I never dreamed Ruby would have her own show! The best part for me was waiting anxiously to see each new photo and then the excitement of coming up with ideas for Ruby. I've taken a lot of pictures of Ruby over the years, but never quite like this. Some of these photos took forever to get "just right." I'd get the scene ready, bring her over and hope for one picture out of thirty that worked. I don't think my husband ever figured out what the heck I was doing with all the signs and paper. I sure enjoyed spending WAY too much time on the Ruby Show™.

Sorry to hear about Frances! Fortunately this experience left you and yours with many memories for years to come.

Many thanks to John, Camille, all the helpers and Craig! What an adventure.

I, for one, am not sorry at all to have been inadvertently dragged into The Ruby Show. I have learned geography (where in the heck is WI again?), assertiveness (may I stop your work to take an incomprehensible picture with your business in the background?) and humility (yes, I know I look foolish. Don't rub it in). Those are the ones right off the top of my head. I'm sure there are more.
Craig, bless his heart, (we say that a lot here) was right in the middle from the start. Stirring the pot, as it were. His Humanclock.com has been such a hoot to look at and participate in. Like John and Leanne's crew, I tried to figure out Frances' or Ruby's next move. One of the three of us would post a pic and wait patiently for the others to take off with it.
I was saddened to hear that "our" Frances passed away. She was special even to ones who didn't know her in real life. Just like the people who were a part of this adventure on Humanclock.com.
Thanks, buddies, it's been a real trip without luggage.

"The Ruby Show" started purely by accident.
Camille in Cold Harbor had sent in many good photos and I wanted to acknowledge her with a greeting card in 2:44pm. She promptly responded back and I was wondering if anyone else might send in a greeting. All of a sudden Ruby showed up. By her second photo, I realized it was a challenge for her attention and who had the most dog treats. I don't think Camille knew that she was going to be dragged into a very slow moving adventure. Once she realized she was a part of this mess, she joined right in with some good comebacks. The fun part was trying to anticipate what was going to happen next. I would think of different directions the story could go, and then Ruby or Camille would change directions, and new ideas would be needed. The others were probably doing the same thing.
The show stretched everyone's creativity about what can be done with clock photos and sometimes not cooperative pets. I was asked how we got Frances to stay still for all the photos. It was easy!? All we needed was a lot of set-up time, lots of patience and dog treats, and take lots and lots of photos. There were many waving, tapping, and helping hands just beyond the camera frame. It became a family project, and needless to say, most of the photos didn't make it to the Ruby Show screen.
It was fun with the three main characters, but I was really hoping that additional people would have joined in. Maybe the clock audience is smarter than I realized (unlike the three main characters)!

I hope the audience enjoyed wasting about 45 minutes of their day watching the show, and even if they didn't enjoy it, they still probably wasted about 45 minutes of their day. The beauty of the Human Clock is that you can waste ALL day if you choose to.

I would like to say a special thanks to the Cold Harbor crew and to Ruby and her humans. They didn't realize what they were getting into, and I bet they're sorry for it now! They were all good sports about being picked on, and were very creative. Good job Cold Harbor and Hudson!

John and the crew in Brooklyn Center.

The Ruby Show sure started out innocent enough. Cold Harbor submitted a lot of good photos, and I wanted them know they were noticed and appreciated.
We took this photo in the wetlands just down the street from our house. It stretches around many neighborhoods and is a good place for walks to see birds, deer, and even fox.

I felt famous! A pic with Cold Harbor mentioned, right on Humanclock.

This place looks cool. Can you fish there as well?

My first reply and I misspelled Brooklyn.

I had to look up the spelling of Brooklyn Center.

I was surprised how fast Camille responded to my greeting. That may explain the "GROSSLY BLATANT" type-o on the sign. It's o.k., Camille. We have brooks and wetlands in our area, so it's still an accurate name.

After submitting this photo, I noticed the photos from B.C. and C.H. and hoped to get in on the action.

I think this was the first Ruby sighting for me and it took a couple of viewings to see Ruby in it because she blends in so well.

I liked the "Watch for Rudolph" sign. I didn't realize Ruby was soon going to be a key player.

I took this right behind my house. I just let Ruby go and hoped she would be looking at the sign at some point.

Cold Harbor mentioned again! My Mother suggested using this small area where I live instead of the larger town's name, Mechanicsville. I didn't want Humanclock.com folks to think I had grease under my fingernails. We are actually just twenty minutes from Richmond.

At this point I realized a challenge was offered! Ruby was pointing toward BC, so I knew I had to get busy.

This photo was the beginning of turning our house into a photo studio, and dragging the family (kicking and screaming at times) into the challenge.

