Meet Our New Dog, Ernie!

Around the 4th of July holiday I said to Greg that we wouldn’t have any more dogs when the time comes that Rudy passes on.  (Rudy is 12 now and while he's still okay, he is getting pretty old and creaky.)

Well, apparently the Universe thought that was funny! When we got home from the gym two days later, this little scared, lost pup was literally on our doorstep. He was terrified of us and seems to have been severely abused, wincing when we tried to pet him. He also had a large bite wound on his side that seemed very infected.

A trip to the vet revealed a very high fever of over 103 degrees from the infection and he was covered in fleas and ticks. The vet gave him a high dose of antibiotics and we had to keep heat on the wound to get it to drain. It looks like he may have avoided a life as a bait dog and ended up in puppy heaven. While I REALLY don’t need another pet, how could we resist?

After multiple vet visits, food, water, medicine and lots of tender loving care, he started to come around. He was still quite timid and unsure of people, so it was down to Minkey to befriend him. Minkey got the first tail wag from the pup and they are great friends now and beginning to play together!

We asked people on our Facebook page to suggest names for him. We got lots of great ideas including Howard, Buddy, Rocky, Lucky, and Baby. Also Zorro, to help him find confidence and courage, and Tip, because his toes are tipped in white. Finally we decided on Ernie because Greg and I like people names for pets.  Something about him seemed like an “Ernie,” and we’ve had a lot of people really get a laugh out of it when they meet him. Ernie learned his name in a day or two and he’s a bit of a local celebrity due to the Facebook posts. People yell “Hey, Ernie!” when I’m walking him, and he always turns toward them to acknowledge the call out.

He is still shy but is starting to play like a puppy! He just had one more puppy shot and then he can be introduced to our other dogs. We think it will really help him come out of his shell when he feels like he’s part of a pack. He is exceedingly smart. It took about 2 days to house break him.

We think he’s decided he did alright stopping by our house. He gets a special diet of chicken, eggs and cheese to make him feel welcome, although we can’t wait to switch him over to regular food. Greg says, "He’s eating better than I am right now!"

His latest fun thing is to untie Greg’s shoelaces, particularly while he’s walking!  At first we guessed he was a lab/boxer mix but now we've had several folks suggest that he might be a lab / Great Dane mix. Good thing we'd already fallen in love with him before we found that out!