Our family grew by one last night. We adopted a beautiful 1.5 year old male Australian Cattle Dog mix, who we have named Rusty.
All of the animals we have shared out home with, except the unwelcome ones (mice), have been adopted from either the humane society or a local rescue organization. We feel it is important to give animals a second chance. There are so many puppies and dogs looking for homes, it is a miracle we came home with just one.
We adopted Rusty from the Animal Humane Society in Golden Valley, MN. They had so many wonderful pets just waiting to be adopted and taken to their forever homes. We had a very difficult time picking just one. Raven, a 1 year old pointer mix was a ball of energy. He was a beautiful dog! Looked so much like our Bailey. B and I both felt he had too much energy.
Cole, a 3 year old Cocker Spaniel mix was such a sweet snuggle bug. Why he had been surrendered, I don’t know. It was difficult not to choose him. Miss E thought he was perfect!!! One of the reasons we didn’t choose him was that he was clearly under the weather and not feeling well. That made it difficult to get a good sense of his personality. The other reason was that he had longish hair. We have sand burs near our house and that would be a nightmare.
Finally came Rusty, originally named Bean. He is such a sweet mellow dog, that both B and I fell for him right away. He is a snuggle bug and not much of a licker. He is gentle with the kids and doesn’t seem to be a jumper. Perfect! Miss E was not so much of a fan, but she has certainly warmed up to him.
On our way home from the Animal Humane Society, we stopped for supper at Pei Wei in St. Louis Park. We left Rusty in the van with the windows cracked while we went in to eat. Bailey would have been barking and jumping and such. She would have flipped out. Not Rusty, he just laid down in the back and waited for us to come out.
Once we got him home, he was very curious about everything, especially Jameson. They aren’t buddies just yet, but I think that will come with time. It seems clear that Rusty wants to please. We are pleased to know he is house trained and seems to be crate trained. Yay!
Well, back to work I go…
Edit: Here is a great article about adopting a pet!
