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Wow, thanks to you all for your comments! We've decided to adopt her and I will be fostering another lab. She made us fall in love with her! I think animals do adopt us, before we even know it! :)

Since I posted this pic, my family decided to ADOPT Ruth! We'll be getting her tags in the mail soon, and of course, I will foster another dog. My entire family just fell in love with Baby Ruth! :)

Ruth has been with us for six months now! Actually, a little longer than 6 months! She's turning into a regular puppy girl-plus motherly instincts my other dogs lack. She usually ignores the barking and carrying on between the other two dogs we have and the neighbors' dogs and young boy who likes to tease them! She is no longer afraid of 'outside' and has no accidents except those caused by having way too many puppies over the years, and the side-effects of growing older. I read a very interesting article (sorry, can't remember where I found it) that said that in many cases older dogs who have indoor accidents don't mean to, are ashamed and afraid of being found out, and don't understand why it happened. They are just as shocked as we are when we see or feel that wet spot on a rug or doggie pillow, etc. My 7 yr old foster lab had to have skin lesions treated with prednisone, and apparently it can and does cause involuntary 'bladder spasms' (read accidents) especially in older dogs or ones with a compromised bladder. All in all, Ruth is like a momma who gets to be a kid again now she's done her work and it's rest time. She gets SO frisky sometimes, hopping around running in circles, wagging that blunt instrument of her tail around like a weapon, hopping till she gets all four feet off the ground at the same time. Sorry this ran on so long. :) Ciao!

@5dogsnow: Thanks! I know what you mean about the individual barks. At first it wasn't very clear...then after a month or so I could tell which one was barking. (This is the first time my family has had more than 1 dog). Trixie, the 4 yr old black lab/bull terrier mix, has calmed down so much since Ruth came to live with us! (Ruth is the black 'english' lab, 10 yrs, had many pups) Trixie followed Ruth around the first day, spent the second day trying to figure out WHY she was following Ruth around, then on the third day, tried to make Ruth follow HER, then settled in and decided she was still top dog, but Ruth was a kind of 'exception'. Trixie now jumps on people less, eats her food all at once, takes treats more gently than Ruth does, and barks less. We took her from her mother at only 5 weeks-really too soon-because she was the oldest of a litter of 12 live and one stillborn pup-and the rest were all males! Talk about being raised to be aggressive! The mother simply didn't have enough milk for 12 pups, being a medium size lab. The pups had already started trying to eat some of the dry dog food set out for mom and babysitter male border collie. (the border collie was so cute, you could tell he was counting pups, getting frantic every time one got too close to the stairs...) Even though Trix had a rough few weeks, she started a growth spurt almost immediately, when we put puppy food in warm water and microwaved it for a few seconds. By the time she lapped up all the liquid, the food would be a sort of 'mush' that she could eat even before her puppy teeth came in. So Ruth was the first dog she'd been around for more than a few hours (except at the boarding kennel). I think she was really missing a mother figure, and Ruth was the perfect lab to do the job. One day the Chow mix in the yard diagonal to ours was barking at Trix, and Ruth ran over. Dad said she took about 4 steps total, going across our half-acre lot faster than he'd ever seen her go before! Her hackles were up, and she let out this deep, bell-sound bark-really freaky sounding-and that Chow shut up and went away! She has some very well developed protective instincts. Trix has now imitated that as well, going to the 'rescue' of my new foster, Sassy. If you're interested in seeing pics of other HOTLR adoptable labs, they have a website, and a facebook page. They only work with dogs in south-central TX, though. I've come to realize exactly what you said, that the dogs are like a bunch of kids when they all get together! Ruth loves her kennel cage (she didn't know what grass was when she was dumped at the pound) but also loves the doggie beds we got for all three of them. Hers is in her kennel, but whenever she can get away with it, she will go lay on Sassy's bed, which is not in her kennel because there wasn't room for it in the same room as the other 2! No matter how many times we remind Ruth that it's not her bed...turn around and there she is! :) Thanks for your comment! I always enjoy hearing from other dog lovers!