My Journey with Ernie

from GRREAT Times Fall2021

by Southeastern Virginia Golden Retriever Education And Training, Inc

How to Introduce Dogs

York teacher, who adopted a golden retriever from Turkey, writes book to bring attention to international pet rescues By ALISON JOHNSON [VIRGINIA GAZETTE | AUG 17, 2021 AT 10:08 AM]

Heidi Speece of York County adopted Ernie Bert Speece, a golden retriever that was abandoned on the streets of Istanbul.

During his four years in America, Ernie Bert Speece has stolen more than 100 balls. The 71-pound golden retriever, now about 10 years old, has raided neighbors’ yards, school baseball fields and tennis courts, and random leaf piles on walks. He even tried to snatch a football at a high school homecoming game.

Ernie’s owner, Heidi Speece of York County, was once a self-described perfectionist and

workaholic. Then she adopted a big, goofy dog abandoned on the streets of Istanbul, Turkey, one that sighs loudly if he’s bored and ready for an adventure.

“I was always the rule follower,” Speece says. “Ernie made me ease up, relax, enjoy the little moments in life. Before, I felt such pressure to cross everything off my to-do list. Today, if I don’t, I don’t. I’m going to play fetch with my dog.”

The story of the driven high school English teacher and her mischievous dog is featured in Speece’s first book, “My Journey with Ernie: Lessons from a Turkey Dog,” published independently in August and available on Amazon and Kindle.

Speece wrote the book to raise awareness of international animal adoption, with proceeds going to nonprofit rescue groups and efforts to fight a recent ban by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on many foreign dog adoptions.

On June 14, the CDC suspended importation of dogs from 113 countries deemed high-risk for rabies, including Turkey. Rescue groups counter that they carefully follow federal permitting requirements to ensure dogs are disease-free and vaccinated before transport. “These dogs have no hope on the streets,” Speece says. “They’re going to die.”

Speece, a former Hampton Roads Academy and Tabb High School teacher, works with online students statewide in the Virtual Virginia program. In 2017, she was feeling burned out and bored when she saw a television news report about packs of homeless dogs in Turkey. Adult dogs, even purebreds, are rarely rescued from shelters in Turkey and other countries, notes Jane Krom, foster coordinator for Southeastern Virginia Golden Retriever Rescue, Education & Training, a nonprofit that handles local and foreign adoptions.

Instead, overwhelmed shelter staff often spay, neuter and vaccinate animals, tag them and return them to the streets. “Not everybody is kind to them,” Krom says. “They deserve better, and we hope Heidi’s book helps people see why we wanted to get involved.”

Speece’s former golden retriever, Buddy, had died about a year before she heard about “Turkey Dogs.” She also had loved the country when she visited as a cruise ship staff member 20 years earlier. “I knew something needed to change in my life,” she recalls.

Enter Ernie

The dog had appeared outside a Turkish auto body shop in March 2017, malnourished, mangy and with a serious hip injury, likely from being struck by a car. Sympathetic mechanics threw him food scraps and let him sleep inside on particularly cold nights, and a woman later took him to an animal boarding center. Kyra’s Rescue, a nonprofit based in

Washington, D.C., brought Ernie to the United States on July 4, 2017. Speece picked him up a day later, adding the middle name “Bert” as a nod to her childhood love of “Sesame Street.” Ernie’s antics began right away. He tried to chew a model skeleton during an appointment with a veterinary hip specialist, grabbed a piece of pizza off an elf’s plate during a visit with Santa, and refused to jump out of Spence’s car unless she had a treat. Balls quickly piled up in containers at Speece’s house. At a pumpkin patch, Ernie found a white pumpkin — in his mind, another ball — to carry around. Speece has snapped pictures of him posing in sunglasses during a solar eclipse, using one of his prized balls as a pillow and snoozing while one of Speece’s two kittens played on his back.

“He always makes me laugh,” Speece relates. “He just loves life, and that’s infectious.”

Ernie, who had received good medical care while still in Turkey, has gained about 15 pounds since arriving in Yorktown. A small limp is the only lingering sign of his hip injury.

The dog likes to play with Speece’s kittens, Lottie and Louis, and wrestle chaotically — sometimes knocking over knick-knacks — with another “Turkey dog”: Limerick, a fellow golden retriever adopted by Speece’s mother, a Williamsburg resident, in 2018.

International adoption fees are higher than domestic — at SEVA GRREAT, the difference is $700 versus $200 to $500 — but much lower than breeder fees that can range from $1,000 to $4,000 for golden retriever puppies.

“Ernie and Limerick are so lovable, despite the abuse and neglect they had suffered,” she says. “It’s almost as if these dogs realize they’ve been rescued, and they’re so grateful and happy. My dog is lucky, but I’m even luckier to have him.”