Back in Action

Seven long months ago Ruby was diagnosed with Idiopathic ITP. As a result Mary Jane and I had to pull her from competition and training while we treated her for low platelets. Last month we started her training again and yesterday returned to the ring for the first time since that horrible day back in September. The saving grace through all this, aside from the great medical help we have received from Texas A&M and Angela, our vet at Westlake Animal Hospital, has been that Ruby has never acted “sick”. She is as full of life as ever. When we restarted training, Ruby was driven! She was eager to play and seemed to have fun running with me.

This weekend MJ and I competed with Ruby in Belton, TX at an AKC event. We chose to compete on Friday as this is usually a calmer day compared to Saturday and Sunday, where emotions run high, and the number of dogs doubles. We ran in 4 events and I had one very specific goal “have fun”. I do love to win, and I do love the titles, but today was about getting Ruby back into the ring and just enjoying the day. Overall, she ran great, she had a few “Ruby Moments” but overall she was athletically beautiful to watch and clearly had a good time in the ring. Outside the ring she was relaxed and calm.

In the coming months Ruby and I will work on her weaves to figure out why she balks. I was perfectly happy to finish this run in Second place with a qualifying time. Besides, red looks good on our girl!