Me and My brother wanted another dog. The previous pup, Heidi, was out potting one night and heard the boys across the street playing. She took off with my brother yelling at her to stop. She ran into the street and was hit by a car. I was six years old and angry at my brother for not stopping Heidi.
My brother feeling lousy over Heidi’s death and my sadness placed in my head we should get another dog. We begged our mom for a new dog. One day, she came home from work and told us, a co worker wanted to give up her dog and Mom told her, she would take the dog.
The true story, the dog, named Dusty, was being abused by the co workers husband. The co worker made it no secret the husband abused the dog. One day, my mom got tired of hearing her stories and our begging, told the co worker she would take the dog off her hands. The co worker quickly said, “Yes,”
My mom told us about the dog and we went to the house to pick her up. I remember sitting in the kitchen and the daughter showing us some tricks and how Dusty loved cookies. I remember feeling something was not right in the kitchen. The husband and wife had fake smiles and waited for us to leave with the dog. We did.
We were told Dusty had some issues with bikes and paper carriers. She hated them. Their paper carrier who rode a bike was mean to Dusty. We learned due to her abuse, she was afraid of men.
My dad, who was all for getting another dog too, come home from his second shift job and sit with Dusty in the breezeway. She was scared to death of him. He sat there quietly at first then started to offer her food. She took the food. About a month of the sitting in the breezeway with her after work, they became best friends.
I have a lot of Dusty stories that I will share over time. She was the best dog in the world. She was intelligent, loving and very loyal. She loved belly rubs and food. Though, she did not like the paper carriers, bikes and other dogs expect for Bruno and that is a story for another time. She never did get over her fear of men.
We were very happy that Dusty was in our lives. She brought a lot of joy and love to the family.
