Dog on the Blog: Baby Ruth & Arndt -- She's a Little Bit Country - He's a Little Bit Rock 'n Roll

They say opposites attract, and that is certainly true for Baby Ruth and Arndt.

Shown above in one of their least flattering photos ( I promise to get a better picture of them to share on this blog!), they appear to be similar little black dogs.

But their coloring is where the similarities end.

Baby Ruth, on the left, is pretty close to feral. Brought to Smiling Dog Farms by her benefactor, Rae Ann Bennett, Baby Ruth had virtually no chance for adoption. She avoided people. She hid under furniture. She ran the other way when someone approached her.

Rae Ann had spent many hours with Baby Ruth, trying to help her past her fears. But it was to no avail. Baby Ruth would not be persuaded that people could be trusted.

Ricky and I took our turn at trying to calm Baby Ruth's anxiety, but we had no more success than Rae Ann. Baby Ruth will let you hold her and she will not bite. But she doesn't like it, and the look in her eyes pleads with you to just let her go hide under the bed!

(By the way -- you probably knew this, but Baby Ruth is not named for a candy bar! She is named in honor of President Grover Cleveland's daughter, Ruth, who was born in the white house and quickly dubbed by the press as Baby Ruth. The candy bar was named for her!)

So Baby Ruth came here to live out her life at the farm, where she would not have to suck up to people. Here, Baby Ruth can be herself and just enjoy her time doing "dog" things, without regard for what humans might want from her.

Shortly after Baby Ruth arrived, so did Arndt. He came from the Brazoria County shelter and was in pretty bad shape when he got here. He was so skinny you could count his ribs. And he had a severe limp, which our vet said was from a very old injury that moved his leg bone partially out of its socket. The doc recommended that we just leave it alone, because surgery after all that time would not guarantee a better result, and it might make things worse, because muscles had repositioned and grown around the misplaced bone.

As time has passed, Arndt has put on weight and has lost his limp in that rear leg. To watch him run across their play yard today, you would never guess he had trouble walking when he came here!

Unlike Baby Ruth, Arndt loves to be petted and hugged and kissed by people. He runs to the fence to coax anyone walking by to come pet him. Baby Ruth runs to the fence, too -- so that she can bark-bark-bark at the same people Arndt is trying to coax over to pet him! They work at cross purposes to one another.

But when they are alone, Arndt and Baby Ruth nap together, their bodies touching. They will chase each other through their yard. It is obvious that Baby Ruth and Arndt are very much in love. Despite their obvious differences.

Or maybe because of them! Who is to say?

Jay Hellerich, executive director
smiling dog farms
a 501(c)3 corporation
wharton, texas
979-257-3377
www.smilingdogfarms.org
http://smilingdogfarms.blogspot.com

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