GOODBYE ERNIE (1998-2013)

Only those who have the heart to love lose heart when a pet leaves them.

Be well, FM.

Joe(so sorry for your loss)Nation

I empathize and sympathize with your loss Farmer.

Ernie, however, was not so special except that he was a dog, a very special species.

Dogs, utterly distinguisable from other "pets," are living representatives of what we as humans highly value: Unconditional love, loyalty, courage and physical grace.

The Philistines among us will argue that dogs are genetically manipulated automatons, incapable of any behavior save the ones we value.

But then so too can it be said that we are the mechanical representations of our genes, and thereby not remarkable in our humanity.

How nice it is to find a "Man of Science" (farmerman) who loved a dog.

If dogs really are nothing more than genetically produced representatives of human values, then more power to us, we are wonderous creators.

With the passing of a beloved dog, we can experience the purity and cleansing nature of grief. If only the same could be said of the passing of one of our human loved ones.

Death should be a bitter-sweet experience, and with our very fine friends, our dogs, it is.

Only dogs and small children will love you whether or not you kick them daily. Both should, but alas do not, shames us all into being better people.

My condolences for your loss Farmerman !

OUR TWO BARN CATS , Lewis and Clark, were sitting on Ernies grave today. I puzzled their insistance at staying there even in the wind that kicked up. My wife put a bed of hay down on ERnies grave so the cats wouldnt get a chill. She had to move them into the milkhouse for the evening lest they just stay there. Weird aint it how some animals just sense things.
Lewis and Clark werent even out on the day we buried Ernie, yet they found his grave.
Lewis and Clarke were fast friends with Ernie, they would always rub in and out of his legs and hed lick the two cats on the head and they seemed to enjoy the spit baths.

In the summer after Stash died, Ernie was inconsolable and the cats just sort of moved into that "best buds" spot , so whenever and wherever Ernie would lie down,either by the garden, or the patio or the porch, Lewis and Clark would be there just sort of hanging out with him.

Weirder yet that most humans don't sense that.

I had given my heart to both dogs and cats over the years and found the mutual bond of love no less firm when it come to cats then when it come to dogs.

To me humans are very lucky to have two other animals species that we are able to bond to and to get a tiny and brief view of the universe through their eyes.

I remember one little tiny female cat who I met when she was well into her adulthood and who had been an outside cat for years and yet she ended up bonding to me to an amazing degree.

She was fearless when it came to even large Toms chasing them away from food bowls and I saw her once even attacked a 60 pounds dog and ended up chasing it for two blocks.

She was the terror of my vet office and yet I could do anything at all to her without her complaining up to giving her injections without worrying that she would ever use her teeth and claws on me.

The last time I say her was a few hours before she pass away in a cage at my vet when I told her that I needed her to get better to help me control her daughter and she got slowly up onto her feet and came to the front of the cage and rub her head again mine and gave me a little purr.

So sorry to hear about your loss Farmerman...I am truly grateful that Ernie had the chance to live a great life with you and your wife...

Vonny posted a picture on the "beautiful Animals" Thread that brought tears to myeyes. It was a spittin image of my Ernie. He died last March and everyso often , in a calm moment, Mrs F would announce how we needed to inject a little more chaos into our lives with another dog like him.
Im still not quite ready.

I can easily relate. Take your time. I can't believe how much space in my life and my heart my dog occupies. But there's plenty of room for him there.

I know. It has taken me a long time to adjust to the losses of my dogs.

Vonny posted this picture and its a spot-on image of ERnie. You can see the intelligence in the dogs eyes. ERnie was a damn smart dog and damned able to driv you nuts with the trouble he could get into throughout his life. He needed constant work and hed always be looking back at you with those crackle eyes like "Ok whats next?"



The blue merle spots of this breed and the two different colored eyes are a feature. They really can stare you to death

Sorry for you loss.

Well, no tribute to a loved one should ever end on a sour note from that **** head JTT. Ernie was a beautiful soul, loyal and clever companions should be remembered and memory cherished.

But the Chagos islanders' Ernies don't matter a ****. Not to mention that the USA treated those people as bad as they treated their pets.

But there's glitterbag, sounding like a Nazi death camp guard chatting with the boys about life outside the camp.

You're a real beaut of a human being, Bag.

What do you think the reaction would be in the USA, Joe, if some fascist/communist country took 1000 family pets from Americans and gassed them to death using vehicle exhaust?

What if this was done to terrorize those families into fleeing their homes and land so that the fascist country could turn their land into a military base? What would the reaction be for Americans?

my condolences farmerman..

Its been a year and were getting along quite well. Its just that Im not ready for a new dog yet. He filled a special place that needs to be given some more time.

Take as long as you need, you'll know when and if it's time to bring on a new friend.

Thanks. Ernie was a dog whose life was lived in relentless indefatigable pursuit of action. It wasn't a great sheepherder because once hed get em rounded up, hed scatter them so he could round em up again.

One time, a sheep escaped the lamb paddock and, like lambs will, forgot where the hell it was at. The damned thing wound up a few hundred acres away in an Amish farmyard. I went to get it in the truck and Ernie jumped into the truck bed. When we got to the farm ERnie just hopped out cut the lamb out from among a bunch of heifers and led that lamb all the way home to the big pastures.
When the Amishmen saw how he led that lamb back home, they were very complementary(They appreciate anything that saves work for them). I acted like this was the way he always acted. When I drove back home and found him in the pasture with the lamb, I gave him a gret big hug and a "GOOOD BOY" . I was as proud as the day my kids learnt to ride a bicycle