Search

5 Things About Ruca, the Sailing Dog

sailawayblog
Jan 25, 2017
2 min read

1. My favorite foods are coconut, oranges, and carrots.

I'm a health nut, what can I say?! But for real, the minute you break out one of these nomnomnom foods, the super sad, starving eyes and uncontrollable drool make their debut. Also, my role aboard as coconut hunter on our daily beach runs is of upmost importance aboard Wanderlust.

2. I've got a bum leg.

A partial tear in my right rear ACL leaves me a little wobbly sometimes. With mom and dad and my doctor's help, I do great most days. To keep my leggie in check, I've got to take all my meds, and limit beach time to just an hour per day, with NO running full speed... total bummer. But, I get all the swimming I want!

3. Children TERRIFY me.

When a tiny human approaches to awe at my cuteness, I immediately hide behind mom's legs and give her the "please help" face. I've met very few children, and I'm not accustomed to their strange noises and movements. Why are they so SMALL!?!?

4. Before sailing I had "doggy depression."

Before our family set sail, we lived in a big house with a backyard. And although I lo-ooved my backyard, I didn't see much of it. Mom and dad were at the office from sunup to sundown, and winters kept us cooped up inside often. I didn't get as much outside time as I wanted. Some days I went to doggy daycare, but at home, every once in a while I chewed things up, helped myself in the pantry, and caused all kinds of havoc around the house - out of boredom. When I started to lose my hair in the wintertime, Doc said I had "seasonal alopecia," caused by depression and lack of vitamin D.

Fast forward a year, and now I'm happier than ever! I spend time swimming, digging at the beach, chasing critters, and mom and dad are with me all day. I've got all the hair I can handle! Turns out, I needed to up my dosage of vitamin sea!

5. I love rocks.

Many people have noticed my lack of teeth (Mom and dad say it's charming). There are multiple reasons my teeth are few and far between (I guess it's common in Boxers), but my affinity for chewing rocks does NOT help. No matter how hard mom tries to prevent it, I always seem to dig a good rock up at the beach and have a chew! My favorite game is when dad throws rocks into the ocean and I search... but rarely fetch. Sometimes I'm caught carrying rocks in my mouth in the dinghy, trying to smuggle them back to the boat with me!