Dogs of Old - Rusty

These photos are from 1993 - 1994. I was only just a teenager and had a little black plastic Kodak camera. I was not particularly gifted at photography. I grew up with a Kelpie X called Rusty, and here he is. When I see Frankie from Greyhounds CAN sit it reminds me of this dog.

Rusty was a guard dog above all else. He was particularly protective of his property. He used to jump on the fence and bark at people passing by. When I took Bender down to my parent's place, the fence got a similar pounding from him. It was pretty funny actually, some kids on BMX bikes rode past, and were doing skids on the footpath. Bender, Barbie, Harry AND nudge all ran at the fence, though Bender was the only one who jumped up and barked.

Rusty wasn't actually allowed on the bed, hence the sheepish looks on his face. Occasionally someone would say 'where's Rust?' and you could be guaranteed to find him there.

Last but not least, Rusty ate disgusting food. It is called PAL and it comes in big tins. He had a human plate allocated to him - I think it was an ugly cracked plate. I'm not sure if he ever had his own specific dog bowl. Looking at that 'food' now I wonder how he managed to get so portly as there didn't appear to be a lot of actual meat in it. It does however explain why his farts were so bad !

Rusty was my best friend growing up, and when I left home I missed him a lot, as well as my cat Tabitha (who I will upload photos of soon). Rusty and I used to go for walks every day after school. We would meet up with a friend and his Rottweiler, Luger and the dogs would run free around the estuary while we talked. Rusty was my confidante, my protector and my exercise buddy. I was very glad to have him around. My mother had another dog back then too, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel called Sam, but I did not have the same connection with him. I thought he was just a pest.