09/02/2026
51 days ago, we brought Ernie home from Pima Animal Care Center.
He was terrified, but he trusted us.
And now, as I write this, he’s in my room sleeping soundly. 😴❤️😍
It’s almost impossible to believe what this dog survived before he got here.
Ernie came from the same large hoarding case as Jessie (Alba) and Tony.
Think about the cards already stacked against him.
An older black pit bull mix.
An unknown history.
Years spent living on a hoarder’s property.
Fearful and undersocialized.
Then living in an overcrowded shelter with more than 500 dogs.
Ernie wasn't the kind of dog most people walk into a shelter looking for.
The odds of someone choosing him and giving him a true forever home were next to nothing.
And then he disappeared.
Ernie went missing from PACC on May 29.
For the next 40 days, he survived alone in the scorching Tucson summer.
Triple-digit temperatures.
Dehydration. Starvation.
Rattlesnakes. Scorpions. Javelinas.
Traffic.
Any one of those things could have killed him.
But somehow, Ernie survived.
I prayed every single day that he was safe.
The guilt of leaving him behind when we picked up Jessie ate away at my heart. We had already brought one dog from that hoarding case home, and I couldn't stop thinking about the one we had left behind.
I emailed the shelter and told them:
If you find Ernie, we will take him.
I wanted them to know there was a reason to keep looking.
Because somewhere out there, running through Tucson, was a dog who didn't know it yet—but he already had a home waiting for him.
I stayed in contact with the Animal Protection Officer who had originally asked if we would take Ernie.
But Ernie kept moving. He wouldn't stay in one neighborhood long enough for officers to set up a trap.
Then I spoke with animal communicator Linda Johns on June 29th.
Linda reached out to Ernie and asked him to stop running.
She told me that Ernie said he didn't want to go back to PACC.
That comment broke me. 💔
Ernie had been struggling in an overcrowded shelter housing more than 500 dogs. He had been on trazodone since the end of January to help him cope with shelter life, with his dosage increasing over time.
Then, at the end of May, he somehow got away from a shelter volunteer.
I'm still perplexed about how not one, but two leashes became detached from him. Since I don't know the inner workings of PACC, I can't explain why such a fearful, undersocialized dog was being walked in an open area.
That will probably always be a mystery to me.
But on July 8th... 10 days after speaking with Linda, Ernie entered a trap set by the Animal Protection Officer. 🎉
He had survived 40 days on his own.
Forty days.
The number 40 carries special significance throughout the Bible—a period associated with testing, trials and transformation before the beginning of something new.
For Ernie, after 40 days of running, his trial was finally over.
A few days later, we flew to Arizona to keep our promise.
I was terrified we might lose him during transport or after bringing him home, so we fitted him with an Invoxia BioTracker and monitored his movements closely.
But with every passing day, Ernie has put a little more distance between himself and the life he knew before.
The hoarding property.
The shelter.
The fear.
The running.
Linda told me that Ernie said he wouldn't run away from us.
But he still wasn't quite sure about his place here.
She had to reassure him:
This is your home.
You don't have to run anymore.
You're staying.
And now, 51 days later, the older black pit bull mix whose chances of ever finding a true home seemed almost nonexistent is sleeping peacefully in my room.
The dog who spent 40 days running for his life doesn't have to anymore.
You survived the hoarding case.
You survived the shelter.
You survived 40 days alone in the desert.
You stopped running.
And you finally made it home.
You did it, Ernie. 🥹❤️
If his story moved you, please consider making a donation towards the ongoing care of Ernie and the rest of the Lucky Ones!
