We have an announcement to make, which you probably figured out by reading this topic’s title. We’ve always been a two-dog house, and even though it’s been hard on us so soon after losing Max, we decided long ago that we’d always do what’s best for Linda, and we didn’t want to make her be an only dog when she’s always had a buddy.

The problem was that Linda has always been a little timid around other dogs at first, so we had to pick the right one. We were initially considering an older dog, maybe a year or two old. That’s what Linda was when we got her, and we like the idea of giving an older dog a chance. But on the flip side, we thought a puppy would be more dependent on Linda, with less chance of her suddenly feeling dominated or pushed out of her place in the house. In short, the adult vs. puppy issue was a crapshoot that could have gone either way. But then a puppy in a local rescue shelter we support caught our eye, and we couldn’t stop thinking about him. It wasn’t long before eight-week-old Bernie the puppy became the newest member of our family. According to the DNA test we ran on him, he’s an Australian Shepard, Collie, and Pekingese mix. We saw a photo of his mom, and she looks like a black lab with a pit bull head. Basically, he’s a 100% pure mutt. Here are some photos from when Diane brought him and Linda by my station on the day she picked him up.

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As you can see from the pictures, Linda was less than thrilled when we got him. Bernie tried to be friends with her, but she’d have none of it. She hated him, growling and snarling at him whenever he got near her. It was horrible – she even ran away from him if he got too close. It was a bad first week for us, because we thought we’d made a horrible mistake.

But I was at work one day a week later when Di called me and said something had happened. As if someone had flipped a switch, Linda suddenly decided that she liked him. They’re best buddies now, at least most of the time. Bernie is a very outgoing puppy, and like most other pups his age, he’s obnoxious as hell. In short, he’s a hyperactive menace to civilized life. But Linda shows a lot of patience with him, and every now and then she’ll bark hard in his face or squash him with her head if he gets too far out of line. Nice to see her taking on the role of big sister.

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We’ve had Bernie a couple of weeks now. He wasn’t very big at first, and his body was fairly well proportioned. He didn’t look like he was going to be very big. But he seems to have undergone a growth spurt in the past week, and his head, legs and paws have gotten huge. He’s growing fast. Our vet thinks Bernie has a good chance of growing to Max’s size – 70 or 80 pounds. I look at the little monster now and all can think is “Yikes!”

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