Meet Rusty:
Isn't he cute? We found him and his [very nice, I might add] family through Craig's List. He's a 4 year-old Shih Tzu whose family thought he needed some more love and attention than they had in their schedule. Since we're all about doggy love and attention and Jack needs a brother, we decided to check him out.
We drove out to their house with Jack in tow so the dogs could meet. Jack is working on realizing he's a dog and as such takes a lot of warming up to dogs before they can be friends. Jack was scared of Rusty at first and they still weren't playing after being there for half an hour or so so we asked if we could take Rusty home with us for a few days and see how the two of them did. They agreed and Rusty came to kick it with Team Bonham.
The first night was a little nuts because the two dogs chased each other up over the top of the bed, down the the floor, under the bed and back over the top for HOURS....resulting in not much sleep. After that first night, though, they became inseparable and were never more than 3 feet from each other. They chased each other and played a took dog naps.....so cute! We were glad the two were getting along so well and we really liked Rusty's mellow demeanor so we decided we wanted to keep him.
This is where it gets perilous.....
Our apartment complex requires a "pet interview" for new dogs. They have to be in the rental office off-leash, behave, and take a treat out of the manager's hand without biting. Figuring we'd get the inevitable out of the way, we took a trip to the office for Rusty's pet interview. This is how it went:
Manager: Oh, is this Jack's little friend?
Me: Yeah, he's staying with us for a few days to see how things go.
Manager: So are you thinking of adopting him?
Me: Yup, we're just seeing how things go first. As long as the two of them keep getting along, we'd like to adopt him.
Manager: You know you're only allowed the have 1 dog, right?
Me: WHAT? You're kidding? Joe and I thought we could have 2.
Manager: You can have two cats or one dog and one cat but just one dog.
Me: But Jack counts as a cat, right? He's smaller than most cats.....
It went downhill from there.
So what to do? Joe, who likes to play by the rules, wanted to keep him anyway. He really is a sweet dog and who can resist that little ewok face? So I thought about it. But in the end we decided it wouldn't be fair to keep him. A life of running from the law is too much for a little dog and as much as we like him, he's not worth getting evicted over. So we had to give him back. He did get to keep Jack's striped sweater (the one in the picture above) as a momento of his time in chez bonham.
The happy side of this is that Rusty's original family decided they missed him so much while he was with us that they are going to keep him. We've offered to dog-sit if they need it, so there's the possibility of seeing Rusty again in the future.
Now off to make Christmas cookies.....
Oh, little Rusty is so cute. You're right, he does look like a wookie. :) Well, it's better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all, right?
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