Story Submitted by Makani :

I would love to share my stories about my best friend Rufus. I will give you the short version as I could write a book telling you all about him. My dog Rufus is not just my best friend, he’s my brother. Rufus would do things that a good brother would do. Rufus knows when I’m sad as he would bring me his toy and would want to play. After playing fetch or tug-a-war, we would have so much fun that my sadness would go away. Rufus also knows when I am upset because when my girlfriend and I would argue, Rufus would ring his bell to make me bring him outside (even though he doesn’t have to pee or poop). Rufus does that to separate my girlfriend and I so we can cool off.

For the longest time I didn’t want a dog because I thought it would be too much work to take care of, but I was totally wrong. Rufus is so easy to take care of. He was so easy to train, he was house trained within an hour as a pup. He would do everything I would ask him to do and he would be happy to do it. Rufus never chewed on anything, except only his toys. Rufus is the friendliest 120 pound dog you would ever meet. When we go for a walk and a person walks near us, Rufus will immediately wag his tail to that person and would want that person to pet him. But Rufus was also a protector, and he instinctively knew when to protect.

There was a time that Rufus chased away a couple of coyotes that were trying to get my neighbor’s small dogs. There are woods behind our backyard and one early morning Rufus was barking like crazy inside our house. I looked outside the back of my house and I noticed there were 2 coyotes scoping out my neighbor’s 2 small dogs running near the woods. I let Rufus out and without hesitation, he ran quickly outside and chased away the 2 coyotes. If Rufus didn’t bark like crazy, I would have never noticed there were 2 coyotes in my backyard. Rufus saved both of those small dogs’ lives and those dogs probably didn’t even know it. I did tell my neighbor about it and she was so thankful!

Rufus is a blessing, he’s my brother, he’s my best friend and I love him more than anything. I rescued Rufus as a pup and it is the best thing that I’ve ever done.