It’s taken me several days to get to Rusty’s obituary post. The first few days it was too sad to deal with and after that I couldn’t find the photos that I was sure I had taken when he was much younger. There are big gaps but I found some of my favorites. And then I found enough later photos that I may fill two or three blog posts. I enjoy seeing these photos because they help me remember Rusty as he was most of his life with us instead of how he had become in the last several months.

Rusty is (was?) a red and white Border Collie. “The Best Dog Ever”—that’s what Dan would always say to Rusty when he came in the house with his lips pulled back in a smile—the only dog I have had that would do that. He was about six months old when he came to live here in the fall of 2006.

Rusty’s littermate, Jake, lived with a friend of mine about a mile away. I don’t think they remembered each other but we got together occasionally.

Rusty had less interest in other dogs and was more focused on an animal that might need to be herded or seemed out of place—like the cat he has his eyes on just outside of this photo. Those two photos are not dated properly so I don’t know how old Rusty was there.

I know that Rusty was only about a year old here. These are Toggenburg kids, offspring of my son’s goats.This was taken in 2007.

I never had to worry about Rusty with the kids or lambs.

I don’t remember what Rusty had done but he put up with Farm Club members giving him a bath (2010).

Rusty knew that the chicken belonged in the chicken house and not in the spinning circle, no matter how much Shelby was in control of the situation (2011).

He also knew that there were treats to be found in the wheelbarrow during lambing time. (2012)

Rusty had the kind of coat that caught everything—weeds, hay, grass. I had to keep his feet trimmed through the summer because the soft fuzzy hair was a foxtail trap.

Looking back through old blog posts I found this one (2013)of trying to get dogs (and sheep and the donkey) into the holdiay spirit. Rusty was never one who liked dress-up. I knew I took lots of photos back then, but I just can’t find them.

In 2013 I thought it would be a good idea to get another dog so Rusty would have a companion. I found Maggie in a foster care situation, but I don’t have photos of the earlier years. I was looking back through old blog posts and found this one with a photo of Maggie. That led me to thinking about Rusty’s blog. Did you know that Rusty wrote a blog from 2011 to July, 2019? It still lives out there on Wordpress and the photos I was looking for and can’t find on my computer are there. Rusty’s blog is called “Perspective of a Border Collie”. I should probably just let Rusty’s blog tell the rest of the story of his life—he was an amusing writer with a perspective of farm events that was different than mine.

I’d forgotten that he also tried his paw at photography. I found this photo in an old blog post of mine.

In 2014 Ginny came to be part of our lives.

To be continued…