Could there be a better day to celebrate Miss Ruby's birthday?

Happy Valentines Day! After the real cold snap that we had, its a treat to have the mercury up around zero (Celsius for those of you not from Canada, eh: )))
The good news is of course that means that I can comfortably spend longer stretches of time out and about with the dogs. Sadly that also means that its pretty slippery underfoot and we all need to be a bit careful
Do you know what impresses me the most about many of the kind hearts who work frontline animal rescue? It isn't their love for the animals or their unflagging optimism. What really impresses me is that they can still find it in them to be diplomatic to humans after everything that they have seen over the year.
Take Brock for instance, who is pictured above. He was found wandering the streets and was brought to Yarmouth SPCA a few weeks ago when it was ever so much chillier out. Now its bad enough that someone would abandon a twelve year old pet in the depth of winter. To add insult to injury, Brock is almost completely blind.
The staff at the shelter can't stop talking about how sweet this dear old boy is. They say he is gentle and friendly and loves to go for walks.
I've lived with a blind dog before and honestly, I believe we humans are more worried about a pets disablity than the pet is. Chloe had no trouble navigating around the house and was definitely still able to go for walks with McG until the last few months of her life. Granted ... I didn't think it would be sporting to rearrange the furniture or leave boots out where she could trip on them .... but other than that she was still her sweet old self.
One of the nicest things thats happened for senior pets this past year is that some SPCANS branches, like Yarmouth are pulling out all the stops for their seniors. The Yarmouth SPCA are willing to underwrite the adoption fee for Brock for an approved adopter. In the interim, they are looking for someone to foster this grreat guy so that he doesn't have to wait at the shelter until he is adopted.
This is a very special day in this house. We don't know Miss Ruby's exact birthday, only her age. Two years ago this morning, the first picture below arrived in my inbox from ARC.
Even though she was desperately thin, it was clear to me that she was as bright as a buttton. We had no idea she was going to be such a beauty once she was being properly fed. I just thought she was brave and bright and for me it was love at first sight.
Her fosters, by the way, were Megan and Aidis, who have so generously volunteered so much of their time taking pictures of shelter pets and held the wonderful Shelter Dog Art Show last year. http://arphoto.blogspot.com/
It is just another little miracle that Miss Ruby is not one bit food aggressive. Even more amazing is the fact that I can trust her to leave the bowl of liver cookies alone when I'm not in the kitchen.
So ... in this house .... Valentine's Day is Miss Ruby's official birthday. She is my heart, and I've made a pan of her favourite liver brownies to celebrate. This afternoon for a treat we'll go for a second good hike in the woods, because after all the best present we can give our pets is the time we spend with them.
If there are no dogs in heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. Will Rogers