Sunny: An Inspiration for Rusty

Hi!

Today I’m going to write about my dog Sunny, who is a golden retriever. She was an inspiration for Rusty --, Matt and Teresa’s dog in my books. If you’ve read the Matt and Teresa Mystery Series, you’ll know of some of the crazy things that Rusty does (i.e. stealing Matt’s birthday gift and a purse, etc.)

Sunny is just as crazy. You can see some more pictures of her by clicking here. One of the main things Sunny is known for, as is Rusty, is her thievery. Sunny will steal gloves out of your pocket, a bag of fast food out of your car if your door is open, trash from a trashcan, a jacket from around your waist, shoes off your front porch, and I haven’t even begun. She will steal just about anything she can get her mouth on. One time, my dad left the garage door open by accident, and when we returned home his bag of golf balls and golf hats were spread all over the yard. Dad was not too happy. Once, Sunny ran off while we were walking her and when she came back she had a shoe in her mouth. We called our across-the-street neighbors and they said they weren’t missing a shoe. They called back a few days later saying, yes, actually they were.

Many dogs are allowed to live in the house all of their lives. Sunny isn’t. Sometimes when we open the gate to go into Sunny’s area, which is the laundry room, she’ll dash by us. And since she’s a thief, what does she do? She heads straight for the pillows on the couch. After grabbing one of those she’ll trot into my room like she owns it and grab a shirt or some socks from my laundry basket, still trying to hold the pillow. When she comes across the indoor cat, Melia, she can’t decide whether to chase Melia or keep everything in her mouth. By that time, we’ve hopefully caught her, but if not, upstairs she goes, stealing the toilet paper from it’s holder, taking something from the floor of my parents’ bedroom and running downstairs with her treasures and out the back door. Then, it’s really hard to get the things away from her because she thinks it’s a game. Eventually, all of our stuff is lying in the mulch. This is why Sunny isn’t allowed in the house. When she was a puppy, we let her stay in the kitchen. She soon discovered a way to get up on the counter. 

We’d come home and find footprints all around the counter. Once she stole a banana and ate it. From then on, she was only allowed in the laundry room, unless she was on a leash.

A new talent that Sunny has is using her muzzle to open a baby gate that we put on the stairs of our deck to protect the flowers and the outdoor cat, Cinder, from attack. See the video below that I took from an upstairs window.

Sunny isn’t all bad though. She’s good with some of her commands like “wait” and “okay.” We’ll tell her to “wait” before she eats her food and then let her eat by saying “okay.” She’s also very good at walking on the leash, and she’ll “shake” and “sit.” No, she isn’t the best at “come” or “leave it,” but we’re still working on that. Sunny’s very good about going to the vet because she knows she gets treats.

Despite Sunny’s thievery and naughtiness, she’s really very sweet, and we love her. I hope you enjoyed reading about my dog. Do you have any pets with bad habits? If so, I’d love to hear about them.

Sydney