Rufus knew us since he was a pup. At age 12, he was left homeless as his dad, my husbands best friend, had a stroke. My promise was to take care of his dogs. So we cared for and eventually adopted sweet Rufus.
He was a Tolling Duck Retriever. We called him Red for short. We were hopeful his dad would make a successful recovery, but that never happened. His dad needed to be placed in an assisted living home. The facility let Rufus move in with him. That lasted several months.
Sadly our friend took ill and needed to go to a nursing home for several months. During those months, Rufus lived with us. Upon our friends discharge, he returned to assisted living for another several months, so Rufus returned to live with his dad. That did not last too long, so he returned to us permanently. As I mentioned, I promised our friend that I would take care of his dogs if anything ever happened to him. So now Rufus (the greatest dog ever) was ours.
He loved his new home and loved his sister(our Old English Sheepdog Winnie). They were very close to each other and were inseparable. Rufus loved his walks, running after the deer on the other side of the fence, playing in the river, loved the car, and making sure there was a warm place in our bed.
Sadly Rufus’s dad passed away July 2020. We were so attached to Rufus but felt our dear friends spirit was with us through Rufus. Because of Rufus’s spirit, our friend’s death had a soft landing.
Fast forward to spring 2021, Rufus developed a growth on one of his toes. It kept popping and bled profusely. We needed to have the growth removed, but the only option was removal of the toe it was on. He did great like the stoic little dude that he was. Made a full recovery. Shortly after his recovery, we noticed him slowing down but attributed that to his ripe age of 15. We made an appointment for a check up. We were not prepared for the news.
The day we took him to the vet for his check up, it appeared that he went blind. That was on a Thursday. We got the most devastating news. He had end stage lymphoma. Yes, lymphoma. Because of his age and the disease progression, nothing could be done. Our vet said maybe he had two weeks at the most. So we decided to take him home, love him for as long as we could. On the next day, he went completely blind, bleeding from his nose and eyes. The inevitable occurred and he passed the following day after his devastating diagnosis. We had less than 24 hours to love him for the last time.
He passed a year to the day that his Dad passed. Rest In Peace our little angel. We love you and will be in our hearts for ever.
KETCHUM, ID
