Skruffy

So I am 550 miles from home, and taking a short break.  Love the Chattanooga area, will need to come this way again and stop and spend some time.  I know there are going to be some readers of this blog who don't know the Skruffy story, and I wanted to share it with them.  Skruffy is going to be a big part of this blog, as is Bubba.  The way I figure it, most of the Library staff don't care what I am doing, how I am doing, where I am....they just want to know how Skruffy is doing!  lol

Back in October 2009 there was a bunch or rain in Pine Bluff, it rained for what seemed like 40 days and 40 nights.  One of my friends and co-workers, Diana, was an avid dog lover.  On July 4, 2011 she went to the Rainbow Bridge herself to meet all the many, many dogs that were there waiting for her.  I do hope she is happier now....

Diana traveled by a construction company across from a vet one Sunday and saw this little puppy that was running around in the yard amongst all these dump trucks and other large vehicles.  She did what she did many times, got the lost dog breakfast along with her own breakfast.  But the little dog would not come to her, but would take the biscuit and bacon as she tossed it through the chain linked fence.  A week later she saw it again, fed it again, and the next day dropped by the place to see what they knew about the dog.

“Ya, we have seen that little dog for the past few weeks,” the man told her. “We call her Skruffy because she is just so scruffy looking.”  Diana told them that if they ever caught the dog, to contact her at the Library and she would find it a home.  She then came to work and told me, “I have finally found you the perfect little dog, if we ever catch her.”

A few weeks later, and about 6-8 more inches of rain, I was at the Library working when the staff directed a phone call to my office around 5:00 p.m..  It was a guy from a construction company and he could not remember the lady’s name, but they wanted her to know that they finally got the dog.  I told him I would let her know, and that I was sure she would be right down since she lived about a mile away.  “How did you catch her?”, I asked.  “Well, I was getting ready to go home and when I opened my truck’s door, she just looked like she wanted to get in.  So I said, “you want to go too?”  And she jumped right in.”

A few hours later I went by Diana’s house, and I met Skruffy.  She told me to sit and talk, and that after 5 minutes or so she would bring her over to me.  She told me that she was dirty, she had a litter not too long ago, and we speculated that perhaps parents had offered a child a choice, keep a new puppy or keep the mother...then dropped the mother off at the Vets office thinking the Vet would take care of her...many people seem to think that if you drop a dog off at a locked Vet’s office that it will know to just sit there and wait.....well, if that was the case, the puppy was the loser and I was the winner....well, Skruffy was the real winner.

After she put Skruffy into my lap we continue to talk as I petted her.  About 10 minutes later Diana got up and came over to see if Skruffy would go back to her...and Skruffy let out a small growl.  Diana said, “Oh my, she has already claimed you!”  And that was that. Below is one of my first pictures of her that first weekend that I had her.

She did have heart worms, but it was a minor case and she had no ill effects from the treatment..  I got the spelling of the name by mere accident....at the vet they asked her name, I told them.  “How is that spelled?”, she asked.  I froze...I hate spelling....my worst subject in skhool (yes, I do know it is spelled school).  So I sounded it out....S K R U F F Y.  She wrote it down.  Then I thought, “or is it Scruffy? ... Ops, too late now....”   

For the next 1 ½ years, Skruffy came to work with me nearly every day.  Everyone loved Skruffy.  She would make noise now and then.....if she got excited about going out, she might bark a few times.  If we were leaving and staff acted excited to see her, she would let a bark or tow.  As we went down the elevator and I asked, “Ready to go outside?”, she would let out a few barks.  If I left her in my office too long alone, she would let out this systematic bark.   Bark (count to 10) Bark (count to 15) Bark (count to 10)   She just could not stand to be alone.

Then Bubba came into her life as Marcia came into my life.  She could stay with Bubba without barking.  She just cannot stay by herself.  She loves the attention, she loves to watch what is going on, she loves to bark at other dogs and at cats, but most of all, she loves me to death, and has grown very found of Marcia.  Below is a picture from yesterday as she watches me enter the trip into the GPS, she is on the computer making sure the GPS syncs up with Google Maps.

Well, my break if over, back to the road.  Will post again in a few days.