If Ruby looks like she’s just lost her best friend, it’s because she has. The normally waggish border collie lives with Jim, Carolyn and Velvet Brown Ware in Parker County, TX. Jim and partners Ben Emison and Milt Bradford own and operate Western Bloodstock auction company.

The Wares live just across FM 1885 from the Emisons and next door to cutting horse world champion and Hall of Fame member Lindy Burch. It was Burch who gave Ruby to the Wares as a gift.

Although Ruby had first claim on the Wares’ hearts, when the slightly snobbish corgi Velvet Brown came to stay at Ware Ranch, she usurped the role of top dog. That’s why Ruby loved Friday, the stray that showed up at the ranch on Good Friday, April 6.

The Wares took the young fox terrier mix in while they searched for his owner. They posted flyers in local stores and restaurants, put ads in the newspaper, and asked friends and neighbors if they knew of anyone looking for a lost dog.

As the weeks passed, Friday settled into the family routine of long walks in the mornings followed by a day at the office.

“He was the coolest little dude you’ve ever seen,” said Jim Ware. “We didn’t think that we needed three dogs, but time rocked on.

“Ruby just loved him. They’d romp and play together. But Velvet Brown was persnickety. He was way beneath her. He’d try to be her friend and play with her and she’d roll her lip up like she belonged to the Queen.”

Even though the Wares were not about to turn Friday out (they went so far as to have him neutered and vaccinated), they still had hopes of finding him a home. Jim had told cutting horse breeder and Parker County resident Alice Walton about the little dog with the big personality, but Walton had been busy with, among other things Crystal Bridges, the world class art museum that she is building in Bentonville, AR. Finally in July, Walton stopped by Ware Ranch to meet Friday.

“It was love at first sight,” said Ware. “Friday got up in her lap and looked at her with those big eyes of his and she was hooked. She took him home with her and he’s slept with her every night since then. He goes everywhere she goes. He even has his own seat in her jet.”

A few days after Friday went home with Walton, Ware looked down to see Velvet Brown curled smugly at his feet. “Velvet,” he said, “if you’d have known Friday was going to have his own plane, maybe you’d have been a little nicer to him.”