Rusty's Story
Hi! My name is Rusty. Everybody tells me that
I’m 11 years old but I think they’re wrong.
You’re only as old as you feel, right?
I didn’t
have a very good life before these nice people came and took
me from the shelter. My former dad didn’t take very
good care of me and I always had very bad ear infections.
He didn’t brush me either, so my fur was very matted and I
smelled. One day an Animal Control Officer came to our
house. I was out in the front yard. I didn’t feel too
good, I had 2 very infected ears and this yucky pus was
coming out and running down my face. The Animal
Control Officer told dad that if he didn’t give me to her
right away, she’d arrest him and put him in jail. Then
she took me to a veterinarian’s office. I had to be
given anesthesia in order for them to clean my ears.
Even I knew they were pretty bad. After that they took
me to a shelter. The people there were really nice
even though they did give me some shots. They took
care of my ears, fed me some good food and gave me a lot of
attention.
They
called the hotline for Golden Re-Triever Rescue of New
Jersey. Two volunteers came to the shelter right away and
took me out. They said I was just “too cute” and I passed
their temperament testing with flying colors. They also
saved another Golden Retriever named Jordan. I really liked
Jordan too. He didn’t feel so good either, he had a really
low thyroid and he needed medicine too. But I digress.
The
people put me in their car and gave me a new collar and
leash. We went for a long ride and stopped at McDonald’s.
You guessed it...they even bought me a hamburger! Then
another couple came and the first lady said “you’re in
trouble now, he’s never going to leave your house”. I found
out these two people were going to be my foster parents.
They
took me home and guess what? They had other Golden
Retrievers. I had to be separated for about a week ‘til we
could all get used to each other. We’d get to go for walks
together, be on supervised visits, but we couldn’t be alone
together. They took me to another vet who said one of my
ear infections was gone, but the other one was still really
bad. They did a culture of the gook and found out it was a
very drug resistant bacteria called Pseudomona. They had to
put me under anesthesia again to flush my ear but they said
my ear canal was so damaged by the earlier ongoing
infections that they couldn’t even flush it all the way. It
still hurt.
My
foster parents told the Board of Directors what the vet lady
said, so they made arrangements for me to go to another
veterinary surgeon to have surgery on my ear. It’s called
ear ablation surgery.
They had to remove my damaged ear canal. I can't hear out of that ear
anymore, but I really couldn’t hear anything out of it
anyway.
And do you know what? The nice people
that are fostering me said that they’re adopting me! And
that my new name is Maverick. I’m so happy. They bought me
a new coat, they taught me how to play with tennis balls,
they let me stay inside the house and I have 4 other furry
brothers to play with. I love it here.
I’m so grateful that the Animal Control
Officer took me away from my first dad. And I’m so happy
that they called Golden Re-Triever Rescue to come get me.
Life is good.
Maverick