Believe me when I say that I understand what you mean about almost crying when you saw the rust. You'll probably laugh at this, because it's on a much smaller scale, but we've got two cats, and they mark their territory on everything they can with the sides of their mouths. I've got a 15'' .69 cal steel Napoleon on a field carriage that I started to keep on the floor next to the wall in our finished basement, and one of the cats was having a field day marking his scent all over the gun, and I saw him doing it from time to time, but I didn't think much about it (I figured no harm). Well, one day I was down there working and a mark on the barrel caught my eye, so I picked it up and put it under the light; and one whole side of the barrel was streaked wih rust, along with rust on the the capsquare, the trunnion plate, lunette, and the steel tyre on one wheel. Well, I've had this cannon since I was a teen, and it had never had as much as a particle of rust on it, so I was more than mildly mad at that wretched, corrosion causing, furry little devil.