My "Ah HA!" moment... BC was going to get sneaky!

This is such a creative photo! Ruby couldn't resist taking this bribe.

I don't have a dog at this time. I stepped outside, saw this on the driveway and grabbed a magic marker and camera.

This one is neat, kind of dark and scary.

If it wasn't Ruby..... then who WAS lurking around Camille's house in the middle of the night?

This photo was taken on our kitchen wall. It might have been a little too cruel to Cold Harbor. I heard a couple of comments about not being able to resist those adorable "dog eyes" (meaning Frances, not me). This collage has some of our favorite pix of Frances, with her one crooked ear and big eyes. She is wearing Christmas bells around her neck in the bottom right picture.

I wondered who these strangers were and figured I'd never know. I recognized John but didn't know his name till you had it on the homepage recently. Had seen his wife? and him on other pictures. So who was from Hudson?

I wasn't sure who all the players were at this point either. I never dreamed there would be so many.

A friend said of this pic in my kitchen,"Sounds like Cold Harbor is near Brooklyn Center."
She hasn't been invited back. I am an artist!

I was worried that Cold Harbor was giving up here. Thankfully I was wrong!

When I saw this photo, I assumed Camille was gracefully bowing out, and felt bad. Like Leanne said, "Boy, was I wrong!"

This was a hard shot to get. She was either playing in the snow, chewing on the paper or trying to run away.

Crushed!

Frances was ecstatic, and I knew we needed to get more dog treats. And yes, Frances does like to dig up stuff on occasion also.

My sister, on the left, is a lab tech. We grabbed the NP for this pic.

This one is hilarious. I love it!

We had a good laugh at this one! I didn't know Cold Harbor would take rejection so hard.

This is looking out our front window. I made the 2:54 sign in advance, but the 'Get well soon' sign was added just before the photo shoot after hearing (and seeing) about Camille's tragic breakdown. That's my wife Jennifer holding Frances, and Truman joined the action towards the end. We took about 10 shots earlier, but when Truman came over, I took about 15 more pictures. It really added to the scene. I'm glad a couple of them came out as well as they did. If memory serves correctly, (which I doubt) I think one of the kids was jumping around on the driveway to keep Frances' attention looking down the street.

I loved this one! Frances was SUCH a dog's dog! And I'm thinking, John's wife? Truman?
Ah ha! It IS John's wife and Truman. Now I'm imagining the jumping up and down of the cohort outside on the driveway!

Here's where I first found out what Camille's name was.

This one was frustrating because the stuff kept falling off the sled.

Shoulda come to Cold Harbor. It's in Virginia, for goodness sakes. No snow.
Oops! OK, OK, occasionally we get some...I can't say it! SNOW! Caught!

I think Ruby needed an entourage to help with all the gear.
By the way Camille; what's that stuff on the ground in 2:49? Snow??

I volunteer here on Wednesdays. I'm supposed to be working. So are they.

There's always time for the Ruby Show!

Camille, I see you have succombed to the human clock mentality.

I thought John worked at a church. This is mine, with the preacher, music minister, secretary and Joshua, the child we grabbed.

I can't tell you how many hours I spent on the Humanclock while at work. Don't tell my boss!

This was good. It looks like us on any given road trip.
By the way Camille; you shouldn't be grabbing small children. That's naughty! :)

P.S. I don't work at a church, but am involved with many church projects mostly done at home (mailers, flyers, web site, props, and lots of etc).

This turned out very good, but it was a difficult shot. First, I thought it would be easier to read everything on the screen if the art file was printed out and hand colored (it kind of defeats the purpose of the computer, doesn't it?). Then it was trimmed and taped into place. Then the fun part came. The camera and tripod were set and my wife sat down with Frances on her lap, and everyone called, tapped, snapped, etc, while our son took about 20 pix. Most are of a blurry head looking up at one of us. ...Oh, the suffering we endure for our craft...

I liked this one. BC is so much more computer savvy than I. I must learn to use my Photoshop.

I wasn't even going to attempt to out do B.C. after this photo!

I never thought I would be in the McD's drive through deciding what toy Ruby wanted with her happy meal!

I was touched by the Valentine.

I liked the cards and magazine choices. Classy touch.

Some of us couldn't afford the high dollar GPS units.

After I took the 2:59 picture, Ruby ripped of the GPS circle and tore it up for fun. Good thing I spent all that money on it!

