Riley/Rufus the Rescue Leonberger

Rufus is owned and loved by Sandy and Tom Farr. Tom tells his story:


Rufus at the shelter 		About a year ago we got a call from LeoRescue that a Leo was in a shelter in Fort Meyers, Florida. The dog was found wandering the streets and was picked up by Animal Control, while looking for another stray. This was the beginning of our lives and Tasha's with Riley, now Rufus.
Because of the efforts of LeoRescue, Rufus was quickly adopted out of the Fort Meyers Shelter and taken to Ann and Emile Duyster's home. (Ann is one of the reps for the Southeastern US.) We went over to see Rufus the next weekend and decided to take him home to see how he would get along with Tasha, our 5-year-old female. Unlike some of the other stories on the LeoRescue site, we had no idea what to expect because we had no history on Rufus, other than he was found roaming the streets, that he was very skinny and that he seemed to get along with Ann and Emile's two female Leos. We estimated him to be about 18 months old because of the condition of his teeth and the fact that he did not yet have his full coat. There were no identifying marks, such as a tattoo or chip, so we believe he came from an unregistered breeder.


First pictures of Rufus at home


Rufus and Tasha discover playing together


The joys of spithead...

On our three-hour trip back to Jupiter we decided to change his name from Riley to Rufus…Rufus the Duffus and let me tell you that every single day fortifies his name.

Rufus is now a young adult and is going through all the young adult Leo antics that we all know and love. He has come from a 97 lb., long legged clumsy kid to a 140 lb, full coated, clumsy teen. He and Tasha are inseparable, to the point we have to take both to the vet at the same time because Rufus would tear the door down if he knew we were taking Tasha and not him. They play "spit head" for hours and are so noisy that our neighbors ask us to quiet them down. Tasha is the queen of the house and rules over Rufus at all times.

We are so lucky to have Tasha and Rufus in our lives and that neither one of them has destroyed anything in our house since we got them. The worst that has happened is that during a "spit head " session 260 lbs. of dog hit a piece of furniture and caused something to fall off and break.

We love our kids and have no regrets that we adopted Rufus and have gone through the trials and tribulations you go through with a. rescued Leo, but we have been very fortunate the way Rufus has turned out. Thank you, Ann and LeoRescue for entrusting us with Rufus.


Rufus "before"
Rufus today... what a handsome boy!