19/07/2025
SPECIAL APPEAL FOR RUBY
Cane Corso x | Female | 1 years old
To encounter Ruby is to have one's expectations upended, to have one's eyes opened, to have one's language reshaped. I'd never come across the word ‘puppy’ as a verb, and yet, a single moment in her company was enough to compel me to coin it.
Puppy - verb - /ˈpʌp.i/
To puppy.
1. To act in a way that might be described as ‘puppyish’ - especially when one is outside the usual age-range for puppyhood.
/ “She did puppy so eagerly towards the lady, licking her nose and acting the fool.” /
2. To give oneself over to playfulness, without inhibition.
/ “She bowed and bounded, she cavorted and played, she happily puppied with whomever she met” /
3. To be a big dog who acts like a small one.
/ “The gentleman had never encountered such puppying before, she was sitting on his lap in spite of her size!” /
4. To act like Ruby.
/ “Ruby did puppy and puppy and puppy. She puppied. She is puppying. She will puppy far into the future.” /
Ruby is such a puppy. Maybe not in looks. Maybe not in age. Maybe not in heft. But her heart most certainly is - and it beats with the relentless polyrhythmia of puppyhood.
She greets you lap-first, placing her nose across your knees and lifting her eyes to yours. The entirety of her body wriggles, from the twitch of her nose to the swing of her tail. Her paws flail eagerly towards you in anticipation of a hug. A request which has never yet been denied. She rolls over beneath the press of your palm, her belly skywards, her back earthbound.
However, there is sometimes an anxiousness to Ruby, which belies both her heft and her openness of manner. Novelties within her environment can cause her to shrink away, a big dog made small, and to wet herself, in an almost child-like, or puppy-ish way. At such times, she may need some gentle encouragement to overcome them. For a dog who might be perceived - incorrectly - as a bruiser or a brute, she is a most delicate flower.
This soon passes. The joy wins out. The puppy is reborn. Her body forms a perennial playbow, her eyes are fixed with a permanent wonder. Her nature is so endearing and her manner is so enchanting, that your adoration flows easily, unbidden. You love her because she gives you no choice, she loves you because she knows no other way.
To see Ruby puppy so freely is a privilege. To be the subject of her puppying is a joy. To know your heart has been puppied is inevitable.
Written by Richard Grainger | Animal Care Assistant
For more information about Ruby, and to make an application, please visit: https://chesterfield-rspca.org.uk/ruby-2/
