Farewell to Rusty

Rusty tilted his head and looked up with his big brown eyes as if to ask, "Who are those new people going in and out of our house? Where is my favorite green couch? And, why doesn't anybody let me in the house when I bark at the back door?"

Conditioned by 7 years in our Texas home, Rusty our Cardigan Welsh Corgi simply did not want to give up his known environment. During the time when we had the motorcoach on the upper lot of the Whitehouse, Texas property, we'd find Rusty lazing in his favorite spot on the front porch. Sometimes, he'd bark at the back door of the house and LaJuana or Travis, the new home owners, would invite him inside to lay on the familiar cool tile floor.

During our three weeks of the house sale, I'd hear Ed say, "We are selling to the ground to go full-time as RVer's. We're even looking for a home for our dog Rusty." Each time I heard that I felt an urge to cover Rusty's big ears. Do we really need to find a new home for Rusty? I asked myself over and over again. My heart said "no" but in all practicality I knew the right answer had to be "yes".

Rusty needed a family with kids who would play and treat him to the unwanted remains of their dinner and an occasional Dairy Queen ice cream cone. Since Suzie had gone off to college, Rusty lost his playmate for "keep-away" and snuggle pal at bedtime. I needed to find him a new family.

I created a small poster picturing Rusty in the flowerbed of daises and offering to give him to a loving family. Within in hours of tacking the poster to the community message board at Dad's Barbecue, Ed received a call.

We made plans to meet the family and that evening three kids hopped out of a red SUV. Shy at first, they hovered around their Mom and Dad. Ed drew them out as he showed them Rusty's tricks. Smiles grew, Rusty barked and we knew we had found a new home for Rusty, a family.