Rusty, the Original Good One

My other postings have been regarded as quite humorous by those who have read them. Apparently I possess the ability to make people laugh with my random scribblings about Mexico, stealing my mothers wine, Bionica from Gladiators and most of all, nothing. But now I'm going to be a little bit serious. When I mean serious, I will be using real names.

A tragic event occurred for my family this morning. Our pet dog of eighteen years, Rusty, passed away. Like most people, we were very upset, because like the title suggests, he was the Original Good One. Anyone who knows me will understand what a "good one" is, and that's the best type of person ever!

Rusty was very devoted to us, and everyone else who knew him. We all loved him to pieces, so we've got some grieving ahead of us. The hole he's left here will never be filled again. This hasn't been a good year for us, since we've already lost three people who were close to us. But I can't help but remember the good times we had with Rusty.

We first learnt of his existence back when I was in kindergarten. My uncle Chris called my Dad up and said this scruffy brown dog had jumped off of a truck and had walked into his factory. He took a liking to him, and deemed the dog too lovely to be sent to a pound. Next thing you know, he's calling Dad and the next day my parents and I are going to the factory to meet this creature.
Dad was a bit skeptical about taking the dog home, since my Mum wasn't big on them at the time. However, their minds changed when they saw how much fun I was having with the dog. At the time I didn't know that we were going to take the dog home with us. My highlight of that day was when I got some dim sims for my lunch.

Everything started to come together when I got home from kindergarten that day. When my brother and sister (who most of you will know as Babette and Blanche, but are really named Graeme and Kathlene) came home from school they took a liking to him as well. We were all patting him when Mum and Dad told us that he was ours to keep, and Dad had named him Rusty.

After that things became a little hectic. For instance, after getting him, Rusty tried to escape twice. His attempts failed, but when he saw us giving him free food, he decided to stick around, for the next decade or so.

Another funny thing to happen was when my friend Samantha's mum saw him in the driveway. One of his legs was out of view, and questioned whether or not it had been amputated. We got a good laugh out of that.

Over time everything was pretty average, and Rusty was getting a little bit of a paunch. We had to put him on a diet, which I don't think he cared for so much. Eventually he became an over-sized sausage dog, which we were fine with.

Unfortunately something happened that I did not for see. I was in year seven, it was the end of the day and this kid runs up to me and says, "Hey Brian, I heard you've got a fat dog." Now I had no idea how this kid knew about Rusty, and I didn't even know who the kid was. Eventually I found out and over time I became good friends with Degszy.

Anyway, some other kids started talking about Rusty, and I didn't care much for the dialogue. Soon enough I made it clear that my dog was off limits, and those who didn't care for my warning received a fist in the stomach (bit of an overstatement). But everyone soon decided to put the topic to rest, and when they all saw him at my eighteenth years later, they loved him.

Over the years we started to believe that he had some cat in him. What I mean is that he seemed to have about nine lives, since he'd been cheating death every so often. One time he was bitten on the neck by a white-tailed spider, and he recovered from that. Another was when he was having fits during the summer from the year before, and he got over them too.

Unfortunately he ran out of lives and simply wore out. I guess he just decided to stop after 126 of human years. His passing happened on the morning of July 2nd, 2008 at 2:30 (rough estimate). He went peacefully in my brothers arms, and then the tears started.

We will always miss our beloved Rusty. He was always a member of the family, despite being of a different species, but that didn't mater. Wherever he is now, we hope you're happy and barking at people you don't know. If you see anyone we know, you're in good hands.

Rest in peace Rusty.