Rufus a dashound/wirehaired terrier mix, is 15 years old and she (I’ll explain her name in a moment) has diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, and almost total blindness. I wanted to write about Rufus, because I don’t know how many more days or weeks, she will be with me. She received her name because I wanted a dog named Rufus, but this little female puppy became available. After deep thought, I named her Rufus, and that was only the first thing that was unique about my precious dog.

I picked her up when she would fit in the palm of my hand, and I immediately put her in the kiddie pool….but she sank, so I waited another week and tried the pool again. This began her many years of being a swimming champion. When she was hot, and there was water, Rufus was going in….she once jumped out of my moving car, when she saw the lake. She went over a 14 foot cliff…when she saw the creek, and she did a belly flop off the boat in heavy boat traffic- and survived it all.

Rufus is also a 8 time world snake bite champion. We built a home on the lake, and my precious dog couldn’t have been happier, but about 4 years ago she became diabetic and her over all health began to deteriorate. About this same time she began to receive snake bites to her face and jaw over a 2 year period. Some were poisonous copperhead snakebites and others were non poisonous. One bite was so hard the fangs went through her jaw and cracked her tooth. The Vet told every one that Rufus attacked these snakes, but in reality her eyesight was getting bad and she would just sniff them out, then get bit. She survived all of this.

There are many stories to tell about this 4 legged wonder dog, her health, injuries, and all her humorous antics…..but now, she has very few good days, and I know I have to let her go at some point , I know this is a battle she will not survive. I will be left, with the great pictures and memories, of Rufus- The greatest dog, God has ever given a human!

Jeff from NC