This is one post I have been dreading to write. I am almost a year late in doing it. I just kept putting it off and putting it off. Which has put me even more behind in blogging. Last November (2010) we lost our sweet Rugby girl.
She was such a special dog! We got her before the kids came along at a time in our lives that was really hard. We had been through a rough couple of years of infertility and I had lost hope and had been told that there was no hope by Doctors. Britt was in the middle of his first year of Law School and had accepted a Summer position in Nashville, TN. Which meant that I would be alone in Lexington, KY while he spent his Summer in Nashville. We decided that getting a dog would be the best thing for us. We are both dog lovers and knew we would eventually have dogs. So this seemed like the perfect time. A dog would keep me company while Britt was gone for the Summer. We started looking around Christmas time. We knew that we wanted a Boxer. Britt found an ad in the newspaper and we were set. We drove to Indiana to get her. She was 8 weeks old. I will never forget when we saw her. A family had sold all of her brothers and sisters and planned on keeping her but decided they couldn't. They already had Rugby's mom and grandmother as pets. We got to their house and they opened the door and she came bounding out and practically fell down the stairs. She was tiny and the cutest thing. She came right to me and I knew we had to have her. I cried all the way back to Lexington with her. I was so happy! Little did I know she would be the one thing I needed that would bring the joy back into my life.
She was a little stinker in the beginning. She was into everything and she had to sleep in our bed under the covers if we wanted her to stop crying.
A few years later the kids came along and she was just like a big sister to them. They could pretty much do anything to her and she was calm as can be. In fact in the 11 years we had her she never even growled at them. Such a sweetie!
Rugby did not really start to slow down until around 9 years old. She was so full of spunk! The last few months of her life she really slowed down. We knew that it would be soon. We are so thankful that she just went to sleep one night and we didn't have to make the decision for her to go. It was one of the hardest days we have had in a long time. We miss her so much! So thankful for the time she was with us. She helped us more than she could ever know. We love you Rugby Roo!
