Pet Spotlight of April – Bernie

Bernie is a Mini Bernie Doodle owned by Dave and Judie Burdis. Bernie came to us quite by
accident so to speak. It was Randy Marino’s fault. Randy is the founder and dedicated leader of the Mon Valley Paws. I too, am an active member of MVP and Randy had e-mailed me a request looking for food for a rescue in Irwin. We were not actively looking for another dog, having lost our Charlie in December of 2021, but we continued to search whenever we became aware of any new rescues listed on the internet. While checking out this rescue, a pop-up appeared with a picture of Bernie on the “rescue me website”. After reading the history of this one-and-a-half- year-old dog, we immediately e-mailed an inquiry. We were told we were second on the list and would be contacted if the first person was no longer interested. After numerous back and forth conversations, we decided to make a two and a half journey to Parma Ohio in the middle of January to meet him. As soon as we saw him it was love at first sight. Of course, he came home with us. This little dog was so frightened. His short life consisted of being rescued on a farm, then living for a year with a young couple who had three other dogs, and finally going home with these two “old people”. Our first night together we tried to crate him. This was his current method of sleeping. He looked at the crate, looked at the bed, jumped up and made himself comfortable. “Mom” was relegated to the couch! A few days later we put the crate away and Bernie made himself cozy in his own bed. We are currently adjusting to Bernie and he to us. We are becoming comfortable with each other daily. I am sure he misses his doggy brothers, but he
will have plenty of friends from his Mon Valley Paws family. He and Tucker, the golden next
door, are becoming social also. Bernie loves walks, riding in the car, his Kong bone filled with peanut butter and watching TV at times. He is also a good watch dog. We are grateful to the family who raised him for a year as well as to Randy (who is now his godfather) and the many MVP members who have given us guidance, support, and mostly friendship.