Rusty

We went through the beginner training program at PetsMart. I say we as I think Heather and I learned as much as Rusty did.

And as if to prove to us that he was smarter after 8 weeks of training Rusty found a purple ink pen on the counter, which he promptly chewed into itty bitty pieces sitting in the middle of the living room floor while Heather was getting dressed one morning.
Note: Home Depot carries a product called Folex. It is stocked by the vacuum cleaners. This product absolutely kicks butt at removing stains, including purple ink from the living room carpet :).

We aren't sure where this toy came that Rusty found in the back yard from but it met a grisly death before we realized he had found something. We aren't sure why he feels like he has to shred his toys but he does. The soft squeaky toys last maybe two days, if we shop careful we can find harder toys that last longer. We got him a rope (the biggest one at PetsMart) and it is barely a shadow of its former self.

Tying the knot
Ready to go
That's the spot
All this and food too?
First time in truck
Are we there yet?
Asleep in seat

We had a couple of toys out that Smokey was never very interested in out just in case Rusty wanted them, he immediately ran to them and started playing with them. We gave him a rawhide bone and he ate the entire thing in the first night.

First time in the house
I know what to do with these
With Heather
Asleep in my lap

He seems to enjoy his new back yard and house with plenty of new sites, smells and sounds. There also some pretty strong Smokey scents around as every now and then he will do a quick stop and sniff the heck out of a spot of carpet or the edge of a chair.

Checking out back yard
Checking out the house

Ever since Smokey passed away we have been going nuts without him running around the house, so we adopted another dog this weekend (7/18).

Since Heather more or less picked the breed when we adopted Smokey she told me to pick the breed this time. When I was growing up in Frost Texas we had a Doberman Pinscher named Lady. (Lady Lady and Snuffy ) She was a great dog and I have many happy memories of her chasing me and Bill jr. across the yard, tackling us, then standing over us licking our faces. So I decided on a Doberman Pinscher. DogBreedinfo.com has info on Dobermans on this page, http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/doberman.htm.

I did some research and found Doberman Rescue of North Texas. This organization rescues Dobermans from local shelters and takes in Dobermans from people who are unable to keep the dog. We went to the compound Sunday morning to take a look around and see what dogs were available. We looked at a blue colored puppy with a very long face which just didn't work for me. Then they brought out a 7 month old red male with natural ears named Vin Diesel that was rescued from the Haltom City animal shelter. When we were standing in the garage talking to the volunteer she giggled and pointed down. Apparently Diesel got bored with us and sprawled out on the floor, but with his back legs splayed out behind him almost like a frog, one of the other volunteers chimed in, Oh Froggy Legs. I managed to get a picture of this, Rusty Froggy Style
We sat down under a tree for a while talking to the volunteer and observing the dog. For a puppy he is surprisingly calm and well behaved. When another Doberman came over they sniffed for a minute and he extended his front legs and put his head between his feet, the universal doggy sign of "Let's Play"

Well no big shock here, after sitting under the tree for about 30 minutes with him he had hooked both of us. We completed the paperwork and made it official. There is a hitch though, we weren't able to take him home as we are going on vacation in a week. I don't want to take the dog out of his current surrounding, put him our house for a week, then at dad's while we are gone, then back to our house. We are going to pick him up when we get back from vacation.

We have also decided to rename him to Rusty. It's not that we don't like Vin Diesel we're just not that big a fan. Another reason for the rename is it seems almost every pet Heather and I have been around has had a name that ended in a Y, Lady, Snuffy, Lucky, Tippy, Fozzy, Smokey, Harry, Riley. The volunteer said that if you do a rename you should call them by the hyphenated name for a while then drop the old name so they can get used to it, this will make his temporary name, Rusty-Diesel. For some reason that name just cracks me up.

"Wow Tony, that's great, where are the pictures?" Well, you see it's kind of like this, I err, uhm, uh, I forgot my camera (sorry Dad). I sent an e-mail to the volunteer requesting a pic if they have one. This picture is fairly close to Rusty, except for the ears, http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/images10/DobermanBoomer3.jpg