We can't afford GPS Units either. I think that's why everyone used paper.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. All that needed to be done was to set up a couple of signs on the walking bridge, set the camera and timer, and hold Frances. As mentioned above, it SEEMED like a good idea. Trying to get both of us and the props in the frame took several attempts. The cars were very noisy, and the long tunnel-like bridge made Frances nervous, but she did a good job considering. I didn't have the "honk" sign up where the drivers could see it, but we still got a few honks. I doubt the honks were saying "great job, guys". Probably more like; "what are you doing to that poor little dog?".
Ah, yes... the clock artist is soooo misunderstood.

I realized the lengths to which BC would go for these pictures. I was thinking of another to do in the comfort of my kitchen.

Too cute!

Fortunately Ruby loves snow. I'm sure she'd love C.H. though.

Still no snow in Virginia, Ruby.
I liked this one a lot too. Such a good setup with Ruby "in the wind."

I really liked this one. It looks like Ruby is in a full run. I could almost hear her squealing around the curve towards the exit.

Our daughter took this at our side door. That's my wife holding Frances. It was a little late by this point, but I was really starting to wonder how I was going to show the two dogs being together. I had some ideas, but ideas and reality don't always gel into a good final product.

What a sweet dog to go along with the goofiness. By now, I think of Frances and Ruby as "my" dogs too.

What a ham!

Here's where our kitchen officially became a photo studio for the Ruby Show. "Ruby" was part of a calendar photo enlarged about 1200% or so. The background is made up of several large sheets of paper taped to the wall and two of our snowboards. Frances is sitting on a stool with me sitting on the floor holding her. Once again, many, many shots were taken. For some reason, Frances wasn't very fond of having props taped or rubber-banded to her head. She tried to shake them off every chance she could.
**(Disclaimer thingie: No animals were hurt during the filming of the Ruby Show, and many treats were given out after each photo shoot.)

I knew early on I was out of my league and was really enjoying waiting for what these clever people in BC and Hudson were going to come up with. I was pretty curious about them. Right up to the time Craig started putting this page together I didn't know Leanne's name. She was the "mystery human". Also, I'm glad to find out that it's Jennifer in some Frances pictures. She was wishing me a "get well" for goodness sakes and I didn't know her name. Hi, Jennifer!

Frances was so tolerant. Ruby doesn't even like it when I put a collar on her!

Similar to the last photo description, except for the addition of fine jewelry made by our daughter, Marin. You can see a little bit of me holding Frances.

I could see that big trouble loomed on the horizon. It was easy to see that Marin's jewels put them into party mode.
I was impressed at the way John's crew got both dogs together.

It's not surprising that Ruby wanted to party, after all she's from Wisconsin.

I had fun with these jail scenes (in the kitchen photo studio again). "Ruby" was taken from a magazine page, enlarged, and slightly hand colored. Both kids liked the Wanted Posters. Too bad you really can't read them, but you get the idea anyway. Yes, as Camille noticed, the upper left one is of the real Ruby downloaded from HumanClock.com (TM). Frances is sitting on the stool and I'm lurking below the camera frame holding her and keeping her back with the sign attached to a cardboard holder thingie I made.

I don't think I came up with one original idea but these guys were good!

This is WAY out of my league!

While I was working with the background stuff on these pix, our kitchen had paper taped up all over one wall and a tripod standing by our table for about 2-3 weeks. As the neighborhood kids would come through the door, they would look around and ask what was going on NOW at our house. Both of our kids had the same answer; "Don't ask". This scene seems to have so much life in it, and yet, it's only a bunch of paper taped up. By the way; a new character debuts in this frame. He is later to be revealed as Easy-going Jailer Krueger.

The harmonica and wanted signs cracked me up. I couldn't wait to see what else BC and Hudson were going to cook up.

A cheese pizza no doubt. Again, she's from Wisconsin.

Camille picked up on her new task right away and came back with a good retort in 3:08.

Ah! Something for me to do. Raise bail!

I'm ashamed to say that Ruby has eaten cheese pizza.

Oh, Camille, you are so clever! Your kitchen again! My ring and watch didn't show up well in this.

I love the expression on Camille's face.

I'll echo Leanne's comment. A good expression from the comforts of her kitchen.

I got lucky on the "jail" thing with this baby gate. I had to throw tantalizing treats to get her to come near it. She hates that gate. Who knew Monopoly money would be useful outside of the game?

I was feeling the pressure.

Camille was feeling the pressure.

This is our old baby gate propped up in the hallway and two boxes in the back. Now we only use the gate when we dog-sit the parent's big Vizsla during the winter when they are in Arizona. Truman likes the gate. Truman doesn't like the Vizsla. I had hoped the digging tools showed up better. It's hard to tell what's laying back there. The picture of the 3 Stooges (seems fitting doesn't it?) was covering up a tunnel that Frances was digging, but I don't know if most people could see that or not.

