Rusty Alan Emerson was born on May 15, 1997.

Here's the story of how two cat-loving guys came to have a large dog.

Andy has had German Shepherd-ish dogs for most of his life; the first one was named Rusty, and so was the second one. I actually got to meet Rusty II; he was living with Andy's mom up in Iowa when he passed away in late 1996. Andy was missing his dog in early 1997, and my brother's family happened to be looking for a dog about the same time and found a really nice dog at the pet shop in the Columbia Mall. Andy, the best shopper in the world, browsed through the Central Missouri Humane Society's web site and found a German Shepherd-ish dog named "Rebel" that seemed nice. We went to the Humane Society and met Rebel, who was indeed a nice dog. Rebel just leaned into you when you hugged him, and he seemed very sweet. We were sold on him, and we started to fill out the paperwork for adoption. When the Humane Society folks found out that we had four cats, they told us we couldn't have Rebel. It turns out that there's a city ordinance in Columbia against having more than 4 adult animals in a house. We were devastated. I hope Rebel found a nice home.

We went to the pet shop in the Columbia Mall to see if the dog that my brother's family had liked was still there. That Chocolate Lab was gone, but his brother was still there, and the brother looked like a German Shepherd. We asked if we could see the German Shepherd-ish puppy in a private room, and he was very sweet and very shy. I'll never forget the expressions on Andy and Rusty's faces in that room; if you ever see a painting titled "Madonna and Child" by one of the old masters, look at the expression on Mary's face. That was Andy. The puppy was expressing "I'm a little nervous, but you seem nice. Will you love me?"

The puppy (promptly named Rusty -- the middle name, Alan, was my idea) and several puppy-oriented products came home with us thanks to the miracle of the Discover Card, and we introduced him to the kitties. The cats dealt with the new arrival as their personalities dictated; Tom�s fears nothing, Missy didn't seem to understand what was happening, Lulu was shy, and Mandy was crabby. Tom�s and Rusty got to be really good buddies; Rusty used to howl when left in the garage all alone, and Tom�s was good company for him. Amusing anecdote from Rusty's puppyhood: even as a small puppy, he liked to play fetch, and if we would throw a tennis ball for him to fetch in the back yard, Tom�s would outrun him and guard the ball! We called this version of the classic game "thwart-fetch".

We set up a fence in the back yard, but it didn't work very well. We had a chain link fence installed shortly thereafter, and that held Rusty for a few months. Rusty didn't like being outside all alone,and he tore up the screens around the hot tub room and scratched on the house. Andy installed an electric fence around the house so that Rusty would stop destroying things, and eventually he extended the wire all around the top of the chain link fence when Rusty got big enough to climb out. We were having a problem with containing him around the time we moved; he got out a couple of times and had the mail carrier rather traumatized.

A combination of a 4-foot wooden fence and a "radio fence" attached to it used to hold Rusty in most of the time; the only time he got out was when there was a thunderstorm. I don't know if the storm knocked out the electricity long enough for him to get out or if he was so motivated that he just ignored the shocks from his collar, but whenever we heard thunder, we had to go home and let Rusty in. He started life as an outdoor dog, but at this point in his life, he's spending pretty much all his time indoors. He stopped chewing up his bedding, so he has a couple of nice beds in different rooms to relax on and be near the humans.

Things Rusty likes: his basketball, playing keep-away from the humans (especially me, and especially around 8am or 10 pm), running with the humans (especially competitively, and especially at the annual Dog Jog), licking the humans' plates, chasing things that roll, and acquiring anything that resembles a frisbee. His habit of licking the humans to wake them up (while cats are irritating them up for breakfast) has earned him the nickname "Licky Dog".

Things Rusty dislikes: kitty claws, the UPS guy, baths, thunder, having his claws trimmed, and SQUIRRELS.

Click here to hear Rusty bark for 17 seconds (MP3 format)

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