ROCK RANGER

Jill’s husband has an endearing habit of measuring a person’s intelligence against the yard stick of their family dogs (they have a pack). “He’s smarter than the average Ferris dog,” Don will say.  This does not bode well for the person he’s talking about.  This is Rock Ranger.  Now a distinguished gentleman at 13 ½ years old, he’s a lab-blue healer mutt they got as a puppy for $50 from an ad in the paper.

Ranger’s claim to fame is really his obsession with rocks and bricks — something he developed when he was young.  The Ferris’ have a big yard, with river rocks placed around the trees, and a brick walkway and brick edging material in places. Ranger always loved to dig them out and carry them around, and then lay down with the rock or brick, and bark at it endlessly, then pick it up again and hold it for ages and then put it down and bark at it.  We never got tired of watching Ranger with his rocks and bricks. One day at an actual river he put his head completely under nearly a foot of water, blowing bubbles and working for minutes to pull a BIG rock up from the river bottom.  That started a new game.  We got a children’s pool and filled it up for him.

Though he moves a little slower these days, Ranger’s still spry at heart and very funny.  Occasionally when out in the yard he will find a brick, pick it up and Rock Ranger is revived.  But that’s rare.  Instead he now has a green gorilla squeaky toy that he cannot be without.  He’s gone through tons of squeaky toys over the last couple of years because his jaws are so strong from the rock and brick years that he rips the toys to shreds.  But the gorilla has been around for about five months now and it still squeaks.