Rusty

Let me start by saying that I am not a dog person. Not even close. We had a wonderful dog (Freckles) when I was a kid. Freckles used to walk me to Kindergarten and wait outside for me until it was time to go home. I loved Freckles. But after Freckles died, we didn’t get another dog (we had cats instead, I guess) and I lost my interest in dogs. I don’t hate them and I’m not afraid of them; they are just not my thing. So imagine my surprise when Daughter #2 absolutely LOVES dogs and told me (years ago) that when she was grown up, she was going to have a dog. She walked & fed dogs for their owners when they were out of town. She loved playing with them when she visited friends who had dogs. And then, lo and behold, she married a man who had a dog! So now, she has a dog.

We visited her fiance just before they were to get married and I got to know Rusty, his beagle. Sweet dog. Really sweet. And laid back. Basically, he just wants to lay around and have you pet him. He’s really smart and really sweet. I started to fall for him a little. I don’t mind being around Rusty. Rusty’s OK.

Fast forward to this week. Daughter #2 and her husband are coming to visit this weekend. They’d prefer not to kennel Rusty because of the expense and the time constraints. I could tell she was waiting for me to offer. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to. I wasn’t sure if her Dad would be ok with it (he’s a total dog-lover, so I wasn’t really worried about that part). We talked about it, pros and cons, and decided to say “Yes, he can come with you”.

And so he did. We had fun with him, introduced him to Daughter #1 (who is not really into dogs, either – she’s okay with him but not in love yet!) and even kept him here with us while they went to breakfast with friends.

He’s welcome back here any time! And I think we wore him out. Here’s Rusty in the back seat on their way home.

Until next time,