After an animal has been taken to the Humane Society, the waiting period is 5 days until you can pick him up. It has to be a full five days, which meant we could not pick him up until Saturday and of course, they were closed on the weekends. We picked him up Monday.

And it's been a wild ride ever since. Tiny and Bruiser were none too sure of this itty bitty intruder, and Ralph was terrified of them. That soon changed and it was not too long after that both Tiny and Bruiser tried to tempt Ralph to come out from underneath the rocking chair to play.

Getting him to actually eat more than a few bites took me about a week. I changed bowls (different sizes) several times, and each bowl became progressively smaller. It was almost as if he was intimidated by larger bowels. He now eats out of a guinea pig food bowl. I'm proud to say that Ralph is now eating like a champ, and, as a plus, he is eating the same food as the other dogs.

Tiny and Bruiser would play rough with Ralph most of the time, but Ralph would hold his own. I remember thinking to myself; "one of these days they'll push him too far, and it'll all be over with but the crying." Little did I know that prediction would come true.

I was out of town this weekend and when I came home, my husband told me this story:

"I was in the front of the garage folding laundry when all of a sudden I heard Bruiser barking pitifully. When I got a closer look, I found that Ralph had backed Bruiser underneath the car and wouldn't let him get out. He never made a sound, just bared his teeth, and the hair was standing up on his back. When I looked around for Tiny, I saw that she was over on the other side of the lawn. It took me a while to coax Bruiser out, and when I finally did, he kept his distance from Ralph for most of the rest of the day."

All is well though. Ralph and Bruiser are fast friends. All three dogs play together nicely, but if Tiny and Bruiser get a little rough, all that Ralph has to do is show his teeth, and they both back off. It's going to be interesting to see how this fans out.

I'm thinking I don't have to worry so much about Ralph after all. Looks like he's going to do just fine on his own.