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Ruby's last resting place
1/10/95 to 11/17/02
Goodbye, my friend, I miss you...
'PR' Dix River Hammering Hank
Gr. Nt. Ch. 'PR' Combs and Smith's Smokey
'PR' Sowder's Ruby
Gr. Nt. Ch. 'PR' Chenoweth's Smokey II
Nt. Ch. 'PR' Rhodus' Honest Abe
Nt. Ch. 'PR' Goodlett's Sugar
Nt. Ch. 'PR' Larry's Little Lady
Nt. Ch. 'PR' Smokey's Ragin' Ruby
Gr. Nt. Ch. 'PR' Combs and Smith's Smokey
Nt. Ch. 'PR' Markham's Black Smokey
Gr. Nt. Ch. 'PR' Scaggs' Black Queen
Nt. Ch. Ch. 'PR' Collins' Smokin' Queen
Nt. Ch. 'PR' Eads Go Riney
Ch. Gr. Nt. Ch. 'PR' Long Creek Black Shane
'PR' Sowder's Ruby
'PR' Markham's Ragin' Starr
Gr. Nt. Ch. 'PR' Umpher's Ragin' Black Hoss
Ch. Nt. Ch. 'PR' Black Brandy
Dual Gr. Ch. 'PR' Logan's Black Sally
This is about the last picture I have of Ruby on the wood, taken 3/11/02.
Ruby's DNA profile, with UKC and PKC:
BC DI BC DF CD HN DD AB FF BG
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How Ruby and I got together
In 1995, I had Sam, a black male that I was hunting in a few hunts. Sam was a pretty steady dog and I had gotten a couple NtCh wins on him. At the hunts I kept hearing about this tough black female and one thing led to another and I got in touch with Keith Collins, who owned Queen. Keith and his wife had just had twin daughters and he wasn't hunting Queen much but he invited me for a hunt. At best I thought if she looked good, maybe I could get on a list for a pup. I took Sam and went hunting with Keith. Queen looked a little rusty but she still made Sam look like a pup. I had never seen a black dog that could cover ground or get treed as fast as Queen. We got back to Keith's house that night and Keith told me how his hunting time was going to be real limited with the new babies. He had Ruby, a pup from Queen's last litter and no time to start her. She was about 8 mos. old at the time. She wasn't a particularly nice looking dog, at least compared to the B&T's I was used to. Not real houndy or blocky built, but more racey and streamlined and she was in that awkward puppy stage where most of them don't look that good. Keith said he ought to sell her to someone who would hunt her. I took the bait and asked Keith to price her. I had to go home and think about it, it was quite a bit of money for a pup that had never been in the woods. I couldn't get Queen out of my mind so in a couple days I was back at Keith's house and I had a new pup.
Ruby, Training, Competition, and Ability
After I got Ruby, I didn't waste any time showing Ruby her first caged coon and she wanted nothing to do with it. I was disgusted. But, about the next time I showed her one, she went nuts. I began hunting her with Sam and she went hunting right away. She started treeing pretty quick and the first time I dropped her by herself, she treed a coon. After that I hunted her by herself some and some with Sam and she steadily progressed. I remember that when she was 13 mos. old, in Febuary, I hunted her 4 nights in 7 days. I turned her loose 7 times and she treed 6 coons and caught one on the ground for me. Most of these coons were not the best of tracks. This is about the time I noticed she had some ability for unkinking some tough tracks.
The only real trash problem I ever had with Ruby was possums. I tried every breaking method known to man and made up a few to try to break her. She actually treed very few of them but it was usually at the worst possible time, like in a hunt.
Ruby could move a track. She had an uncanny ability to stick her nose in a track and automatically take it the right direction while other dogs were standing on their heads. Just a few weeks before her last litter was born, I turned Ruby and 3 of her daughters loose along a cornfield edge. They all struck right at the edge of the corn. The 3 youngsters hit the cornfield but Ruby went the opposite direction into some trees along the edge and slammed a coon. They all covered her, and there was a lone kitten coon there. She could get a coon out of a cornfield better than any dog I regularly hunted with. Throughout her last summer, she never took more than 20 minutes to tree a coon around a cornfield. I think this trait was bred into her as Queen was this way and Markham's Smokey was, as well. It was not uncommon that when conditions were tough and many dogs were having trouble getting coons treed, Ruby was doing it regularly. She was not all that impressive as a treedog. She ran the tree some, especially when she was younger and I never was able to break her off that. She would split and hold pressure, once in a great while. She would tree every breath, and she would almost always stay until I got there but I wouldn't describe her as a good pressure tree dog.
She had alot of guts and determination. I hunted her within 2-3 weeks of every litter being born and she was as hard going as ever. About 3 weeks after I weaned her last litter, I took her hunting one night with her pup, Starr. Ruby got them in about 1 mile and was treed in a holler when I drove around. She didn't sound strong and wasn't treeing right and I knew something was wrong. I took her home after that, but thats when she really went downhill. I had no idea she would be dead in 8 days. Looking back, I know she must have been hurting, but she still did her job that night.
