Rusty Roger Lifferth

On Saturday September 18 I was at home enjoying a quite morning watching Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, as the credits started to roll I got a call from my wife who was involved with an animal adoption charity event. She told me that I needed to come see all of the cute puppies that were there. So I put our 4 pound dog, Tony, in my backpack and rode my bike to the charity event. I arrived to a fashion show runway with the models showing off modest and casual fashion walking down the runway with a canine counterpart.

After the show my wife Carla ran up to me and presented a young beagle with a soft fur, and was featured on the runway as well, and asked if we could keep him. Now I have developed a heart of stone when it comes to my wife asking for different purchases, however, this was not some arbitrary piece of clothing that I had programmed myself to decline her request. When Carla asked with her puppy dog eyes and I saw this beagles puppy dog eyes longingly look at me I could not utter the word “No”.

I did not answer yes initially and I tried to avoid the confirmation of agreement by trying to find reasons why we could not have another dog. But nothing I said could convince Carla or myself not to keep this dog. I still was not completely willing to take another dog home, so I tried one more thing—I knelt down padded my knee a couple of times and said “Come here Rusty” and he did! That was all that I needed.

Let me tell you about the name Rusty. I must have been in high school when I decided that I wanted to someday name my dog “Rusty” and I decided that when I get my own dog that I would give him that name. So it meant a lot when he responded to that name.

On Rusty’s paper work his name was “Barney” but that name has too much of a big purple dinosaur connotation.

Left to right: Rusty, Cooper & Tony

Here is Rusty’s story: he is a four-year-old stray found in Springville. After an extensive search he was taken to the Utah Animal Adoption Center and put up for adoption. We did not know this but he was actually on death-row—scheduled to be put down on September 23 (Carla’s birthday).

So he is a Lifferth now. I was pondering the name “Rusty Fireball Lifferth” from the Herriman Fire, and in reference to my childhood dog “Nicholas Snowball Lifferth.” However, the name Rusty Roger Lifferth has a pleasant sound to it. Rusty Roger Lifferth is here and part of our family.