The props were cool. I liked Frances being at "the smaller house".

What a sweetheart!

Out in my backyard. See, no snow.

Very creative, a cry for help to all Humanclockers! I hope you don't have to rake all that. You've got nice property.

Good come-back Camille. This photo changed the direction of the show. She went from Savior of the Day to someone in big trouble. When she was caught short of bail, she bailed. Good catch-phrase too!

This was taken at our kitchen table.
See Camille; no snow.
I had a lot of fun doing this setup. The world needed hear the TMT story! I googled some protest pix and added my own little touches and concocted a couple of stories which are almost impossible to read here. I printed it out on large paper, then wondered how I was going to make this work. At first I was going to make them like small clippings from the newspaper. A couple of days later I came across some packing paper that looked just like news print, so I printed it out on that and spliced it into one of our real local newspapers and patched in the headline stuff.

Getting really techie with the paper and picking up on "TMT".

Now the world gets to rally for TMT. What a cool idea!

The trick here was trying to get a photo before Ruby would eat the bread. Too bad you can't see the writing on these pictures. The top one is a letter from Ruby's sled team telling her that she will be missed this year at the Iditarod. One of the lead sled dogs looks just like Ruby. The bottom one is of a bunch of husky puppies that could defiantly be Ruby's if she were to give birth. They are writing to say that want their mommy back home.

Bread and water. Ruby's demeanor really put the pressure on me for bail money.
So many things from BC and Hudson to look at in these pictures. Love the "tools for plate making" and the calendar with the days marked off. And I like the puppies too. I'd missed the hole in the wall for 3:10 till John mentioned it. This "show" was so much fun!

Boy, this must have really put the pressure on Camille to get 'TMT' out of jail. What a sad dog. I like the pix in the background, esp. the puppies. It gives you the impression that they might be Ruby's puppies waiting for her at home.

Nobody at any Starbucks I tried would let me set this up so I just did it when they turned around.

No risks are too great for TMT.

Pretty sneaky Camille, but it was for a good cause.

Back to our kitchen wall again.
Frances was collecting all of the news clippings of herself along with the notes other inmates (kennel mates) posted on the wall in the lobby of the BC jail. Cousin Olive was the Army tank commander in a 3:15 photo. She is my brother-in-law's Pug (One of two. They came in a set). The visitor's entrance scene was taken from an old Marlin Brando movie with the jail bars and orange TMT stickers added.
P.S. The hat had a rubber band on it. The color matched her fur very well.

I remember seeing Olive the watchdog on another clock shot. Frances' expression cracks me up in this one everytime I see it. That ear and those eyes and that prim little mouth!

I remember seeing Olive and I think I remember this scene from the movie too. How did you get her to keep that hat on?

My niece's dog helped. I had to hold this hyper girl between my legs; she kept taking off.

This must be your jet coming to get you to fly to MN.

I wasn't sure if Camille had something planned, or just wanted to throw in another plot idea to see if we would pick up on it. I was curious what she was up to. You have a cute dog, Britton.

The pressure was on. Camille had some plan to "spring" TMT, and the 3:17 jailbreak pic had just been posted. I guess they were waiting for me to fill in the gap. Since the season was Spring, I played on that idea. I looked around for every kind of tool that would "spring" a jail gate. I decided a "Happy Spring" cake would be a good gift from Camille and Akira. The frosting was good, but the filing, I mean 'filling' was a little rough.
Camille picked up the 'John' on the sign. I try to interject a little 'good news' whenever I can [Mark 16:15, Acts 5:42, and of course John 3:16].

Files! BC is getting serious. I liked the "John" before 3:16, too.

Frances looks almost "not real" in this photo because she poses so perfectly.

This is Ruby's pen and the biggest weapons I could find. The shadows worked well for this one.

Can it be? I didn't even know I was there but will take the credit. I especially liked the shears. I just noticed the anchor! There were so many things going on in these set-ups. It's like reading a good book.

These gates almost look like real jail gates. Leanne, is this scene from your yard?

This is an ancient Chinese secret artform known as "downloading, copy/paste, and create pictures in a graphics program". I wanted to tell the jailbreak story and thought a news announcement would be the most direct way. After the art was complete, I just zoomed it up to fill the screen and took photos of each one.
Remember... ancient secret.

Now I am realizing I really AM out of my league, tech-wise.

I still can't figure out how John did this stuff!

Jail Guard Doug Krueger (not his real name) is a coworker of mine who was watching this show unfold from the beginning. He enjoyed trying to second-guess what direction the plot would turn next, so I involved him so he would realize HE would be the next plot twist.

