Rusty's History...

Rusty was born in Surrey on July 15, 1996. The son of Windy and Buddy, we hand-picked Rusty out of a litter of seven tiny pups. We had a tough decision on choosing a playmate for Penny and had narrowed it down to three of the male puppies: a large and very rambunctious puppy, a small and timid puppy and a middle sized and even tempered puppy. We finally decided that the large puppy would be too much to handle since Penny was already a fairly large pup and the small puppy seemed too timid to be able to play with Penny. This left us with the middle sized puppy... Rusty, and hence his name: "Middle of the Road Little One".

When Rusty was brought home, he was little more than a furball; able to fit in the palms of his new mommy's hands. In the beginning, we were worried that Penny might not accept our new puppy and that she might do harm to this fragile little pup. But after their first meeting, Penny seemed to take to Rusty and formed a special bond with her "new brother". Although they still argue over possession of their toys, Penny looks out for and protects Rusty as a big sister and Rusty faithfully follows in his sister's paw prints.

After bringing Rusty home, we soon learned that he had his own special quirks. Unlike Penny who hardly barked as a puppy, Rusty was a very vocal pup and often woke us up with his mournful baying when we locked him up at night. And while Rusty's bouts of furniture gnawing still haunts us today, he was a much easier puppy to house-break.

Growing up, we've seen Rusty change dramatically from the skinny, short-haired Sheltie that we brought home, into the handsome , well-maned puppy that he is today. In either case, he will always be our "Little One" and continues to bring us happiness each day.