Velvet Brown shares her ranch home in Weatherford, Texas with Ruby, a red and white border collie, and Jim and Carolyn Ware. Jim and his partners Ben Emison and Milt Bradford own and operate Western Bloodstock, the nation’s top performance horse sale company.

Ruby was given to the Wares as a gift by their neighbor Lindy Burch, after their  border collie, Miss Lily, met an untimely death. Velvet Brown, now three, joined the Ware household as a puppy to keep Ruby company. But the Corgi’s sense of self-assurance soon led to a broader job description.

“Velvet has turned out to be the boss of us all,” admitted Carolyn Ware, who was alarmed to learn that ‘Miss Brown’ has a taste for diamonds. Having once loosened a setting in Carolyn’s favorite bracelet with her teeth, Velvet promptly swallowed the jewel.

But chasing squirrels is Velvet Brown’s favorite pasttime. She works so hard at it, in fact, that some days she has to take a break and chill out in the pool.