Goodbye Rusty...

Here is a song for while you are reading this...

Ignore the pictures in the video if you like (they are not mine), I am sure they are lovely though. Some random person made the slideshow. I just needed the song...

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This post is an extremely sad and tough one for me to write. But it's one of the few healthy ways I have of obtaining closure to this situation.

First, the reason I am writing this: My dog Rusty. Here are some memories I have of him.

I loved him. He passed away on Wednesday July 7th. I think he was sick or something and that in combination with the heat and extreme difficulty breathing eventually lead to his death. This will sound weird, but it's the first time I have actually experienced death in any part of my family, and I don't care what people say, Rusty was a part of my family. He ended up deteriorating over the course of a week or so as far as I can tell. My Dad says he hasn't been the same since the last time he ran away which was a few months ago. I still don't know why or how he died, but he is gone forever... I didn't really cry until he was on the table at the vet and we had to say goodbye to him for the very last time. He was about 8 years old or so, which is about middle-aged for Rottweilers/German Shepherds.

Here are a few pictures of him. First some from when he was younger. We got him from the Hamilton County Humane Society when he was 11 weeks old. He wasn't even housebroken yet, which made for a kinda funny first few weeks if you catch my drift...

You can see from the pictures why he was so hard to say no to at the shelter... We did get to meet his mother at the shelter, which was the Rottweiler. I remember being so excited when we got him. He was our first legit pet. He was 11 weeks and 11 pounds or so when we first got him. At that time we could pick him up quite easily. That only lasted about a few more weeks, though.

He was so young that he wasn't house broken yet. There was this one time I left my Sega controllers on the ground, and he pooped on them. I was only mildly upset at the time (you try getting upset at something that cute...). It was a pretty small mess, and therefore easy to clean up. It didn't ruin anything.

He did cheat death this one time. He got loose from us and was running around the neighborhood. He wandered out onto the road. I was following behind him, keeping an eye on him since he wouldn't come back to us quickly. There was a car coming down the street and he darted out onto the pavement. The car saw him and slowed down, but it was too late and Rusty got hit by the car. He was pretty big at this point and the car slowed down enough that Rusty was only left with a scar and a bump. He didn't even break a bone or anything like that, cause he was a beast.

Here are some ones from when he was a little older...

In case you can't tell by now, he was a German Shepherd and Rottweiler mix. He ended up around 115 pounds or so when he was finished growing and was tall/long enough to put his paws on my shoulders. I am about 5 ft 11 inches tall. In conclusion, he was HUGE!!! He was probably big enough for small children to use as a horse or something... I used to joke with other people that had dogs that I judge them by whether or not they could fit into my dog's food dish. At peak size, he was able to eat off our dining table just by standing right next to it, so we had to be careful for that. I used to love wrestling with him. And I could do this because he was very large. I also loved the fact that I could bear hug him. As someone that reserves hugs for the special people or situations in my life, this says something.

Aside from not being well trained for walking, he was very well behaved. I was able to teach him how to greet people. He would offer his paw for a shake if you held your hand out for him. If you had a piece of food or a treat in your hand, and he knew that you had it, he would first sit down and then he would lay down automatically. We had toys for him, so he wouldn't really chew through our stuff. He was very loyal. When I would fight with my sister and we would hit each other, he would growl at us because of his protective nature. While under normal circumstances he would barely hurt a fly, if something were to happen to us I had full confidence that he would defend us to the end. I used to get a good laugh when he would be terrified of dogs 1/10 of his size because they were barking at him. I thought it was hilarious when he would chase the leaves blowing in the wind. He was so strong that conventional leashes were not good enough. We had to use steel cable or chain when we walked him.

Eventually he got pretty huge, so we built him a house outside for him to live in if we were gone from the house. My Dad and I built it ourselves, which was a good time. They were pretty good accommodations as far as I was concerned.

Having a dog really impacted my life. I had a rough time making close friendships throughout high school and the beginning of college. No matter how my day went, I could depend on Rusty to be excited to see me and try to use his tackle and lick attack on me. He was always available for comfort. He was the closest thing to unconditional love I will probably experience on this earth... That is the great thing about dogs. You could be completely mad at them and it won't affect how they feel about you. There is a reason why dogs are often referred to as man's best friend. I now know that personally.

Obviously there is no way I can make you understand what Rusty meant to me. There are just a handful of memories I have had. He brought untold amounts of joy to the Hull household during his years here.

The song is "New" by Bethany Dillon.

"You take an ordinary day

and turn it into flowers like the month of May

Yes you do

You see all my pain and cry over it for hours 'til I'm new again

Yes you do"

There will be other dogs, but there will never be another Rusty.