Rusty
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Rusty Has Been Adopted!
Hi! My name is Rusty, and if you love hugs and snuggling…I'm your guy!
I am a beautiful, sweet, loving, easygoing and well-mannered,1 year-old, 55 pound, male Redbone Coonhound! I’m super loving, handsome and smart, and have a wonderful, endearing, and adorable personality. I love to be around people so much and love to snuggle and give hugs and kisses! I follow my foster mom around everywhere, I am over the moon when I get attention, and am eager to learn all that you want to teach me. I love chewing on elk antlers and playing with balls and stuffed toys, though when my foster mom throws the ball for us, I mostly like to chase the other dogs who chase the ball! I’m completely housebroken, and let you know when I need to go out by sitting by the door, and looking over my shoulder directly at you, with an “I really need to go please!” look in my eyes. If you don’t notice my quiet, mannerly method, I move on to more obvious signals like whining and jumping. Clever of me, right?
I’m a young boy, so have young dog energy, but am not hyper. I thoroughly enjoy going for walks and playing in the fenced yard and with other dogs, but am also quite happy hanging out with you, laying down, and chewing on an antler or taking a nap! A couple of nice walks a day and/or some visits to the dog park is all I need to be content and to settle very nicely in the house. I am learning some basic commands like “sit” and am told that I am very smart!. I’m terrific with other dogs and am living with 4 of them! Two are little female Pugs, one is a male pug, and the fourth is a big male Black Lab. I’m good with everyone, but love the Lab best because he plays with me and shows me how to wrestle and chase and run around in the big fenced yard. There are a few cats in my foster home as well, but I think I am mistaking them for raccoons because I howl a lot at them and want to chase them, and that’s no fun for them (or my foster parents). We “coonhounds” are bred to chase raccoons up a tree and then howl until the hunters come to get the raccoon, so I am just doing what my genetics tell me to do. But, no cats in my adoptive home please! Hounds are sometimes very barky and howly, but I’m really not so much into that. I enjoy howling when I smell something interesting (and when I see the cats), but will stop as soon as someone asks me to, and other than that am not super vocal.
I love children, and am living with two kids now (ages 5 and 8) and I am very good with them both and love when they are around me. I love getting lots of attention, and though I live super well with other dogs, I would also be perfectly happy being your one and only. Either way works great for me, being an only dog or living with other dogs!
Overall I have been very healthy, but the last month has been rough because I came down with meningitis which was lousy, as it comes with a very high fever and awful neck pain! It took 4 emergency hospital stays to get it all sorted out, but I definitely seem to have what’s called “steroid responsive meningitis” which has no known cause, but a very clear treatment (yay!). I need to be on high doses of Prednisone for a month, and then over the next 4-6 (or more?) months, I will slowly be weaned down to smaller and smaller doses of the Prednisone, until I am off of it completely, and should be fine thereafter. We tried to wean me off the Prednisone too quickly last month, and the symptoms came back, so we won’t make that mistake again! I’m doing really, really well at this point, and other than taking my medication twice a day, there is nothing special about what I need during my recovery and I am absolutely looking for my new adoptive person or family anytime!!
If you think you'd like to adopt me, please fill out an online adoption application and live close to Ithaca , Syracuse, Binghamton, or Elmira. We do home visits on every applicant, and can't do home visits where we don't have local volunteers.
NOTE: All of my emergency hospital stays were very expensive for the dog rescue, totaling to over $3,000, so if you think you could help out by making a donation for my bills, I would be so incredibly grateful. I’m very thankful that my foster parents and the rescue and the veterinarians at Colonial and at Cornell took such great care of me, but I feel badly that my illness has taxed the dog rescue so much. If you can help at any level, that would be so incredibly kind!
If you prefer not to make an online donation, please feel free to send us a check payable to "Cayuga Dog Rescue" and send to:
Cayuga Dog Rescue
P.O. Box 4942
Ithaca, NY 14852
