Since we are in the middle of all of all of the newly planted, installed and such growing, I thought I would complete our family by introducing our third four-legged kid, Ri Ri!
Ri Ri, aka Ri (most often), Ri Ri Baby (no I am no ashamed of that one) and Houdini, is Abby’s sister and litter mate. However, we did not get her until she was just over a year old in December of 2013. She was second pick of the litter to be in the show ring and therefore had her ears cropped, was crate-trained and had obedience training when we got her. Apparently, they are pretty strict in those show rings and little imperfections can take you right out of the ring. Ri’s little imperfection turned out to be a spectacularly large underbite. What a site to see! You can’t see it just looking at her, but move those lips and enormous jowls out of the way and there it is! I think it is adorable, but I am not a dog show judge. I could be a chicken show judge, maybe. Speaking of showing her, I will only tell this once because it is just, well, you’ll see…Her full show doggie name: Ri Ri, Shine Bright Like a Diamond (yes, as in Rihanna).
As we know, Abby was making Jake crazy and getting Ri was the best thing to happen for Jake and well, ok, Abby! Once Ri figured out that we were her forever home (it took a day or so), she was all about some Abby. Ri wanted to be near Abby at all times and wanted to be touching her if at all possible while they were on the couch or the floor together. So that meant she slept on Abby as much as possible when they were not in their crates. Ri loves to play with Abby and has tried and tried to play with Jake, but to no avail. The most he will do is chase the girls once in a while. For about one minute. Abby and Ri, as Forrest Gump said, “go together like peas and carrots”. 
Abby and Ri play constantly. They play “bite face” where they just like to bite each other’s face, they wrestle with each other, they chase each other, they play tug of war with toys. It is pure entertainment. Who doesn’t love a good wraslin’ match with body slams and chest bumps and take downs? Play time all the time. What a great existence!
Ri loves to talk to you and she loves to get hugs. She will put her head on your shoulder to make sure she is close enough. She is a bit more independent is is Abby as she will stay outside by herself and explore (hence the garden romping). Physically, Ri has a much more bulky build as compared to Abby. She is shorter than Abby and she weighs 90 pounds, a good 5-7 pounds more than Abby and has a much bigger noggin. She is black with a little white line on her chest and gorgeous highlights of brindle. She is a sweet girl, but is again, as all Cane Corsos are, fiercely protective of us. She is definitely a lap dog and loves to snuggle with the best of them. She snores like all get out. Ri is also our mischievous one. She has escaped from her crate more than once while we were out. Why is this so amazing? It is amazing because the first time, both the top and bottom locks were locked. The second time, both locks were locked and there was a carabiner on it. She is so strong, she was able to first bend the top of the crate out and climb out. We put electrical tape to tape the top together after that. So, she just bent in the bottom to get the door locks to slide open. Huh. We found a stronger carabiner and switched her crate to a thicker metal one and haven’t had an issue since. We have to keep important things like bags of treats off the tops of the crates too since she likes to crate surf. We have also found out in the last week that in addition to our little furry friend that visits the garden, a big black dog also visits the garden. A big black dog named Ri. She has decided to follow the scent of the bunny throughout the garden. She simply jumps the fence and checks it all out. She doesn’t eat anything, so far, but she’s in there! How do we know this? We put a wildlife camera in the garden to see what was eating my swiss chard. Low and behold there was a picture of a big ‘ole black dog eye in the mix of the pictures, along with those of her just wandering through the garden!
She has been so much fun and we are so glad she has made our family complete.
