This Wasn't My Plan: Our Furst Born

There was a little puppy dog, and he was brown all over

His parents couldn't find a name, and wouldn't call him "Rover."
They looked through sources everywhere, found nothing that would suit
By waiting too much longer, though, the point would soon be moot.

He won't be "Lilliputian", maybe "Gulliver" would fit
(that name would tangle up your tongue when telling him to "sit!")
Some people like a funny name and others like them regal

The same dog you name "Bismarck" would seem different if named "Fleagle"

There's doggie heroes too, you know, "Benji" and "Rin-Tin-Tin"
King Arthur's court had "Merlin," "Lancelot" and "Dinadin."
The Military names are nice, like "Admiral" and "Colonel"
Mythology has lots of names of gods and beasts nocturnal!

So don't lose heart in choosing, there's lots of names out there
From quirks in personality to the color of his hair.
He'll be your most devoted friend, dependable and trusty
A good name for a dog like yours is definitely "Rusty!"

by Just Me, March 1995

On March 24, 1995 we met a woman in a parking lot of a local theater and she handed over a 3 month old ball of fire. He had already had 3 homes in one month. Two days before, our vet (who knew we were looking for a puppy) called and said one of her clients was looking to rehome a male German Shepard/Lab mix. They said he was a hand full, but we thought to ourselves, well yeah, he's a puppy, aren't all puppies a hand full? He came with a blanket and a twelve foot long nylon rope as a leash. He gave the phrase "hand full" new meaning.

He was afraid of the car, probably because every time he got in a car he was left with another owner. We spent weeks getting him used to riding in the car. At first he wouldn't even go in the garage if the car was parked in it. Several hundred slices of cheese later and he decided maybe the car wasn't such a bad place after all. Over the next 13 years he travelled up and down the East Coast with us, always jumping in the car with adventure in his eyes.

We signed him up for training classes as soon as we could. I had spoken to the trainer several times before our classes even started looking for advice. The first night of class The Engineer was away on business and I had to take Rusty by myself. As I was pulling into the driveway of the training center Rusty vomited across the dashboard and it ran right down into the defroster vents. Oh gross, and it was only the start. I walk to the office door and as we enter I see about 8 people and their puppies standing around nicely. Rusty bursts through the door and chaos erupts. Before anyone can react 9 puppies have tangled leashes, everyone is tripping over each other and a temporary folding wall is knocked to the ground. The only one calm is the trainer who is standing behind a counter. Once everyone has their pups under control she turns to me and said, "This must be Rusty." It was the beginning of a long relationship. Two puppy kindergartens, three basic obedience classes and two advanced classes later we finally had a dog we could take out into public without embarrassment. Two years later he earned his CGC (Canine Good Citizen) and became a certified therapy dog.

Let's just talk about those two years for a moment now, shall we. For two years this pup spent all his time on a leash when in the house. If left to his own devices he could dismantle anything in the house within minutes. I would say that if it was edible he would eat it but the truth is, it didn't really matter if it was edible, he'd eat it anyway. Some of the things that passed through his gullet were underwear (two pairs in three days), a light bulb (don't even like to think about what it felt like coming out the other end), an unknown amount of trash, tissues (used were his favorite), chicken carcasses, half a lawn sprinkler and the owners manual for the lawn mower, just to name a few. We had to put toddler locks on the fridge and freezer long before we had kids because he would open the doors and help himself. Tupperware containers didn't stop him, he'd pull the lid off with his teeth. He also liked to take the jar of peanut butter from the cabinet and open it up and lick it clean. Came home once and and found blood all over the carpet in the family room. Holy crap, what did he do to himself? Turns out he took an eye roast from the freezer and ate it.

His favorite thing to do when someone came over was to "retrieve" pillows from the sofa and present the slobbery things to our visitors. It was a big improvement over the first two years when he would run upstairs and grab one of my bra's or underwear to show off to his new "friends."

Rusty grew up to be the best dog I have ever owned. All the hard work and frustration turned him into a wonderful pet. He was so smart if he tangled his lead around something he would back track instead of just pulling. He knew if his feet were dirty he had to wait at the door to get them wiped off instead of just running into the house. We could take him any where, any time. His patience with the kids went beyond the call of duty. The super sized hugs, the clothes they dressed him in. The earrings they hung from his ears to match the necklaces and hair ribbons clipped to his fur. He will always be their softest pillow.

Until we had kids he was the worst watch dog ever. If someone knocked on the door the most you would get out of him was an annoyed look because they woke him up. After the kids were born that all changed. A perfect example was the time my mother in law wanted to take The Scientist for a walk and he wouldn't let her leave the driveway with the stroller. He stood in front of it and growled at her. I had to drag him into the house so she could go and he spent the entire time they were gone pacing back and forth in front of the windows looking for them. If he was in the yard with the kids nothing or no one could enter our property.

The kids in the neighborhood loved him. They would bring dog biscuits to school and when the bus would stop in front of our house they would call him over and throw the biscuits out the window to him. He would get all excited whenever he would see a school bus. The UPS truck also got him all worked up, they never came to the house without dog biscuits either.

His favorite time of year was winter. he loved the cold and the snow. King of the Mountain is a nickname he earned for his love of climbing to the top of the biggest piles of snow he could find. When summer came he'd hide out in the air conditioning. We got him a baby pool so he had a place to cool off and he never minded sharing it when kids came to visit.

He always knew when you needed him to be there and rubbing your fingers through his fur would just drain away the stress after a long, hard day.

Two years ago today he had surgery to remove a large tumor from his hip. When they opened him up and removed the benign tumor underneath was a large vascular malignant tumor. He never completely regained consciousness after surgery and passed away quietly in my arms later that evening.

There will always be a special place for him in my heart. He taught me to be patient and consistent. He made me a better parent. I still miss him and think of him every day.