Fairy tale ending for Rusty, the stray dog of Oak Brook
Rusty, the plucky stray dog who eluded authorities and captured hearts during his wild years in Oak Brook, has found a home in Utah.
While some of Rusty's fans flood the dog's two Facebook pages with wishes that Rusty could return to the suburbs, his new home with Kristine Kowal has a suburban link.
Kowal, a volunteer at the Best Friends Animal Society sanctuary in the mountains of Kanab, Utah, learned about Rusty when she lived in Lake Zurich.
"I read about him in the Daily Herald and it was just a great story. When I saw he was going to Best Friends, I just went nuts," says Kowal, 60, a registered nurse who retired from her job as the school nurse at the Daniel Wright Middle School in Lincolnshire and moved to Utah at the end of May, four months after Rusty's arrival. "When I got out here, I wanted to see who this star was, this Houdini who avoided capture for so long."
Rusty built an almost mythical cult status while roaming the office parks and gated communities of Oak Brook starting in 2007.
He would venture into yards to frolic with other dogs and accept doggy bags from fancy restaurants, a piece of meat fresh off the grill or a handmade meal left for him.
But he'd never get close enough to a human to be petted, let alone captured.
But eager to play with a rescued bichon-poodle mix named Milo, Rusty wandered into the enclosed yard of Lynn Trombetta in Woodside Estates a year ago, was captured and taken to the Hinsdale Humane Society.
Through a fund established by Rusty supporters Harry and RonnDa Peters and donations from concerned residents, Rusty was successfully treated for a serious heartworm infection.
But he needed training to lose his feral ways and was sent to the Best Friends Animal Society, an internationally renowned animal sanctuary tucked into the breathtakingly gorgeous mountains of Kanab, Utah.
The facility has rehabilitated animals including the dogs abused by Michael Vick and creatures plucked from floods, earthquakes and war zones.
Kowal volunteered for Rusty's unit in Dogtown, where team leader Megan Larsen got to know Rusty.
"He really does not seem to miss being on the lam," Larsen says of the 5-year-old Chow-Sheltie mix. "We discovered he does bond to people once he knows them. He likes being a 'kept' dog."
While Kowal seems like the lottery winner who gets to keep Rusty, she says the decision wasn't hers alone.
"Maddy was the one who picked this dog," Kowal says, referring to the dog she adopted five years ago during her stint as a volunteer at the Save-A-Pet shelter in Grayslake. "Maddy thought we could make him our project. She went over and just started talking to him, nose-to-nose. He (Rusty) is a dog's dog. He really prefers Maddy over me."
Rusty has a few favorite napping spots in Kowal's home, but he sometimes sleeps in the bed with Kowal and Maddy.
"The first night he got up there, I was so excited. But he took my pillow so I had to sleep on the other side of the queen-size bed," says Kowal, who adds that she quickly gave in to Rusty's wishes. "It's all about him."
While the suburbs know the dog as Rusty, the staff at Best Friends dubbed him Redd, and set up an Adopt Redd Facebook page.
To honor both camps, Kowal calls her dog Rusty or Rusty Redd. The name isn't as important as the outcome.
"We're thrilled that he's going to have a home," says Lori Halligan, executive director of the Hinsdale Humane Society where Rusty spent four months before his pilgrimage to Utah. "He made such an impact on so many people here. He has so many people who love him. He was like everybody's dog. Everybody worried about him. Everybody watched out for him. Everybody took care of him."
That's why the dog has hundreds of friends and frequent commenters on his Facebook pages, and was able to coax more than 70 people out on a cold day in January to wish him luck as he departed on a driving trip to Utah with Jennifer Vlazny, operations manager at the Hinsdale Humane Society.
"He's got a whole big, big extended family of people who love him. That's pretty cool," says Vlazny, who notes that Rusty has generated more good will than any dog in her 26 years of working with animals. "We're proud to have a part in his fairy tale ending."
Open to visits or a return trip to the suburbs with Rusty some day, Kowal says she, Maddy and her new dog have suburban roots.
"We had to travel over 1,600 miles to meet," Kowal says of her relationship with Rusty. "It's meant to be."
Rusty still wears a GPS device on his collar that would track him if he made a break to return to the wild, but Kowal says Rusty "loves walks" and patiently waits on her couch so she can attach the harness he wears when they go hiking.
Rusty isn't to the point yet where he'll fetch a ball or jump in Kowal's lap, but he likes to be petted, is friendly and makes no attempt to flee, Kowal says.
"I think he knows this is home and he's ready to stay," says Kowal, who adds that they both seem glad to be away from Chicago winters. But Kowal, who lived in Elgin, Wauconda and Hoffman Estates before spending 17 years in Lake Zurich, wants to assure Rusty's suburban fans that the dog won't be allowed to forget where he's from.
"He will be watching the Bears, the Blackhawks and the Bulls," Kowal promises Rusty's extended Oak Brook family. "They can be assured he will be raised with Chicago values."