Another name to wonder about... Doug Krueger.
I've just read that poor "Doug" was lured into the show without his knowing he was going to be portrayed as the bad guy who didn't show up for work and set our flight into motion. Thanks, Doug!

All that planning in only 4 minutes. This woman is good. Yeah, thanks Doug.

We'll get you yet Camille and TMT!

Oh, yeah?

What a horrible turn of events.

Camille, isn't it nice to find out that you have no privacy at all? This is like identity theft with no real purpose. I hoped that you would enjoy seeing yourself on the clock commercial.

I couldn't begin to figure out how they did this. I loved the unrelated humanclock pic they used as their sponsor. It was taken at a restaurant near the Hanover County courthouse and JAIL before the "show" started. My birthday lunch. And I still didn't know at this time who jail guard Krueger was.

This is why you never see me in the photos. I couldn't take the chance that I may end up being "used" by B.C. this way.

My beleaguered sister. We had one shot with her wild cats. They were not enthralled with our saga.

This is a good one.

Do those cats have paws or hooves?

Sorry Deidre. I guess I took issue with the size of them. No hard feelings?

Deidre, my sister, took issue with "overstuffed cats".

I think Ruby would be afraid to visit C.H. with cats that size!

I thought the 'America's Most Wanted' idea would work well here. I used the same ancient secret as earlier described. I tried to hear John Walsh's speaking voice and write it the way he might say it. The sponsorship is a strange bit of irony.

But my niece liked the "cute dog" remark.

I think John is just "sucking up" here after insulting the cats.

It's so sad when an easy-going jailer becomes the most hated man in America just because he didn't show up for work one night. Boy, talk about your bad timing! How was he supposed to know something BIG was about to go down. Give the guy a break, OK?
This person is in the Witless Protection Program, so I can't reveal his identity.

It's easy-going Doug Krueger. Who IS he? Bless his heart, we may never know, now that he's in the witless protection program. Ha!
He's probably in Montana or Arizona looking for Akira and me still.

This poor guy. What did he do in your workplace to deserve the blame for this tragedy?

At my parent's. My Mother took this one in the bamboo stand I'd planted when I was a student nurse in the '60's. For those familiar with Richmond, VA, the seedling came from Union Theological Seminary, across the way from my hospital.

I thought maybe you were on a trip somewhere. Very exotic.

Now we finally find out where the bamboo came from. It puzzled us for quite a while. Thanks for the info. We figured either you were being chased through a zoo, or that Cold Harbor was a lot further south than we originally thought.

I was trespassing in a gated development when I took this photo. There was also a 40 mph wind that kept blowing the heads off the ledge. Great (criminal) minds think alike!

And we're happy about it.

I guess the 'criminal element' stick together, don't they Leanne. (ha)

This is my only try at being techy. Got the watchband in Albuquerque and used it for my buddy out there to see.

Monopoly comes in handy again. Who knew?

This was clever Camille, but I wasn't going to let you off the hook that easy.

I had to get in at least one more dig for Camille. I figured she could clean up city parks, work at a shelter, or whatever might showcase her true character. But eating Fritos and being lazy was good enough for me!

Hey! It's a get out of jail free card! OK, I'll beg. Do eating Fritos and propping my feet up count as community service?

That works for me.

That's my hubby in a borrowed truck.

Apparently, I am still hiding in the bamboo.
I wondered if the truck with the whatever it is frame was a clue to the mysterious Ruby humans.

Is Camille hiding on the front seat, or was she in the back for being too roudy again?

Thank you everyone for making this a fun experience.

I wondered how/when we would end it. Leave it to the BC guys to figure it out and do it well.
I love Frances' face in this one.

I was sad to see the end but I knew it had to happen sometime.

Deidre, my sister, and her daughter Britton, Akira the dog's mistress. What a fun ride! Thanks, John, for getting this ball rolling!

I applaud all you guys too. It was a blast.

I've seen all of your faces on so many other clock photos. It's nice to match up the faces and who belongs to who. You guys, Leanne and Ruby, and Craig also deserve a round of applause and a big thumbs up. Well done Camille, Deidre, Britton, Leanne, the dogs, and of course Craig for hosting this high-brow instant classic!

Your welcome! Thanks for the memories, Frances.

You will be missed here too, Frances. How dear is this picture?

This is really a wonderful photo Leanne. Thank you for the heart-felt sentiment for Frances. She was a good little dog but she was having health problems for a while, and was just plain wearing out. She had 16 great years, but it was time for her to go. She is/will be missed.