We didn't have cell phones back then. I just had a phone on the wall. One day I was talking to a friend and the phone went dead. Rusty had chewed the line. I bought two new phone cords just in case, but she never did it again.
I put a few empty boxes on the floor for her to keep her busy. She would get up on them and hop into them.
She
loved being petted and talked to. Always wanting attention when she was out of
her cage.
She would hop over to me and grab my shoelaces, pulling on them until they were untied. I was afraid of tripping over them, so I started wearing crochet slippers. She would stand on her hind legs looking up at me like she was trying to say something.
When we had Chinese food, I would give her a piece of Fortune Cookie and she loved it. In the spring I noticed her acting strange. She was putting pieces of paper behind a box. Then she would pull out some fur on her belly and take it behind the box. I knew she was making a nest. I looked over the box and said, and what are you going to put in that? She looked up at me and continued. I just watched her and laughed.
In a bottom drawer in the kitchen, I kept paper crayons and coloring books for the grandkids when they came to visit. One day my granddaughter was looking in the drawer and Rusty hopped over, grabbed some paper and started chewing. I think she wanted to draw or color too.
She would jump up on the couch when I was on it and lay on my chest. I could feel her relaxing and falling asleep. You know you have an animal's trust when they do that.
If someone came knocking on the front door, she would thump her foot on the floor and run away. It was so funny.
One morning I woke up very early. I didn't want to wake my husband, so I tiptoed into the room off the kitchen where Rusty was. The lights were still off. I scared her so bad she flew into the side of her cage. I heard her screaming and turned on the light. She was laying on her side screaming.
She eventually quieted down. My husband was up by then wondering what happened. I started to cry. She couldn't move her back legs. She couldn't get up to eat drink or go to the bathroom. She tried but couldn't do it. I put an old towel under her and put food and water close to her. Thinking she pulled a muscle I watched her for a few days. She got really red and sore from urine between her legs.
We took her to a vet and he didn't know if she would get better so I decided to put her down. I didn't want her to suffer any longer.
On the way home I was crying and looked up at the clouds. There was a cloud that looked just like Rusty laying down. I could see the full body head tail and paws. The only thing missing in the cloud was the ears. I said to my husband there's Rusty with her ears down. I wished I had my camera with me.
It made me feel a little better. I think she was saying goodbye. She wasn't in pain anymore and on her way to a better place.
Contributed by WOW Gal Pat Hutchinson
