Rusty 1991 - 2008
Rusty lived in Wentworth all his life.
He was born on April the 1st 1991 and was adopted by Alex Turnbull when he was about 8 weeks old. He passed away in March – just before his seventeenth birthday.
He was a wonderful dog and he lived to a great age – 129 years in dog years!
Rusty was part of our family while our children were growing up. Alex was only 8 and Daisy only 6 when he joined us from the Bondi Junction pet shop.
He was always affable and loyal, often mischievous, invariably good natured especially with small children. He was always enthusiastic for any adventure or outing. He had the most beautiful smile, waggly tail and soft velvety ears.
He especially loved living in Paddington for the first four years of his life, with his own village of people to feed him scraps from cafes and butchers to give him bones. He was not impressed, however with the day Alex dressed him up in mambo gear for the Five Ways Festival "best dressed dog" competition, nor with the fact he and Alex only came second!
Rusty’s long life was due to lots of exercise. He had a very big appetite too, but he did walk several kilometres every day and until his last year or so was able to go for a ten kilometre walk without any trouble. The arrival of the little terriers, JoJo and Mellie, in 2001 made a big difference. They gave him a new lease of life and some of their energy rubbed off on him for quite a few years until old age finally caught up with him. He was hardly ever annoyed by their puppy playfulness – he had a calm and patient temperament and was always very calm with them. He loved them very much.
No dog is perfect and Rusty had many unedifying but very doggy habits. He loved going through garbage bins and he adored a building site where he could dig around to find any stale sandwiches or pies left by the builders if he was able to sneak out when a gate was left open. For many years he had a Dalmatian friend called Oscar who had similar interests and they were quite a team – red spots and black spots!
His favourite place was our farm in the Hunter Valley where he has spent many happy days chasing the cattle and sheep. He loved water and whenever he went near it, not matter how muddy it was, he would dive in and go for a swim.
He lived a long life for a dog with so many medical emergencies. He was bitten by a paralysis tick which nearly finished him off and then there was the time he managed to find and eat an entire poppy seed cake on a building site....well the less said about that the better.
The doctors and nurses at the Rose Bay Veterinary Hospital looked after him very well – many thanks for all your care and attention!
We will never forget Rusty and we miss him very much.
Malcolm, Lucy, Alex and Daisy Turnbull