He did not seem to like our cat Freddie. Freddie loved Rusty, but if Freddie came up to Rusty, he would sudden get up and walk away. He just did not like cat cooties.

Rusty would occasionally get into things when we were around. He would always look at you afterwards with his eyes saying he was a good boy and did not know when he was bad.

Rusty also loved everyone who would come by to visit. The one thing he did not like was most other dogs. He would have a ferocious bark when certain dogs would get near, with lunging. We tried tor train him, but his protection mode was very high.

Sadly, Rusty developed a limp in May 2017. We took him to the vet. At first we all though he had pulled a muscle. The vet offered to take an x-ray, but didn’t think it would show much. But I gave the go ahead. When the vet came back with the results he looked very pensive and a loss for words. The x-rays showed he developed Osteocarcinoma  at his hip socket. The trouble is, once it is diagnosed, it is usually elsewhere in the body. He could amputate, and possible recommend chemo, but it really would not extend his life very much with quality. We decided to just go down the pain therapy route.

We tried to do a lot with him and Cinnamon over the summer. We went to the coast one last time. He loved Tater-tots and all things potato, and since we leave town on July 4th due to Cinnamon’s fear of fireworks, we took them to Idaho. He was so happy! There were also several McMenamins trips so “mama could have iced coffee(Tater tots)”.

But his limping got worse. It become more like hoping. It became very painful for him to lay down or get up. He was getting very tired and would just lay around and do nothing for hours. So we made the hard decision to release him from his pain. He is now at the Rainbow Bridge, singing, eating potatoes, and avoiding Freddie.

We miss him every day…