Rudy, A.K.A The Golden Dragon

All it takes is one dog to show that they're not all the same.

In January of 2021, I started dating Dog Dad. Our first interaction was years before on a dating site where we started messaging, then texting, and then he vanished... I'd been ghosted. A couple of years later, just before my birthday, I got a random text from a random number. We ended up texting and talking for 12 hours straight, and then the rest was history. Our first date was me showing up to his house (I know, not the safest move, and I don't recommend it in general. But my best friend lives 5 minutes up the road, had a picture of him, his phone number, his address, and pictures of his dog). He told me to just walk in, which seemed ridiculous because I could hear a very loud, large dog on the other side of the door barking at me.

That dog was Rudy. Who turned out to be a huge lovebug, and I definitely hadn't seen it coming.

Like most people (I think), I had some preconceived notions about the Pitbull breed. I didn't believe they were dangerous necessarily, but they weren't a breed I purposefully spent a lot of time around. To be honest, I had seen so many poorly bred pitties with the huge, unnatural muscles and over-cropped ears that I just started to think of them as being ugly. But then I met Rudy and I fell in love. Rudy alone could have saved our relationship if Dog Dad had been dud. I got lucky that he wasn't a dud, and he came with a bonus kid.

I call Rudy the Golden Dragon, for obvious reasons. I'd never seen a dog who looked like him, and still don't as a general rule. People seem conflicted when they see him on the street. There's equal parts awe at his looks and terror at his breed. And, Rudy was a rescue. There are scars on his neck from who-knows-what (our best guess is a shock collar that was too tight or maybe an incorrectly used prong collar based on the shape of them), and he has some reactivity issues, particularly around fences or doors. He can be a bit unpredictable in the sense that you're not sure in public if he's going to want to greet other dogs or not, but with people, Rudy loves them all, no questions asked.

I'd never really considered rescuing a dog, and that was my own issue. I liked the idea of knowing everything about a dog from the moment they came home as a little puppy. I thought it kept me safe from things like reactivity, aggression, and the other negative impacts of questionable owners. Rudy changed that for me. Now it's not a hard no, now it's about finding the right match and taking the time. Before Grimm, I was looking at rescues and fell in love with a blind and deaf Aussie, but he was in Kansas and I convinced myself it couldn't happen. I wouldn't have even entertained the idea if it hadn't been for Rudy. Dog Dad saw Rudy (then Binky) on the rescue's website and was in love instantly. He picked Rudy up, renamed him, and the rest was history. Rudy does great with just about anyone or anything you bring into the home, which is great since I've been bringing surprise puppies home over the last year.

Rudy enjoys ripping, shredding, and tearing up toys. He's known for what I lovingly call his "murder eyes" when he gets so invested in something that his pupils take over almost his whole eyeball, and the best cuddles you've ever had. Rudy was the first of the pack to ever go running with me, but it's been a very long time since we've done it. He's a favorite any time he goes to the vet, and he was almost stolen away by my grandparents during our family trip to Tennessee. One of the things I love most about Rudy is the way he makes people see Pitbulls in a different light. I believe he's a great ambassador for the breed, and I'm really excited to do his DNA testing with Embark one of these days so I can finally figure out what exactly makes Rudy, well, Rudy.

Coming up next for Rudy and me:

• Getting back to running/walking together

• Continuing to work on his leash-walking skills

• Doing his Embark test

• Moving in so I'm his full-time Mommy

Thanks for learning about Rudy, and if you want to see more of him, check us out on Instagram at HerRunningTails, and follow our hashtag #herrunningtails.

Thanks for reading this tail, and hopefully many more!

Danielle & Rudy