SCRUFFY'S PAGE
Introducing Scruffy, the barkiest member of the Rude Ranch. Scruffy arrived at Rude Ranch with a police escort.
Scruffy's story begins in March, 2005, when a beat up car was abandoned on the side of the road about a mile away from
the shelter. In addition to the car, a fierce little terrier was also left behind. Not knowing what was inside the car,
the police were called to investigate.
The investigating officer tried to get into the car to see if he could find anything, but had a problem -- the little dog was
guarding the car and everytime the officer tried to open the car door, the dog lounged and growled at him. Not wanting to shoot
the dog or turn him over to animal control, the officer contacted Rude Ranch to see if we could catch the dog, or at least keep
him from biting the officers.
Armed with our dog catching secret weapon (Pupparoni treats) we headed towards the abandoned car to see two officers being stood
off by a very scruffy 25 pound dog. Everytime the officers tried to get close to him, he lounged, barked and growled with all
his might. When we got close he also started growling, but the scent of the treats soon won out and before long he was rolling over
for a tummy rub. Once his tummy was full, the little dog happily followed us back into the Rude Ranch van and back to the shelter.
Once he got back it wasn't hard to come up with a name for the little dog... every leaf, stick, seed pod (even dust bunnies) immediately
stuck to his Scruffy fur as soon as he walked by. A volunteer would spend 1/2 hour brushing him only to have him roll over and
then look the same as he did before he was brushed. The name Scruffy stuck.
Scruffy has settled into life here at Rude Ranch pretty well. He has taken it upon himself to be the "living doorbell", and will
bark incessantly at anything he feels warrents attention: falling leaves, a delivery truck going by, Tommy beating another cat up, etc.
However, no matter what, he still looks pretty Scruffy!
Scruffy's Story: The Really Big Dogs
I don't mind being called Scruffy, I really don't, after all I can't help it if I have sticky fur that picks up
everything. However, what I really don't like is when the other dogs, cats and people make fun of my tenacious
barking. I'm a terrier after all, its my calling to bark, and bark alot.
Anyway, one day not too long ago, (right after Hurricane Katrina) my dad (Bob) was getting ready to go take supplies to
the animals that weren't fortunate enough to have shelter from the storm. People were constantly dropping stuff off. Ceasar was
in his glory directing and herding everyone around. I almost lost my voice from barking so much! Bruno was having fun sniffing
everything and everyone. (Boomer just curled up in a blanket and slept through it) Anyway, one day one lady stopped by to drop
stuff off. I barked as loud as I could while I ran out to check her out. But then I noticed something... she had a trailer hooked up to
her pick up truck. There were two really really big dogs in the trailer! Bruno ran out to check them out and was fascinated. He's not used to 4-leggers bigger than him. When I barked at them they snorted and whinied back at me!
I didn't know what to do, but I'm pretty sure that what those things weren't saying nice things back to me when I barked at them. And they were HUGE!
At that point I figured I would let Bruno deal with them, but I didn't want them to think I was scared, so I gave them my most
fierce bark, the whole time I was backing my little butt up the driveway.
