Rusty

We had a very sad day in the Jenkins house last night. The girls and I came home last night and found our family cat of 15 years had passed away on the kitchen floor.

I piled the girls back into the car and we drove around until Aaron got home from the airport and was able to take Rusty outside. We had a small funeral and buried him under a blue spruce in the backyard.

A few memories of Rustalynn-Tittensaurus-Rex:

• Snake charmer titten - In our house in Pleasant Grove, he loved to catch baby snakes and toss them in the air like a snake charmer. He thought they were very tasty too.
• Jeremy's presents - Joel and I loved to send Jeremy gifts made of Rusty's fur. I'm sure Jer's mission companions thought we were a little strange, but we sure got a kick out of it.
  
• Rusty the lounge chair - All three of my girls loved to lay on top of the cat. He was so patient and let them do it.
  
• Rusty the pull toy - Bailey enjoyed grabbing Rusty by his fur and pulling him across the floor so he was closer to her. She then would bury her face in his neck and give him big loves. Rusty usually lasted about 10 seconds and then bolted for the front room to hide behind the couch.
• A paper bag and a fly swatter - When Rusty was younger, it was really fun to open a paper sack and tap the outside of it and watch Rusty come tearing across the floor and dive inside the back to see what was making the noise. It never failed to amuse all who were around. He also liked to chase the fly swatter. We'd drag the fly swatter on the ground in front of him and he'd run after it. If you picked the fly swatter up and made an arch over him and made it land behind him, he would usually do a back flip to try and catch it.

What a great cat. We will all miss him.