probably because they couldn’t keep up!. Ruby swam in four of the five Great Lakes and we had always talked about bringing her back to get the last one (Lake Ontario) which, unfortunately never happened.
Ruby was with us through some of our darkest and most difficult days. She knew her job in the face of hardship whether it was to curl up next to us on the couch or sit quietly while we buried our face in her scruff and breathed her in while we cried. We put a lot of pain and grief on her and she bore it stoically. She was tender and patient, always. She took such good care of us. She was an old soul in the very best way. From the time we got her as a tiny eight week old puppy she knew intuitively how to be with us energetically and she met us where we were; calmly, playfully, with purpose or in rest, she always knew and she was always just a wonderful, perfect girl.
When it was time, Lorna held her lovely soft, brown body. I held her head and she rested her chin on my shoulder. I pressed my face on hers while I whispered in her ear and I kissed her and I told her how much we loved her and how proud we were of her and that she was so, so beautiful and then she went to sleep and she was gone.
More than anything I hope she knows how truly and deeply she was loved and how honored we are to have been her people. We are forever heartbroken.
We love you Ruby Beanz.
Go swim, baby girl!