The
one word of advice my mother gave me before I decided to adopt a dog
was 'Whatever you do, don't get a hound'. What did I do? I
found myself the wildest little hound I could find! Not out of
rebellion, but because he literally just melted my heart. He was
bursting with personality. I took him out for a walk the day I
met him, however, it was more or less him dragging me to where he
wanted to go ... but at one point, he turned around and jumped up on
me and did what I can only describe as his 'thankful, happy, big-eyed,
head buck' which is more lovingly described as 'the pony' (he also
trots like a pony, very funny). I knew right then that there was
no other dog like this one. So, I went and picked him up the
next day.
He sat
backwards in the car on the way back - the first of many strange
things he would do. I have never seen a dog hate crows (specifically)
as much as Rustie does. He had to learn simple things like the
purpose of stairs, and how to use them. He had no idea that his
name was Bart, so we re-named him Rustie to give him a fresh start.
It also took some time for him to grasp the concept of having a home,
he didn't understand how to just relax and have a sense of belonging.
Rustie was always attempting to run away and hunt, in fact, I have
caught him in the act of scaling a chain-link fence.
I once
made the mistake of letting him off his leash at my family's farm
while he was playing, because I truly thought he was occupied and
would give me the time to untangle the leash without running away.
I was wrong. To make a long story short, I found him in the
middle of a group of cows howling at the top of his lungs, looking
like he was having the time of his life. I was narrowly able to
get him back, by cornering him in the cow-poo pen.
This
was about two years ago; I have had him since February 2006. It
took Rustie about a year to become a little bit more tame and calm,
but he has always been a really friendly and silly little guy, with
lots of lovable quirks. Rustie was a fast learner with certain
things, like housetraining and 'staying' when told, however, it took
him about a year to learn how to 'shake-a-paw'. His on-leash
skills may never be grade A, but they continually improve (he actually
makes eye contact with me now). He is now close to 4 years old
and has really taken well to the pampered lifestyle.
Rustie
is quite a good looking hound, he gets lots of compliments. He
is a big ladies man, with lots of girlfriends, both human and canine.
He sure knows how to turn on the charm. He now has a new
housemate named Jersey, a mastiff mix from the SPCA Monteregie.
They are growing closer by the day, and love to celebrate walks
together in a symphony of happy grunting and bolting around.
Rustie is only satisfied if we catch him to put his harness on, it is
always a game. He puts a smile on my face as soon as I walk in
the door - every day, no matter how bad the day was.
So,
thank you for giving Rustie the opportunity for a new life, and giving
me the opportunity to share it with him. It wasn't easy at
first, but definitely more worth it than I could have imagined.
Update February '09 ...
I
wanted to send in a photo of our two dogs together for "Rustie"s Happy
Tails page. Jersey is the one we adopted from SPCA Montegerie outside
of Montreal about a year ago, but at the time I wrote the Happy Tail
page for Rustie, I didn't have any pictures of the two via electronic
version. So, here they are in their winter jackets together giving
cuddles.
Kayla
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