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 This
is a not-particularly-good picture of the Rusty Puppy. She is a hairless
puppy right now, or nearly so. Rusty is another of the strays that
we picked up while we were living in Puerto Rico. When we got her,
we already had 2 dogs, Charlie and Bandit.
Now I had NEVER HAD A DOG at all until we moved to Puerto Rico, and being
as we already had 2 of the monsters (and 3 cats at the time) I did NOT
want another. No matter HOW cute she was. No matter HOW sweetly
she looked at me with those big, sad, brown eyes. No matter HOW hard
it is to be a homeless, sweet, innocent puppy on the streets of Fajardo.
So resolutely I picked her up and put her out of the yard. 15 minutes
later I picked her up and put her out of the yard again. Then I put
up some garden wire on the iron bars of the gate to keep her from walking
through, and half an hour later I pick her up and put her out of the yard
again. 10 minutes later I give up, and the next day we go to the
vet (who already thinks I'm crazy) to get shots and meds for yet another
stray. Now, it didn't occur to me at the time, but given that I couldn't
keep Rusty OUT of the yard, just exactly how did I think I would keep her
IN? Well, as a matter of fact, I couldn't. Rusty is an escape
artist. When she went into her first heat (naturally while I was
at work) and of course escaped the yard, she was immediately attacked by
every male stray for at least 10 blocks around. And trust me, in
PR, land of "no dog catcher", there are a LOT OF STRAYS! How do you
think I, an avowed anti-dog person, ended up with 3 of them? So anyway,
here's this poor little puppy, about 9 months old, being mobbed by every
thing from cairn terriers to Rotweilers. Normally Rusty is a cautious
puppy; however, in the "heat" of the moment, she ran in front of a car,
and . . .got hit. Broke her leg in 3 places. Had to have 3
operations, and the accident caused other health problems that she is only
just now starting to get over. I now own a $2000 stray. But
she IS sweet, well-behaved, and the cleanest darn dog I have ever seen.
She cleans herself like a cat! And she's self-house trained.
We think she's part Basenji, but who knows. Anyway, that's our Rusty. |
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