Ruby's nite hunt career started when she was 2 years old. She would win now and then but overall, was nothing impressive. She did place at a B&T sectional, was Queen at another one,and placed 11th at B&T Days, 2001, with 208 dogs entered in the all B&T hunt. She picked up 1 NtCh win before I started concentrating more on her pups. I believe that even as she aged, she was still pretty tough, and I will probably always regret not pushing her towards GrNt.
Ruby's Pups
Ruby was not quite 2 years old when I raised a litter from her and my old Sam dog in late 1996. She had 2 male pups. I later found out that Sam had a low sperm count. I sold one pup and raised and started the other. When he was a year or so old, his brother got killed while coonhunting. The guy that owned that dog liked his dog well enough that he bought the one I had. I lost touch with him but the last I heard, the dog would tree coons for him.
I bred Ruby to Wheelers Ozark Hammer in 1997 but he was very old, it had to be done A.I. and I got no pups.
In late 1998 I bred Ruby to her full uncle, B&B's Black Hoss. Its a long story, but the breeding had to be done A.I. and I think the timing was off and I got no pups.
In late 1999 I bred Ruby to Hoss again, and she raised 5 pups, including Lizzy . There were 4 males in this litter, 2 were culled for being duds, 1 was making a dog and died due to a worming treatment and I have lost track of the other one.
In 2000 I bred Ruby to Rocky's Ragin' Buck. She raised 6 pups. I culled one at weaning and have lost track of 2 males. The other 3, Razor, Kate, and Sandy, (aka Spin), were all quick starting, natural treedogs. Razor and Kate both won in comp., as 1 year olds. Sandy got a later start as she was never hunted until I bought her back at nearly 2 years of age. Since then, she has also made NtCh.
In 2001 I bred her to Ramblin Moon. She had 7 pups but had them several days early and I was not prepared. 2 were dead when I discovered she'd had them. 2 more died, one was due to kidney failure, so she only raised 3 pups from this litter. One of these was Starr who was a little later starting than some of Ruby's pups but otherwise a nice young dog. One male has not been hunted, and Scout, another male, ran and treed at a young age.
In 2002, Ruby raised a litter of 7 pups from Myers Hoss. Ruby Too. came from this litter.
Ruby has produced 23 pups. Two of them, Razor and Spin, were NtCh's. Razor had 4 NtCh wins when he died as the result of a hunting accident.. Three are GrNtCh's (Lizzy, Ruby Too and Kate). Ruby has appearred on UKC's Current Top Reproducer's List as high as 3rd place.
Ruby's Last Days
Ruby was in excellent health when I bred her. I hunted her throughout her pregnancy, until about 3 weeks before the pups were born. About a week before they were born, I could tell something was wrong. She was usually very energetic, but she seemed very lethargic. A trip to the Vet didn't reveal anything but she was getting big with pups and they thought maybe she was just uncomfortable. She did get to feeling better. She had the pups and raised them and seemed healthy the whole time.
I weaned her about the last week in Oct. and she dried up nicely. But she didn't seem to have that old fire in her. I figured she was wore down from the pups and gave her some time. By 11/9/02, Saturday, I was going hunting and she was out there, dancing around like she used to always do, so I took her and Starr hunting. They left on the dead run, like always and I heard nothing. Quite some time later, I got the tracker out and Ruby's tree switch was going off. I drove around and heard her treeing down in a holler. She was not treeing normally. She would bark every breath, like she has always done, but she would shut up for a little bit and then repeat. She also sounded weak. This was not like her and I took her home after that. She did not eat the next day and my wife took her to the vet on Monday. First indications were pneumonia. A few days of antibiotics and she was still not eating, so I took her back to the Vet on Thursday. They gave me stronger antibiotics, did more tests but found nothing conclusive. This is when I first noticed she was breathing hard and I started to realize I was probably going to lose her. She must not have been able to breathe laying down, because she mostly stood. By Saturday, she was getting very tired and was almost falling asleep standing up. She finally sat down, and then laid down, with her head on my lap. I thought she was going to die in my arms, but I wanted everything done to save her, so I took her to the Vet late Sat. night. The Sunday report from the Vet was that she was stable, and getting enough oxygen, but she died that night at the Vet's. I had them do an autopsy on Monday, and then I brought her home and buried her down below our house, next to the pond.
The autopsy showed her lungs were in very bad shape and that her liver was enlarged. She also had a spot on her spleen, but everything else looked good. Tests were negative for heartworms, Erhlichia, Lyme Disease, fungal infection and probably a few other things. The Vet seemed to think that it was more likely she had cancer. Whatever it was, it sure took my dog away from me before I was ready to give her up..
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